Month: November 2002

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Cover Feature News

The Defense Never Rests

PHOTOS BY ROBIN SALANT

The long-running, award-winning television drama Law and Order opens each episode with a terse introduction that has become part of popular culture: “In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.” Viewers are then plugged into a world of crime and criminals in which justice is served within 60 minutes and all’s well that ends well.

Unlike television dramas, the real criminal justice system is a complex arrangement. Attorneys don’t just prosecute offenders; they also represent them. Whether guilty or innocent, those charged with a crime have a right to a lawyer. That responsibility often falls to public defenders, whose duty it is to provide the best possible defense for people who sometimes have little hope — and no money.

In Shelby County, with its large indigent population, that task can be daunting. Thousands of poor people require the services of the “free lawyers” each year for crimes ranging from misdemeanor offenses to death-penalty appeals. This year’s Tennessee Public Defender report shows increases in cases handled by defenders in all courts except Juvenile Court and increases in all charge categories except felonies. Yet the office manages to provide an indispensable service to the community, while producing top-quality, specialized lawyers and methods to curtail criminal activity.

“Are you a real lawyer?”

Theresa Jones hears this question almost every day from clients who sometimes feel that her position at the public defender’s office renders her less than professional. As a 15-year veteran and Criminal Court supervisor, Jones has heard it all. “The [myths] are numerous. I don’t know how they started but they are rampant throughout the criminal community. Clients ask us would they get a better deal if they had a real lawyer. A client told me that, because I was still in the public defender’s office, I couldn’t be that good,” says Jones. “I have to tell myself that people just don’t know, and there’s not a lot [of information] to educate the public that we are lawyers. A well-informed person would look at our experience and numbers and the amount of cases we handle.”

Jones is one of the 70 assistant public defenders whose primary job is to make sure indigent citizens accused of a crime are legally represented. The office handles approximately 25,000 cases each year. With a total staff of 117, including investigators and clerical employees, the office is responsible for eight divisions of General Sessions Court, 10 divisions of Criminal Court, some Juvenile and Circuit Court cases, and even the municipal courts of area suburbs like Germantown and Bartlett.

Founded in 1917, Shelby County’s public defender’s office is the oldest in Tennessee and third-oldest in the nation, behind only Los Angeles and Oklahoma City. The need for indigent legal representation arose in 1915 when a Dyer County murder case fraught with racial tension was transferred to Shelby County, where 33-year-old practicing attorney Samuel O. Bates was appointed as defense lawyer in the case. The defendant’s adamant denial of the murder led Bates to spend $500 of his own money in investigations and expenses, resulting in evidence linking the murder to the victim’s husband instead of Bates’ client. The case led Bates, then a state senator, to introduce legislation for a public defender’s office.

The initial office consisted of one attorney, known as the public defender, who worked on a part-time basis and was allowed to practice private law as well. The defender was allowed to hire temporary assistant attorneys and staff as needed. But by the end of Hugh Stanton Sr.’s term in 1974, the office had grown to a staff of 28 and the first investigator was employed. Since then, an increased caseload has led to an increase in staff overseen by a chief public defender, appointed by the mayor, who is responsible for the organizing, staffing, and budgeting of all office activities. Robert Jones, a 25-year office veteran and 12-year deputy chief, took the helm as the ninth chief public defender in September when former chief A C Wharton was elected Shelby County mayor.

Like most of the attorneys in the office, Jones is a University of Memphis law school graduate, who got his start with the office as a law clerk. “I volunteered [in the public defender’s office] and went into private practice for a few months and came back. I have been here ever since,” he says. “We are fortunate that we are able to get attorneys that choose this as their career, like me. They want to be here and they enjoy practicing law and working with people. For courtroom experience, this is the place to be. We always have a number of attorneys on the waiting list for employment.”

The office’s outreach programs are coordinated with the assistance of Christie Glenn.

In the Trenches

The work of a public defender far outweighs the $41,000 initial yearly salary. Once a lawyer is hired, he or she begins in General Sessions Court handling misdemeanor cases. The caseload is high, with defenders having to juggle courtroom time, other open cases, and client counseling each day. “The biggest complaint of new attorneys is that there are too many cases to handle,” says specialty court coordinator and 14-year office veteran Jack Green, whose job is to monitor and advise attorneys. “But [the system] has gotten better. We’ve got more people and help now. You may have 40 cases, but there’s another attorney in court to help with those. The office record was set in the late 1980s, when one of the current supervisors handled 52 cases by herself [in a day] and she was pregnant. I tell lawyers to pace themselves. These cases will be here tomorrow.”

After their stint in General Sessions, assistant defenders get the opportunity to move to their specialty area. Cases are assigned to public defenders by the judge when a defendant is found to be unable to hire a private attorney. Two defenders are assigned to a courtroom and cases are divided between them. “The way we have it set up, the attorneys can handle a larger volume than they used to. Private attorneys have a lot of time between cases, but the majority of our attorneys’ time is spent in the courtroom, which familiarizes them with the system and helps with efficiency and with court operations,” says Jones.

While attorneys are employed by the county and supervised by a group of administrators, there are no rules outlining case management. “We’re allowed to be uniquely who we are, as long as we are competently doing it,” says 14-year defender Debra Antoine. “Not everyone has to have the same style in the courtroom. When you’re allowed to be the individual you are, you just focus on representing them and not on ‘Do you have my money?’ or ‘I want my $200 to $300 [retainer] and we can talk tomorrow.’ Not having that hanging over your head makes it nice to go in and represent the person.”

Antoine is one of the attorneys assigned to Division 8, which has evolved into a full-time drug court under Judge Tim Dwyer. The drug court team consists of three prosecutors, two public defenders, pretrial probation counselors, a court coordinator, and representatives from treatment providers. “I like seeing people that have fought and kicked and have lied through their teeth, done every little scheme they can and then finally admit that they have a problem. Some come in very openly and turn their life around, while others come in and never turn their life around and are sentenced out,” Antoine says. “But to see a crack addict, for example, turn it around, I like seeing that, and I like seeing us doing more than giving them a form and sending them to the Penal Farm to serve time.”

As part of the drug court program, offenders are provided substance-abuse counseling and assistance with transitional housing. “Drug court graduations are the third Wednesday of the month, and it’s fun to see the people who have turned it around,” says Antoine. “They get their mug shot and it usually looks bad. To see them turn it around in a system that’s geared toward sending them back and not correcting the problems is a good thing. Some of these people have done some very bad things, but they’re in a lot of pain and they’re acting out. When you haven’t had a good example, maybe momma’s been a crack addict herself; you do what you’ve been taught.”

Jack Green

Steadfast Determination

“One of the best compliments ever paid to me was a client that said, ‘Ms. Jones, you are a hard lady, you’re fair, but you’re hard,'” says Theresa Jones. As a Criminal Court defender and supervisor, Jones has to be hard. With a caseload of roughly 90 open cases, there’s not a lot of time for frivolity. “We can’t be everything to all people. [Defenders] have to maximize their time to help each client without sacrificing the cases of others,” she says. Jones handles clients who have been arrested, fingerprinted, processed, and gone through General Sessions indictment. Her cases consist of any criminal violation except capital murder but include first-degree murder when the prosecution does not seek the death penalty. “Most of my clients would say that they were adequately represented. This job requires a lot of humility, not taking things personal. You’re in the front line and the first person they are going to lash out at because you are the person bringing the bad news,” she says.

The hard-line style of criminal defending was a natural but almost missed opportunity for Jones. The Lane College graduate began her career as a journalist for the now defunct Mid-South Express News. After her reporter stint, Jones enrolled in law school to study corporate law. A clerk position with the Criminal Court judges followed. Jones finished law school and worked six months at Neighborhood Housing Opportunities while studying for a second attempt at passing the Tennessee bar exam. After passing the bar, Jones applied for an assistant public defender position under Wharton. “At first, a defender’s position wasn’t the best job, but I needed a job,” says Jones. “I started handling cases and the feeling from the clerking job came back. I grew up on a farm in Mississippi with a strict upbringing, and something about the court’s atmosphere brought that feeling back. It just felt right.”

Experience has indeed been the best teacher for Jones, who has matured beyond the “babe in the woods” who once fell for her clients’ tears and took their stories at face value. The change is evident in the confident presentation of her cases, the respect she receives from other attorneys and judges, and her defense style, which consists of a constant banter, unmistakably reasonable and convincingly probing.

Jones: Now, Ms. X, you said in your statement moments ago that from your vantage point you could see everything outside the club that night, right?

Ms. X: Right.

Jones: If that’s so, then where was Ms. Y standing … because you could see everything, right?

Ms. X: Right. She was standing beside me, I believe.

Jones: You believe or you know? Because, as you said earlier, you could see everything.

Ms. X: Well, yes, but …

Jones: But what, Ms. X? You did see Ms. Y, did you not?

Jones: Ms. Z, did you drive to Ms. Y’s home in your vehicle with three other people?

Ms. Z: Yes.

Jones: And your purpose was to do what?

Ms. Z: They were just riding with me. I went to let her know that she couldn’t [vandalize] people’s things just because she didn’t have anything.

Jones: So, let me understand. You left your home, went to the home of Ms. Y, who was alone, with three other people in your vehicle, to give her that message?

Ms. Z: Yes. I didn’t know what she might have done so I asked them to go with me.

Jones: So, you needed three people to confront one person, alone, in her front yard to give her a message, and you say Ms. Y was the troublemaker? Clearly in this situation she was not.

“The relationship between a public defender and the client is an unholy one because they don’t pick us, but we have to understand our oath for representation and those [negative] things can’t stop us,” says Jones. “Some attorneys keep a case record of wins and losses. I’ve never done that. I give my clients the best possible defense I can using all the resources available to me, and that’s how I sleep at night — knowing that I’ve done all I could.”

In order for attorneys to provide that quality service, they depend on the help of criminal investigators, who are charged with tracking down and questioning elusive witnesses for information helpful in building the defenders’ cases. “A person with short patience is wrong for this job,” says four-year investigator Jeannette Stanback. “When you have witnesses who will not talk, sometimes out of fear, you’ve got to be persistent, and sometimes they never will talk to you. I’ve worked on a case for a month without being able to turn over any information to the defender.”

As defenders’ caseloads have increased, so has the need for investigators. The office’s seven investigators are, like defenders, appointed to cases. They usually have two weeks to review a case, locate and question witnesses, and submit the information to the defender. The work is tedious, with investigators sometimes having to rely on phone and utility records, employment histories, and luck to find witnesses. “I haven’t had any [violence] problems [while locating people]. We have the authority to carry guns, but I don’t. I can usually simply talk and reason with people without fear of retaliation,” says Stanback.

Inevitably, many cases are lost and clients are fined, serve jail time, and even sentenced to die. But with sentencing comes a second chance with the office’s three-person appellate team. “We pick up cases lost in trial court and appeal them to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, and if we lose there, we appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court,” says team supervisor Mark Ward. “If we lose there and it involves a federal constitutional issue, our only other remedy is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Our main function here is to provide the best-quality appeal that we can for Shelby County offenders that are convicted here.”

The team handles 60 to 75 cases a year at various stages in the appeal process and provides support for other attorneys. Ward has handled every death-penalty appeal in the office since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. Since forming the five-year-old team, all three attorneys appeal death-penalty cases. “We work with the academic part of law,” says Ward. “The fun part is that we get to develop law. When we argue cases, we help mold what happens in the future.”

“The interesting thing is to watch courts apply law,” says team member Garland Erguden. “In a courtroom you deal with the emotions, the crime, and the people involved, but because the appellate process is slower and done on paper, it’s cleaner, more about ideas and concepts.”

Branching Out

“A lot of our attorneys are committed and go the extra mile,” says Jones. “We are proud of the programs we have to address the underlying problems. It’s a window of opportunity for us because once somebody is arrested, charged, sometimes it’s a wake-up call for them. We are in the business of recycling people instead of warehousing people, as [former chief] A C [Wharton] would say.”

Addressing clients’ underlying problems includes several basic needs, such as housing, substance-abuse assistance, and employment. The office has partnered with several service agencies to provide help for their clients in these areas, as well as crime prevention and deterrence methods.

“About 75 percent of our office, the entire staff, not just the lawyers, has some sort of community service going on,” says Erguden. Staff members participate in various community programs, including Habitat for Humanity, MIFA, and CASA.

Internally, the office has expanded to address the issues of clients with mental-health problems. Headed by 11-year defender Stephen Bush, the mental-health initiative has taken on a community-outreach approach. In a county-specific initiative, Bush, along with a criminal justice mental-health liaison, bridges the gap for clients between the justice system and outside assistance. With the system, some mental-health clients can participate in the plan by accepting treatment as part of their punishment.

“We were starting to see our clients with mental-health problems experience ‘case lag’ with their cases. When a person is mentally disabled, it takes much longer for their case to be handled, which was leading to jail overcrowding [and other problems]. This is not a ‘program’ but a way to use resources,” says Bush. The initiative is quite complex, with computer databases to update, housing issues to address, and more case-management resources needed. “This is not an easy thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do and this is the place to do it,” Bush adds.

In addition to tracking mental-health clients, it has long been the job of the public defender’s office to track its clients within the jail system. As the justice system administrator, that duty falls to Green. Assisted by two case checkers and one secretary, his staff is responsible for following about 20,000 cases each year. “I got started doing this inadvertently,” says Green. “At a meeting long ago, someone asked me about one of their clients that they hadn’t heard from in a while. I volunteered to check the records and found that person. He had been in jail three months and already been discharged and wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Green’s staff helps to expedite people out of jail. They receive daily printouts of cases that have been dismissed, bonded out, or released on recognizance. They also review cases that have been set off for long periods to ensure that due process is carried out. “I see myself as a do-gooder,” says Green. “If I can make a difference in one case, get one person released on time, then I feel like I made a difference.”

Acceptance

“People say ‘oh, poor public defenders,’ but if you want to be in court all day — being in court is fun, it’s academically interesting, it’s action-packed — then this is the place to be,” says Erguden. “I’ve had other jobs and I much prefer this. It’s not like TV.”

“I’m very proud of the office. It’s important that we perform a needed service,” says Jones. “The system is not always perfect. Mistakes are made, and you need something to balance out the system and that’s where we come in. Overall, we are appreciated. You’re always going to have a few that are unhappy and a lot of times those few are the ones who make the most noise. Considering that we handle 25,000 cases per year, I think the public is generally pleased with the service that we give.”

Crime and Delinquency Prevention Programs of the Public Defender’s Office

Building for the Future (BFF) — A countywide community-development partnership involving 10 agencies that provide affordable housing for low-income families built by inmates, who learn marketable construction skills for employment after their release. The program has been nationally recognized as a finalist for the Innovations in Government Award and has garnered a contract to build 52 replacement homes for senior citizens in the Shelby County area by July 2003.

Client Support Program — Volunteers from Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Cocaine Anonymous conduct sessions with clients to deal with problem behavior and habits. This program began in 1999 and is open to all county residents.

Adopt-A-School Program — The public defender’s office adopted Peabody Elementary School in 1994 and participates in after-school programs, tutoring sessions, and distributing achievement awards each six weeks.

Operation ASAP (Accessing Summer Activities Program) — The pilot program, operated May-August 1999, was a partnership between Greater Middle Baptist Church and the public defender’s office. The program provided 100 youth with counseling, tutoring, and recreational activities aimed at reducing risk factors associated with crime and violence. The program will possibly be reinstated next summer in other churches, with the goal that the program will be taken over by and funded by each church.

Categories
News The Fly-By

City Reporter

On the Run

Escapes from Tennessee work crews exceed some larger states.

By Janel Davis

Five weeks ago, a work-crew inmate of the Middle Tennessee Correctional Complex Annex in Nashville left his work detail by sneaking away from his landscaping assignment outside the facility. Everette Muth was spotted the next day walking down a road by a Williamson County sheriff’s deputy and was captured.

The incident marked the fourth Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) inmate to have escaped or walked away from work crews this year. All inmates have been captured, with the final inmate taken into custody two weeks ago. That inmate, Freddie Day Jr., had been missing from the Northeastern Correctional Complex in Mountain City, Tennessee, since October 3rd and was found in a barn on property belonging to his parents in Jonesville, Virginia.

“That number is small considering the amount of inmates out in the communities,” said Steve Hayes with TDOC. “I would think that our state’s program ranks just as good, if not better, than other states’.”

While the number is a decrease from last year’s six escapes, it is still more than some states with double the work-crew population.

Florida, whose work-crew population includes 3,000 inmates, has only experienced two attempted escapes this year.

According to Hayes, each TDOC work crew is composed of from five to 11 inmates, with as many as 900 inmates across the state in the program at one time.

Texas, whose work-crew inmates number “well over 1,000,” according to spokesperson Larry Todd, has only recorded one attempted escape this year. He said inmates are strongly discouraged from running. “We let them know that the use of deadly force is authorized if they try to escape,” said Todd. “But we don’t have too many problems. The prisoners like the program because they get to leave the facility and the communities like it because it’s an invaluable service.”

“If an inmate escapes they could lose credits towards their release date,” said Hayes of TDOC inmates. “And in some cases, the escapee can be prosecuted for felony escape.” Felony escape in Tennessee carries a one- to six-year prison sentence.

Inmates involved in the work-crew program are listed as minimum-level security and are approaching their release dates. One or two TDOC officers are deployed with each crew. Assignments include picking up trash along roads, completing construction projects, performing renovations on schools and libraries, and even constructing a press box at a Tennessee high school.

Work crews account for $7 million each year in work, based on minimum-wage rates and manhours. The inmates also earn an hourly wage ranging from 17 to 59 cents, while crews working a fire-fighting detail can make as much as $1 an hour. Inmates from all 14 TDOC locations participate in work crews. During the one-year period from June 2001 to June 2002, TDOC crews performed 1.3 million hours of work.

According to Hayes, there are no plans to end or reorganize the TDOC program.

How Dredge-ful!

Marina harbor at McKellar Lake finally gets cleared.

By Mary Cashiola

After years OF their boats hitting bottom at McKellar Lake, a group of citizens who say the Riverside Marina harbor needs to be dredged may be getting some relief.

This week, the Memphis City Council will discuss transferring funds from Pine Hill Park to Martin Luther King Riverside Park to dredge McKellar Lake, home to the Riverside Marina. A group of people, including James “Buttercup” Butler, who has owned the marina for almost 30 years, came before the city council earlier this month looking for funding for the project.

Butler said it’s been over 20 years since the marina — on the east bank of McKellar Lake, actually a cut-off channel of the Mississippi River — was last dredged: “It’s gone aground every year for the past 10 to 12 years. … If it isn’t dredged, we’ll be aground again in the spring.”

With the water levels low, houseboats and other vessels docked at the marina actually sit on the bottom.

Sam Hines has owned a jet-ski rental business at McKellar Lake for the past three years: “The first year I had the jet skis, we didn’t have any water to jet-ski on. I said, ‘This is a problem.'”

Hines said it becomes a safety issue because everyone who uses the lake has to cluster in one area when the water is low. “I think they’ve been trying to get the marina dredged for quite some time,” said Hines. “There were a lot of snags. We tried this and that and finally we just decided to go straight to the city council.”

The city’s Park Services Division isn’t sure how much the dredging will cost but estimates it will be in excess of $200,000.

“The marina needs to be dredged periodically,” said Ned Turner, administrator of park operations. “The Corps of Engineers dredge the main channel [of the Mississippi] every year.”

In fact, the Corps was dredging the river last week. Butler had hoped the dredge could be quickly moved to the marina, but the city has to get the project approved by the city council, bid the contract out, and then get a contract.

“The company wanted $50,000 a day just for the dredge to sit out here,” said Butler. “We estimated it costs about $30 a minute to run the dredge.”

And asked why everyone calls him Buttercup — the retired firefighter doesn’t look like a buttercup — Butler said he didn’t know: “If I had a dollar for every time I got asked that, I could have it dredged out myself.”

Luck of the Irish

Did Silky’s goat break Grizzlies’ bad spell?

By Mary Cashiola

Maybe it was the team finally gelling under new coach Hubie Brown’s leadership. Maybe it was the players-only meeting after they lost to the Spurs — their 13th — that led the Grizzlies to victory on Saturday. Or maybe the win over the Wizards had nothing to do with skill, ability, or hard work at all.

Maybe it was the work of a goat.

“I’m taking full credit,” says Silky Sullivan, owner of Silky O’Sullivan’s on Beale. “You know how the Grizzlies were on a losing streak? We figured that pharaoh at The Pyramid was mad because they were moving to a new arena down here by Beale and put a hex on them.”

Sullivan says that he took Sir Maynard, the goat, along with an Irish admiral, down to The Pyramid on Friday to “get the mojo off” the team. “We walked around The Pyramid and threw shamrocks. The goat ate half of them, but the team won the next day.”

Apparently, it’s just Maynard being Maynard.

“It’s an old Irish custom for the goats to break hexes,” said Sullivan. “I’m going to have the team kiss the Blarney Stone so that they can beat the Lakers.”

And now that Maynard has proved that he’s got the power, Sullivan says the duo’s next destination is Wrigley Field in Chicago. He plans to have the goat walk around the bases backward, from home to first, in hopes of bringing the Cubs to the World Series.

“They laughed at me when I brought the goat down to the Pyramid,” said Sullivan, “but they’re not laughing now.”

Making Tracks

Tennessee railroad plan could ease traffic woes.

By Bianca Phillips

Tired of getting stuck in traffic when a train is stalled on the tracks? According to a proposal from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), that may not be a problem in the future.

TDOT has outlined a new rail plan for West Tennessee that will reroute the five major rail lines that currently run through Memphis to a superterminal located at Frank C. Pigeon Industrial Park in southwest Memphis.

Each of the five lines has its own yard where the trains stop to load and unload freight, but this new plan would allow construction of about 140 miles of double-track to reroute all the lines to the superterminal.

“It would divert traffic around the eastern and southern edges of the city, providing safer intercity traffic,” said Ben Smith, director of public transit, rail, and waterways for TDOT.

The existing track that runs through the city would still be used as a light-rail corridor to haul local freight, but according to Carter Gray, metropolitan planning coordinator for the city’s Office of Planning and Development, it would probably be utilized only during the night when there is less traffic on city streets.

The superterminal would be built on 1,000 acres at the southwest Memphis site in an area that is currently an empty field. TDOT estimates that the project would cost $1.02 billion.The state hopes to fund the project in part through the U.S. Transportation Re-Authority Act which is due out next summer. There is also talk of building a new railroad bridge across the Mississippi River. The Frisco Bridge is more than 100 years old, and TDOT believes a new bridge is long overdue.

“This is still just a plan, and there’s a long way between a plan and track on the ground,” said Gray.

Hot off the Presses

American Magazine begins publication in Memphis.

By Bianca Phillips

A national magazine focused on American culture has found a home in Memphis. This month, American Publishing, LLC, launched the first issue of American Magazine, a publication that depends on reader submissions for stories and photographs.

The 72-page premiere issue contains articles on everything from the history of carousels in America to trapeze artists to American flag etiquette. The bimonthly publication is primarily geared toward family-oriented women ages 25-54.

“I hope this magazine can be a vacation from everyday reading,” said publisher Mignonne Wright. “I want it to make readers stop and think about how great it is to live in America.”

The magazine thrives on reader participation, and the first issue contains a full-page ad inviting readers to write 500- to 1,000-word pieces on topics such as “15 Ways to Make Your House a Home” and “Memories of a Childhood Vacation.” But Wright points out that these are just suggestions, and readers can feel free to contribute articles in any of the magazine’s 10 basic categories — travel, culture, money, health, home, history, perspectives, entertainment, family, and heroes.

Wright, who spent most of her youth in Memphis, started the magazine as part of her lifelong dream of heading a national publication. Her father served as editor of Hospitality Magazine, and before his death the two discussed the idea of her going into the magazine industry.

American Magazine is currently available at Wal-Mart stores nationwide and in Memphis at Davis-Kidd Booksellers and the Tobacco Corner. Wright says she’s working on getting the magazine onto shelves at Target, Schnucks, and Walgreens.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

City Sports

Fifteen Seconds to Victory

Pau Gasol transformed the Grizzlies — and himself — against the Wizards.

By Chris Herrington

Heading into this season, second-year forward Pau Gasol was clearly recognized as the Memphis Grizzlies’ central building block, a reigning rookie of the year coming off a stellar performance at the World Championships. In the preseason and through the first several regular season games, Gasol gave every indication that he would become one of the NBA’s most dominant offensive big men sooner rather than later.

But a 13-game losing streak, a tumultuous coaching change, and an on-court slump took some of the shine off Gasol’s game. He has struggled to find a rhythm and role in new coach Hubie Brown’s share-the-ball motion offense, his offensive struggles exposing his porous defensive play. A wrist injury suffered at the Worlds was revealed as more of a problem than Gasol cared to admit — the injury and protective soft cast limiting his offensive versatility and his ability to rebound. Suddenly, a fan base frustrated with losing began to doubt Gasol’s stature, with trade scenarios and talk of rookie Drew Gooden as the team’s real future star popping up on talk radio, on message boards, and around water coolers.

In truth, many of the issues curtailing Gasol’s offensive production were around during the Lowe tenure as well. During eight games under Lowe, Gasol took fewer shots in more minutes than Gooden and shot the ball less frequently relative to his time on the floor than the team’s other significant rookie, Gordon Giricek (not to mention frontcourt reserve Lorenzen Wright). But this was masked by Gasol’s efficiency, a gaudy 55 percent shooting clip that enabled him to score 21 points a game despite taking far fewer shots per game than any other 20-point scorer in the league.

Under Brown, these problems have been exacerbated, with Gasol’s shot attempts and his effectiveness plummeting. Through Brown’s six-game “evaluation period,” Gasol averaged 10.5 points per game on mere 40 percent shooting. And the only players taking fewer shots relative to their playing time have been point guards Brevin Knight and Earl Watson. Partly, this is a result of a breakdown in the continuity of Brown’s offensive sets, possibly from the quick-trigger approaches of Gooden and Giricek, but also from Gasol’s lack of aggressiveness and execution on the offensive end.

In some ways, the team’s game Saturday night against the Washington Wizards was a continuation of these problems. Gasol had a season-low five shot attempts and had only his second single-digit scoring game of the season. But there was a clear difference on the court. For one thing, the team seemed more active in trying to get Gasol the ball. Three times in the first half, Gooden spotted Gasol open around the basket but was a beat late on his pass, resulting in a turnover each time. Washington guards were regularly dropping down on Gasol in the post to deny the entry pass.

The other difference is that, after some early pouting, Gasol got his head in the game and refused to let his lack of offensive touches affect his play on the other end, resulting in his most effective game yet on the boards. He was more aggressive blocking out an athletic Wizards frontline and controlled the defensive boards. Gasol’s defensive rebounding helped the Grizzlies stay in the game, but it was his play down the stretch that was most heartening. Through the losing streak, the Grizzlies had been in several games down the stretch but were unable to execute effectively to win.

Saturday night looked to be more of the same. A nine-point Grizzlies lead was cut to nothing when Wizards point guard Tyron Lue knocked down a fadeaway jumper at the 2:57 mark to tie the game, 74-74. A series of turnovers, missed shots, and clutch play from Michael Jordan seemed to have created a familiar fourth-quarter meltdown. But, over the next two minutes, it was Gasol, not Jordan, who imposed his will on the game, sparking the Grizzlies to a 7-0 run to put the game away. Stars are supposed to take over down the stretch, and fans have wondered if the Grizzlies had anyone who could do this. On Saturday, Gasol was a finisher, but he took over in a manner most probably weren’t expecting — without scoring a point. Gasol dominated the two-minute stretch with defensive rebounding, shot blocking, and passing.

On the possession after Lue’s jumper, Gasol received the ball on the left block and, when Lue dropped down to help cover him, recognized the double team and found an open Watson at the top of the key for a three-pointer. Then, a few seconds later, came one of the most inspired sequences of Gasol’s young career — the 15 seconds that won the game.

Jordan drove by Shane Battier to launch a shot (1:42), but Gasol and Wright closed the lane to force a miss. Wizards forward Kwame Brown snatched the offensive rebound and went up with it, only to be blocked by Gasol with his bad hand (1:40), then Wizards guard Jerry Stackhouse launched a long jumper (1:34) over tight Wesley Person defense. He missed and Gasol grabbed the defensive rebound. At that point, Gasol paused, as if he were looking for a point guard to hand the ball to, as he typically would after a defensive rebound. Then, for some reason, he sprinted downcourt with the ball, leading the break. Just inside the free-throw line, with Wizards defender Lue backpedaling, Gasol gave Lue a skip step, head fake, and then shot a no-look pass to Person on his right for the lay-up (1:27). The best part? That he also had the presence of mind to hop slightly left after delivering the pass to avoid Lue and avoid picking up an offensive foul. A possession later, a driving Gasol found Battier open under the basket and delivered a pinpoint pass. Battier was fouled, knocked down both shots, and the game was over.

Gasol had plenty of help Saturday night: Point guard Earl Watson had what might have been his best game as a pro. Battier played tough defense on a hot Jordan. And Person and Giricek delivered quietly stellar play, combining for 25 points on 10 of 19 shooting and, more importantly, holding Stackhouse to four of 19 and only two free-throw attempts. But Gasol delivered the victory. Great players make great plays at crunch time. This team hadn’t had that until Saturday. Hopefully, Gasol can build on that momentum now. And hopefully, his coach and teammates can start getting him the ball.

Cold War Hoops

The U of M gets back into the win column with some help from Ronald Reagan.

By Chris Gadd

The little guy, actually, the littlest of guys, was able to live out a dream.

The enemy talked a lot about the home team’s weaknesses — and then backed up those tough words with even tougher actions.

And the boys in gray, white, and blue had little choice but to retaliate and face the consequences of the fallout from their large-scale counterattack. Ronald Reagan politics this was not.

But, if University of Memphis head coach John Calipari, who doubles as the school’s hoops commander in chief, has his way, Reagan-style policy will soon be making a comeback.

That’s why it’s only fitting that unheralded walk-on Brian Mitchell pulled up for a buzzer-beating jumper from the right wing.

His shot was unsuccessful, but the University of Memphis pulled away late for a 78-54 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff at The Pyramid. After losing 81-80 in overtime Friday to Austin Peay, the Tigers defeated Pine Bluff in a hot-blooded fashion that belied the cold weather that kept many fans from making the journey downtown.

Indeed, if college basketball is a Cold War, with an underlying dislike between the two competing teams, then the Tigers’ war with Pine Bluff turned rather warm. Neither the victory nor Mitchell’s shot nor the cameo appearances of the other two Tiger walk-ons will be remembered by Memphis fans as much as the bench-clearing brawl that erupted with 5:37 left in the first half. Tiger players Almamy Thiero, Billy Richmond, Anthony Rice, and Clyde Wade were all tossed for their involvement; Golden Lions Antwan Emsweller, Lamarquis Blake, and Don Fleming were also ejected.

Seeing Mitchell, a University of Memphis senior who officially played one minute alongside fellow walk-ons Garrick Green and Patrick Byrne, smile while soaking up the post-game congratulations of his friends, one could almost forget about the Lions, and Tigers, and bear hugs — oh my!

“I didn’t get a real good look. I just tried to get it up there and give it a chance,” said Mitchell about what was likely the first — and last — shot of his collegiate basketball career. “It’s a good feeling, just to get the opportunity to play. Not many people get the chance to do what I did.”

But it wasn’t the walk-ons’ play or former walk-on Nathaniel Root’s shooting (he made three three-pointers) that mattered to Calipari at game’s end. He cited the team’s lack of intensity and began talking about their poor play, while the media contingent was visibly squirming with anticipation, hungry to ask Calipari about the fight.

When WREG Channel 3 sports editor George Lapides opened the questioning, Memphis’ own Great Communicator wasted little time providing his viewpoint.

“I’m gonna be honest with you,” Calipari said. “It’s the Reagan-era policy: When they know that you’ll fight, they won’t fight you.”

If Pine Bluff was playing the part of the old Soviet Union, then Golden Lion senior Kory McKee apparently forgot to take his finger off the button. And so did suspended junior Tiger point guard Antonio Burks. McKee got into a pre-game jawing match with Burks and had to be restrained by Memphis senior Chris Massie.

Burks would later say he “didn’t start nothing,” but McKee had a different tale.

“Well, first of all, Burks, he was looking at me, just staring me down like I was a woman,” McKee said. “I mean, I don’t know this man. I guess he was trying to get in my head. I asked him, ‘What are you looking at?’ I wasn’t going to let anyone talk to me any kind of way.”

By now everyone knows how the fight was started, how it ended, and who will serve suspensions.

But, according to Calipari, it never had to happen.

“Word spreads around the country that you’re soft,” Calipari said. “We have to have the Reagan defense. We’ll just pile up weapons, and if you come after us, we’re blowing you up.”

Tiger fans will have no trouble fondly recalling those years of Reagan, Rubik’s Cube, big hair, and even bigger national defense spending. After all, it was 1985 when a school named Memphis State last made it to the Final Four.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

What Comes Next?

Earlier this month, the Republicans won what in some circles was an unexpected victory, but their preeminence at the national level — by the most modest of majorities in Congress — will be tested again in two years, when there will be a presidential election and new congressional and gubernatorial races.

At state and local levels, meanwhile, neither Republicans nor Democrats have a clear edge.

Statewide: The Democrats won the governor’s race, but their candidate, Gov.-elect Phil Bredesen, ran as a centrist and won that way. Consequently, he’ll have no particular mandate, and certainly not one with strong partisan overtones. Both branches of the legislature will almost certainly be under Democratic control again — with a newly renominated Jimmy Naifeh in the House and John Wilder in the Senate holding the reins.

But octogenarian Wilder of Somerville — dependent on a bipartisan coalition and notoriously reluctant to commit on controversial issues like that of a state income tax (which is probably a nonissue now) — straddles the party line. And Naifeh of Covington, whose pro-income-tax forces fell short in the last session and who will have a slimmer majority in the new one, will presumably have to tread more cautiously.

Naifeh won his party’s nod for another Speakership term over the weekend in Nashville, but dissident Democrats who preferred Rep. Frank Buck of Dowelltown may team up with GOP members to trim Naifeh’s sails on procedural questions. Memphis state Rep. Kathryn Bowers, newly elected as the majority Democrats’ party whip, is feisty and determined on policy issues, but she, too (as a onetime supporter of GOP Sen. Fred Thompson) is used to making common cause with Republicans.

State Sen. Lincoln Davis of Pall Mall, a Democrat, has been elected to the 4th District congressional seat currently held by Van Hilleary, the Republicans’ defeated gubernatorial candidate. That gives the Democrats a technical 5-4 majority of the state delegation, but Davis is about as conservative as a Democrat can be and will undoubtedly line up with moderate and conservative Democrats in a “Blue Dog” coalition that already includes the 8th District’s John Tanner and the 9th District’s Harold Ford Jr.

All things considered, neither party can be said to have an edge on the other in state political affairs.

At the Local Level: In Shelby County, same kind of tenuous balance prevails. Democrat A C Wharton won the mayor’s race but with support from every point on the political spectrum. Never much of a political partisan and without discernible commitment to local Democratic Party affairs, Wharton is virtually a nonparty mayor, a functional independent.

Republicans swept the other constitutional county offices, but the strongest partisans among them — Probate Court clerk Chris Thomas and county register Tom Leatherwood — hold positions that are virtually nonpolitical. Many of the other county officers are Republicans only nominally — the party label having simply provided their best chance at getting nominated and elected.

The current Shelby County Commission is dominated by Republicans in the same 7-6 ratio as before, but political partisanship per se will be relatively unimportant on a body that has seen bipartisan coalitions flourish on the key issues of zoning and growth policy.

In any case, the county’s demographics will continue to shade in the direction of black, predominantly Democratic voters over the next few years, and the partisan edge will shift accordingly.

In city politics, black Democratic voters have a clear edge, but city government is formally nonpartisan, and, in fact, partisan politics plays no role in the affairs and votes of the city council. Mayor-for-life Willie Herenton is nominally a Democrat, but the importance of that party label for him was best indicated by his support of victorious Republican Lamar Alexander for the U.S. Senate.

Party Organization: Both local parties will elect new officers next year. The Republicans, who will hold reorganization caucuses in January and a party convention in February, go first.

So far, five candidates — Kemp Conrad, Nancye Hines, Bob Pitman, Arnold Weiner, and Ray Butler — have announced for GOP chairman, and a sixth, Rick Rout, son of former county mayor Jim Rout, has not announced his decision about staying in the race after falling into disfavor with the party steering committee. Some weeks ago, a majority voted to seek Rout’s resignation from the committee on grounds of his publicly expressed disavowal of last summer’s nominee for county mayor, Dr. George Flinn.

Conrad would seem clearly to be the candidate to beat. First out of the box with his organizational efforts, the 29-year-old businessman played host to a crowded meeting of supporters Monday night. His declared backers include a virtual who’s who of party luminaries — including seven former party chairmen and a number of currently serving public officials.

Moreover, there is some spread to Conrad’s base — with supporters ranging from social conservatives like Wayne West to moderates like Annabel Woodall and Bill Gibbons. Conrad made a point of supporting Flinn when others were reticent, but his primary recent activity was on behalf of Alexander and legislative candidate John Pellicciotti, who came close to unseating longtime Democratic state Rep. Mike Kernell.

Conrad has also been prominent in an official party outreach effort to recruit African Americans and Hispanics to the Republican Party. “It’s the future of the party we’re talking about here. It’s about where we’re going,” Conrad said this week. “Our theme for the campaign will be reconnecting and reaching out. The party is very fractured right now. It’s an urban county we live in. And, as everybody knows, our demographics are changing.”

As they mount their own campaigns, Conrad’s opponents — most of them identified with conservative constituencies — will have a chance to express their own points of view.

Local Democrats don’t elect new officers and a new executive committee until April, and no definite chairmanship candidates have emerged yet, though current chairman Gale Jones Carson, is presumed interested in running again.

She may or may not draw some determined opposition, depending on the degree to which opposing Democrats identify her with Mayor Herenton, whom she serves as administrative aide, or former chairman Sidney Chism, a Herenton intimate who vigorously supported her chairmanship efforts during two previous campaigns, including the one last year, when she was elected without much difficulty.

Though Carson proved adroit in walking through the minefield caused by Herenton’s overt support of the GOP’s Alexander, some Democrats blame her for the party’s record in the summer’s county election, when no Democrat won but Wharton — whose campaign was more or less separate from the party’s overall effort.

And Chism angered several Democratic legislators, who felt he supported their primary opponents (something which the former chairman has denied). “Let’s put it this way,” said Democratic executive member Steve Steffens, who publicly denounced Herenton as a “traitor” after the November 5th election, “if Sidney got to be the candidate himself, that would be something which I’d have to try to prevent. So would the legislators.”

Steffens was noncommittal about Carson but predicted, “I doubt she’ll have a free ride.”

Categories
Editorial Opinion

The Public Be Damned

The newest revelations about fraudulent excesses by the private brokers

licensed by the state to oversee publicly funded daycare activities prove many things,

but one in particular: When the people’s business is turned over to private

caretakers, it is the private individuals who tend to get taken care of, not the people.

The grandiose graft committed by the proprietors of Cherokee Daycare

Services should not be regarded as relevant in a local sense alone. In fact, it

may represent our nation’s future, writ large, should the advocates of

privatization (or “outsourcing,” as it’s also known) have their way in matters ranging

from education to postal affairs to national security. Aside from the

philosophical issues that arise from such transfers of authority, there is the immeasurable

difficulty that those actually answerable to the people have in

maintaining oversight of those firms enjoying the taxpayers’ largesse. State government

officials, as well as the private accounting firms charged with keeping tabs

on Cherokee, have testified to the magnitude of the problem. And pilferage

and rake-offs that may have totaled in the hundreds of thousands

locally can be expected to add up to billions on a national scale.

Beyond the question of private rake-offs is the matter of reduced

efficiency. This got to be a specter last year during the congressional debate on the

crucial airport security bill. A few diehard Republicans in the House of

Representatives (led by that body’s two Dickensian eminences, Armey and DeLay)

almost prevented passage of the measure, which had been approved by the

Senate without a single nay vote. They held out for private security firms to have

a piece of the action, even though it was private security firms that had been

the problem in the first place.

Now the issue relates to the bill, passed last week and signed into law by

President Bush, that establishes a Department of Homeland Security. The public

is probably reassured by the very sound of the name and no doubt assumes

that it represents an expanded commitment to the idea of national security.

Various observers, including the valiant Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia,

have pointed out, however, that, on the contrary, the bill does not begin to

restore billions that have actually been cut out of legitimate security undertakings

by an administration intent on its all-important tax-cut agenda. Worse, it

provides obvious boondoggles to select corporations and gives the

administration authority to fire federal employees in favor of those employed

— and perhaps underprotected — by these favored firms.

Worst of all, the bill allows U.S. government contracts to be awarded to

firms that have moved the skeleton headquarters of their operations offshore solely

in order to avoid U.S. taxes!

The bill is loaded with such giveaways. It should have been labeled the

Great Corporate Welfare Bill, and it demonstrates anew the indifference — and

cynicism — its backers seem to show toward the country’s actual security needs. It is

one more illustration of the new tendency to establish a government of the

special interests, by the special interests, and for the special interests. Lincoln would

have been as outraged as we are.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

The Cut-Up

There are sculptures everywhere — on top of the TV, on the floor, on the kitchen counter, stuffed in corners — and they are made out of anything and everything. The nude female form, stretched into a variety of poses, has been carved into wood, stone, steak bones, and walnuts. We’ve entered the world of Luther Hampton — a two-room apartment in the downtown area that doubles as the artist’s living space and studio.

Our guide is Hampton’s goddaughter Lisa Carter, and the atmosphere is overwhelming. There’s the artwork in all its shapes, sizes, and forms, and then there’s the man who radiates the kind of wisdom that you gain as you move through life.

Hampton, a 60-year-old native of the city, has been creating art for years. He’s been around the world with the Navy, and throughout his life he’s learned a certain degree of resourcefulness that seems to be exactly what’s missing from today’s throw-away society. He uses anything he can find to create art. He even created a sculpture from one of his own teeth that had fallen out.

“Anything can become an artform,” he says. “All man has to do is use some intelligence on it and make it into something.”

Twelve of his works, made of wood, bronze, stone, and clay, will be on display at 387 S. Main during a two-day show November 29th and 30th. For the opening reception, the 1973 graduate of the Memphis Academy of Art (now Memphis College of Art) will be on hand to talk with the public, and he hopes to set up a booth where he can sketch people who come in. Ron Boozer and Erica Harris from the Greater Imani Church will be providing music, and Hampton will be showing slides of his work.

“A lot of artists won’t get recognition until they have passed on into the next life or wherever we go from here. I wanted to see his work being displayed in this life,” says Carter, the show’s organizer. “So much of his work is stuck in the corners of people’s rooms or in a warehouse, and I thought that those pieces deserved to come into the light.”

During the show’s opening reception, Hampton will be unveiling his latest sculpture, Praise Phase 1, a life-size black walnut carving of a female nude giving praise to her deity. The nude female form is one that he utilizes often, although he’s by no means limited to it. Hampton can carve nearly any shape into anything.

Head of a God resembles the bearded head of Zeus carved into a log, while Alligator Woman is an elongated, slightly abstract female body with the head of a scaly reptile. Spirit of the Dance, created from a small forked stick, is a dancing female with one leg lifted.

A tiny sculpture atop his television resembles an angel. Its head is carved out of a walnut, and the wings are made from the jawbone of a buffalo fish. He says he carved it after having a dream about angels.

Hampton also paints, sketches, and even writes the occasional poem. His bedroom walls are clustered with portraits of loved ones as well as self-portraits he’s painted throughout the years. “I use a lot of faces because everybody’s got one,” he explains.

Hampton, one of 11 children, grew up in a house behind LeMoyne-Owen College. His father, Lewis, was a well-known upholsterer and his mother was a beautician. He says he knew he had talent by the time he was in kindergarten because he was always creating artwork for the classroom and was “able to write my name pretty fancy.”

He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and went on to join the Navy, where he served from age 18 to 21. While in the Navy, he managed to continue his artistic pursuits by painting murals on the ship’s walls and using his military-issued knife to carve into whatever he could get his hands on. “I was always scratching on something,” he says.

He returned to Memphis after he got out of the service and enrolled at the Memphis Academy of Art. After graduating, he served in various teaching positions throughout Arkansas and West Tennessee.

Today, the retired art teacher spends his days either walking the streets of Memphis picking up objects to carve or holed up in his small apartment whittling. He wears a leather vest — pockets overflowing with tools and various objects that have creative potential. Sometimes, he even carves as he’s walking.

He’s created numerous pieces that have been distributed all over the world, mostly as gifts, but he says the numbers have no importance because he creates every day. Art is his life, his therapy, his entire world, and everything he creates has a special meaning.

“If I carve a piece of wood that’s 150 years old, I expect it to say something other than just ‘big ol’ log’,” he says.

Hampton’s work has been shown in numerous shows and galleries throughout the city, and he’s won several awards, including first place in the national Veterans Administration Creative Arts Festival in 2000. He says he usually has at least one show a year, but he doesn’t really think too much of them.

“I show every day. Sometimes, my studio is where you see me on a park bench carving,” he says. “If you see me sitting by myself with a knife in my hand, I’m thinking of something to create. Some days I’m down in the parking lot [of my apartment complex], and some days I’m sitting down by the river whittling away.”

Opening reception: 387 South Main, 5-10 p.m. Friday, November 29th.

Categories
News News Feature

TIGER FOOTBALL

A CORNER TURNED?

“The Toilet Bowl, that’s all it is.” That’s how my good friend Gordo McAlister, in his usual graphic fashion, characterized last Saturday’s contest between the University of Memphis and Army — each ranked in the bottom ten of Division One in many of the polls — while explaining his reasons for declining my kind offer of a free ticket to the game. “I’d rather watch grass grow,” he growled before hanging up on me.

Well, not a whole lot of grass was growing on the Liberty Bowl playing field on that brisk, picture-perfect autumn afternoon. But maybe, just maybe a football team was, as the University of Memphis comprehensively whipped the Cadets by a 38-10 margin that did not do justice to the Tigers’ complete domination of the proceedings. And now that they’re growing up, maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to talk Gordo into going to a game next season.

He may have stayed home Saturday to watch Michigan/Ohio State on the tube, but, amazingly, an incredible number of Memphians chose instead to come out for the show at the Liberty Bowl. Officially 20,906 were in attendance; even deducting a few thousand no-shows, that number is remarkable, given the fact that this was a battle between two bad teams going nowhere.

I have long argued that Memphis is first and foremost a football town, and that if the Tigers ever again has a winning season, they’ll easily average 40,000 a game. And if they ever were to become a perennial powerhouse, U of M football tickets would end up being scarcer than hen’s teeth. Give Memphis football fans a winner, and the Liberty Bowl would come to resemble Neyland Stadium, only decked out in blue not orange.

Even with the sorry excuse for a football season Tiger devotees have “enjoyed” this year, the U of M is a C-USA attendance behemoth. Take a look around the league last Saturday, and you’ll see what I mean. A mediocre Houston team could only draw 12,856 for its game against South Florida, but even bowl-battling outfits like East Carolina and Tulane could only draw 23,189 and 21, 832, respectively, despite first-rate (TCU and Southern Miss) opponents. And I recall our own game in Birmingham against UAB earlier this season, where the entire crowd could have easily squeezed into the Mike Rose soccer complex.

Let’s face it: this year’s Tiger MVPs are the fans, the folks in blue that never play a down but are there by the thousands, in blazing sunshine, pouring rain, and in constantly trying circumstances. U of M football fans, having taken the concept of “delayed gratification” to never-before-imagined levels, take a licking and keep on ticking.

But maybe, just maybe, the payoff is just around the corner. Assuming that Coach Tommy West can find someone who can play the offensive line (four of the five starters are seniors), 2003 just might bring an end to all this existential agony. The defense, young and inexperienced when the season began but significantly better in November than August, will return nine starters. And the team’s two big offensive guns — sophomore quarterback Danny Wimprine (who broke the U of M single-season passing record Saturday) and freshman running back D’Angelo Williams — are just hitting their prime.

Of course, nothing will change if the Tigers don’t find a cure for their desperate case of turnover-itis. The defense may well have pitched a shutout Saturday were it not for two first-half fumbles, and turnovers this season have already cost the Tigers 99 points. Regardless of talent, you can’t give away a touchdown and a field goal a game and hope to enjoy a winning season.

Saturday’s game in Fort Worth should be interesting. Having blown their national ranking by losing at East Carolina last week, the TCU Horned Frogs ought to be well-focused on the matter at hand.

But if the Tigers can execute the way they did in the second half Saturday, and hold onto the football in the process, Christmas might just come a few weeks early. And if ever a football team deserved a favor from Santa, this one is it.

Categories
News News Feature

FROM MY SEAT

SPORTING THANKS

This is a week — more than any other — when we need to count our blessings. After family and friends, there are a few sports-related “gifts” I’d like to pause and appreciate.

  • I’m thankful for Memphis high school basketball. From Treadwell to Hamilton, from Ridgeway to White Station . . . if the local sports scene can be described as a machine, prep hoops is certainly the engine.

  • I’m thankful for the Kroger St. Jude, FedEx St. Jude Classic, and AXA Liberty Bowl Football Classic. I don’t care much for title sponsors but, hey, this is the 21st century and these three organizations are as professional as they come. Year in, year out, Memphis puts on a week-long sports festival . . . three times a year. No, we don’t have Wimbledon, the Masters, or the Rose Bowl. But find another city our size that can match these three events.

  • I’m thankful to have Shane Battier in Memphis. It can be hard — very hard — to root for NBA players these days. Somehow the percentage of miscreants in the NBA seems to dwarf those in the NFL, NHL, or major league baseball. Not only do I enjoy pulling for Mr. Battier, but I’d be happy for him to babysit my daughters.

  • I’m thankful for the leftfield bluff at AutoZone Park.

  • I’m thankful that my 3-year-old daughter, Sofia, can name two baseball players, and they happen to be Albert Pujols and Stubby Clapp. (And I’m thankful that she describes — without provocation — the San Francisco slugger who wears a dangling earring as “a silly man.”)

  • I’m thankful for Larry Finch. All due respect to Keith Lee, Andre Turner, Penny Hardaway, Lorenzen Wright, and the many other Tiger hoop studs. Larry Finch IS University of Memphis basketball . . . always will be. The U of M was right on in giving his name to its new training facility. All they’re missing now is the statue. Get well soon, Coach.

  • I’m thankful for Shyrone Chatman. Playing out of position at point guard, Chatman got the absolute most out of his abilities in leading the over-achieving 2000-01 University of Memphis Tigers to the NIT semifinals. Making the most of his abilities off the court, Chatman became the first Tiger basketball player in years to earn his degree last spring. Dajuan Wagner has a fat NBA contract and Penny Hardaway has a banner hanging from the Pyramid rafters. The fact is, the U of M needs more players like Shy Chatman.

  • I’m thankful for Tuesday Night Boxing on Beale. Where would we be without the New Daisy?

  • I’m thankful for memories of Darryl Kile’s curveball. You know how certain songs, certain smells will take you back to a special time, place, or person? Anytime I see a big-league curveball break three feet — straight down — I’m going to remember number 57.

  • I’m thankful for Joye Lee-McNelis. She’s been at the helm of an under-appreciated U of M women’s basketball program for more than a decade. She’s won five conference championships and sent two players to the WNBA. And she’s been wooed by outsiders year after year. How nice to have a familiar face build a local program, keep it clean as a whistle, and stick around to enjoy the fruits.

  • I’m thankful for C-USA basketball. No, it’s not the ACC, Big East, or SEC. And it’s struggling to establish its identity as a top flight hoops league. But you can do a lot worse than a group that includes Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul, Houston, Memphis, and Louisville. Think about naming an all-time team, selecting only from those six schools. Here’s hoping DePaul and Houston find their way back toward the national elite. For that matter, here’s hoping the same for the U of M.

  • I’m thankful for East High football. Coach Wayne Randall has built one of the Mid-South’s finest programs and won a state championship . . . without a home field! Hollywood makes movies about this kind of stuff.

  • I’m thankful for 10 years with the prettiest calico cat you’ll ever see. We watched countless ballgames together, my lap as her box seat. And she was a terrific fan . . . never seemed to mind who won or lost. Rest in peace, Beale.

    • Categories
    News The Fly-By

    DEATH IN DISNEYLAND

    From theme parks to theme funerals, America is indeed a glorious land of abundantly bizarre opportunity. The Mississippi Press recently reported on St. Louis’ Wade Funeral Home where, “[In a] room dubbed ‘Big Mama’s Kitchen,’ loved ones layed cards barely an arm’s length from [the open casket]. Guests sipped iced tea and Kool-Aid near a stove with a platter of real fried chicken, and a couple of fake pies. A Wonder Bread loaf sat atop a refrigerator, and dishes were in a drainer near the sink.” Other funeral options include a room with a basketball goal for sports fans, and for ex-anglers there is a well-stocked pond with a sign reading, “Fishing season is closed.”

    Categories
    Art Art Feature

    UPDIKE’S STILL UP THERE

    Seek My Face

    By John Updike

    Knopf; 288 pp.; $23

    John Updike, perhaps America’s preeminent man of letters, like his contemporary Philip Roth, has become prolific in the autumn of his career. He, also like Roth, is producing some of his best work still. The high-wire act that is an Updike sentence is very much in evidence in Seek My Face, Updike’s 20th novel. These sentences could have come from Rabbit, Run or even Of the Farm, his earliest work — sentences that seem to accordion-out like intricate origami, sentences that are exhaustively beautiful.

    Seek My Face tells the story of Hope Ouderkirk, a semisuccessful, octogenarian painter. She is being interviewed by a brash young New York magazine writer, Kathryn, an occasion which brings about a self-examination for the artist as well as a recitation of her wide-ranging life. While the “action” of the story takes place in a single day, the flashbacks offer a time-capsule reflection on 20th-century art, a subject dear to Updike’s heart and one he has written about on numerous occasions but never before in fictional form.

    Updike admits to using two texts as reference: Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith and the anthology Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics. It is useful to consider these jumping-off points for the novelist’s exploration of the innovative explosion that was modern art.

    Hope is a reluctant interviewee at best — she confesses to having “a wandering, frayed, old mind” — and the testy, contentious back-and-forth between her and Kathryn gives Hope (and Updike) an opportunity to expound on art, fame, and the creative spark. “Interviewers and critics are the enemies of mystery,” Hope muses, sotto voce to the reader, “the indeterminacy that gives art life.”

    The focus of the discussion is Hope’s life with her painter husband, Zack. The parallels to Jackson Pollock and his wife, the painter Lee Krasner, are obvious and give the book a verisimilitude and center it would not otherwise have. There are other thinly veiled portraits of Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, among others, but it is the fascination surrounding Pollock that’s given the primary spotlight. “He began to drip when?” Kathryn asks. “What do you remember of that moment? Did it seem epochal to you and Zack? Did he talk about it as something revolutionary?”

    But art is not all Updike wants to talk about, of course. Especially, in his later books, a spiritual dimension has entered in, a concern with religion. In Seek My Face, he makes Hope a Quaker. “Hope had loved herself,” he writes, “having been raised in the illusion of a loving God; she had found the facts of her body amazing, as they emerged from beneath the quilts and the Quaker silence concerning such matters.” And about an early teacher, Hope says, “The whole world comes to us, as we experience it, through the mystic realm of color. The Real in art never dies, because its nature is predominantly geistlich, spiritual. He had us believing that to make art was the highest and purest of human activities, the closest approach to God, the God who creates Himself in this push and pull of colors.”

    And, as usual with Updike, he gets all the details right. He may be the most “concrete” writer working, one who can make you see sunshine slanting through the window, hear the raindrops pattering on the skylight. He still cares about setting, what Iris Murdoch once called the “thingy world.” He is … well, painterly. He can make the creation of a cup of coffee seem a holy thing: “For her guest the Taster’s Choice undecaffeinated with its red label and friendly waist (the incurved glass sides in her bent fingers remind her of something: what?) .”

    In Seek My Face, John Updike kindles a fire for art in the reader — the art of his painter characters and the art of his novelist gifts. “The Real in art never dies.” This is both a statement of purpose and a prayer.