Month: April 2003

Art Art Feature

DIPTERA: THE FLYER POETRY PAGE

Post author By Ed Weathers
Post date April 7, 2003

The Dark Hole

Douglas the third is three.

He is digging a hole in the sand on the beach at Nags Head.

Nearby is Kitty Hawk, where our first plane

flew for a hundred yards.

Another name is in the air: Hiroshima,

a bomb dropping. It sounds like the ocean wind;

but the voices are strange, triumphant and horrified.

He has no words yet for this mixture of tones.

“Does this mean the war has ended?” he asks.

“Yes.” “Who won?”

“We did,” his mother tells him. “We have the bomb.”

Days later his mother is ironing.

She asks him, “Will you go up to the dark hole

and bring me three coat hangers?

They’re in a box at the door.”

The dark hole is the name for the windowless attic.

Douglass asks, “Do I have to go?”

“No, but you always like to be helpful.”

“I’ll go,” he says.

Twenty years later they both recall the incident.

“When you said we had the atomic bomb,” he tells her,

“I thought you meant our family did.

I thought it must be in the dark hole.”

He had thought at first it must all be an accident,

like when you dropped something you didn’t mean to:

you were ashamed, and sometimes punished.

Fifty years later we still have no words

for the confusion of jubilation and horror,

for the agony of bodies with flesh hanging in tatters

from their shoulder bones;

triumphant, the secret fruit of Oak Ridge

had ripened, falling from a single plane

on an unsuspecting town.

Pity for the three-year-old climbing the stairs

with silent courage

into the terror of catastrophe,

into the dark hole where, yes,

our entire nation owned and kept the fire-wind

of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the atolls and islands,

the pasturelands of Utah, other remote and quiet

playing fields of a nonexistent war.

Virginia Hamilton Adair refused to publish her first collection until she was 83. This is a lovely, timely poem titled “The Dark Hole.” It comes from a book titled, Ants on the Melon, which was published by Random House in 1996.

If you would like to submit a poem of any length, style, or level of experimentation to be considered for Diptera, please send your poem/s, along with a self-addressed stamped envelope to Diptera, Attn: Lesha Hurliman, 460 Tennessee Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38103. Electronic submissions should be sent to lhurliman@memphisflyer.com. Please include a short bio. Submissions are not limited to Memphis residents.

Diptera is not an online literary journal but something more like a bulletin board, and therefore the author retains all rights to the poetry published on Diptera. The poems published on this site can be submitted to any journal without our notification, and we do accept poems that have been previously published as long as we are given a means of obtaining permission to post them.

\Dip”te*ra\– An extensive order of insects having only two functional wings and two balancers, as the house fly, mosquito, etc. They have a suctorial proboscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxill[ae]) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larv[ae] (called maggots) being usually with

Politics Politics Beat Blog

THE FINAL FOUR NOW INCLUDES JOE COOPER

Post author By Ed Weathers
Post date April 7, 2003

Two contests of note will be taking place at Monday’s meeting of the Shelby County Commission.

The first — over the appointment of a new commission administrator — will present a revised Final Four of hopefuls, with veteran pol Joe Cooper replacing Lisa Geater in a field that also includes former Memphis police director Winslow “Buddy” Chapman, Chamber of Commerce administrator Jesse Johnson, and Grace Hutchinson, the current acting administrtator and still the favorite.

Cooper — who, with three other semi-finalists, was apparently eliminated from consideration last week — resurfaced as a contender as the result both of a recount and of the surprise withdrawal Friday of Geater, who holds the position of chief administrator of the Memphis city council. Geater, who had been considered a solid contender, reportedly communicated her intentions of withdrawing to the commission Friday by letter.

The post of commission director became vacant in January when then chief administrator Calvin Williams was forced out amid a barrage of conflict-of-interest allegations.

The other bone of contention concerns a zoning proposal by developer Rusty Hyneman to develop an 85-unit subdivision in the vicinity of Macon and Houston Levee Roads — a proposal already turned down by the Office of Planning and Development and the Land Use Control Board and one sure to draw fire from commission members opposed to what they regard as helter-skelter, unplanned development. One such, Commissioner Bruce Thompson , observed, “The schools in that area are already overcrowded,” and served notice that he regards the matter as a test case.

Monday’s meeting will also, according to advance word, see the successful reconsideration of Commissioner John Willingham’s proposal to hire Lakes, Inc., to pursue the possibility of developing The Pyramid into a downtown casino/hotel. Another attempt to pass a rural-school-bonds proposal is a strong likelihood, as well.

Waymon Welch Sr., father of well-known developer Jackie Welch and longtime director of Shelby County Code Enforcement, died Saturday night. Visitation will be at Memphis Funeral Home beginning at 2 p.m. Tuesday; funeral will be at Memphis Funeral Home at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

News The Fly-By

GOODBYE, MISS PAT

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date April 5, 2003

Fly on the Wall may not be the most appropriate place for a heartfelt tribute, but we feel the need to say goodbye to one of the Memphis music scene’s unsung heroes. Pat Honeycutt passed away unexpectedly this week, and an all-blues memorial at the Center for Southern Folklore saw performances by Daddy Mack, Little Applewhite from the Fieldstones, Miss Zeno, and Eric Gales. At an age when most people would be thinking about retiring to the suburbs, Honeycutt decided to leave her comfy home in Bartlett for the wilds of downtown Memphis. She complained about the\ lack of diversity and the racism, subtle and otherwise, which she regularly encountered in the burbs. Furthermore, talking “lawns and gardens” with the other “little old ladies” in her peer group bored her to tears. The gregarious Miss Pat quickly became a downtown fixture. She worked as a volunteer at the Center for Southern Folklore and became a surrogate mother and indefatigable helpmate to the myriad of blues musicians who played there. She will be missed.

Miss Pat once contacted Fly on the Wall with a funny story which, for unknown reasons, we

didn’t publish. It seems she was walking down the Main Street Mall on her way to work one morning when she was approached by a naked homeless man begging for money. She told him in no uncertain terms that she was not in the habit of giving money to “butt-nekkid strangers,” and suggested that he move along. The naked man then became indignant, as naked men often will, and told Miss Pat, “Lady, that wig ain’t workin’ for you.” In our telephone conversation Miss Pat, who did not actually wear a wig, asked in all earnestness, “Should I be upset because a naked homeless man thinks I have bad hair?” Did we mention that she would be missed? Terribly.

News News Feature

HOW IT LOOKS

Post author By Ed Weathers
Post date April 5, 2003

News News Feature

THE WEATHERS REPORT

Post author By Ed Weathers
Post date April 5, 2003

O WHAT A GOOD WAR IT WAS!

What a good war this is turning out to be for George W. Bush.

First, he gets to exorcise all kinds of Oedipal ghosts: He gets to avenge his father against the man who tried to kill old Poppy. (Hamlet would be proud.) He gets to one-up his father by finishing the war his father started. And he gets to prove to war-hero dad that little Georgie, too, is a real man, with even bigger, um, guns.

Second, the war has already provided Bush with a perfect hero: a 19-year-old soldier from a small town in West Virginia who was ambushed by the enemy, who went down with guns blazing before being taken captive, who incurred relatively photogenic wounds (mostly broken limbs), who could be rescued by equally heroic special ops teams representing all the services, and who tells Mom and Dad back home that all this soldier wants now is some home-grown strawberries and the chance to be a school teacher. Oh, yeah, and best of all: She’s a girl! What photo opportunities are in store for the Rose Garden! What movies to be made!

(An aside: Wonder what women will make of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Is she a role model for her military derring-do? Or is she that all-time feminist embarrassment: the damsel in distress who needed rescuing by the boys?)

Third, this is the first war that could actually make a profit. After it’s over, and the U.S. has control of the oil fields, it will be time to “rebuild” the country we’ve just torn up. And who will do the rebuilding? Why, American companies, of course. Which companies? Gosh, how about Bechtel? How about Halliburton? How about Lucent and Fluor? Let’s see, anybody else who made a big contribution to the Republican war chest back in 2000? And they’ll all be paid out of Iraqi oil sales. We will have liberated the Iraqis and at the same time liberated their money right into American hands.

Fourth, not too many U.S. soldiers have gotten killed in this war–not enough, anyway, to generate a big public backlash against the war, but just enough to prove that it wasn’t a cakewalk. The President can now puff and preen about the courage and training of our “men in uniform,” as if he were one of them. He can salute his way through all kinds of speeches in front of friendly audiences on army/navy/airforce bases. He can commander-in-chief his way to ever higher numbers in the popularity polls. And he can have tasteful little weeping sessions away from the cameras’ eyes with the families of dead soldiers, thereby proving his compassion, too. He will have proved, as Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton proved before him in places like Grenada, Kuwait and Kosovo, that, yes, a Kevlar-coated Stealth pilot with night-vision technology and laser-guided bombs can indeed defeat a blind man with a blunderbuss on the field of battle.

Fifth, the war will have clarified just who our friends and enemies are–a handy thing for a president with as Manichean a mind as George Bush. (Here’s a curiosity for you: Mani, the philosopher who developed the philosophy of Manicheanism, which divides the world neatly into good and evil, darkness and light, the godly and the ungodly, was born just outside of Baghdad. So George Bush’s world view is basically Iraqi in origin. I like that.) Anyway, thanks to this war, we now know that Britain, Spain and the former Soviet states in Eastern Europe like Latvia and Bulgaria are our friends. We also know that the perfidious French and Germans are our enemies, along with the Russians (but we always knew about the Russians). North Korea and Iran–bad. Lithuania and Estonia–good. Turkey–bad yesterday, good today.

(Another aside: It’s been curious to watch Donald Rumsfeld vis a vis the “coalition of the willing” at his press briefings during this war. He keeps saying that “there are over 45 countries in the coalition, representing over 1 1/2 billion people in the world.” Of course, this means that there are more than 145 countries not in the coalition, representing over 4 1/2 billion people. One has to ask: In Rummy’s mind, does the math add up to world-wide support?)

Sixth, the “war” part of the war is getting over fast. It has hardly even tested the attention span of the American public. Oh, there may be a few street fights still to come, but the big story is just about finished. What remains is nothing but a little dusting. So a car bomb goes off here or there, and for the next couple of years an occasional American soldier is picked off by a sniper in the alleys of Baghdad. Heck, the important thing is, we won every big battle there was, and we have the tv footage to prove it.

Finally, the war will have proved to the Rumsfeld/Cheney/Wolfowitz/Perle/Rice cabal that the strategy of preemptive war works, and that the doctrine of doing whatever is necessary to maintain lopsided U.S. military supremacy in the world is correct. From now on, whenever the U.S. wants to invade or bomb somebody–oh, let’s say Libya or Syria or Iran–all it has to do is cite this week’s war as precedent. So what if China or Russia now start to ratchet up their war spending out of fear or envy. Presumably we’ll bomb them, too, if we have to.

For now, then, the war in Iraq looks to be an immense success for George W. Bush. Once we find those elusive weapons of mass destruction that the White House will make sure we find, everything will be taken care of.

For Bush’s people, there’s no need to look any farther down the road than today. No need to wonder if some of the 5,000 or so would-be martyrs who ran to Iraq to fight the Americans might decide that it makes more sense to make their way to a New York subway tunnel or a St. Louis bridge or a California nuclear facility. No need to worry if that next terrorist attack on U.S. soil might spur John Ashcroft once and for all to declare that the Bill of Rights is a luxury we can no longer afford. No need to be concerned that the streets of Chicago and San Francisco may for our grandchildren be as tense as the streets of Tel Aviv, with every movie theater and pizza parlor a target for suicide bombers.

No, no need to worry about next week. This week’s war was just swell.

READERS RESPOND:

Thanks for havin’ the courage to write the truth about this “war”.. Us “37%” outcasts sure appreciate it !! I’m shocked at the blind support given to this war, by people who have no idea what they are really supporting. Most of these people can’t spell “Passport”, and have never been anywhere..! I saw a POLL that made me naucious just yesterday, in which 2/3rds of Americans voted that now is not the time to protest the war — begging the question then, of, when IS it alright to protest ?? Perhaps when there is nothing to protest at all, leading up to my theory that the blind majority is totally and utterly unconnected with the art of sincere protest. I wish you would study the effects and statistics of civilian casualties, also. There is always propoganda surrounding “civilian casualties”.. I was sippin’ a beer in a bar in Laos a year or two ago when some Pom tried to tell me that we had killed 10 million Iraqi’s in the past 10 years.. Propoganda, regardless of which side it comes from, makes me sick — are turning the lights out don’t even know what they’re doing.. Furthermore, and falling under the category of “perception” that I believe is critical when you are in the shoes we as a country wear today, history will never forget that WE struck first.!! Just like Hitler with Poland, we spread propoganda that caused our people to fear an enemy that wasn’t about to do a damned thing to us, and then we struck hard and merciless… To us it’s a sporting event, but to a lot of people in a lot of places, this shit’s for real !!!

Thanks for , surprisingly, being one of the only people in Memphis that I’ve heard have the courage to voice what time will show is right — whether “they” ever figure it out or not that they are committing a terrible sin… (and I hate that whole “us” and “them” concept as well,,,)

J.G. Brewer

I was pleasantly surprised to see your article specially in this 50 years behind the rest of the country town. (Oops,I think they call it a modern

city, actually the best city in the world if you speak to anyone from here, although they have never been anywhere else) I have been saying everything that you said since before the war started and of course have been accused of being anti-American even by my own husband. So prepare yourself for the nasty emails. Good luck

Aurelia Garvey

It just must be awful to be you.

David Hinske

Typical liberal sarcastic column! As if the Bush administration has just fallen into “dumb luck” with this war. You also assume that their purpose for this war is primarily for political and egotistical reasons. That was the purpose of the Clinton regime.

This war is against terrorism. It is ludicrous to think that terrorism/ 911/ and Sadam Hussein’s Iraqi regime are mutually exclusive. They are not! I guess we should have just let the impotent, incompetent, and irrelevant UN continue to tell us that we have not given Weapons Inspections a chance. While Sadam Hussein and other terrorists plot against the infidels of the United States. This strategy of “burying our head in the sand” is what allowed 911 to happen.

I can appreciate that you may not share the social/economic policies of this administration and under our constitution everyone has the right to vote and voice their own opinion. But let me remind you that the freedom you have to voice your opinion is threatened each day we allow evil regimes who aggressively encourage their people and others to commit acts of terrorism against the United States and our Allies…..especially a regime like Sadam Hussein’s who has been actively trying to build weapons of mass destruction for that purpose.

Ask the liberated Iraqis about their ability to voice their opinions against the Hussein administration. The ones who did that are dead.

Scott Suddoth

Great article. I didn’t expect to find it here. I was looking for info on UM

basketball but started reading and couldn’t stop. We all need to wake up. We

are being Bush-whacked.

Jim Hadaway

(St. Petersburg, FL)

Editorial Opinion

All Along the Watchtower …

Post author By Editorial
Post date April 4, 2003

“There must be some kind of way out of here,” said the joker to the thief;

“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.” — Bob Dylan

Gulf War Two is but two weeks old, and as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is fond of telling us, it’s too soon to start writing its history. Fair point. Perhaps the military operation is proceeding largely along the lines Rumsfeld and the generals anticipated. Perhaps, as some observers suggest, we are watching Operation Iraqi Freedom unravel before our eyes. A year from now, the truth of what happened in March 2003 will no doubt be more clearly visible. In the meantime, we will not pretend to write history on the fly.

But we can draw, at least, one definitive conclusion: The Bush administration’s decision to undertake a “preemptive” war against Iraq without the approval of the United Nations Security Council has utterly changed, for all time, the world in which we live.

No matter how quickly or slowly we succeed in Iraq — if indeed what we’re seeing now is more a case of “opening-night jitters” rather than something more ominous — the Bush administration will soon be taking responsibility for governing a Middle East nation of 24 million people, many of whose inhabitants clearly view our armed forces, for whatever reason, as invaders, not liberators, and our governing officials as enemies, not friends.This undeniable fact will present formidable obstacles to any plan for bringing democratic government to postwar Iraq. You can lead a horse to water, the adage declares, but you can’t make him drink.

All this postwar reconstruction will be undertaken in a questionable economic environment. We are already incurring enormous financial burdens in fighting this war (the Financial Times of London reported Monday, for example, that the U.S. Army, by its own admission, spends about $150 a gallon for the acquisition and delivery of the fuel being used by our vehicles at the front), and the “peace” that follows doesn’t promise to come any cheaper.

Obviously, we need to do what it takes to support and protect our troops, whatever the price. But while our tanks may not run out of gas, the jury is still out on whether or not the American economy will. The actual cost of this war is still incalculable. Piling these military expenses on top of the existing deficits created by the questionable economic policies pursued by President Bush since his election threatens to drain dry our domestic financial reservoir.

Even more threatening to our long-term security, however, is the sea change in public opinion that Operation Iraqi Freedom has brought about in the wider Islamic world. To tens of millions of Muslims, our unilateral actions in Iraq prove that this American government is no friend to their culture. We have incurred the wrath of those previously well-disposed to us. (The very mullahs who were first to offer their condolences for the 9/11 outrage are now calling for a jihad against America.) In the process, the threat of domestic terrorist attacks is likely to increase for the foreseeable future.

At this stage, as Dylan might say, there’s too much confusion here, too much in play for commentators to make definitive judgments. But all along the watchtower, there are indications that the world we now inhabit is a far different and a far more dangerous place than it was just a few weeks ago.

Opinion

Willie Mitchell

Post author By Tony Jones
Post date April 4, 2003

Willie Mitchell’s Royal Recording studio is the last of the historic independent soul-music houses still operating. Though he didn’t come to own the place until the mid-1980s, it was always his domain. His Memphis career began in the mid-1950s, with Ace Cannon and Bill Black, through a string of his own 1960s R&B instrumentals, up to the heyday of Al Green, Ann Peebles, Denise LaSalle, Syl Johnson, Otis Clay, and others pumping out hit after hit.

Mitchell and the Hi Records artists created a sound that no one has ever duplicated. Part of that has to do with the studio’s location at 1320 South Lauderdale, smack in the heart of South Memphis, where the ground is rich and sweet with the feeling that makes soul music. Originally a movie theater, the building’s acoustics are derived from its design. The studio rises where the movie screen used to be. The sound grows in a space duplicated nowhere else. “I’ve recorded all over the world and never found a sweeter spot than right here,” Mitchell says. “There’s something about the ground here. It’s got soul.”

While many Memphians might be afraid to traverse the area now, you’d be surprised at the artists who visit or call seeking his services. Alternative and post-punk bands have driven from as far as Seattle to record here. Keith Richards, Boz Scaggs, Rod Stewart, and Tina Turner, to name just a few, have all come calling to record, consult, hang out, snoop, try to get a project financed, or just pick the brain of the master. Mitchell, however, seems remarkably unimpressed with his own status. He’ll mention an unfamiliar artist in the same breath as the heavyweights. Just making music is what gets him off. But remember, he says, “I like making hit records. You got to make hits.”

And hits he has made. A state-commissioned research paper written in the mid-1990s put the number of Mitchell’s gold and platinum units at more than 100. There’s a great CD in record stores now — Soul Serenade: The Best of Willie Mitchell on the Right Stuff label — that catalogs the instrumental hits he’s had under his own name. A Hi Records compilation released by the label in the early 1990s packages a wider retrospective. Others are still being planned.

Following the death of his wife Anna Barbara Mitchell in 2001, he battled diabetes for a time. But now Mitchell has recuperated and appears in terrific health.

Mitchell’s not a big talker. This interview request came during what could prove to be one of the most significant projects of his career. We had to promise not to divulge it here, but Mitchell agreed to a short interview during a listening session.

Flyer: What are you working on now?

Mitchell: [Grins] I can’t say who we’re cutting right now, but it’s a very talented artist. A great voice. We’ve been working hard, man. Every day. I think this is going to be a big, big record.

You seldom went to the nightclub you owned on Beale, and you’re notoriously shy about speaking in public. Do you plan to attend the Premier Player Awards?

Yes, I’m going. I’m actually looking forward to it. I think it’s a great thing for them to do, and I’m proud that they’ve thought of Hi Records. We had a great run. It’s good to see the city bringing Stax back too. I’m real glad about that. It’s helped the city, helped me, helped everybody. I hope it’s really a big success.

Did you cut anything over at Stax?

Me and my brother James worked on some Little Milton things over there and some Johnnie Taylor stuff — a lot of cats. I’ve played so many places I can’t remember all of them.

When did you realize you could actually make it as a producer?

When I cut “Eight Men, Four Women” with O.V. Wright then came right back with “Two Steps from the Blues” with Bobby Bland. I knew I could make it then. That was 1965.

What’s the key to the Willie Mitchell sound? Any secret knowledge you’d like to drop on the younger generation?

Oh, I’m not telling that. There is a secret, a couple of little things I do, but I’ve been lucky a man to be around so many good artists and hit records. It’s really the artists that you work with. It’s like a school teacher: The producer is the teacher, but it makes it so much easier and so much better when the student likes to get his lesson. If he doesn’t want to get his lesson, it’s a lot less fun.

The Hi Records recording band — the Hodges brothers — and backup singers Rhodes, Chalmers, and Rhodes and your regulars are famous for their contribution here. Anybody in town you see as being that good?

There’s a bunch of good musicians around here. I like working with saxophonist Lannie McMillan on sessions. He’s real good, very creative. I have my regulars on horns that I like to work with — Jack Hale, Scott Thompson, Andrew Love, and Jim Spake. Got to cut with those guys. And Ben Cauley. Can’t forget Ben.

Heard any good hip-hop lately?

[Laughs] They cut a lot of it around here, but it’s really not my thing. It’s too fast for me. I like this guy, Brian McKnight. He’s really good. I also like what we did with Preston Shannon for Rounder. I was kind of disappointed that they never really took off.

It seems every year someone has a hit with “Let’s Stay Together.” Any favorite versions?

Not really, but I’m glad they do it though. I was glad to see Tina [Turner] have a big record with it.

Interest in your catalog is growing.

Yeah, that’s good. I just got my [royalty] statement from Capitol. The greatest-hits package is selling a lot, but they didn’t put “Robin’s Nest” on it. I was surprised by that. Illinois Jacquet cut it a long time ago and I’ve always loved that song.

You’ve always said there’s something in the ground here that makes your sound. Can you explain it?

I’ve been down here since ’59, mingling with the people here. The winos come down here; the working folks come by. There are just good people around here. I like them and they like me. [Laughs] They come in and rob me sometime, but it’s no big deal. Some guy’ll come in saying he needs a few dollars to get something to eat and then a few minutes later you see him at the whiskey store! But I know when to give and when not to.

If you were to meet God tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered?

Music has been my whole life. I don’t know if you’d call it a spiritual connection, but I’d die without it. One thing that I’m proud of is that I was able to make a living for my kids. I’ve always wanted them to know about what goes on around here so they can take it on after I’m gone. I always loved all of them, the boys and the girls. I teach them the board, help them write songs, play the piano for them. I just can’t live without music, man. I still walk the floor at night, get up, and play something that’s in my head. I’m still always trying to create something.

News News Feature

CITY BEAT

Post author By Ed Weathers
Post date April 4, 2003

THE PYRAMID AS CASINO

The idea of turning The Pyramid into a casino a few years from now may be a lot of things, but nuts is not one of them.

As an eyewitness to one of Charlie McVean’s hackney pony races with robot jockeys at the Mid-South Fairgrounds in 1987, the only recorded vote of the Tennessee Racing Commission in 1988, the opening of Splash Casino in Tunica in 1992, the opening of Harrah’s Casino in Robinsonville in 1994, and the tenth anniversary of Tunica as gambling center in 2002, I would put the Pyramid-as-casino proposal, at worst, halfway across on the nuttiness meter.

Major downtowns can exist with one or more casinos. Downtown Detroit has three. Downtown St. Louis has one. Downtown New Orleans has one. And Maryland, at the urging of a Republican governor, is considering putting slot machines at racetracks.

Is a Pyramid casino controversial? Of course. Politically difficult? Certainly. Would it be a considerable stretch to establish the legitimacy of tribal Indian land claims on Front Street? No doubt about it. Would a Memphis casino proposal be certain to draw ridicule and major opposition? Absolutely.

Well, getting the NBA to Memphis was controversial. AutoZone Park was difficult. Building the FedEx Forum was a stretch. Holding the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson fight in Memphis was widely ridiculed and opposed. And all those things happened because the right people wanted them to happen. A casino in The Pyramid could happen too, if the right people set their minds to it.

For starters, the question is not moot. Gambling is not banned by the Tennessee Constitution, as many people apparently believe it is.

“Except for lotteries, there is nothing in the state constitution prohibiting gambling, and the regulation of all types of gambling, other than lotteries, is a matter for determination by the General Assembly,” said the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office in 2001.

What is moot is the moral argument against casino gambling. Tunica took care of that. Memphians lose at least a few hundred million dollars a year gambling. Mississippi and Tunica County get all the tax benefits and development and don’t contribute one penny to Memphis or Shelby County in return.

So what do you suppose will happen to The Pyramid after the Grizzlies move? Let’s suppose four scenarios.

The University of Memphis men’s basketball team stays put in The Pyramid, and the building gets sloppy seconds on concerts and other events after the Grizzlies exercise right of first refusal.

U of M follows the Grizzlies to FedEx Forum, and The Pyramid becomes a vast shopping mall centered around something like a Bass Pro Shop.

The Pyramid is torn down 15 years after it opened, falling somewhat short of the life expectancy of the ancient pyramids of Egypt.

The Pyramid becomes a casino with a hotel similar to its golden lookalike, Luxor in

Las Vegas, with an attraction at the top and an inclinator.

In the first two scenarios, the building’s debt service and operating subsidy remain the responsibility of the public sector. In scenario Two, the public bears the cost of what would surely be a healthy subsidy to attract a private developer. In scenario Three, the cost of demolition and public ridicule are borne by the public sector.

In scenario Four, all development costs of the casino and hotel plus debt service are borne by the private sector. Unless, that is, you don’t believe that a single casino company would have any interest in the rights to a downtown casino and hotel in Memphis.

There are Memphians — former Holiday Inns and Promus CEO Mike Rose is one who comes to mind — who have forgotten more than most people will ever know about the casino and hotel business. Or a Memphis casino could steal a little talent from Tunica.

Inventing an Indian tribe to own the casino on “tribal lands” is seen as a way to get gambling through the back door but has its problems. No tax money goes to the state.

As for the Tennessee General Assembly, H. L. Mencken once said, “The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle — a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. If the right pressure could be applied to him he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology, or cannibalism.”

A READER’S RESPONSE:

You are SOOOOOOOOOOOO right!! Why does Memphis always have to be last at everyfrigginthing? I have lived here on and off since the age of 10 (I am now 49), and I remember coming here as a child and thinking, “what a crappy assed place”! Nothing to do. I came from Jacksonville, Florida where we had wonderful theatre, ICE skating, dance, etc…. I hate Memphis and if I had not lived in Los Angeles I guess I wouldn’t know the difference between a metropolis and a dump.

I say we fire every single city council member over the age of 40 and go with an equal mix of ethnicities!! It’s TIME (way past time) for the citizens of this city to get off their collective asses!!

Enjoyed your insight. Keep up the great work.

Cathi Ashton-Thomas