Month: March 2004

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News The Fly-By

PIG FLICK

Anybody remember that movie Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, that opened in January? Nah, we didn t remember it either until a little booklet about the making of the film showed up. In it we found the following anecdote: Win a Date With Ted Hamilton was shot entirely in and around Los Angeles, which meant finding several West Coast stand-ins for Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia … [including] the Piggly Wiggly grocery store. The production team converted a vacant grocery store in Van Nuys into a Piggly Wiggly complete with a giant Mr. Pig sign and other Pig paraphernalia provided by the Piggly Wiggly Corporation. According to our source, The imitation Piggly Wiggly proved a little too convincing to the dozens of people — per haps transplanted Southerners, who showed up with grocery lists in hand. Even after they were told that the store was not a real Piggly Wiggly, the mob still tried to push their way in.

Plante: How It Looks

Read “The Junk Science of Georege W. Bush”( http://www.alternet.org/members/story.html?StoryID=17949). Or CLICK HERE.

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We Recommend We Recommend

wednesday, 3

GALLERY TALK. Abstract artist Adam Geary discusses his show, k”A Nomad Comes Home.” Memphis Brooks museum of Art, education Gallery, Overton Park, 6:30 p.m.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

POLITICS: Chumney makes nice to mayor

SHATTERED FRONT

Fledgling city council member Carol Chumney, victorious last year in a multi-candidate race to succeed John Vergos in District 5 (Midtown), got where she is today despite the private efforts of Mayor Willie Herenton, who was widely regarded as favoring two of her opponents — first , lawyer Jim Strickland, and later, during a runoff election, businessman/physician George Flinn.

Even so, Chumney has chosen to deviate from the more or less united front of her council mates on issues on which they and the mayor have been in conflict. . In a letter hand-delivered to the mayor last week, Chumney reminded Herenton that she “was the only member of the Memphis City Council to vote with you” against over-riding the mayor’s veto of a council ordinance which asserted the council’s right to approve interim mayoral appointees.

Comparing her action to the mayor’s statement last week renouncing his previous intention to litigate the issue, Chumney said, “Like you, I made the gesture in an effort to end the conflict and allow us all to focus on the real issues at hand.” She went on to request a private audience with the mayor “to discuss the process to select the new leader for Memphis, Light, Gas & Water prior to any new nomination.” Chumney added, “I have some information to share with you which I hope will encourage you to nominate a person with substantial utility experience.”

The requested meeting did in fact take place (according to Chumney, in fact, the mayor had meanwhile begun his own overtures to her), and both parties later expressed themselves satisfied with how it went.

In an op-ed written this week for the Flyer [see “My Olive Branch,” p TK], Chumney has amplified on her attitude, implying criticism of “certain members” of the council for engaging in “petty in-sighting” and suggesting that “the tone and name-calling by more than one elected official in this city has been divisive and unproductive.”

Though other members of the council have expressed a willingness to try to end the divide, especially after the mayor’s peace-making initiative last Tuesday, they pontedly reasserted their prerogatives on the appointments issue during a council retreat on Wednesday. And they vowed to push ahead on an internal investigation of the mayor’s involvement in arranging brokering for last year’s prepayment arrangements of Memphis Light Gas & Water with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

It’s official: Memphis school board member Lora Jobe says she definitely won’t run again for her District 5 (Midtown) seat this year. Two potential candidates have so far expressed interest in the seat: lawyer Nick Bragorgos and physician Jeff Warren.

Memphis attorney John Ryder, now in his second term as Republican national committeeman from Tennessee, will be succeeded later this year by former 4th District congressman Van Hilleary, for whom the post offers a new window of political visibility.

The succession, forecast in this space some weeks ago, was achieved unanimously at Saturday’s meeting of the GOP state executive committee in Nashville. Ryder had originally wanted to remain as national committeeman for another term so as to be serving in that role next year when the Southern Republican Leadership Conference is held in Memphis.

But Hilleary, who had meanwhile relocated in Nashville, let it be known that he wanted the post, and, as the party’s immediate past gubernatorial candidate, had enough clout to get his way. Ryder gracefully yielded (though some of his party allies felt burned), and will serve instead as chairman of next year’s party conference here.

GOP insiders say that Hilleary wanted to be party chairman so as to reinforce his statewide network prior to a likely run in 2006 for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Majority Leader Bill Frist. It is generally believed that Frist, who has presidential ambitions for 2008, will not seek reelection to the Senate.

Other likely Republican candidates for the Senate in 2006 are 3rd District congressman Zach Wamp; former 7th District congressman Ed Bryant; and current 7th District congressman Marsha Blackburn.

Former Memphian Stephanie Chivers, now of Kingston Springs, was elected to a second term as GOP national committeewoman.

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We Recommend We Recommend

tuesday, 2

BOOKSIGNING BY CAROLYN HART. Author signs Murder Walks the Plank. Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 387 Perkins East, 6 p.m.

SEUSSCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: a reading rally with book giveaways, bands, and pep squads. Central Library, 3030 Poplar.

Categories
News The Fly-By

21ST CENTURY BONE-YARD

21st-Century Boneyard While buzzing around eBay searching for swank decorator items with which to furnish the space-age Fly-pad, the Pesky one lit upon something a bit moribund. It seems that someone is offering four burial lots in Mount Vernon Gardens, a cemetery in Memphis, in what we presume to be the highly fashionable Sec tion One of their Trinity Gar dens subdivision. The opening bid for item number 3660757988 was $600, with an option to Buy It Now for a cool $800. Also noted: Buyer pays for all shipping costs.

Plante: How It Looks

Read “The Junk Science of Georege W. Bush”( http://www.alternet.org/members/story.html?StoryID=17949). Or CLICK HERE.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

monday, 1

Frank Runyeon performs the interactive presentations Sermon on the Mount and Hollywood vs. Faith, and salute to the Memphis Arts Council. 6:30 p.m., Lenten Speaker Series, Calvary Episcopal Church, 102 N. Second St.

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News News Feature

FROM MY SEAT

35 CANDLES

I’m reaching a personal milestone this week. (We sportswriters love “milestones.” In what other medium do we ever read of such?) Come Thursday, I will be halfway to 70 years of age. After thanking my loving family for making the first half of my journey such bliss, I turn to the world of sports, and to the countless people, places, and events that have made my face so accustomed to smiling over the years. To recite my favorite sports moments or my favorite sporting affections would take more room than even cyberspace will allow. But I can start with a list of 35 such Memphis affections, can’t I?

1. AutoZone Park. I still pinch myself when I walk through the turnstiles. Best thing to happen to Memphis since Presley met Phillips.

2. The Redbirds. Devoted Cardinal fan moves to Memphis from New England. Visits Busch Stadium for first time at age 24. Five years later, Cards’ Triple- ®A affiliate settles in 10 minutes from front porch.

3. Memphis Tigers vs. Louisville Cardinals in The Pyramid. Say it ain’t so, Big East.

4. 1996 Kroger St. Jude at The Racquet Club of Memphis. I got to (quite literally) rub elbows with Pete Sampras. Never will we see another tennis player win 14 Slams.

5. DeAngelo Williams on third and short.

6. Larry Finch. Look up “hometown hero” in the dictionary. Get well, Larry. We love you.

7. Boxing on Beale. It’s smoky, smells of sweat and beer, and the chairs are uncomfortable. Best place to see a fight on the planet.

8. Memphis RiverKings premiere (November 7, 1992). Speaking of sweat and beer. Hockey in the Mid-South! Where have you gone, Derek Grant?

9. September 15, 2000. AutoZone Park. Now batting for Memphis, leftfielder Albert Pujols.

10. Stubby! Stubby!! Stubby!!!

11. Jerry West (huh?) calling the shots in Memphis (yes!).

12. Penny Hardaway in the open court, 1992 NCAAs.

13. Phil Cannon and the staff at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Best community handshake this city has to offer, year after year.

14. The champions hall at The Racquet Club. Borg, Connors, McEnroe . . . oh my.

15. A chat with Rolando Blackman at The Pyramid. You have your basketball heroes, I have mine.

16. Martha Woods in the U of M athletic office. (And you should see her behind the wheel of a stock car!)

17. A visit with Red Schoendienst in the AutoZone Park press box. Which ring is that you’re wearing, Red? “You know . . . I’ve got nine of Ôem.”

18. Not one, but two Presidents’ Cup-winning overtime goals at the DeSoto Civic Center for the RiverKings (scored by Michal Stastny in 2002, Kahlil Thomas in Ô03).

19. Race day at Memphis Motorsports Park. Disney could take merchandising lessons from NASCAR.

20. Batting practice at AZP. The season had ended, it was a Saturday morning, and we were cut short by rain. Still . . . unforgettable.

21. Photo-op with Garry Templeton at AutoZone Park. First player in baseball history with 100 hits from each side of the plate in the same season (1979). AND he brought Ozzie Smith to St. Louis.

22. Shyrone Chatman. Don’t forget this Tiger point guard (1997-01). He played with fire, played with class (and out of position). Best of all, he graduated.

23. John Calipari, postgame. Love him or otherwise, the passion he carries for coaching outshines the TV lights when he meets the local press.

24. Playing nine at Overton Park. If you can call what I do with a golf club “playing.”

25. Danny Wimprine and the U of M record book (passing section).

26. Memphis Grizzlies House at St. Jude. 70,000 square feet of reasons it’s wonderful to have an NBA team.

27. Tom Stocker. Could teach a few things to Wayne Hagin in St. Louis.

28. Joggers on the Bluff Walk. You won’t find a prettier urban jogging trail in the Western Hemisphere.

29. Retired Memphis Tiger jerseys in the Pyramid rafters. (As for those NIT banners . . . .)

30. Loren Roberts. Maybe not the best golfer without a major, but certainly the nicest.

31. Shane Battier. I’ve always considered the number 31 lucky . . . then this guy comes to town.

32. Local baseball historian John Guinozzo. Can’t recall the day Stan the Man played at Russwood? J.J.’s your guy.

33. Antonio Burks and his sweeping, one-handed drives to the hoop. A point guard with a finger roll?

34. Rockey the Redbird. My daughters’ third parent.

35. Dennis Freeland. Great sportswriters come and go, but friendships never die.