Month: November 2009

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Memphis Tigers: DBU??

Over the last 20 years, the Tiger football program has sent its share of defensive backs to the NFL. Ken Irvin, Jerome Woods, Reggie Howard, Mike McKenzie, Michael Stone, Idrees Bashir, and Brandon McDonald all disrupted passes in the Liberty Bowl before playing on Sundays. Certain followers of the program haved dubbed it “DBU.”

So what’s happened? Here’s a look at the yardage total accumulated by a few of the Tigers’ opposing quarterbacks this season.

Case Keenum

  • Case Keenum

• Dwight Dasher (MTSU): 231 yards
• Brett Hodges (UCF): 214
• Trevor Vittatoe (UTEP): 319
• Pat Pinkney (East Carolina): 216
• Jonathan Crompton (Tennessee): 331
• Joe Webb (UAB): 378

Things could get ugly this afternoon in Houston, where the Tigers’ secondary will be facing Cougar quarterback Case Keenum, the likely Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year. Through ten games, Keenum has averaged 419 yards through the air and thrown 31 touchdown passes with only six interceptions. DB-ugh.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Memphis Tigers 92, Tennessee Tech 59

With just under 10 minutes to play in Friday night’s game between the Tigers and Tennessee Tech at FedExForum, Memphis sophomore Wesley Witherspoon went sprawling out of bounds near midcourt, saved a loose ball by slinging it backward over his head, and slammed into the scorer’s table. The hustle play gained the U of M a possession in a game they were leading at the time . . . by 26 points.

“Our identity is scrap,” said Tiger coach Josh Pastner after the victory, which leaves Memphis with a record of 2-1. “Get after it, stay after it. For us to be able to have a chance, we have to be scrappy.”

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Any possibility that the Tigers would suffer a letdown after Tuesday night’s narrow loss to top-ranked Kansas was erased with the sight of Hall of Famer Lute Olson sitting across the court from the Tiger bench. With Pastner’s mentor from his days as a player and assistant coach at Arizona merely 60 feet away, this was a night for the apprentice to show the master that The Right Way was alive and well.

“We weren’t concerned [about a letdown],” said Tiger guard Elliot Williams, who led Memphis with 23 points. “Coach Pastner stressed that that’s what everyone expected, for us to have a letdown. We came out strong defensively. Every game is big for us. It’s not hard to get up for this.” A soaring, two-handed dunk by Williams late in the first half lifted the crowd of 16,707 out of their seats. When he followed on the next possession with a 30-foot lob to Will Coleman for another dunk, the affair was settled.

“Keeping the same intensity was important,” said Coleman, “to show people that the Kansas game wasn’t a fluke. Defense, defense, defense . . . and hustle plays. Every loose ball, we’re sacrificing. Coach preaches that a lot.”

The Tigers found their long-range shooting touch for the first time this season, Willie Kemp draining three treys and Doneal Mack four. (Roburt Sallie continued to slump, missing all three of his long-distance attempts tonight.) Kemp is regaining control of his team’s offensive flow, his six assists and one turnover calling to mind performances from his freshman season of 2006-07.

“In the second half,” added Pastner, “the reason we were able to make shots is that we penetrated, kicked, and made the extra pass. When that happened, we were able to get better looks. The disappointing thing — and we have really good guards — is that we made 14 turnovers. We have to be better than that. But overall toughness, I was proud of our guys.”

The Tigers will host Central Arkansas next Tuesday night at FedExForum.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Microbiologist Fermentation Scientist Needed

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Got this one off of Twitter … I have no idea what it is, but it pays great.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Winter Farmers Market in Cooper-Young

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Next week is my last CSA from Whitton Farms, and quite honestly, I’ve been worrying about how I will feed my family. Cooking for me is so dependent on my weekly bag of produce, that I hardly remember how to plan meals any other way.

Fortunately, a handful of local growers have organized a winter market and are selling their produce every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of Tsunami restaurant in Cooper-Young. They plan to be there all winter.

Categories
Sports

Why Do You Write About That?

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A reader (I think) asks why I write about obscure sports that nobody in Memphis knows or cares anything about.

It’s a fair question. He/she (?) is not the first to ask that. I ask myself that all the time.

The short answer is “because I feel like it.”

Categories
News

Guns-in Bars Law Ruled Unconstitutional

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It’s time once more for pistol-packers to leave their weapons at the door — or with the sheriff. A Nashville chancellor has declared the guns-in-bars bill, passed last spring in the Tennessee legislature, to be unconstitutional. Here is a link to the original story.

Reaction to the decision depended largely on one’s original position. State Rep. Curry Todd (R-Collierville) vowed to correct the “ambiguity” in the law, cited by Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, when the legislature reconvenes in January.

State Senator Jim Kyle, on the other hand, rejoiced with the following statement: “I am happy that common sense as well as the rule of law has won the day. I have always believed in the second amendment and will continue to fight to protect it but I fought against allowing guns in bars in the senate because alcohol and firearms do not mix. In the Wild West days of Dodge City you had to check your guns at the town limit so you would think in the twenty-first century common sense would tell us we should not allow guns in bars. I hope my colleagues in both parties in the legislature will once again find their common sense and focus on moving Tennessee forward not jumping to the beat of a special interest with short sighted agenda.”

Also happy was Adrienne Pakis-Gillon, Democratic nominee for the District 31 state Senate seat, who in a head to her emailed press release called the now invalidated measure the “Kelsey gun law” after her Republican opponent, former state Rep. Brian Kelsey, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. She said in part:

“The voters of District 31 have a chance to stop these kinds of laws and return common sense to the legislature. This ruling gives the restaurant owners who have been troubled by this law a short reprieve. It also gives hope to parents, who knew this law never made sense, that something can be done about other legislation allowing guns in parks. I hope that voters will send me to Nashville to oppose this bill’s re-enactment, and let me work for legislation that concerns issues like education and jobs that citizens really care about.”

Categories
News

Radical Gay Group Denies Billboard Destruction

Blog posts on the Advocate’s website recently reported that radical gay anarchist group Bash Back had taken credit for vandalizing the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) billboard at Poplar and High downtown.

But a local representative from Bash Back Memphis told the Flyer that his group had nothing to do with the action.

To read more, visit Memphis Gaydar.

Categories
News

Community Congress in Frayser and Raleigh

Mayor A C Wharton’s office just announced that the mayor would be convening a community congress Monday, November 30th, in response to recent gun-related fatalities in Frayser and Raleigh.

“The purpose of this meeting is to ignite a bottom-up, inside-out approach to addressing the epidemic of gun violence,” Wharton is quoted in a release as saying. “I have repeatedly described gun crime as a public health crisis, and it must be treated just as we would any disease: with containment and prevention one person, household, block, and neighborhood at a time.”

The community congress, which will include citizens, law enforcement officers, business owners, and other stakeholders will take place at Golden Gate Cathedral, 3240 James Road.

Four recent murders have taken place within a four-square mile area of Golden Gate Cathedral.

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News

Radical Gay Anarchist Group Denies Billboard Destruction

Earlier this week, blog posts on the Advocate’s website and Towleroad.com reported that radical gay anarchist group Bash Back had taken credit for the September vandalism of a Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) billboard at Poplar and High downtown.

But a local representative from Bash Back Memphis told the Flyer that his group had nothing to do with the action. Their perceived involvement was likely implied from a blog post praising the vandalism on Bash Back News, the group’s national website.

Bash Back

  • Bash Back

Bash Back, a group of self-proclaimed “radical transfolk, queers and allies,” is critical of the mainstream LGBT movement, which it sees as trying to assimilate with heterosexual culture. Though it does not appear that the group is actually claiming responsibility for vandalism on its website, a Bash Back blogger had this to say praising the vandalism of the billboard featuring a gay Marine:

“First, sending gays to be military fodder is NOT pro-gay or conclusive whatsoever to gay liberation. State militarism only reinforces the dominant structures, and the racism/heterosexism they perpetuate, as well as reducing the number of gay people in the world (both those in Amerikkka and the countries Amerikkka is colonizing/conquering).”

The billboard was one of five National Coming Out Day advertisements paid for by private donations to the MGLCC. It featured gay local former Marine Tim Smith in uniform and read, “I’m gay and I protected your freedom.” The billboard was ripped down about a week after it went up in mid-September.

The Bash Back post goes on to criticize MGLCC as “racist, anti-queer, and anti-trans” and it criticizes the center for spending $3,500 for a billboard that Bash Back claims promotes militarism in a poor African American neighborhood.

MGLCC director Will Batts says he’s open to discussing the group’s concerns if they are willing to sit down and talk. Says Batts: “We have an open door policy here for anybody that has issues with how we conduct business.”

Categories
News

Movie Friday: Blind Side, Precious, An Education

A pretty interesting slate of movies opening this week: We haven’t had a chance to see the latest Twilight installment, but we have reviews this week of three other worthwhile films: Greg Akers tracks Sandra Bullock through a make-believe Memphis in The Blind Side. Chris Herrington takes a look at emerging sensation Precious. And Herrington makes the case for what may be the week’s best film, under-hyped Brit import An Education.