Month: August 2019

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Gose Story: How I Learned to Love a Risky Sour

It is entirely possible that I had to be soaked in salty brine off the coast of Apalachicola, Florida, for a week before trying a gose beer that I actually liked. Mrs. M and I were in the taproom of the Owl Café, sunburned and relaxed. And it was in that happy state that I spied the words “Briney Melon Gose.” I was having a good week, I thought, why not ruin it with a sour beer?

It wasn’t awful. In fact, it was refreshing. This wasn’t one of those “got something to prove” beers. It was an Anderson Valley Briney Melon — with a watermelon freshness to it, and the sea salt to balance the acidity and fruitiness. I’m not saying the gose will ever be a go-to for me, but I was feeling briny, my face was starting to resemble my briefcase, and, right then and there, the gose really hit the spot.

If I had to guess, my initial “just say no” reaction to sour beers stems from the typical craft brewer’s fetish for producing extreme versions of everything. The Germans, on the other hand, drink a lot more beer than we do, and they have gotten very good at it. They don’t tend to go for those ABV of 8-9 percent, sticking closer to the 4-5 percent range. This makes them more drinkable or, if you’re a beer writer, sessionable.

What gives me pause is that so many people describe these melon-laden gose concoctions as not tasting like beer at all. In fact, according to the Reinheitsgebot — German beer purity laws of 1516 — it isn’t a beer. The style is considered a regional specialty. And it is an acquired taste.

Originating in Goslar, Germany, gose is traditionally a wheat beer. What sets it apart from other wheats is the saltiness of the local water — which is a bit of a mystery in and of itself, as Goslar is nowhere near a seacoast. To counteract the saltiness, sour lemony flavors and herbs were mixed in. It caught on in eastern Germany, where they recreated the taste by adding a little sea salt to the water used in the process — which is what brewers do now, along with adding the strain of bacteria that makes it all go “sour.”

After World War II, the communists took over eastern Germany, and they tended to favor standardization over local specialties. Gose was forgotten on this side of the Iron Curtain, and, by 1966, the last bar serving it on the east side closed. It wasn’t until 1986 when production restarted. And stopped again two years later.

It really wasn’t until this century, after nearly every possible variation of the IPA had been played to death, that brewers jumped on the Belgian-sour-lambic bandwagon. The style was always a little too much for mass consumption, so they toned it down a notch with the gose style.

Anderson Valley Briney Melon weighs in at 4.2 percent ABV. It’s out of Booneville, California, and I couldn’t find it here. So, doing a little painstaking research, I found Terrapin Beer Co.’s Watermelon Gose out of Athens, Georgia (Go ‘Dawgs and, for that matter, R.E.M.). It goes down well: a little tart, but won’t make you pull a sour face. This is important if you haven’t already completely given up and are trying to look cool while you drink. Terrapin is available all over town, but for their Watermelon Gose, I had to go to the Madison Growler Shop.

People have told me gose beers should be paired with chicken and fish. Perhaps, but over the course of a meal, I’m not sure how many foods the tartness wouldn’t wreck.

Yeah, I tease brewers for being trendy, but I was resisting a refreshing and interesting beer on the grounds that … I’m a blockhead. So it gose.

Categories
News News Feature

CannaBeat: MORE Act Could Reverse Cannabis Convictions

Cannabis would be decriminalized nationwide, and cannabis charges would be re-sentenced if a new federal law is passed.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) and others introduced the Marijuana Opportunity and Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act last week.

The bill removes cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, in which it is now labeled a Schedule I drug. This move would apply retroactively to prior and pending convictions. It requires federal courts to expunge prior cannabis convictions and allows prior offenders to request expungement. It also requires courts to conduct re-sentencing hearings for those still under supervision. The bill would also open up federal public benefits (like housing) to those with past cannabis convictions.

Steve Cohen

“Currently, our laws treat marijuana as more dangerous than cocaine, methamphetamine, or fentanyl,” Cohen said. “This harsh policy has torn apart families and neighborhoods and disproportionately impacted communities of color.”

The bill would open up Small Business Administration funding for cannabis companies and service providers. The act would create a 5-percent federal tax on cannabis products, which would create a fund to provide services to those “most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.” It would also give business loans for licenses in the cannabis industry.

Banking on Cannabis

A Senate panel heard testimony last week on the challenges cannabis companies face without access to banks.

Running cash-only businesses is a security risk for owners, and potential owners have trouble raising capital. Also, any proceeds from cannabis-related activities remain subject to U.S. anti-money-laundering laws. Bankers and cannabis company leaders told federal lawmakers that laws now hamstring what could be a massive market opportunity.

Rachel Pross, Chief Risk Officer of Maps Credit Union, said Maps is the only bank in Oregon that has served the cannabis industry since 2014.

She said a Wharton School of Business report found that, in the absence of having a bank, one in every two cannabis dispensaries were robbed or burglarized — with the average thief walking away with anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 in a single theft.

In 2017 and 2018, her bank has received $529 million in cash deposits from cannabis companies; $169 million this year.

“That’s millions of dollars that used to be carried around in backpacks and shoeboxes by legitimate, legal business owners in the state of Oregon, making them prime targets for thieves and other criminals.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Lamplighter Lounge Café: Classics and Then Some

CREDIT: Alex Greene

Keeping it the same was really important to us. We were so adamant about that.” Laurel Cannito is describing her and business partner Chuck “Vicious” Wenzler’s inheritance, of sorts: the Lamplighter Lounge. Having worked there for some time when previous owner Ann Bradley decided to leave the bar business, they were in a prime position to acquire the establishment. And, true to Cannito’s words, it looks nearly identical to the place I first stepped into sometime in the late ’80s.

Back then, of course, it was all about the vibe. The beer was cheap, and so were the eats. The jukebox was divine. “Thank you, thank you,” Alex Chilton once said to the machine, as it sounded the first notes of Nat “King” Cole’s “Somewhere Along the Way.” We all felt that way about the Lamplighter. And after a night of swigging and smoking and yakking away, Miss Shirley’s hamburgers were divine as well.

Alex Greene

Burger, Hangover Helper, grilled cheese, and orzo pasta salad

What a relief, then, to find that the vibe is still intact. And yet who could have imagined that the old place would take on a second life purveying those very same burgers, and much more, as an eatery? “Café by day, bar by night!” is their motto, and, perusing the menu, one sees they’re serious.

“I try to cater to all the different dietary types,” says Cannito, who masterminded the menu makeover. Indeed, with selections ranging from salads to hummus to a brie and bacon croissant, it’s far more diverse than in the past.

“I’m not vegan personally,” she says, “but that’s no reason I shouldn’t offer vegan options. So a lot of our stuff is vegan by default, like our veggie curry and our weekly veggie bowl. Most things are made so that they can be served vegan. And then we have veggie dogs. And the Hangover Helper, that’s my favorite. It’s a vegan faux-‘sausage, egg, and cheese’ biscuit. It’s really good. I marinate the tofu in a bunch of spices and cook it in refined coconut oil. It’s on a little vegan biscuit. The burger salad and the two charcuterie plates are for people who can’t do carbs or are gluten-free. I’m trying to have it so anyone can come here and get something.”

This applies to the drinks as well. As befits a smokeless café by day, they now serve locally roasted Launch Process coffee and will soon have nitro cold brew on tap. “For kids, we’ve got hot chocolate and chocolate almond milk, a few juices, and we do Italian sodas. I’m introducing more options for people who don’t drink, and they’re starting to come more. For people who don’t drink beer, we have this really good local Long Road Cider.”

Cannito was once better known as a food justice activist, of sorts, motivated by her classes with Dr. Micah Trapp, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Memphis. Today, she carries that passion for righteous produce to the Lamplighter, as evidenced by the orzo primavera pasta salad she tosses with fresh onion, parsley, and sun dried tomatoes. “My first priority is getting everything non-GMO,” she says. “And I started with the veggies. I’m slowly getting to the meat being non-GMO. Then we’ll work on getting everything local.”

In a sense, then, it’s a complete turnaround from the conventional grub the Lamplighter once served, but even the healthiest of items are served unpretentiously — a kind of woke, down-home comfort food. Accordingly, I sample some of the most comforting food they offer. As promised, the Hangover Helper is all that, working its vegan magic, convincing my palate that I’m being decadent. By way of comparison, I order a simple grilled cheese, with real cheese and sourdough. Both are perfectly browned and satisfying.

But then I must turn to the big question. Will the hamburger be a match for the Shirley burgers of yore? Admittedly, it’s a little different, in a good way. The lettuce, tomato, and onion were never this fresh, nor did the old Lamp serve up house-made refrigerator pickles. But the burger itself brings back the old flavor, rich in memories. Perfectly done and juicy, it’s a gem.

With some pride, Cannito says, “We still do the burgers the way Miss Shirley did them.”

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Love It or Leave It: Again.

There’s this memorable lyric from Bob Dylan on his classic album Blonde on Blonde. Maybe I remember it so well because it came from his song, “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again,” which was recorded in Nashville in 1966. It goes:

“And I sit here so patiently/

Waiting to find out what price/

You have to pay to get out of/

Going through all these things twice.”

I have lived through LBJ, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and the Vietnam era. I’ve seen the golden idol with the feet of clay — Ronald Reagan — say that “Government is the problem,” which was arguably the beginning of all our problems. I’ve seen the hapless Poppy Bush, the lascivious Bill Clinton, and the war-mongering Dick Cheney with his malleable puppet, George Bush “The Lesser.” But never in my life would I have expected to relive this “love it or leave it” bullshit. I thought we’d put that jingoistic, racist rubbish to bed along with “go back where you came from.” But then, I also believed in the evolution of man, a theory sorely tested by the current squatter in the White House.

The old “love it or leave it” slogan was the conservative redneck’s response to the anti-war protesters of the late 1960s. The “go back where you came from” probably dates from the post-Reconstruction era and into the Jim Crow South, when cracker assholes forgot that black people were brought here as slaves and had no place from which to go back.

I have heard these remarks — aimed at African Americans, hippies, feminists, and others — dripping from ignorant cretins all my life. Those who proclaimed it or repeated it were on the wrong side of history then and are on the wrong side of history now. And it will be remembered long after this bulbous, bilious aberration of a human being has been driven from his hideous presidency.

This latest horror began, as per usual, with Trump’s barely literate Twitter feed. After being provoked by a segment on Fox & Friends about the four freshman Democrats known as the Squad, the Ignoramus in Chief went off on an angry and racist Twitter tirade. I’ll reprint it here, but to avoid writing sic after every word, the punctuation and misuse of capitalization are all Trump’s: “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democratic Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe … now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States … how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

The twits on the Fox & Friends couch laughed when they read the tweet and said that Trump is “very comedic” but he’s “making an important point.” Yeah, Trump’s a regular laugh-riot. He has since learned, or maybe not, that the congresswomen in question were all born in the United States except for Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who came to this country from war-ravaged Somalia and became a naturalized citizen at age 17. The common denominator is that these are four women of color and two are Muslims, an accelerant to Trump’s racist ideology. I agree with President Caligula on one point: They need to fix the totally broken and crime-infested places, which perfectly describes Trump’s White House, his corrupt cabinet, and his extended family of shameless grifters.

The “love it or leave it” idiocy emerged during one of Trump’s Nazi rallies in Greenville, North Carolina. Broadening his message to include anyone who disagrees with him, Trump echoed Richard Nixon, and after he verbally assaulted Representative Omar by name, the crowd of “Good Germans” went wild, breaking into a chant of “Send her back!” After hearing from some of his party members, who informed him that this mantra wasn’t quite as acceptable as “Lock her up,” Trump disavowed the chant, then changed directions, calling his enraged, aggrieved audience of red-hat-wearing Caucasians “great patriots.”

Even some members of the misnamed “Freedom Caucus” thought he went too far. Now that Trump’s annoying repetition of “No Collusion! No Obstruction!” has been disproven by the halting, monosyllabic testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the bottomless well of prideful stupidity that occupies the Oval Office has ramped up his free-range racism to stoke the animosity and fear of his fellow travelers. Trump’s latest target for his vile abuse is another African-American congressman, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland. 

After Cummings’ criticism of the inhumane treatment of immigrants at the border, Trump lashed out on another Twitter bender. Again, the bad grammar is Trump’s: “Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting & screaming … about conditions at the Southern Border…The Border is clean, efficient and well run … Cumming [sic] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess … No human would ever want to live there.” Followed by: “The Democrats always play the Race Card, when … they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people.”

Then Trump called Cummings, the son of a South Carolina sharecropper, “a racist.” A psychologist would refer to this sort of noxious ranting as “projection.” 

The Baltimore Sun editorial board responded in an editorial titled “Better to have a few rats than to be one.” It referred to Trump’s tweets as “undiluted racism and hate.” If there were any question before, there’s no doubt now that a very sick man is running the government, along with his lapdog “Moscow” Mitch McConnell and his legion of ass-kissers. Robert Mueller claimed the Office of Legal Council’s (OLC) opinion forbade him from indicting a sitting president. But the OLC’s opinions are just suggestions. As stated in their 1973 decision, the OLC reserves the right to “reconsider and modify or disavow that determination.” These are very perilous times. If no man is supposed to be above the law in this land, it’s time to disavow that archaic decision and show the proper justice to Trump that he so richly deserves.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog.

Categories
News News Feature

Found Art: Federico Uribe’s Socks at the Brooks

Federico Uribe’s socks are hanging at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

They’re among the hundreds of sock “leaves” hanging on his 25-foot-tall tree, which, after almost a year in the museum’s rotunda, will be taken down August 11th. The tree and other Uribe creations are part of the museum’s Rotunda Projects series.

“I used some of my socks and my assistants’ pants, my assistants’ socks, and [clothing from] people who work in my studio,” says Uribe, who was born in Colombia but now lives in Miami.

Federico Uribe’s colorful artwork, made from repurposed items, is on view at the Brooks Museum through August 11th.

His idea? “I thought about the tree of hard life.”

The tree bark is made from khaki pants. “Somehow my idea came from the idea of making an homage to people who work with their hands,” he says. “Manual work.”

Most of the socks are white ones from Goodwill. “We painted them green,” says Uribe. “Also, pants from Goodwill and Salvation Army. New socks. Used pants.”

His tree also “talks about the neighborhood and the projects,” he says.

It includes shoes, which stand for gang members’ shoes. “If a gang takes territory from other gangs, they take their shoes and hang them on electrical lines. They hang the shoes they took from the enemy.”

Uribe painted when he was younger, but, as he got older, he stopped painting and started “playing with objects.”

His first sculptures were made of “very small objects — toys and things I found on the streets in Mexico.”

These included “plastic forks, baby [bottle] nipples, toys, doll hands,” he says.

Later, he began using other objects. He made a landscape out of remote controls. The piece stands for “a city under control.”

Uribe also made a statue out of screws after he heard the expression “getting screwed.” He made a donkey out of suitcases, which he calls The Immigrant. Uribe also created whimsical animals out of bullets and shotgun shells.

“Art schools don’t teach you how to do stuff,” Uribe says. “You have to figure that out. I have to create my own technique for every object I create.

“To me, it’s all my private thing. People get it or they don’t get it. I don’t really care. It makes me smile when I realize these ideas.”

As for fame and fortune, Uribe says, “I don’t really like the public part of my life. I don’t enjoy that at all. I like my studio. I like it quiet. I listen to books.”

And, he says, “I’m interested in making enough money to produce my own dreams and that’s it.”

Uribe currently is working on a sculpture of a woman, which he’s making out of surgical instruments. It’s “about people who have thousands of plastic surgeries thinking they look better,” he says. “And they take selfies and publish it on Instagram and all this bullshit. It’s not a criticism, just a fact of life.”

He sees so much plastic surgery in Miami. “Fake asses, noses, and waists. And it’s all built by a doctor. So then they think they’re happy.”

The title of the piece will be Selfie Esteem.

When he’s not working, Uribe loves to grow flowers. “Flowers bring butterflies,” he says, “and butterflies bring lizards.”

Uribe says, “I work with a purpose of beauty.

“I like the idea of people smiling at my work when they see it. I don’t want to teach people that life is hard. Everybody knows that. I’m trying to tell them that beauty is out there. There is beauty in bullets, in medical instruments, in remote controls, in screws. There’s beauty everywhere if you’re looking for it.”

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

John Ratcliffe, Trump’s Choice for DNI, is a Partisan Hack

Last week, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said it was “frustrating” to hear “rumors” about being fired by President Trump. They were more than rumors.

On Sunday, Trump confirmed via Twitter that Coats is leaving his position on August 15th. Officially, Coats is resigning — but no one really doubts that he has been pushed out by the president. Coats fell out of favor with Trump for publicly confirming Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Trump appointee also raised eyebrows at a conference when he revealed Trump failed to consult with him before extending an invitation to the White House to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Juan Williams

Now Coats is on the way out for doing his job. But it is Coats’ proposed replacement that takes this story beyond frustrating and straight to outrageous. Trump will nominate Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to fill the role. Ratcliffe is a pure political player and a direct threat to the nonpartisan reputation of America’s intelligence agencies and their ability to protect the country by producing unbiased, first-rate information.

He auditioned for the role last week, when he subjected Robert Mueller to harsh questioning when the former special counsel appeared before Congress. Ratcliffe absurdly accused Mueller of having failed to respect “the bedrock principle of our justice system … a presumption of innocence” when it came to Trump. At the second of two hearings that day, Ratcliffe pumped conspiracy theories and innuendo into the congressional record as he quizzed Mueller about the Steele dossier and the FISA warrant against former Trump aide Carter Page. These are two red herrings that Trump allies have consistently used to try to discredit Mueller — and to downplay the threat from Russia.

It could have been even worse. Another name reported to have been in the mix was Representative Devin Nunes (R-California). This is the mudslinger who lied by saying he had evidence to support Trump’s claim that President Obama “wiretapped” Trump during the 2016 election. Nunes’ claim to fame comes from his eagerness to promote Trump’s “deep state” and “witch hunt” narratives about the intelligence agencies. The goal is to undermine the credibility of our intelligence agencies’ findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Instead of facing that truth, Ratcliffe, Nunes, and Trump continue to feed conspiracy theories to right-wing websites and conservative talk radio.

“The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections,” FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress the day before Mueller asserted that the Russian interference is ongoing. “It wasn’t a single attempt,” Mueller said. “They’re doing it as we sit here.” Wray emphasized that the U.S. has not done enough to deter Russian interference.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-California) recently said he had been unaware that three Senate races had been attacked by Russia. Earlier this year, former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was reportedly told by White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney not to mention Russian interference in front of Trump for fear it would upset him by calling into question the legitimacy of his presidency.

Wait, it gets worse. Hours after Mueller’s impassioned plea, Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, blocked three bills passed by the House of Representatives to safeguard U.S. elections from foreign interference. Should we be calling into question the patriotism of every Republican who last week voted against the election security bills?

McConnell dismissed the bills as “partisan” and their authors as promoters of a “conspiracy theory.” “This is an issue of patriotism, of national security, of protecting the very integrity of American democracy, something so many of our forbears died for. And what do we hear from the Republican side? Nothing,” said Senator Charles Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate.

“To this day, Mr. Trump refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of Russian intervention, and the Republican-controlled Senate is unwilling to consider legislation for enhanced election security — maybe because doing either could be seen as an admission that the election was tainted,” wrote The New York Times editorial board. “The president appears more concerned with nursing his ego than safeguarding American democracy — and that puts us all, Republicans, Democrats, and independents, at risk.”

Let history record that a delusional president, concerned only with his own ego, and a traitorous Republican Congress, concerned only with their own re-elections, chose to ignore hard evidence regarding the Russian threat to our elections. Instead, we get the likes of John Ratcliffe as the president’s nominee to head national intelligence.

God save us.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Match Point: Play Tennis Family Day

CREDIT: Alyssa Ivey | Tennis Memphis

In an effort to introduce the public to the game of tennis and to the newly renovated tennis centers throughout the city, local nonprofit youth development organization Tennis Memphis has partnered with the city of Memphis’ Division of Housing and Community Development to host its first annual Play Tennis, Memphis! Family Play Day event.

The five participating tennis centers (Leftwich, Wolbrecht, Raleigh, Eldon Roark, Frayser, and Bellevue), which have received about $1 million in renovations, will host various tennis events.

Alyssa Ivey | Tennis Memphis

Anyone for tennis?

“We’re going to be hosting clinics at all levels, tournaments, skills challenges, cardio workouts, and more for every facet of every age group from tots up to senior citizens,” says Arnold Thompson, Director of Outreach & Community Development for Tennis Memphis and Elite Professional for the United States Professional Tennis Association. “There’s always something for everybody.”

Events are free to attend, and visitors are not required to bring their own equipment.

“Our mission is to build a better community and enhance lives with tennis education,” says Thompson. “To go along with that mission, our motto is ‘tennis is for everyone.’ So we look to equalize to make tennis available to everybody, not just to people who’ve been traditionally afforded. We want to do everything we can to take the financial constraints off people playing tennis.”

While taking breaks between clinics, games, and demonstrations, attendees can also enjoy music and grub from on-site food trucks, including Marble Slab Creamery, Chef TNT BBQ, and Central BBQ.

Play Tennis, Memphis! Family Play Day, various tennis centers, Saturday, August 3rd, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., free to attend. Pre-registration is encouraged but not required. Visit tennismemphis.org to register.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Beer Logic Seminar Benefits JDRF

Joseph Tillman, a bike rider for JDRF Ride to Cure’s West Tennessee Chapter and for Logistics Leaders, is participating in a JDRF ride throughout Death Valley this year. And to help raise funds for the organization, Tillman has partnered with beer history connoisseur Chad Philbeam to host a Beer Logic seminar, with the subject “Everything you ever needed to know, you learned from beer.”

“I was talking to a friend about doing a wine tasting, but we couldn’t figure anything out. I got to talking with Chad Philbeam, and I was like, you know what? Beer’s better,” says Tillman. “Chad’s a beer fanatic who relates everything back to beer and how something like beer has impacted your life.”

(center) Joseph Tillman

Tillman first heard about JDRF when his friend and colleague, Adrian Gonzalez, told him that his daughter, who was struggling with Type 1 Diabetes, had trouble finding spots on her fingers to prick for blood tests. “It was really heart-wrenching for him,” says Tillman. “That’s when he started a ride team for Ride to Cure called Logistics Leaders.” Fueled by that and seeing other loved ones, like his grandmother and neighbor, struggling with the disease, Tillman decided to join the cause.

Anyone interested in helping the cause and attending Beer Logic will receive three beer pints with admission. Attendees can also purchase raffle tickets to earn prizes like a two-night stay at The Park Vista in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Ultimately, Tillman says, “Come out to laugh, learn, drink beer, and help fight Type 1 Diabetes.”

Beer Logic Benefiting JDRF, Memphis Made Brewing Co., Saturday, August 3rd, Two show times at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., $45 in advance ($80 for couples) or $50 day of show ($90 for couples).

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Memplops

InstaPlop!

Not all heroes wear capes, as the internet loves to say. Bluff City, meet yours: memplops.

The memplops Instagram account posted its first bathroom review more than a year ago. It sat quietly in the loo until mid-June when it started cranking out the shi … hits, the hits.

Memplops organizes bathrooms by type — either VIP (solo) or by the number of stalls. It tells you the location of the bathroom (usually in a bar or restaurant), the location of the bathroom inside the building, and if it has a vent. It rates each bathroom on ambience, traffic likelihood, and overall experience on a 10-point scale. All of this is insanely helpful.

But memplops really shines in its humor and naked honesty.

Consider this review for the bathroom at Slider Inn:

Type: VIP

Vent: Yes!

Location: Past the bar on the left side.

Ambience: It smells fucking awesome in here and is super clean. 8/10

Traffic Likelihood: I’ve been Slidin’ one In for the last 10 minutes and no one has bothered me. However, I have seen people walk outside to piss behind the dumpsters on the weekend. 2/10 now but 10/10 when busy.

Overall Experience: I actually went “ooooo” at the cleanliness and I’m just chillin ‘n shittin. However, the toilet does face a giant mirror and I don’t need to look into my own shameful eyes when doin’ the doo. I’ll say 9/10 for now … lest it changes next time …

Categories
News The Fly-By

Block Blocked

CREDIT: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

A Tennessee appeals court dealt another blow to a Tennessee General Assembly lawsuit aimed at blocking refugee resettlement in Tennessee.

That court upheld a lower court’s decision last week to dismiss a lawsuit by state lawmakers against the United States Department of State on the grounds that refugee settlement in Tennessee violates the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit alleged that though Tennessee had withdrawn from the federal Refugee Resettlement Program in 2008, the federal government forced Tennessee to continue funding the program by “threatening the state with the loss of federal Medicaid funding.” The state said it had to “expend a substantial amount of state taxpayer money” to fund the program.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Children line up in a refugee detention center.

The state claimed that the federal government violated the 10th Amendment through implementing certain statutes requiring the state to provide Medicaid coverage to eligible refugees with state funds as opposed to federal dollars.

The lawsuit was dismissed in March 2018 by a federal judge who ruled there was a lack of standing by the legislature to sue on its own behalf and that the state failed to show that refugee resettlement in Tennessee violates the Constitution.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision Wednesday, also stating that the General Assembly had not established its standing.

“Accordingly, we do not reach the questions of ripeness, statutory preclusion, or whether the General Assembly stated a claim upon which relief could be granted,” the court’s opinion reads.

Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, said she “applauds the Sixth Circuit’s decision, which reinforces that this lawsuit should have never been brought in the first place.”

“What’s more, as a state and as a nation, we value fair treatment of refugees and compassion toward those in need,” Weinberg said in a statement. “Our country has a long tradition of honoring these values through our asylum system. There is nothing more American than allowing people the opportunity to seek safety and to work and care for their families.

“Today’s decision ensures that Tennessee will continue to uphold these important values. We will continue to remain vigilant and ready to act against politicians’ attempts to undermine refugee resettlement in our country.”

Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, policy director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the legislature used this lawsuit to “stoke fear and division.”

“Choosing cheap political points over the sound advice of the attorney general, the Tennessee General Assembly used this litigation to stoke fear and division instead of working to solve real problems facing their communities,” Sherman-Nikolaus said. “After two embarrassing defeats in the courts, the legislation must finally put this hateful lawsuit to rest and put our taxpayer resources to better use, such as funding public schools and increasing access to health care. Throughout the debate around the lawsuit, Tennesseans have shown up to defend the life-saving work of refugee resettlement.”

Sherman-Nikolaus added, “It is clear that our communities are ready and willing to welcome those seeking safety and protection in our country and will reject efforts by lawmakers to divide us.”