Month: June 2025

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News News Blog News Feature

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Considers Permit for Colossus Plant

Photo by D koi on Unsplash

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s (TDEC) Division of Water Resources held a public hearing for a Water Quality State Operating Permit for the Colossus Water Recycling Plant.

The hearings, which were preceded by information sessions, were held on June 25th and 26th virtually and in-person. Participants were able to ask questions and make public comments in regards to the permit.

TDEC said they would respond to each comment, before issuing a decision on the permit.

“This specific Water Quality State Operating Permit is for operation of a reclaimed wastewater treatment plan and non-potable reuse water distribution system for restricted urban reuse,” a fact sheet on the project said.

TDEC officials said this will minimize use of potable water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer for “industrial purposes.” 

Colossus plans on pumping 13.5 million gallons of treated wastewater daily from the T.E. Maxson Wastewater Treatment Plant. xAI, Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Allen Combined Cycle Plant, and Nucor Steel will all use cooling water from this non-potable reuse water distribution system.

According to TDEC, project discussions began in September of 2024, and TDEC received the permit application in February. Officials issued a draft permit in April.

Several citizens cited their concerns and questions during the question period, where TDEC officials provided answers. Participants questioned the department on transparency, community impact, aquifer usage, and more.

Pamela Moses, president of the Hollywood Neighborhood Association and Rise Up America, questioned why members of the community were not informed about the xAI project. She also voiced concern over the limited supply of groundwater and wastewater.

“Everybody knows — well, they should know — that Memphis has the most precious water in this country,” Moses said. “It is a limited supply, so why is it that the community wasn’t involved in this?”

Ronné Adkins, deputy commissioner for the Bureau of Environment, said when they receive applications, updates are posted on the agency’s database. Adkins said though there was not a public announcement of the application, the documents were accessible to the public.

Moses went on to state that she wishes for the permit to be denied saying that the company “could not be trusted.”

“[xAI] is not coming here to uplift or invest in our community,” Moses said. “They are here to exploit it. This is a distress and is a historically neglected area. Instead of bringing opportunities, Colossus is bringing pollution, secrecy, and broken promises.”

Sarah Houston, executive director of Protect Our Aquifer, asked if a smell would be associated with the plant, and if so, how it could be addressed.

“Generally speaking, biologically treated wastewater that’s treated at a biological plant might smell a little bit musty,” Wade Murphy, a TDEC official, said. “Odor is very subjective. There shouldn’t be any smell that you don’t smell already.”

Wade said if there is a smell, it’s not something that they regulate, but the owner can “chemically mask” the scent at “their discretion.”

Bobby White, chief government affairs officer for the Greater Memphis Chamber, voiced the chamber’s support of the project during the public comment period.

“The unfortunate long-standing standard [of] how good drinking water from the aquifer is something that has been used for industrial purposes because a project like this has been thought about but never strategically entered into or thought about how it would get paid for,” White said. “I wanted to voice the interest of citizens who are concerned about drinking water and how this project is a game changer in terms of saving about 4.7 billion gallons of water.”

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Film/TV Flyer Video News News Feature

Memphis Flyer Podcast June 26, 2025: Immigration Crackdown in Memphis

A solid work ethic helped Maria, a laborer, pull her family up into the middle class. Now, she and her husband Jose live in fear of deportation and separation from their U.S.-born children. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)

Erika Konig from the Institute for Public Service Reporting joins Chris McCoy to talk about the impact of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program on Memphis’ Hispanic community. Read her full cover story in this week’s Memphis Flyer.

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News News Blog News Feature

MLGW Asks Residents to Voluntarily Reduce Electricity Usage as Temperatures Rise

Photo Credit: MLGW

Memphis residents are being asked to reduce their use of electricity today as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has activated its Emergency Load Curtailment Program.

Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) has asked customers to voluntarily limit electrical use due to “high demand across the region.” Officials said TVA’s service area has been severely impacted by high temperatures, putting more pressure on the eclectic grid.

TVA’s program seeks to stabilize the agency’s generation and transmission during peak periods.

“This situation is not unique to Memphis – local power companies throughout the TVA region are responding to the same challenges,” MLGW said. “Our shared goal is to help lighten the load on the system so that power disruptions can be avoided.”

The utility service is asking customers to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics, raise thermostats if possible, delay usage of large appliances such as washing machines and dryers until night time, and to charge electric vehicles during “off-peak hours.”

MLGW said these changes can help stabilize the grid.

Today marks the second day this week MLGW has made this request on behalf of TVA, saying that these efforts can have “significant impact.” These precautionary measures can help prevent outages, officials said.

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News News Blog News Feature

City Releases Air Quality Testing Results Amid Community Concerns

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

City officials announced Wednesday that independent testing found no dangerous pollutants in Boxtown, Whitehaven, or Downtown. They said the tests were conducted because of community concerns regarding environmental conditions.

“The City doesn’t control air quality regulations, but we stepped up to find answers,” Mayor Paul Young said. “The initial results showed no dangerous levels of air pollutants at any of the tested sites.”

Testing was conducted by third-party vendor and lab EnSafe Inc./SGS Galson on June 13th and 16th. Testers were tasked with targeting pollutants benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter.

The laboratory’s results, which the city called “definitive and reassuring,” found levels to be either “too low to detect” or “well below established safety thresholds.”

Memphis’ air quality and its effects on its citizens have long been a topic of controversy. Those issues have been further emphasized due to the xAI supercomputer facility located in South Memphis, an area many advocates say is disproportionately impacted by environmental racism.

Groups such as the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)  have condemned xAI’s use of gas turbines. In a letter sent to xAI last week, the SELC notified the company of their intent to sue over the turbines on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The letter noted the environmental impact of the data center, saying the turbines emit formaldehyde and other chemicals linked to respiratory diseases.

xAI issued a response to the city’s air quality testing results results: “xAI welcomes the independent third-party data showing no dangerous pollutant levels at test sites near our Memphis data center. We have built a world-class data center in Memphis and we couldn’t have done it without the support of the local community and its leaders.”

While xAI said the data is reassuring, the SELC called the analysis “flawed.”

“The city failed to measure ozone pollution — better known as smog — which we already know is a major problem in the Memphis area,” Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) senior attorney Patrick Anderson said. “It’s unclear why the city would not test for this harmful pollutant. To say that Memphians face ‘no dangerous pollutant levels’ ignores existing data and is irresponsible.”

Anderson’s comments come weeks after the SELC urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to intervene regarding the city’s air quality standards. Memphis was recently named an “Asthma capital of the world.”

The American Lung Association also gave Shelby County an “F” for ozone pollution.

SELC attorneys said the petition was filed after noticing a lack of urgency from local governing authorities. The filing also mentioned that the operation of xAI’s gas turbines further complicates the issue.

The center stated that the city’s ozone concentration violates federal standards and that the problem is getting worse. It said that community members have voiced their concerns about xAI and how its turbines could be linked to “smog-forming pollution.”

Other environmental advocates such as Representative Justin J. Pearson criticized the city’s omission of ozone testing, which he called a “considerable factor in air pollution problems in Memphis.” 

“We have an air pollution problem that is indisputable,” Pearson said. “We do not have time for political stunts and propaganda.” Pearson went on to say that the city’s findings are an extension of Young’s “unwavering support of xAI.”

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Opinion Viewpoint

Dear Americans: What Is Your Red Line?

Police on standby during the June 14th Los Angeles No Kings protest against government policies and supporting democracy and immigrant rights (Photo: Brphoto | Dreamstime.com)

“Freedom isn’t free” is a slogan I have heard much of my adult life, almost always associated with praising our military and the sacrifice veterans have made. We are well educated about soldiers freeing us from British tyranny in the American Revolution and keeping us free from the Nazis and Japanese in the Second World War. The question of this moment is, what are the greatest threats to our freedom in the here and now, and what price will they demand from us? It is time to reconsider how we think about the price of freedom and who needs to pay it. 

Living near Washington, D.C., as I do, I see Congress in action at committee meetings and votes. Many of these legislators clamor incessantly for preparations for war with China, Russia, and Iran, while cheering on the undeclared and illegal wars in concert with Israel against Palestinians, Yemenis, Lebanese, and Syrians. That cheering makes war inevitable, as we see with this latest attack on Iran. Neither Iran nor any of these nations is a significant military threat to the U.S. but perhaps China is, which has not shown hostility to the U.S. except when we carry out war games and build dozens of military bases in their neighborhood. The only serious foreign threats to the U.S. that I see are the 12,000 nuclear weapons in nine different nations, which can annihilate civilization. That threat could be reduced or eliminated by reducing the number of nuclear weapons or eliminating them altogether. Instead, we are spending a fortune building new ones.

Less apocalyptic but more likely threats to freedom loom large in the rise of authoritarianism and the political divisions it thrives on, the flouting of the Constitution and the rule of law (both domestic and international), environmental degradation, potential pandemics, and increasing wealth inequality impoverishing millions. When ideologies make it hard to talk to neighbors and family, we lose trust in our common identity as Americans. When neighbors are kidnapped off the streets and sent to foreign prisons without due process and against court orders, our loss of trust in government becomes severe. Supporting genocide overseas diminishes our global reputation.

As I look at these threats, a strong military cannot protect us from any of them. In fact, huge expenditures on the military contribute directly to several of these threats through its monstrous environmental footprint and the way it stimulates potential enemies to arm themselves against us. It contributes indirectly by siphoning resources that could otherwise be used for tackling the many serious problems we face. Worst of all, the military can be co-opted by a tyrant, something that we saw being done in real-time with the ridiculous and costly parade on June 14th. Soldiers who find identity in this kind of display will be the ones who enforce our loss of freedom, unless they ask themselves a question.

I urge every member of the armed forces and police to consider, what is your red line? What order will you refuse to follow because it violates your oath to the constitution, your duty to protect the common good, or even defend basic human dignity? I think of the police officers who surround every demonstration I witness. They are usually polite, protect people from traffic, and sometimes intervene with counter protesters. Most of the time I appreciate their work. My question to them is, what will you do when they give you an order to arrest us for no more than we are doing today? 

What will you do when they order you not just to arrest us but to intentionally harm us? 

What will you do when they tell you to deport us to concentration camps?  

Because they are either the prime enforcers of our freedom and safety or instruments of violence and tyranny, each armed officer needs to know their red line ahead of time, so when the order comes they do not follow it blindly.

Since armed forces can’t protect us from most modern threats, each of us must define our own red line. 

How long we will look the other way when our neighbors are abducted, our colleagues doing useful work in science and medicine are laid off, and protest is criminalized? 

When will we stop cooperating with violations of the law and brutality toward our neighbors? By cooperation I mean keeping our heads down and not speaking out and going about our business as though this is not our problem. We saw millions recognize their red line and demonstrate on June 14th. Will enough of our neighbors join us, and will demonstrations be enough?

How can we invite others to join us in using tools more powerful than demonstrations? Proven tactics from the huge array of nonviolent action: things like blockading illegal deportations, blocking illegal shipments of weapons, or refusing to pay taxes until the rich pay their fair share, and the government obeys the law.  

The single most powerful instrument for freedom is probably the general strike that can shut down the entire system or at least the worst parts of it. We need to learn about such things from our fellows in the unions and begin to train intensively to become effective.

We will do well to stop thinking that the only thing between us and tyranny are the police and the military. The price of freedom needs to be paid by all of us. Let’s gather our neighbors and support one another in taking the bold and sometimes risky actions we need to preserve our freedom. 

John Reuwer, MD, is adjunct professor of conflict resolution, St. Michael’s College, Colchester, Vermont.

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Fun Stuff News of the Weird

News of the Weird: Week of 06/26/25

Trouble Brewing

ChatGPT can perform many impressive tasks — sometimes with amusing results — but it may need to stay out of tasseography. Greek City Times reported on April 26 that a Greek woman recently filed for divorce from her husband after the OpenAI chatbot asserted that the man was having an affair and that his mistress was intent on destroying their home, a conclusion the bot came to upon “reading” the coffee grounds in the couple’s mugs in a photo the woman uploaded to the app. “I laughed it off as nonsense,” the husband said, “but she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer. That’s when I realized this wasn’t just a phase.” The husband’s lawyer maintains that ChatGPT’s claims have no legal standing. 

[Greek City Times, 4/26/25]

Wait, What?

Turkmenistan’s top tourist attraction is the Gateway to Hell, a huge gas leak that has been burning since 1971 in the Karakum Desert, Yahoo! News reported on June 5. The fire started when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then ignited it, starting a blaze that could be seen from several kilometers away. Officials announced this week that the fire has been reduced three-fold. “Today only a faint source of combustion remains,” said Irina Luryeva, a director at the state-owned energy company Türkmengaz. Wells have been drilled around the site to capture the methane from the leak, she said. 

[Yahoo! News, 6/5/2025]

Great Art

Amsterdam has out-Amsterdammed itself with a new exhibit at the Rijksmuseum, the Associated Press reported on June 3. As part of an exhibition called “Safe Sex?” the museum is displaying a condom from 1830 that is enhanced with erotic art. The prophylactic is made from a sheep’s appendix and, the museum says, “depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health” with its image of a nun and three clergymen. The phrase “This is my choice” is written in French along its length, which may refer to the Renoir painting The Judgment of Paris. Historians believe the condom might be a souvenir from a brothel. You can see it until the end of November. 

[AP, 6/2/2025]

Saw That Coming

After performers debuted Westphalia Side Story on Paterborn Cathedral’s altar in Berlin, Germany, on May 15, more than 22,000 people signed a petition demanding that the archbishop apologize and reconsecrate the cathedral. The Associated Press reported that the production included a song and dance which featured two shirtless men and one woman displaying raw, plucked chickens wearing diapers while singing “Fleish ist Fleish” (“Meat is Meat”). The song was part of a larger production celebrating the 1,250th anniversary of Westphalia, Germany, a region in the country’s northwest. The finished show will premiere in September. 

[AP, 5/30/2025]

Least Competent Criminal

Richard Pruneda, 42, of Edinburg, Texas, managed to get himself arrested twice over the Memorial Day holiday in Eddyville, Kentucky, the West Kentucky Star reported. The Lyon County Sheriff was called on May 25 to a business where Pruneda was allegedly intoxicated and making “alarming” statements to an employee. The next day, after bonding out of jail, Pruneda called the sheriff’s office to ask about retrieving personal items from his impounded car. When the officer picked up and inventoried the items, he found cocaine in the trunk. Eddyville Police assisted as they went to Pruneda’s motel and arrested him for a second time. 

[West Kentucky Star, 6/3/2025]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

© 2025 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.

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News News Feature

MEMernet: Stephen Smith Fallout, Unrelated

Posted to X by Evan Fox

Memphis on the internet.

Stephen Smith Fallout

Of course, the MEMernet was alive last week with ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith’s talk about Memphis and crime. Y’all saw the biggest tweets and memes. But here are some we’re still thinking about.

“A lot of talk about Memphis the last few days,” tweeted Evan Fox, videographer for sports commentator Pat McAfee. “I will always love that city because it is the home of one of the cleanest daps in recorded history.”

“Stephen A. Smith is, and always has been, a sweaty nutsack,” wrote u/RedWhiteAndJew on Reddit. 

Posted to X by Lang Whitaker

“On my morning walk here in Memphis,” Grind City Media host and Grizz Gaming general manager Lang Whitaker tweeted with the photo above. “Sure is scary.”

“Only lames feel unsafe in Memphis,” tweeted former NBA star Will Barton. “One of the greatest cities to live in. Especially if you’re an athlete. Memphis embraces you like no other and protects you. But you gotta be a real one to understand it. Only goofies don’t rock with da M.”

Unrelated 

Posted to X by Rep. John Gillespie

“Great seeing Penny Hardaway today in the capitol advocating for the University of Memphis!” state Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis) tweeted. We print it here without comment.

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Astrology Fun Stuff

Free Will Astrology: Week of 06/26/25

Dario Bronnimann | Unsplash

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Hawaiian word pō refers to a primal darkness from which all life flows. It’s not a fearsome void but a fertile mystery, rich with future possibilities and the ancestors’ hopes. In the coming weeks, I invite you to treat your inner life as pō. Be as calm and patient and watchful as an Aries can be as you monitor the inklings that rise up out of the deep shadows. Have faith that the cloudy uncertainty will ultimately evolve into clarity, revealing the precise directions you need.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the 17th century, the Taurus polymath Athanasius Kircher constructed a fantastical machine called the Aeolian harp. It wasn’t designed to be played by human fingers but by the wind. It conjured music with currents invisible to the eye. I nominate this sublime contraption as your power object for the coming weeks, Taurus. The most beautiful and healing melodies may come from positioning yourself so that inspiration can blow through. How might you attune yourself to the arrival of unexpected help and gifts? Set aside any tendency you might have to try too hard. Instead, allow life to sing through you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The painter Vincent van Gogh wrote, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” That’s good advice for you right now. Your ambitions may feel daunting if you imagine them as monumental and monolithic. But if you simply focus on what needs to be done next — the daily efforts, the incremental improvements — you will be as relaxed as you need to be to accomplish wonders. Remember that masterpieces are rarely completed in a jiffy. The cumulative power of steady work is potentially your superpower. Here’s another crucial tip: Use your imagination to have fun as you attend to the details.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Welcome to a special edition of “What’s My Strongest Yearning?” I’m your host, Rob Brezsny, and I’m delighted you have decided to identify the single desire that motivates you more than any other. Yes, you have many wishes and hopes and dreams, but one is more crucial than all the rest! Right? To begin the exercise, take three deep breaths and allow every knot of tension to dissolve and exit your beautiful body. Then drop down into the primal depths of your miraculous soul and wander around until you detect the shimmering presence of the beloved reason you came here to this planet. Immerse yourself in this glory for as long as you need to. Exult in its mysterious power to give meaning to everything you do. Ask it to nurture you, console you, and inspire you.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In certain medieval maps, unexplored territories were marked with the Latin phrase hic sunt dracones — “here be dragons.” It was a warning and a dare, a declaration that no one knew what lay beyond. In the coming weeks, Leo, you may find yourself traveling into one of those unlabeled regions. Rather than flinching or dodging, I invite you to press forward with respectful curiosity. Some of the so-called dragons will be figments. Others are protectors of treasure and might be receptive to sharing with a bright light like you. Either way, productive adventures are awaiting you in that unmapped territory. Go carefully — but go.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In traditional Japanese carpentry, joints are made so skillfully that they need no nails, screws, or adhesives. Carpenters use intricate joinery techniques to connect pieces of wood so tightly that the structures are strong and durable. They often require a mallet for assembly and disassembly. In metaphorical terms, you are capable of that kind of craftsmanship these days, Virgo. I hope you will take advantage of this by building lasting beauty and truth that will serve you well into the future. Don’t rush the joinery. If it’s not working, don’t force it. Re-cut, re-measure, breathe deeply, and try again.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here’s one of my unruly rules about human competence: In every professional field, from physicians to lawyers to psychics to teachers, about 15 percent of all the practitioners are downright mediocre, even deficient. Seventy-five percent are at least satisfactory and sometimes good. And 10 percent of the total are surpassingly excellent, providing an extraordinary service. With this in mind, I’m happy to say that you now have a knack for gravitating toward that exceptional 10 percent in every domain you are drawn to. I predict that your intuition will consistently guide you toward premium sources.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku means “forest bathing.” It invites people to immerse themselves in the natural world, drawing on its restorative power. In accordance with astrological portents, I urge you Scorpios to maximize your forest bathing. To amplify the enrichment further, gravitate toward other environments that nourish your soul’s need for solace and uplift. The naked fact is that you need places and influences that offer you comfort, safety, and tender inspiration. Don’t apologize for making your life a bit less heroic as you tend to your inner world with gentle reverence.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The camera obscura was a precursor to modern cameras. It projected the outside world upside down onto interior walls. Artists loved it because it helped them see reality from new angles. I hereby proclaim that you, Sagittarius, will be like both the artist and the camera obscura lens in the coming weeks. Your perceptions may feel inverted, strange, even disorienting, but that’s a gift! So let unfamiliarity be your muse. Flip your assumptions. Sketch from shadow instead of light. Have faith that the truth isn’t vanishing or hiding; it’s simply appearing in unfamiliar guises. Don’t rush to turn right-side-up things. Relish and learn from the tilt.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’m sure you enjoy gazing into some mirrors more than others. It’s amazing how different you might look in your bathroom mirror and the mirror in the restroom at work. Some store windows may reflect an elegant, attractive version of you, while others distort your image. A similar principle is at work in the people with whom you associate. Some seem to accentuate your finest attributes, while others bring out less flattering aspects. I bring this to your attention, dear Capricorn, because I believe it will be extra important in the coming weeks for you to surround yourself with your favorite mirrors.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Leonardo da Vinci filled thousands of pages with sketches, notes, and experiments. He never finished many of them. He called this compilation his “codex of wonder.” It wasn’t a record of failures. It was an appreciation of his complex process and a way to honor his creative wellspring. Taking a cue from da Vinci’s love of marvelous enigmas, I invite you to be in love with the unfinished in the coming weeks. Make inquisitiveness your default position. Reconsider abandoned ideas. Be a steward of fertile fragments. Some of your best work may arise from revisiting composted dreams or incomplete sketches. Here’s your motto: Magic brews in the margins.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the remote Atacama Desert of Chile, certain flowers lie dormant for years, awaiting just the right conditions to burst into blossom in a sudden, riotous explosion of color and vitality. Scientists call it a superbloom. Metaphorically speaking, Pisces, you are on the verge of such a threshold. I’m sure you can already feel the inner ripening as it gathers momentum. Any day now, your full flowering will erupt — softly but dramatically. You won’t need to push. You will simply open. To prepare yourself emotionally, start rehearsing lively shouts of “HALLELUJAH! HOORAY! WHOOPEE!” 

Categories
Food & Drink Fun Stuff

A Breakfast Legacy: Brother Juniper’s

One of Brother Juniper’s delicious breakfasts (Photo: Brother Juniper’s | Facebook)

Brother Juniper’s has been voted “Best Breakfast” by Memphis Flyer readers for more than 20 years. The classic breakfast joint on the Highland Strip serves famously delicious and large portions of original family recipes dating back over 50 years. 

“It’s an honor to win,” says owner Sarah Elliott. “We keep trying to put out the best food that we can with high-quality ingredients.” 

We talked over a plate of one of her favorite meals: a potato dish with bacon, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, green onions, sour cream, and an over-easy egg. I pierced the egg and watched the golden yolk coat the smoked bacon and roasted potatoes. “We get our eggs from an Amish farm. … They have the bright orange yolk … and we serve it with love.”  

Brother Juniper was an Italian monk who cooked for St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. Brother Juniper’s restaurants, a product of a missionary-outreach program, began opening across the country in the 1960s. The last remaining location is right here in Memphis. Elliott’s parents, Jonathan and Pauline Koplin, bought the restaurant when she was 12, and she’s been working there ever since. Elliott recently purchased the restaurant, making her the new official owner. She says her family has been helping her with the transition. “It’s stressful, but I’m so excited. I’ve grown up here and know all of the ins and outs.” 

Brother Juniper’s first Best of Memphis win was in 1999, the same year Elliot’s parents took over Brother Juniper’s College Inn in Memphis. Since then, they’ve added merchandise, hot sauces, jellies, catering, and most importantly, new and creative menu items. “There were about five omelets on the menu back then, now there are 15,” says Elliott. She’s the brains behind one of their most ordered dishes: the cinnamon roll pancakes. “Not to brag, but they’re really popular,” she says. The dish includes two massive pancakes with cinnamon sugar swirls and cream cheese icing. They also added a coffee bar in 2010, which serves classic espressos, lattes, and more. “Some people come in just for a cup of coffee or to-go drinks, and we had to keep up with the hipster coffee spots,” says Elliott. 

Many of the menu items come from Elliott’s family. “A lot of it was my dad, Jonathan. My grandmother was such a good cook that he learned most of it from her.” Besides the Koplin family’s contributions, other recipes originated from previous Brother Juniper’s owners across the country. The familial contributions are what take their dishes to the next level. 

Besides serving the best breakfast in Memphis for over 20 years, Brother Juniper’s also serves Memphis citizens and nonprofits. Local artists’ vibrant paintings add pops of color to the walls by the coffee bar. Elliott mentions Lindy Tate, a frequent customer who’s had art on the walls “forever.” Beyond that, they promote and support different nonprofit organizations each month on their “Community Spotlight” bulletin board. There’s a tip jar by the entrance for cash donations and information about each organization. Brother Juniper’s also welcomes all Memphians to a free Christmas dinner every Christmas Eve. To Elliott, these parts of her business are nonnegotiable. “We want to be more than a restaurant.” 

While my fork scraped the bottom of my plate, Elliott painted the scene of a typical Sunday morning at Brother Juniper’s. “There’s a crowd waiting outside the doors. … The dining room fills up, and people start running around like chickens with their heads cut off.” They’ll serve hundreds of customers in the 10.5 hours they’re open on Saturdays and Sundays. The restaurant runs with an all-hands-on-deck team effort, says Elliott. She’ll wait tables if they’re short-staffed, run food, take coffee orders, greet arriving guests, and even step into the kitchen to help cook. She mentions Brother Juniper’s feature on Rachael Ray’s show, $40 a Day. “She kind of put us on the map for nationwide attention. That helped us blow up a bit.”

As Elliott takes the reins, she’s preparing to pass on the same traditions to her own children. “I have two little kids who will grow up here, and they already help me out. It’s great to keep the legacy.” 

Categories
At Large Opinion

War of the Worlds

In 1938, the CBS Radio Network broadcast an episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air called “The War of the Worlds,” based on the novel by H.G. Wells that chronicled an invasion of Earth by Martians. The broadcast is only notable some 87 years later because thousands of listeners to the show came to believe it was real, and that’s because it was presented as breaking news in a series of bulletins which periodically interrupted what purported to be a program of live music.

The first calm “news reports” describe an unusual object falling from the sky in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The crisis escalates dramatically when an on-scene reporter describes creatures emerging from what is evidently a spacecraft. The aliens employ a heat ray against police and onlookers, and the radio correspondent describes the attack in an increasingly panicked voice until his audio feed abruptly goes dead.

Subsequent news updates describe an alien invasion that the U.S. military is unable to stop. Then the story is seen through the eyes of a survivor played by a young, then-unknown actor named Orson Welles. In the end, the Martians succumb to some sort of Earthly microbes.

Because so many people were fooled by the broadcast, there was an outcry against the show’s creators for the program’s faux realism and deceptive format. In a news conference the following day, Welles apologized.

I was reminded of the “War of the Worlds” episode on Saturday, as I watched President Trump — flanked by fellow Martians J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth — announcing that the United States had just bombed three nuclear sites in Iran. Trump managed to get through 17 seconds of teleprompter text, ending with his carefully read pronunciations of the targeted sites, before going off on a ramble about how “everybody has heard those names for years” (Really?) and how the bombs would stop “Iran’s nuclear indrucement [sic] capacity.” Perhaps he meant “enrichment,” but who knows?

He then freestyled a weave about how Iran’s “specialty” was “blowing off arms and legs,” before going on to congratulate fellow warmonger Bibi Netanyahu, adding that he and the Israeli prime minister “had worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” Right. Beavis and Butt-Head would like a word.

After threatening Iran with another bombing and bragging how “there are many targets left” that would be “easy to attack,” Trump wrapped things up by praising his “spectacular” generals and adding: “I just want to thank everybody, and in particular, God. I just want to say we love you, God. And we love our military.” I’m sure God was honored.

Within minutes, Fox News and other Trump-fluffers jumped into action, praising the president for his bold decisiveness and “courage.” GOP politicians raced to the nearest camera to kiss Trump’s ass. Democrats were quick to accuse Trump of overstepping his authority and violating the U.S. Constitution by launching military attacks without the approval of Congress, but it was mostly just more futile noise. And there were rumblings from some in MAGA world, who vaguely remembered that Trump had promised he wouldn’t drag the U.S. into another war. Oops.

For me, the whole affair brought back the “weapons of mass destruction” facade erected by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell in order to invade Iraq in 2003. And we all remember how that worked out so very well.

War is never neat and clean. War is never spectacular, never easy. Nations that are attacked will retaliate, one way or another, no matter how “successful” the initial assault. Young people die in combat. Innocent men, women, and children become civilian collateral damage. Countries are destroyed. Cities are reduced to rubble. And victims don’t forget.

Remember their names: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Gaza, and now Iran — places where hundreds of thousands of people died for lies, for politics, for machismo, for oil, for greed and ambition, and to deflect attention from domestic issues.

Now we’ve been sucked into another conflagration in the Middle East by a man with no concept of — or concern for — the potential destruction and death he’s enabled. For Trump, it’s all a show, about as real to him as “The War of the Worlds.” Except this time, the whole world is the audience, taking it all in and wishing it weren’t true.