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Med Alert

One evening last May, 22-year-old Patrick Sawyer was playing kickball. It was getting dark, but the game was in full swing. He and his friends were swigging beer, and Sawyer was in high spirits.

After an enthusiastic kick at an oncoming ball, the Memphis Pizza Café employee lost his footing. In one fluid movement, his right foot slipped under him, and he heard a dull crack.

Sawyer had broken his ankle. And with his wrong move, he became one of more than 60,000 uninsured patients treated each year at the Regional Medical Center, commonly known in Memphis as The Med.

Fortunately for them, Shelby County mayor A C Wharton has convened a blue-ribbon panel to help decide the future of The Med. At the panel’s first meeting in May, Nelson Toebbe, then-interim chief of The Med, gave an impassioned presentation on the 178-year-old hospital’s fiscal problems and the harsh reality it is facing.

“We need to come up with an ongoing solution to these problems,” Toebbe said. “If they continue, we’ll have nowhere to go. We will have to close.”

The Med’s problems stem from the rising cost of health care coupled with treatment of uninsured patients, especially those from out of state. The cost of hiring temporary staff also plays a role, as does the cost of maintaining the aging facility located on Jefferson Avenue.

“The Med cannot possibly continue to operate as it has in the past,” said Travis Smith, chairman of The Med’s finance committee. “We are living on a day-to-day basis. We must seek long-term stability, or we will fail.”

Code Red

Part of the panel’s mission is to identify other revenue sources for the hospital. As it stands now, The Med ends each year in worse financial shape than the previous one.

The Med, which costs about $1 million per day to operate, spans two city blocks and consists of six buildings. For the 2006-’07 fiscal year, which ended June 30th, the hospital budgeted $314 million in expenses and expected to end the year with a $20 million deficit. The deficit was only $3 million.

As is typical each year, The Med managed to pull its way out of crippling debt. With no additional government support and with the rising cost of health care, Smith said it’s gotten harder to pay the hospital’s bills.

“When you get to the end of the year, you say, ‘Oh, looks like we’re going to make it,'” Smith said. “Then you have to start over and hope you can do the same thing again.”

During The Med’s last fiscal year, 72.9 percent of its revenue came from patients and their insurance companies. The state of Tennessee added 11.5 percent of operating budget, and Shelby County provided another 10 percent. MedPlex Pharmacy and other subsidies provided 5.5 percent of the hospital’s revenue. Mississippi and Arkansas also provided 1.1 percent of The Med’s overall budget to cover costs incurred by patients from those states.

“We never borrow,” said Jack Morris, president of the hospital’s board of trustees, “so we have to depend on the kindness of others.”

On Call, 24/7

The Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center at The Med has been in operation for nearly 25 years. As a Level 1 trauma center, it is always open and always staffed with a number of specialists.

If a motorcyclist has an accident on I-40, a trauma surgeon will be there to repair the damage. An anesthesiologist will be on-hand to administer painkillers. An X-ray specialist will figure out if there are broken bones, and an orthopedic surgeon will repair them. A heart specialist and a brain specialist will also be ready.

Martin Croce has been with The Med for more than 18 years and has been the trauma center’s medical director since 2000.

“Back in the late ’70s, a lot of people were dying from very simple injuries, such as a spleenic injury, which is very easy to take care of,” Croce said. “But people weren’t available to care for those particular injuries.”

A patient’s chance of surviving a traumatic injury becomes substantially less if they don’t receive treatment within an hour — what medical personnel call the “golden hour.”

“Most patients can tolerate blood loss, among other things, for about an hour. Overall, unless the patient is seen within the hour, survival rates are cut in half,” Croce said.

The Med has the only Level 1 trauma center within a 150-mile radius. Other Level 1 centers are located in Nashville at Vanderbilt Medical Center and in Jackson, Mississippi, at the University of Mississippi. But residents of Memphis and the Mid-South, including portions of Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Missouri, must come to The Med for trauma-related treatment to be helped within the golden hour.

The majority of the Mississippi and Arkansas patients admitted to The Med during the last fiscal year — about 75 percent of them — were admitted to The Med’s trauma center. And their care was expensive. Treating uninsured Mississippians cost The Med $15.5 million. Patients paid $4.2 million of that amount, and the state of Mississippi kicked in $2.3 million. But that left The Med $9 million in the hole.

The Med spent almost as much, $13.4 million, on care for uninsured patients from Arkansas. After those patients paid $2.9 million and the state of Arkansas gave The Med $1 million, the hospital ended up with a $9.5 million loss.

Jonathan Brizendine | dreamstime.com

The hospital’s liquid assests also reflect its vulnerability. A facility like The Med should operate with 90 days’ worth of cash on hand. At times last year, The Med only had four to six days’ worth of cash on hand. The average for the fiscal year was about 20 days of cash.

Self-Pay

Despite the toll of uninsured patients on The Med, the hospital continues to accept all patients.

“We’re a safety-net hospital,” Morris said. “That means anyone and everyone. It’s not a part of our mission statement to turn people away. We’ll help you whether you have insurance or not, and then we’ll work it out from there.”

The trauma center’s Croce agreed: “For one thing, [turning away the uninsured] is not the right thing to do. Our goal is to treat the patient. It would be great if they pay their bills, but that doesn’t determine who gets treated.”

Nationally, the cost of health care is rising 6 to 7 percent each year. Private insurance premiums are increasing at a rate of 12 percent per year, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. As a result of the increase, patients who can no longer afford health insurance turn to emergency rooms for primary care. And when patients can’t pay the resulting bills, The Med’s budget takes another hit.

TennCare, the state’s insurance provider for low-income residents, also contributes to The Med’s financial problems. In 2005, more than 160,000 people were dropped from TennCare following stricter eligibility guidelines championed by Governor Phil Bredesen.

What immediately followed was a 5 to 7 percent spike in the number of patients at The Med who could not afford to pay their medical bills. In fact, 32 percent of all patients at The Med are now responsible for their bills since the changes to TennCare. They are called “self-pay” patients officially, or “no-pay” patients unofficially.

Jeff Strawn, controller at The Med, remembered the fallout from the TennCare change. “It hurt us to the tune of $7 million to $8 million … because a lot of people who should have coverage suddenly didn’t.”

But that didn’t stop patients from coming to The Med for treatment.

“In the overall scheme of things, The Med is different from Baptist Hospital,” Morris said. “There are no private insurance company patients. Big hospitals have that — it’s how they make their money. On insured patients, you make more than it costs to provide care and thus [make a] profit. With the government insurers, like Medicaid, Medicare, or TennCare, you only get close to breaking even.”

Self-pays, he said, are one of the biggest reasons why The Med is slipping into the red.

But still, no one is turned away.

When Sawyer broke his ankle, an ambulance drove him to The Med’s trauma center. Once there, he waited for five hours as higher-priority patients came through the door. Around midnight, he was able to leave the hospital with a temporary cast and an order to go to surgery in the next few days.

“I didn’t even get a bill,” Sawyer said.

Brad Jones

The Regional Medical Center on Jefferson Avenue operates the only Level 1 trauma center within a 150-mile radius of Memphis.

Judy Briggs, executive director of revenue cycle for The Med, said that Sawyer’s case is typical of the hospital’s billing practices.

“If patients are uninsured, they usually get their first bill seven to 10 days after discharge. There are exceptions to that rule, of course. For example, we don’t send a bill if there is further care relating to that particular injury,” Briggs said.

Three days after Sawyer broke his ankle, surgeons screwed an internal metal support bar to his bones.

“I didn’t have any insurance or anything, but everyone was really nice,” Sawyer said. “The surgery went fine. And they wrapped me up and sent me home for two weeks with a temporary cast to let my wound heal.”

The Med has a payment system to determine how much uninsured patients are charged. If a patient’s income is 150 percent or less of federal poverty guidelines, the bill is written off as charity. For those patients making 150 percent to 300 percent of federal poverty guidelines (about $21,000 to $41,000 for a family of two), The Med will discount the patient’s bill.

During the last fiscal year, The Med wrote off $219 million in charity and $131 million in bad debt.

Staff Shortages

Brenda Pullen, director of nursing at The Med’s Newborn Center, has another problem.

“We’re suffering from a nurse practitioner shortage,” Pullen said. “We have lost six of our 12 nurse practitioners. They are the backbone of care for infants.”

Neonatal nurse practitioners are highly trained nurses who specialize in the care and treatment of infants, especially those born with serious health problems. In the Newborn Center, neonatal nurse practitioners decide the treatment plan for most infants there.

The lack of nurse practitioners also strains The Med’s budget. When a hospital is unable to hire enough staff nurses, it hires help from nursing agencies.

“The upside is that they can come in and help for short periods of time,” Pullen said. “The downside is that we don’t get to keep them.”

Not only do agency nurses get hired at a higher pay rate than staff nurses, the hospital also has to cover the costs of lodging and traveling.

“We’re unable to recruit and train enough nurses here because of the national shortage,” Travis Smith said. “And now, we’re paying overtime to the nurses we have and spending more money on agency nurses. It’s an inefficient way to staff.”

During their worst nursing shortage, in May, the 60-bed Newborn Center was forced to send three infants to Baptist Women’s Hospital.

The shortage of staff does not apply to the Newborn Center alone. Two weeks after his surgery, Sawyer arrived at 9:30 a.m. to get his permanent cast. He did not leave the orthopedic wing until 5 that evening.

“The guy who did my cast was actually complaining that they were understaffed,” Sawyer said. When he left the hospital, there were still people who had been in line before him waiting for the treatment, he said.

“We just make do”

Equipment and maintenance costs add to The Med’s troubled bottom line.

“We have enough money to maintain and operate The Med,” Smith said, “but we simply don’t have enough money to make improvements in what we already have. We’re falling behind the curve.”

Louis Fort, vice president of support operations at The Med, agreed, saying that the aging hospital is out of date and decaying fast:

“We only get $12 million to $13 million each year to take care of [our six buildings]. And that includes biomedical [equipment], not just building maintenance.”

Jeff Strawn said that the actual cost of keeping The Med and its equipment up to date would be about $30 million per year. Instead, the hospital has to defer about $17 million in maintenance costs each year.

“We don’t buy as much equipment as we should,” Strawn said. “We lose a little more money than we should. We don’t hire as many people as we really need. We just make do. It’s like your family budget at home. If you don’t have the money, you don’t spend it,” Strawn said.

This year, The Med is in the process of adding a picture archive communications system, or PACS, to its X-ray machines. The PACS allows radiologists to send digitized images of X-rays between computer workstations, making the system more efficient and creating a permanent image for the hospital’s archives. Computer screens, software, and workstations are all expected to be updated for PACS by mid-August. The upgrade will cost $3 million, or about 23 percent of The Med’s total maintenance budget.

Basic building maintenance is often neglected in favor of more pressing updates to medical equipment, Fort said.

“We did a facility assessment in 2005, and we found that some of the equipment is reaching its life expectancy,” Fort said. “Some of the air handlers, which are nothing but big pieces of equipment that distribute warm and cool air, haven’t been changed since the 1950s.”

If the air handlers were to break, the quality of care in The Med would rapidly deteriorate. The air in the hospital would become stagnant. Equipment could overheat, and the humidity would create a breeding ground for germs.

“The patients would have to be moved elsewhere,” Fort said. “The hospital would have to close.”

A full upgrade of The Med’s infrastructure, including all 72 of the hospital’s air handlers, would cost $32 million.

Looking for a Cure

On July 19th, the blue-ribbon panel met again to discuss its progress on finding a solution to The Med’s financial crisis.

Little had changed between the May and the July meetings of the panel, but The Med’s board had hired a new company to run the beleaguered hospital, and The Med had a new interim CEO.

Sylvester “Skip” Reeder was selected as the hospital’s third interim CEO after The Med’s board chose New York-based FTI Cambio Health Solutions to run the hospital for up to 18 months while the board searches for a permanent head.

During the panel meeting, member William Rhodes, CEO of AutoZone, suggested that The Med close if no lasting solution is found.

But A C Wharton and others cautioned panel members to consider the social costs of shuttering the only safety-net hospital and trauma center in the region.

“If The Med closes, it would be almost impossible for [Methodist/Le Bonheur] to absorb all that volume,” said Gary Shorb, CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.

Gene Holcomb, former chairman of The Med’s finance committee, suggested cuts to administrative expenses and a closer examination of spending by specific hospital departments.

“Only rehab comes close to breaking even,” Holcomb said. Most departments, he pointed out, actually lose money. Cutting certain departments and partnering with another hospital might be good ways to save money, he said.

Despite The Med’s financial crisis, the hospital isn’t likely to close anytime soon, Jack Morris said. But like safety-net hospitals across the country, The Med’s continual lack of funding could lead to its demise.

The panel is expected to present possible solutions in late September.

As for Sawyer, he got his cast removed July 5th. He is wearing a temporary boot while the broken bones in his ankle fuse into place.

“I haven’t gotten my bill yet,” he said. “I’ve got a final appointment on August 8th. I think that once they take the boot off and make sure I’m okay, I’ll get the bill a few days after that.”

His accident will eventually cost him — or The Med — $9,000.

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News The Fly-By

Dog Day

Bumpus Harley-Davidson on Whitten Road may be known for its motorcycles, but last weekend, it was all about dogs, not hogs.

As part of the fifth annual Dogs Deserve Better Chain Off, a small group of people spent Sunday chained to telephone poles and doghouses in front of the dealership. The event, which is held around July 4th each year nationwide, strives to bring attention to what organizers call the inhumane and unethical practice of chaining dogs.

“We’re trying to bring attention to a national problem,” said Ona Cooper, a representative of Animal World, a free monthly publication. “We want people to start thinking about this.”

The state recently passed an anti-chaining law, which went into effect July 1st. The law states that any person who knowingly ties, tethers, or restrains a dog in a manner that is inhumane, detrimental, or injurious to the dog’s welfare and prevents a dog from getting adequate access to food, water, or shelter commits an offense.

The Memphis City Council will also consider a citywide version of the state law July 10th. If approved, that ordinance will take effect September 4th.

At the protest, one woman tied herself to a telephone pole with a heavy chain used to tow cars. After linking the end of a towing hook to the chain to create a dangerous loop, she attached the chain to a collar around her neck and explained that she’d once found a dog tethered that way.

Overturned food and water bowls surrounded a doghouse and the chained humans. Cooper said this was to re-create situations in which dogs have been found.

Dogs Deserve Better says that chaining is detrimental to the welfare of dogs because they are pack animals. In the absence of other canines, humans become the dog’s pack, but a chained dog is essentially “rejected” from its pack. It then becomes very territorial, and according to Dogs Deserve Better, a chained dog is more than twice as likely to bite someone.

“People are tired of [chaining],” said Cooper. “What we’re doing will bring awareness now and legislation later. It’s time for things to change.”

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News The Fly-By

Q&A: Henry Hooper II

Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret Henry Hooper II, 68, is a retired Secret Service agent who now has a career in insurance sales. Hooper has owned his State Farm Insurance and Finance agency for the past 22 years. He spends Saturdays tutoring at Guthrie Elementary School and other days spoiling his four grandchildren. Now, he’s stepped up to fill Rickey Peete’s position in the Memphis City Council.

Cherie Heiberg

Flyer: Why did you decide to try for the seat on the City Council?

Hooper: I thought I needed to step forth and maybe add — I don’t want to say — integrity to the council, because it’s certainly there. It’s just that we’ve had some ups and downs with a few people. It’s time to make a change, start getting people [with] the ability to work and do [their] job responsibly and make decisions based on the information received and what’s in the best interest of [their] constituency and the city of Memphis.

Can you tell us anything about your time with the Secret Service?

I was in the Memphis office and primarily involved in the investigation of U.S. securities, government checks, counterfeit money, transfers of funds through the Internet, and so on. I worked for what I felt was the greatest investigative agency in the world.

why did you start an insurance business?

I was interested in the business. There comes a time in everyone’s life when you want to make a change. I had a family to think about. Coming from a single-parent household, I understood the impact of having a dad around.

What do you plan to do as councilman?

I just want to do the right thing. That’s who I am, that’s what I do. If you have the abilities, you should step forward and do what’s necessary to try and make a difference.

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News The Fly-By

Mall of Memories

It’s been three years since the Mall of Memphis was demolished. Since then, the once-bustling site of the sprawling shopping center has been largely forgotten, except when dead bodies are found on the now-vacant property.

But Memphian Doug Force remembers. In 2004, shortly after the mall’s demise, the FedEx program manager adviser founded www.MallofMemphis.org, a Web site dedicated to the extinct Mall of Memphis.

After high school, Force worked at the mall’s Video Concept store, selling VCRs and big-screen TVs. When he heard that the mall was about to be demolished, he decided to do something in honor of the place.

“I started this out of curiosity, seeing if MallofMemphis.com was available, but it had been purchased by Amazon,” he says. “It’s telling. [Amazon is] kind of like the new mall, the online mall. But MallofMemphis.org was available, so I bought it.”

The Web site has changed since its melancholy beginning in 2004 when it consisted of a picture and “RIP.” Now it includes about 600 pages of information and memories of the mall.

“All the pictures from today — when it was being built, when it was being torn down — were taken by other people. I’ve got pictures, video, articles, you name it. It’s a constant surprise to me how huge this is,” Force says.

MallofMemphis.org isn’t the first Web site dedicated to an abandoned mall. Deadmalls.com, a directory of extinct or dying malls and shopping centers, is credited with starting the trend.

Force has his own opinion on why the Mall of Memphis ended up being the largest enclosed shopping mall in the country to fail.

“It had a reputation — The Mall of Murder. I assumed what everyone else did, that it was a dangerous place,” Force says.

MallofMemphis.org includes a Rhodes College student’s thesis on the mall’s closure. The thesis, written for the Urban Studies program, documents the surrounding neighborhood’s shifting demographics and crime rates as well as the loss of anchor department stores Dillard’s, Service Merchandise, and JCPenney.

The study concludes that all these things were factors in the mall’s demise and that the Mall of Memphis was safer than Oak Court, Southland, and Hickory Ridge malls.

“The perception was treated as a fact,” Force says. “It was a good headline or tagline or audio blurb to say ‘Mall of Murder.'”

Force continues to update and maintain the site and remains optimistic about its future. “People have a lot of memories about a building. It’s the letting go of good memories that’s so difficult.”

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News The Fly-By

Check-Out Time

Beale Street worker Reginald Matthews, 37, walks to the downtown Cossitt Library from his job every day. “I use the computer a lot,” he says. “I read my USA Today. It’s so quiet. It’s a relief from the rest of downtown.”

But the Cossitt Library is one of five branches listed for closure in a recent study.

At a committee meeting last week, members of the Memphis City Council heard a presentation on the $700,000 efficiency study conducted by Deloitte Consulting. The 189-page study suggested changes to the Fire and Police departments, including hiring more civilians to work at the Memphis Police Department and firing more than 200 city firefighters.

What wasn’t mentioned in the presentation was the study’s suggestion to close five Memphis Public Library and Information Center branches — Cossitt, Levi, Gaston Park, Highland, and Poplar-White Station — a suggestion that has drawn criticism in local media.

Linda Crump, a retired school librarian who often brings her grandchildren to various branches, calls the suggestion “a bad idea.”

“[The five branches are] all in high use, especially Poplar-White Station,” she says. “Libraries, swimming pools, and community centers keep neighborhoods going.”

According to the study, the library closures could save the city $1.1 million, most of which would come from salaries and benefits. The study proposes allocating the savings back to the library system.

The study suggests that the five branches should be closed due to their lack of physical space and their proximity to other library branches. All five are smaller than 15,000 square feet, the amount of space the study says is necessary to provide a full range of services. With the exception of Poplar-White Station, all fall more than 5,000 square feet below the standard.

Toni Holmon-Turner, public relations representative from the mayor’s office, says that the branches might not be closed. “These [closures] were recommended by a private organization. Just because it’s in the study doesn’t mean it will take place,” she says.

Robert Lipscomb, the city’s chief financial officer, concurs. “You could have a school closing and a library closing, and you could close the community center in the same area and you don’t want that. … We have to make sure they don’t go out at the same time. We need to look at everything within the context of what we’ve got.”

For Matthews, that is good news. After Cossitt, the next nearest library branch is Cornelia Crenshaw on Vance, a two-mile walk from Beale. “[Mayor Willie Herenton] wants to build a new stadium and we only have one football team. I’d rather have a library than a stadium,” he says.

The City Council is expected to make a decision on the study June 19th.

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News The Fly-By

Q&A: Bert Kelly

Putty isn’t just silly anymore. Last week, the Memphis-based Spinal and Biologics division of Medtronic released Progenix DBM putty, the latest in a series of putties designed to treat broken and fractured bones. The new putty can be used as a bone-graft substitute or as a filler for holes in bone. Once the putty is injected, it is resorbed and replaced by host bone during the healing process. All research and development for the putty was done in Memphis.

— by Cherie Heiberg

Flyer: How does DBM putty work?

Bert Kelly: It’s used to fill voids or gaps that can result from trauma or surgery. You put the putty in the place of the bone that has been removed or damaged, and over time, the putty will interact with your own body to regrow bone in that spot. Eventually, the bone replaces the putty.

What is the putty made of?

Donated human tissue. If you decide to leave your body to science or if you’re willing to donate your tissue, a company that deals with bones will harvest your bones, scan, and test them and make them into different products.

[Our product] comes in a dry form that you have to reconstitute. Then it becomes very malleable depending on where you have a need for it.

What does “DBM” stand for?

Demineralized Bone Matrix. We take all the minerals out of bone to reveal the native growth factor [a protein that causes cells to grow]. It’s like bone grafting.

How so?

The term [bone grafting] was originally used because surgeons would take bone from one area of the body and graft it to another.

[DBM putty] helps avoid that second surgery. That makes it easier on everyone.

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News The Fly-By

School’s Out

At LeMoyne-Owen College, school is out for the summer. But unless the college can raise $3 million by the end of June, Memphis’ only HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) may be out for good.

At a meeting last week, the City Council agreed to give $3 million to the college over the next three years. The pledge has not yet been approved by the full council but seems likely to pass. Robert Lipscomb, Memphis chief financial officer and chairman of the college’s board of trustees, says that he is hopeful that the state will match funds raised by the city and county governments.

Since the 1990s, the college has suffered a series of financial setbacks. In 2002, the school’s $12 million endowment decreased to roughly $10 million, forcing it to cut corners to meet its $11 million annual operating costs. Due to its million-dollar debt, the college was placed on probation in 2005 by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, putting it in danger of losing academic accreditation. Since then, enrollment has dropped.

But interim president Johnnie B. Watson remains optimistic. “The accreditation will [almost certainly] be reaffirmed,” he said. “We have received a commitment from the city … and have asked the county and state level for similar commitments.”

Councilman Myron Lowery asked the college to provide documents proving that it will use the city funding to cover pre-existing debt. “LeMoyne has had some great managers in the past, but some of them haven’t been good,” he said. “I just want accountability.”

Small HBCUs have been struggling in the past few years, with many people questioning their value.

“We serve a specific niche in the community,” Watson said. “Low-income students, students who wouldn’t be able to go to school otherwise because of low test scores or low grades, come here and leave with college degrees. Inner-city students feel more comfortable here. They go on to be successful, to serve the community. Without LeMoyne-Owen, what will happen to those kids?”

Though Shelby County is roughly 50 percent African American, almost 85 percent of inmates at the Shelby County Jail and the Correction Center are black.

“With numbers like that,” said Lipscomb, “the college must stay open. The cost to society is too great. We have the power to intervene in bad situations and provide direction and support.”

New Olivet Baptist Church is holding a carnival on the college campus on June 2nd to raise money for the struggling college. All proceeds from the carnival will go directly to the school.

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News News Feature

Blues and Brains

It was a television preacher in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead who said, “When hell is full, the dead will walk the earth.”

As tourist season gets in gear, it does appear that hell could be overflowing. There’s a vacancy in people’s eyes as they stumble blindly along Beale Street, groping for beer and blues while the sun beats horribly down. It almost seems as if the living dead are already walking among us.

On Friday, May 25th, at 6:45 p.m. sharp, in front of the Old Daisy Theater, zombies will appear among the denizens of Beale and begin a slow, inexorable march through downtown Memphis.

Should you run in fear? Two of the zombie army’s leaders say no. In fact, they say that their march depends upon mass participation, and they invite you to join them.

“Anyone is welcome,” says Lindsey Turner, 25. “Children too! We want to see zombie families!”

“We want this to be a public spectacle,” says S.S., 29, who prefers to keep her identity under wraps.

What the hell: Illustrator Jamie Sanford does his part to promote Memphis’ zombie march

If you wish to join the horde, there are two ways to go about it. The first is by being devoured. If this dramatic reenactment of Night of the Living Dead appeals to you, prominently wear a piece of duct tape on your clothing and wait along the route. The zombies will then slowly descend upon and “consume” you, artfully ripping your clothing and applying copious amounts of fake blood.

The second option is for those who would rather walk undetected among the undead. Show up in front of the Old Daisy between 6:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., already in costume. Zombies, though dangerous and hard to stop, are creatures of conformity and have been known to let people who look like fellow zombies go unharmed. (Currently, the search is on for a zombie prom queen.)

Participants will stumble down Beale Street and toward the South Main Arts District, where plans are to walk along the South Main Art Trolley Tour. Groaning and calling out for brains, they will “attack” people stationed along the route and drift in and out of local businesses and galleries. When the march concludes on G.E. Patterson, there will be an after-party at Ernestine and Hazel’s for the 21-and-up set. The event will proceed rain or shine. After all, zombies don’t care about the weather.

But is there a method to all this madness? Could the zombies have some political or commercial motivation behind their organized undead march? The zombie leaders say no.

“I have to say that there’s really no message or cause,” S.S. says with a shrug. “The message is just that this is a public spectacle. This is absurdism.”

“Plus, I think it would be great to freak out the people on Beale Street,” says Turner, laughing.

There are a few ground rules in place to ensure that everyone has a good time and doesn’t get arrested. No drinking during the march. No touching or harassing bystanders. No blocking traffic or damaging property. No scaring children. “And no eating brains without sharing,” insists S.S.

So instead of staying home or going to a bar next Friday, take to the street. Zombies want to multiply, and for that, they need you. Don’t be scared. After the first bite, it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Braaaaaaaains …

To volunteer or for more information, go to zombiesinvadememphis.blogspot.com. Wanted: experienced makeup artists.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Time Travel

There is a time machine in Collierville: The Memphis Special, which sits on the Collierville town square as the Collierville Train Museum, has been renovated and restored. Now, two dining cars and a lounge car serve as the dining rooms and bar area for the Mid-South’s newest fine-dining experience.

The train has been renamed The Tennessean after the passenger train that ran from Memphis to Washington, D.C., from 1941 to 1966. The red-velvet curtains that line the windows put one in mind of the 1940s, when art deco was king and elegance was everything. The glassware is crystal, not glass, and all the fixtures, lamps, and even chairs are either replicas of the original 1941 Tennessean décor or actual relics of the age.

“I have a responsibility to create an authentic atmosphere,” says Tom Powell, part owner of the restaurant with his stepfather, Marshall Criss. “When old folks come in, they always comment on how they remember everything, and when young folks come in, they trust us to create an accurate representation of the past. That’s what we’ve done here.”

Big-band music softly plays over hidden speakers. The floor of the dining car vibrates with the action of the air conditioner so that you could swear that you were riding the original train to Washington. The freight trains that occasionally speed by on the adjoining Norfolk-Southern line add just the right spice to an already convincing dish.

Chef David Krog has created a beautiful and historically accurate menu to accompany the Tennessean’s rich atmosphere. Food in the ’40s wasn’t centered on a small waistline, so when you go to the Tennessean, expect to indulge. The Southern-French dishes are always fresh. In fact, the only freezer in the restaurant is used exclusively for ice cream and sorbet.

Justin Fox Burks

The service at the Tennessean is as classic as the atmosphere. Your host is an engineer in ’40s-era uniform who leads you past other diners to your table. The servers are knowledgeable and eager, and the food appears in a timely manner, evidence of sous chef Hal Rusk’s excellent management of the kitchen. The wine list is small but the prices are outstanding, with such beauties as the 2003 Stag’s Leap merlot available for only $48 a bottle.

The menu is presented in five courses: appetizer, salad, soup, entrée, and dessert. I chose three courses when I visited. The Charleston she-crab soup, instead of being strained and served smooth like most soups of its kind, comes with shredded lump crab directly in the cream-based broth. It’s a savory and delectable dish that is unique to the Tennessean and has become one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes in the eight weeks it has been open.

The Alaskan halibut is flown in whole every other day from its state of origin. When the huge fish arrives, the kitchen staff works to clean and butcher it for the next day’s meal. When prepared, the pistachio-encrusted halibut is served over shredded, braised fennel and a citrus Dijon cream sauce. The cream sauce is subtly delicious, and the halibut itself is thick and juicy and leaves you quite satisfied.

For dessert, the Grand Marnier crème brûlée is perfect. The custard, well-complimented by a strong flavor of oranges, is rich without being overbearing, and the presentation is aesthetically pleasing. The brûlée is placed off-center and accented with spots of multicolored fruit sauce, which go quite nicely with spoonfuls of crème brûlée.

Currently, the lounge car is being remodeled to look like the original bar of The Tennessean, a grand, curved, modernist affair with chrome accents. The lounge car will feature wide leather and wood banquets where people can sit and chat, a throwback to the luxury lounge cars of the ’40s.

When the lounge car is completed, Marshall Criss is planning a rechristening ceremony for the train. “Back when the train was first built, they took water from the Potomac and the Mississippi to symbolize Washington and Memphis coming together. Well, the little girl who did the original christening is still here in Collierville. We’re going to ask her if she’d like to do it again.”

The Tennessean is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5:30 to 9 p.m., and for lunch Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Tennessean, 123 N. Rowlett in Collierville(853-9447)

Categories
News The Fly-By

Off the Wall

One recent afternoon, three college students painted on the side of an empty Front Street building. Motorists slowed down to gawk, and some people even got out of their cars to lecture them about graffiti.

From a closer perspective, it became clear that this wasn’t really graffiti at all. The trio had pinned large sheets of industrial paper to the side of the building and were asking passersby if they would like to draw on the “mural.”

“We wanted to get the public to participate, maybe draw on the drawings, make it a more interactive process,” says Memphis College of Art student Jonathan Dodge.

Dodge, along with fellow students William Bevan, Shea Colburn, and Michael Roy, often do collaborative drawings, sometimes with up to eight artists. But the group is planning an even larger collaboration for an upcoming project. Along with several other MCA students, they plan to open an arts-cooperative near Cooper-Young.

The students are interested in a 6,500-square-foot vacant building at the corner of Evelyn and Rozelle, on almost an acre of land. The co-op would serve as a place where any kind of artist, from musicians to architects to dancers, could live, provided they were willing to give back to the community. Bevan says the space could also be used for growing food or public gatherings.

“If we wanted to build a self-sustaining kind of place, [the building] has everything that it needs,” he says. “I was raised on an arts commune. I know how we can make this work.”

The students are currently trying to raise $30,000 by the end of June to cover renovation costs and bring the building up to code. Colburn is getting together investment portfolios. Dodge is planning the renovation process.

If they can’t raise the funds, the current owner plans to demolish the building. If that happens, the students say they will try to find another building.

“Not that there isn’t a wealth of empty buildings in Memphis,” Colburn jokes. “Everyone involved in this project is dedicated to it. “We kick each other’s asses when we do art together, and we’ll kick each other’s asses in this.”

Bevan and Roy’s most recent work debuts May 19th during the DADA Ball Masquerade Party at Power House and involves a bathtub full of ice.

Let’s see them try to get passersby to participate in that.