Author: Davis Christopher

In a surprise 3 a.m. announcement President-elect Donald J. Trump said notorious alien/Memphian Prince Mongo would  join his cabinet as Secretary of the Interior.

“Oh spirits, this was such a wonderful surprise,” says Mongo, who’s dabbled in Memphis politics for much of his life on Earth, but never held office. “The President-elect said he was looking around on Facebook, just killing a little time, and he saw my new profile picture, and knew I was the spirit for the job.”

Mongo admits he was surprised to discover that, while the position is called “Secretary of the Interior,” much of his job concerned land management, parks, and the the great outdoors.

“All I know is we’re gonna do some decorating,” Mongo said excitedly. “I’ve already got plans for the Grand Canyon that involves miles and miles of clothesline, and some really beautiful underpants designed for larger women.”

According to Mongo his conversation with Trump was short but good.

“He asked where I saw myself in 5-years,” Mongo says. The answer: “Working closely with the administration in its second term, of course. Only this time I’m Rubber Chicken czar.”

#901Rocks

Graffiti artist and all purpose vandal Ashlyn Brax pulls his hoodie up and looks both ways before exiting his dorm room. “Shit’s not right,” he mutters straddling a rickety cruiser and turning its front wheel towards a derelict industrial neighborhood. “The whole point of a rock is it’s an anonymous message,” he complains. “It’s Fist-sized and perfect for knocking out windows in buildings that need to be fixed or knocked down. But it’s so much easier to identify the thrower if the rocks have Yodas and shit painted all over them.”

Brax’s complaint doesn’t yield much in the way of public sympathy. Most sources interviewed agreed that curtailing the destruction of property is a good thing, but his is only one of numerous problems Memphians face resulting from a recent mania for painting cute, colorful, family-friendly images on rocks and hiding them in plain sight like so many tooth-breaking easter eggs. The craze has resulted in what some experts are describing as a, “severe unpainted rock crisis.”

It’s 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and 87-year-old Tony Lancilunghi would normally be roaming the city with his rolling shopping cart in search of the city’s flattest, roundest stones. Lancilunghi is a competitive stone skipper, who hadn’t missed a day’s practice since he was seven years old. Until last week, anyway, when the old timer says he took up whittling. 

“I didn’t know there was some rule about taking more than one,” he spits defiantly. “I saw some of them were painted up to look like the California Raisins, but I don’t give two hoots about any of that hippity-hop mess.” So Lancilunghi, who’s won several regional titles, and is ranked in the top 500 stone skippers worldwide took a bucket of painted stones to the lake at Shelby Farms where he swears they “skipped even better than an unpainted rock.” Shortly thereafter the internet shaming campaign began.

“People shouldn’t take more than one painted rock per person,” one commenter said while someone else complained, “That old man drowned my babies,” and another responded, “#rocklivesmatter.”

A rock painter using the handle Thanksy is furious: “It’s bad enough that artists are expected to practically give our work away for free as it is, now we put so much time and effort into making common gravel look like the live action cast of Scooby Doo and some jackass just comes along and dumps them in the river? Sad.”

Noted regional geologist Bif Berman says he’s all about civic pride, unity, and getting outside and looking at rocks, but he’s not a fan of the latest fad. “To paint the rock suggests there was something wrong or incomplete about this beautiful piece of sculpture Mother Nature made without spending a dime at Hobby Lobby.

“Imagine the public outcry,” Berman concludes, “If some group started painting Sponge Bob on stray dogs or shaving the local squirrel population. Rocks have dignity too. Only they express it over eons, in a language most Americans don’t speak.” 

‘It is not in a warming trend!’

Recent comments by U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have been taken out of context by a mainstream media that refuses to acknowledge that Blackburn — long dismissed as an intellectual lightweight — is an evil genius hellbent on destroying the solar system with her new, improved weather gun.

“Is climate change manmade?” Blackburn asked rhetorically in a short phone interview. “No! For I am WOMAN!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!” And then she hung up.

For years Blackburn’s anti-science positions have functioned as cover for her own abominable experiments and an opportunity to divert funds away from potential evil rivals and NASA.

[pullquote-1] Blackburn has been criticized for recent comments to Huffington Post. Although “I think the Earth is in a cooling trend,” was spoken in response to questions about Donald Trump’s debate performance, it was essentially the Tennessee Legislator trying out the line she plans to shout when she finally zaps President Obama with her blizzard ray.

Comic book nerds agree it’s bad science and worse policy but, as a catchphrase, it’s kitschy and kind of delicious. 

S. Mann

Donna Justis

Donna Justis wants to change the world, one colorful wall at a time.

“You know, I grew up in an affluent neighborhood,” the 34-year-old artist and media relations specialist says. “I still live in one. So I understand how scared people are out there, especially in the really nice parts of town.”

With funding from an Urban Embetterment grant Justis and six other artists will create a dozen cheerful murals with the same comforting message: “You Are Safe.”

“It’s not that there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Justis explains. “But statistically speaking people who live in nicer neighborhoods shoulder a disproportionate amount of fear, worry, and concern about things like crime, brutal mayhem, drug dealers they didn’t meet in college, and things like that. It’s not right, and nobody’s out there doing anything about it.”

With her large scale mural project the artist wants to remind people in nice homes, who’ve lost hope and become shut ins, glued to police scanners and American Family Radio, that they don’t have the 5-0 rolling down the street shining spotlights at all hours, and are far less likely to come to a bad, criminally violent end than pretty much anybody.

“Is anybody ever really safe?” Justis ponders. “Well, yes. Yes, they are. I mean, not 100% of course, because bad things happen. Scary things. Crazy things happen. But if you’re living anywhere near one of these murals the odds are so in your favor you should stop freaking out and live a little.”

Anna Lingus, president of the Association of Neighborhood Associations is outraged by Justis’ proposal. “None of this meets AOA standards,” she wrote in an e-mail to members. “I don’t know who these people think they  are coming in here with their awful colors and silly patronizing messages, but nobody wants this tacky mess and it’s not going to happen.”

Justis isn’t deterred by criticism. “It’s a shame,” she says. “We have all these perfectly wealthy people and they’re too afraid to even dream.”

Jay Walker

Members of the Nice Lives Matter movement have expressed mild, thoughtfully worded disappointment that their orderly, single-file march down Tuckahoe Rd from S. Goodlett to Perkins Ext., and back again, was completely ignored and accomplished nothing.

Jay Walker, who organized a post-march backyard picnic for protesters and the media says he’s not mad as hell, and will continue to “take it” as there are no considerate alternatives. But Walker’s not giving up, and plans to write an open letter to area politicians and the Memphis media, enumerating many positive things about the city, including his organization’s mission to make Shelby Co. a global hub for civil discourse.

“Look,” Walker says. “We didn’t expect to be the lead story at 10, but we expected something. Maybe a Chopper-5 flyby, or some small police presence to protect us from counter-protesters.”

Fortunately for Walker, and nine other people who showed up to march with posters reading, “Smile,” and, “Be Nice or Leave (Unless You Want to Stay),” there was no counter protest.

Nice Lives Matter is an open and accepting group comprised primarily of white professionals committed to diversity and making the world a better place for everybody. Their next planned action is a sit-in at Bar Louie on Overton Square.

“We hope to lead by example.” — Jay Walker, Memphis

“The goal of these sit-ins is to be just super nice to everybody, especially the wait staff, regardless of race or lifestyle. We hope to lead by example,” Walker says. “When you look at the people who are involved with this organization you see a lot of citizens who’ve always obeyed the laws and played by the rules. I don’t think there’s a person among us who’s ever been in trouble publicly, or gone to jail for any reason. We’re good examples — the sort of people you want to write about. The kind of people you want to put on TV.”

Try the potato salad.

It’s Tuesday, July 5 and MATA CEO Ron Garrison still can’t say when the hamburgers he was grilling for an Independence Day cookout will be done. Just over 10-pounds of pre-formed ground beef patties and six packages of Oscar Meyer “classic style” hotdogs were purchased Saturday, July 2nd to provide food for guests at Garrison’s 4th of July party. A charcoal fire was lit at approximately 2 p.m., Monday, and a rustic wooden picnic table was spread with chips, dips, slaw, baked beans, and three different kinds of potato salad.

As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 5, no hamburgers or hotdogs had been served.

“I’m hungry,” partygoer Cara Street said, as she and her husband Beale watched the sun come up Tuesday morning. “I know Ron’s cooking just as fast as he can, but seriously, what the hell? These are pre-formed hamburger patties and hot dogs, it’s not like he’s making Chili en Nogada, or Coq au Vin. It’s not even like he’s making bratwursts.”

Garrison’s friend Bobby, who helped light the charcoal using his surefire dryer lint technique, says the meal was delayed as a result of safety concerns. “Everybody wants to get a nice sear on their burgers,” he explained. “But what’s really important is the internal temperature of the meat.”

“We’re making progress, but cannot give a definite timeline on either the burgers, or the dogs,” Garrison said, dipping his grill mop into a pot of Wicker’s. 

Former friends Chuck & MJ

Gorilla keeper Inna Myst says her team of large primate experts responded appropriately after Memphis Zoo President Chuck Brady fell into Primate Canyon’s gorilla exhibit. “We understand the public’s concern,” Myst says. “We shot the chief executive of a major zoological attraction and Memphis deserves an explanation. I just want  everybody to understand that a lot of thought goes into our contingency plans and once Brady fell into the gorilla exhibit, taking him out was the only option that made sense.”

According to Myst, Brady is “genetically hardwired” to be a dick. “This isn’t really about the gorillas,” she says. “If he hadn’t been taken out of the picture quickly and efficiently, there’s no doubt in my mind he’d have done tremendous self-inflicted damage to himself and to the zoo.” 

Eyewitness and longtime Memphis Zoo member Clondyke Barr confirms Myst’s assessment. “Brady spoke some really mean and, to my mind, completely unnecessary words to those gorillas. But he didn’t seem dangerous,” he says. “But then it was like he just couldn’t help himself. Outta nowhere he chest bumps the hell outta this big monkey. Starts yelling about the status quo, and how little obese and crippled children shouldn’t have to walk. Stuff like that. It was embarrassing as hell.”

“He may have seemed reasonable to people who can’t read CEO body language,” Myst elaborates. “But we’ve spent years studying these creatures. They expect to be rewarded whether they make good decisions or bad decisions, and given a choice between any conciliatory action or pure assfaced dickery, we have strong reasons to believe that Brady will always choose the later. He’ll tear the whole place apart — gorillas and all — and then expect someone to throw him some Monterey Jack cheese cubes.”

Reports from the Zoo infirmary suggests that Brady, having no heart to stop, will make a full recovery and go on to bigger and better things in the future. “That’s a completely natural outcome,” Myst says.

Artists depiction of work on the Midtown/Germantown Kroger Tunnel AKA ‘The Krunnel.’

As other media outlets have already reported, the new Kroger on Union Ave. will be “nowhere near” your standard Midtown Kroger. In an effort to lead the market in new shopping technology and strengthen Kroger’s brand within the rapidly expanding high-end food store community of West Tennessee’s official grocery district, the new Union Ave. Kroger will open in Germantown.

Kay Rogers of Big Con consulting describes the move as “bold.” 

“This is what thinking outside the box means,” Rogers says. “Or thinking outside the ‘big box’ in this case. Most people assume that a newly renovated store is naturally confined to its original geographical context. Well, I guess this is a nice reminder of the old chestnut about assumptions. And how they make us look like ass people.” 

Rodgers didn’t explain the science behind opening a Union Ave. branch in Germantown, but Midtown resident Bing Hampton has some ideas.

“There’s something funny going on over there on Union Ave. and I don’t mean knock-knock joke funny neither,” says Hampton who believes the night crew is digging an enormous tunnel all the way to Germantown.

“I don’t have any proof or anything, but Union’s been going to Hell ever since they tore down the Sex Pistols Taco Bell in order to put up a new Taco Bell,” he says. “People said it couldn’t happen to the Sex Pistols’ Taco Bell, but it did. Now it’s only a matter of time before they move the whole street to the suburbs.”