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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Trump Parks on the Greensward and “Tower of Babel Project”

Nextdoor Politics

Rhonda Young’s “guy on a bike” post blew up on Nextdoor last week, clocking in at 131 comments as of press time.

“I was just sitting on my front porch and a skinny white guy rode by on his bike and yelled ‘go back to Europe, cracker,'” Young said. “Not sure what to make of that? I have a Biden sign in my yard.”

Comments swirled in political toxicity. But they did yield some hilarious Trump signs reimagined for the Memphis set.

Posted to Nextdoor by Tammy Laxton

Pinch Tower of Babel

Kade Banbury reimagined the newly proposed Pinch Tower as a floating “Tower of Babel Project” in a Facebook post satirizing the Flyer’s version of the story.

Banbury went full Giza in a later post that reimagined the entire Pinch District with a sphinx, two towers, and three extra Pyramids.

Posted to Facebok by Kade Banbury

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Reddit Bonanza!

Memphis dazzled on Reddit last week. Here are just a few examples.

Interesting as Duck

A gif of the Peabody Hotel duck march made the front page in a post to the r/interestingasfuck subreddit. In 24 hours, the post had more than 87,500 upvotes, 1,200 comments, and the gif had been viewed 3.5 million times.

Murica

This old (2019) tweet resurfaced over on the r/Murica subreddit.

This. This right here.

The winner of the snarkiest bumper sticker in Memphis goes to …

Posted to r/memphis by u/betweenthewinds

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: COVID’s Web and Sexy Treats

COVID’s Web

Citizens of the MEMernet have been sharing photos of the hilarious Halloween decorations at this Central Gardens home.

The scene is an IRL political cartoon. In it, Donald Trump is spider-webbed to a tree surrounded by coronavirus particles. Imaginary polling data shows the homeowner is a front-runner to win Halloween.

Dog whistle?

Memphis Reddit users talked through the seemingly odd price of a propane tank at a West Memphis Tru Value hardware store last week.

The store had the tanks listed at $14.88. Some believed the price referenced the 14/88 white supremacy symbol. The “Fourteen Words” slogan seeks to secure a future for “our people” and “white children.” The “88” is a veiled reference to “H,” the eighth letter of the alphabet, which together is “Heil Hitler.”

Memphis Reddit users thought the price was too arbitrary to be anything other than a dog whistle and that tank prices are usually higher than that.

Sexy treats

Over on the Where Black Memphis Eats Facebook group, someone requested this dessert but with chocolate-covered strawberries.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Domestic Violence, Rhodes Scholar, and Freddy Krueger

Domestic Violence

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation tweeted Monday that domestic violence rises during the holidays, but those holidays “might surprise you,” and posted this sobering infographic.

Posted to Twitter by the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation

Rhodes?

Rhodes College got brief time in the national spotlight last week. President Donald Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said prospective Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was a “Rhodes scholar.”

She was not. The Twitterati straightened it out. Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove’s tweet on it was retweeted more than 48,000 times.

“‘She also is a Rhodes scholar,’ Trump’s @PressSec says of Amy Coney Barrett, who did not receive a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, but instead received her B.A. from Rhodes College in Tennessee.”

McEnany acknowledged the flub saying, “My bad.”

Lot going on here

Posted to YouTube by Kingpin Skinny Pimp

Memphis rapper Kingpin Skinny Pimp posted a brief YouTube video from a Hollywood sidewalk this week.

In it, Freddy Krueger — in a perfect Southern accent and with a flourish of his famous knives — proclaims “North Memphis, baby!”

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Minecraft Pyramid, ‘NIMBY Fear’

Minecraft Pyramid

YouTuber Bubbaflubba built Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid in just over five days … in Minecraft. The game’s creative mode allows players to build anything, and Bubbaflubba has built the White House, the Disneyland Castle, and a Las Vegas hotel and casino.

It’s pretty clear Bubbaflubba ain’t from ’round here, though. In the YouTube video of the Pyramid build, he said, “It’s just so funny. I don’t know how they got the idea to build a pyramid into a shop like this.” Neither do we, Bubbaflubba.

‘NIMBY Fear’

Smoke still rises from a Facebook dumpster fire lit more than two weeks ago by Jason Jackson, a principal at brg3s architects, on the Make Memphis! group page.

Jackson said there’s “NIMBY fear pushing for preservation and the creation of ‘Landmarks Districts.'” Such sites “can perpetuate a divisive form of nostalgia that supports and validates racism and exclusion.” He pointed to such a designation underway now for the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood.

The city’s preservationists arrived with strong words of their own. Gordon Alexander, president of the Midtown Action Coalition, wrote, “Delivering a manifesto basically calling neighborhood associations and activist organizations trying to preserve the character of Midtown as Neanderthals who are ‘reinforcing structural racism’ is way over the top.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Walking (Dead) in Memphis, Twitter Clapback, and 901 Reasons

CREDIT: Posted to Reddit by u/Dbfresh0

Walking (Dead) In Memphis

Downtown Memphis is invaded by flesh-eating Walkers in the Walking Dead mobile game.

Posted to Reddit by u/Dbfresh0

Marsha, Marsha Jemele Hill/Twitter

Writer and podcast host Jemele Hill roasted Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn with a comeback tweet heard ’round the internet last week.

Blackburn tweeted, “We will never rewrite the Constitution of the United States.” Hill responded, “If there wasn’t a rewrite, you wouldn’t be a Senator (and also couldn’t vote) and I’d be enslaved.”

901 Reasons

The city of Memphis began an online campaign recently to give citizens #901Reasons to wear a mask, social distance, and stamp out COVID-19 here. This one is the best so far.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Who Pooted? and Best of Nextdoor

Who Pooted?

Flyer columnist emeritus Chris Davis clapped eagle eyes on this Memphis beauty last week, posted behind a fence facing Danny Thomas Boulevard. Then, he thankfully posted it to Facebook.

I quote: “40 Yrs. of Straight Turd Chasin’.”

Best of Nextdoor

“Wanted everyone to know that this morning while at Dollar General, I was called a bitch by the cashier.”

Posted to Nextdoor by Melissa Bowers

“So, this is super weird, but this morning I found a skull on my front porch??”

Posted to Nextdoor by Kyndal Ellzey

“There is a terrible outdoor sign next to Chipotle on Union Ave. showing a picture of what looks like a human foot rotting.”

Posted to Nextdoor by Sarah Mckeever

Just to put this next one in context: Someone posted about a bad, coronavirus-related experience they had at I Love Waffle Cream, the new ice cream shop in Cooper-Young. The comments were what you think they’d be until this lady blasts in like Leeroy Jenkins.

“Y’all, please stop talking about rudeness and danger at this place. Don’t they serve store-bought Blue Bell ice cream? The warm weather is almost over and y’all are wasting precious calories on Blue Bell ice cream that’s been at Kroger since Jesus died on the cross. Please get yourselves to Sweet Magnolia Gelato downtown on South Main. DELICIOUS! I mean just DELICIOUS!!”

Posted to Nextdoor by Nichole Saulsberry-Scarboro

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: WTF? on Ebay, AlGreens, and Shell Shock

WTF? for sale

Now you can own a piece of Flyer history. Our 2016 election issue with the “WTF?” headline can be yours on eBay for the low, low price of $100. It was free four years ago. But weren’t we all?

Its condition? Used, but in good shape. Where is it? Olive Branch.

Posted to eBay by butlernation2019

AlGreens

Don’t even care if this wasn’t in Memphis. Still Memphis AF.

Posted by u/productiveslacker73

Shell Shock

You weren’t a citizen of the MEMernet last week if you didn’t read about/see pictures of the grafitti at the Levitt Shell. Graceland and the I Love Memphis mural on Cooper were hit, too. But the Shell’s Facebook post about the graffiti was somehow the sparkiest spark on social.

People raged at the Shell and those upset by the graffiti, accusing them of caring more about “free music” than the lives of Black people. Facebooker Sarah Rushakoff pored over the Shell’s leadership lineup, finding its diversity lacking.

The day after the post, the Shell said on Facebook it had “multiple conversations” and “we appreciate your honesty and willingness to be vocal.”

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Laura’s Lightning, No More Noodles, and Pancho’s Search

Laura’s Lightning

Amazing images of Hurricane Laura in Memphis were posted last week.

Posted to Reddit by u/tacojohn48

Posted to Instagram by Choose 901

Lucky Cat

In an Instagram post, Lucky Cat Ramen announced it would close.

“No more noodles for awhile,” Lucky Cat said in the post. “This pandemic has been brutal and it looks like we’re another casualty. We [love] you so much and hope to be back soon. #loveyou.”

Pancho Search

Pancho’s Cheese Dip created auto-filled search results in an Instagram post last week.

The search for “Pancho’s” yielded results like “Pancho’s where buy at 1 a.m.,” and the best one, “Pancho’s baby name legal?”

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News News Blog

VOTE NOW for Best of Memphis

It’s that time of year when all good Memphians should do their civic duty and vote in the Flyer‘s annual Best of Memphis competition. Just go here and get to clicking. You’ll be glad you did … and so will we. The Flyer‘s Best of Memphis issue will appear on October 29th.