Verbatim
Tennessee Representative Andy Holt made national headlines last week after he tweeted and deleted his support for the federal wildlife refuge-occupying Bundy militia. His comments came from liberals and conservatives alike. Nobody described the fallout from Holt’s scandalous tweet better than Nashville Scene blogger Jeff Woods, who wrote, “For grabbing attention, it might go down in Twitter history — right there with Kourtney Kardashian’s iconic ‘do ants have dicks?’ tweet.”
Parade Critic
A writer for Arkansas’ Northwest Democrat Gazette was unimpressed by Memphis’ New Year’s Day celebration on Beale. As part of his Liberty Bowl coverage, Bobby Ampezzan fired off a column titled “Fans in Memphis Find Kooky Collection in Parade.” According to Ampezzan, “The parade featured two AutoZone semi-trucks, high school marching bands from as far away as Ohio, a couple of New Orleans-style krewes, and a Chevy Camaro car club.” And things just get worse from there: “One float advertising pizza featured a few unskilled dancers plodding their way through the Cha-Cha Slide. Another for Gun Oil featured plaid-clad dudes pitching Mardi Gras beads. By the time the Razorbacks’ spirit squad and marching band came through, spectators clapped their approval because this, at least, had something to do with something.”
@MistakenIdentity
Memphis educator Pat McFadden received his 15 minutes of internet fame last week because he shares a name with a British Labour Party politician who was sacked from his Shadow Cabinet position. By virtue of having the Twitter handle @patmcfadden, the Latin teacher at St. Mary’s School was frequently tagged in heated political conversations.