Greetings, folks.
This truth may be self-evident, but I won’t be blogging again before Monday at the earliest.
I wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend.
Even Shea Flinn, whom I’ve never once seen wearing a flag pin.
Well, that settles that.
According to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released today, more Americans would rather invite Barack Obama to a summer barbecue than John McCain.
The online survey of 1,759 adults found that 52 percent would rather scarf down burgers with Obama, while 45 percent would prefer McCain’s company.
(FedEx founder Fred Smith, who spent Memorial Day weekend with McCain’s family, is no doubt among those who would beg to differ with the poll results.)
But after watching footage of Obama attempting to bowl during one of his campaign appearances, this poll makes me wonder: Which candidate would make the better horseshoes player?
And if people think Obama couldn’t sling horseshoes any better than he could roll a bowling ball, maybe that explains why he’s a preferred outdoor party guest.
Just food for thought.
Well, looks like crime on the mean streets of Memphis (or at least the mean streets of its suburbs) won’t be off the air for long.
Memphis Police Department officials recently decided not to continue working with the producers of "The First 48," a documentary-style program that airs on the A&E channel.
However, as a story in today’s newspaper noted, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office is about to have its street crimes and narcotics units featured on "Real Vice Cops Uncut," a new program that is scheduled to premiere on Spike TV in August.
Hmmm. I wonder a little bit about this one. Since Memphis and the suburban cities have their own police departments (except for Lakeland, of course), I wonder what hotspots of criminal activity the sheriff’s office will spend most of its time patrolling.
"Eads Vice" doesn’t have quite the same ring to it that "Miami Vice" did.
It hasn’t even started yet, and already former state Sen. John Ford’s trial in Nashville is shaping up to be a weird one.
Monday, the judge granted a delay because one of Ford’s attorneys had an inflamed finger that required surgery over the weekend.
I’ve heard of trials being undone by hung juries, but hangnails?
Horn Lake was abuzz last week after there were several reported sightings of a black bear around the DeSoto County town.
Officials from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said the bear, estimated to weigh between 450 and 800 pounds, may have hiked north from a refuge in Louisiana.
Horn Lake Police Chief Tom Long said that if the bear continues his northward march, "we’ll do what we have to to give him a free path into Memphis."
Now, Chief, what if Memphians took the same attitude toward encouraging our "riffraff" to migrate south?
According to a brief item in our business section Saturday, FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith says he has no interest in serving as John McCain’s running mate.
Smith issued a statement through the FedEx public relations office to that effect Friday, in response to media inquiries.
I’m still not completely convinced that Smith couldn’t be persuaded to become a vice-presidential candidate, if McCain asked him nicely enough.
When Smith issued that statement, I want to know if he said he "absolutely, positively" wouldn’t serve. ...
Please indulge me, readers, but this one is just too good to pass up.
Amtrak service through Memphis has been disrupted for weeks because of a sinkhole that opened at Central Station.
And according to a story in yesterday’s newspaper, City Atty. Elbert Jefferson wants to delay repairing the sinkhole until someone can locate a late 19th Century contract with the railroad that might clarify who is responsible for paying for the repair work.
I have to say it because who knows when I’ll get another opportunity like this: Jefferson obviously doesn’t know the city’s financial liabilities from a hole in the ground.
We don’t often get to say this in Memphis, but it may be time to start pitying poor Nashville.
To handle construction of a new $595 million convention center, our neighbors to the east have selected a company with a name that should be familiar to some Memphians:
Clark Construction Co., the Maryland-based firm that served as general contractor for the Cook Convention Center expansion and renovation a few years back.
Although some of us may have tried to erase the details from our memories, the Cook Convention Center project in Memphis was marred by delays and cost overruns.
To be fair, many of those problems were Clark’s fault. Faulty design drawings, which Clark didn’t create, were among the project’s biggest headaches.
Even so, reading Clark’s name in a news account about the Music City Center project almost sent a cold shiver down my spine. If history is any guide, at least that project should keep Nashville reporters busy for a while.
As a candidate for U.S. Senate, perhaps Kenneth Eaton should choose his words a bit more carefully.
Eaton, who’s running against incumbent Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, sent out a news release Monday challenging the wisdom of relying on more offshore drilling for oil as a way to bail the country out of its energy crisis.
Eaton suggested a number of alternatives, including increased investment in solar and wind technology, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and even nuclear power.
Nothing too surprising there.
But he may have gotten just a tad carried away in the release:
"Give us five or 10 years of tax incentives for folks other than oil companies, and we’ll have this energy thing licked! Then Ahmedinejad and Chavez can peddle their oil to the Martians!"
Eaton should know better than to encourage those types of alliances.
I can see it now: Iran, Venezuela and Mars as the new Axis of Evil.
At long last, it looks like our country may have found a way to quench its thirst for new sources of energy.
According to a story in Sunday’s newspaper, researchers are studying the possibility of using kudzu as a source of ethanol.
That’s right, kudzu, the weed that’s found in generous quantities throughout the South.
If ever there was a source of renewable energy, kudzu has to be it.
