VOL. 132 | NO. 190 | Monday, September 25, 2017
Last Word
Bill Dries
Last Word: Pantographs & Catenaries, Grizz Uncertainty and Tuesdays Without Morrie
By Bill Dries
After three years off the rails, the first significant indications that the trolleys are about to return. It was just a two-block ride that includes the Memphis Area Transit Authority trolley barn on North Main and one very new trolley. But it is a start through what is a very technical and bureaucratic process involving lots of safety vests, clipboards and video cameras.
Not to mention pantographs that are controlled with the push of a button and lots of eyes cast skyward toward the catenaries. Kind of like a catenary in a coal mine, perhaps? – Too much? You thought I was talking about the Catenary Islands?
The CEO of First Horizon said in New York last week that more consolidation of the banking industry could be on the way. Bryan Jordan saying at a Barclays conference that it is “almost a necessity for the industry.” We’ve seen indications of that here with the acquisition of Magna Bank by Pinnacle Bank when the Nashville-based financial institution entered the market two years ago. First Tennessee’s deal to acquire Capital Bank is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
An unusual end Saturday to the trial of Zachary Adams for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Holly Bobo – a sentencing deal that means life in prison without parole plus 50 years for Adams.
Tigers over Southern Illinois 44-31 Saturday at the Liberty Bowl, which presumably had enough bottled water this weekend.
As the weekend began, the Grizz announced they had traded guard Troy Daniels and one of three second round draft picks next year to Phoenix for a second round draft pick, presumably earlier than the ones the Grizz have already.
Meanwhile, Monday is Media Day for the Grizz and there are lots of questions from a roster that is above the limit to ownership uncertainty.
Here’s the rest of the calendar for the last week in September and the first full week of autumn.
“The thing I liked about Memphis was it wasn’t perfect yet.” A quote from Hardy Farrow, a Teach for America alumn who came to Memphis to teach at Power Center Academy in Hickory Hill out of George Washington University and has started LITE – Let’s Innovate Through Education. The entrepreneurship program operating out of the Crews Center at the University of Memphis pointed at African-American and Latino high school students is the cover story by Don Wade in our weekly. The Memphis News.
Speaking of Hickory Hill, the Stonebrook Apartments, a few blocks east of Power Center Academy, sold from one out of town company with a portfolio to another for $9.7 million.
Now that the Arlington elections are in the rear view mirror, there are some other political dates for your calendar including one in November that could determine whether we have a special election before the end of the year or at the top of the new year – that new year being a county election cycle as well.
Is Tennessee one of the 21 states targeted by hackers in the 2016 presidential election? The Associated Press has rounded up all but two of the states whose election officials have been told they were targeted. Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi are not among the 19.
Opening date for Nordstrom Rack in the new Poplar Commons is about two weeks away.
The Orpheum’s Halloran Centre is among a group of theaters across the country that have cancelled a production of “Tuesdays With Morrie” that was to star Jamie Farr. The show was coming to the Halloran Dec. 2-3. But Farr dropped out of the production in a dispute with producers over visas for a director and costar from Canada.
“With Mr. Farr’s cancellation and his replacement with an actor with whom I am unfamiliar, I am not comfortable presenting the play to our patrons,” said Ron Jewell, vice president of Halloran Centre operations.
In some of the cities that booked the show for October, Farr has instead changed the date to “an evening with…” shows where film clips from his career are shown and he takes questions from an on-stage host as well as the audience. So far, that is not the case here. Farr is best known for the character Max Klinger on the MASH television series. His film and TV career goes back to 1955 when he was in the then revolutionary film “Blackboard Jungle” with a storyline about juvenile delinquency at the dawn of the rock and roll era with an early rock and roll soundtrack and Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier playing the leaders of the students at the school.
Mike Dunavant, the new U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee took the oath of office as chief federal prosecutor for the region last Thursday in Jackson, Tennessee right after turning in his resignation as District Attorney General for the judicial district that covers several counties north and east of Shelby County.
The cerebral palsy research center that is an endowment goal for Le Bonheur would be the first in the southeast U.S., according to the Children’s Foundation of Memphis.
The Memphis News Almanac: George Barnes Returns to Town, Slade Opens For Blue Oyster Cult and leaves town with a hit song.