Pawn & Ammo

I remember being impressed by the number of PAWN & AMMO signs I saw in Memphis when I visited a few years ago. Actually, I'd never seen a sign like that before, so just one was enough to impress me.

Saw that bland feel-good movie that somehow managed to lift a corner of the real story only to have the whole mess flap back down just in time to save the audience from looking at what's truly going on - going on everywhere, but it seems especially in Memphis. It seems unintentionally appropriate, that title, The Blind Side. Just what blind side might that film be talking about? Film got an Oscar. It had just enough bite and charm, and it's already utterly forgotten. Unsettling. See the film and think about it, and you'll likely find its shallow treatment of some pretty deep issues unsettling too.

With Memphis on our minds here - a longtime friend who's a native Memphian feels compelled to leave because the place is going down the tubes so fast - we saw one of the more significant articles on the U.S. to be published in the NYT lately. Click on the link here to read the article.