# Memphis Dopefest? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 13, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377 "2006-07-13T20:38:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/21 "2006-07-15T19:14:07Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] I was resuscitated in West Helena, Arkansas. YMMV. [/QUOTE] ROFLMAO! Good one. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/22 "2006-07-15T19:49:07Z")
[QUOTE=Oakminster] Depending on scheduling, I might be able to make it. A Saturday would be best. [/QUOTE] me too,if Iā€™m here! ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/23 "2006-07-15T22:21:47Z")
[QUOTE=adhemar] I would say no to the House of Mews thing, I love cats but I canā€™t stand the smell of that place. It is too hot for a cookout at the park so are we looking to do an extended lunch thing, hang out at a bar all afternoon, go to a coffee shop, storm the Commercial Appeal, ride the trolleys ..? [/QUOTE] Storm the Commerical Appeal! Errr. Wait. Why? šŸ˜• šŸ˜ƒ Hm. Given how the weather has been, a place with AC will have to be a must. If itā€™s food, a place where we can easily refill drinks will be high on the list. But, since it **is** Memphis (unless some kind of space-time warp occoured and weā€™re now in San Francisco or something), how about BBQ? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/24 "2006-07-15T22:36:35Z")
[QUOTE=Nightsong] how about BBQ? [/QUOTE] One does not want to swim across the Big Muddy on a full stomach. Beer takes the edge off, but not BBQ. Whatā€™s this about a feline orphanage? I found the [link](http://www.houseofmews.com/) but is this a joint where folks hang out? šŸ˜• ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/25 "2006-07-15T23:13:02Z")
[QUOTE=Nightsong] Storm the Commerical Appeal! Errr. Wait. Why? šŸ˜• [/QUOTE] That would be super-convenient for me, at least; I could just head upstairs when it was time to go to work. (Or downstairs, if we happened to be burning mattresses on the roof at the time.) Shall we appoint someone to be Organizer-in-Chief? Iā€™d be glad to do it if no one else wants to, but **WillSantini** suggested the idea in the first place; I donā€™t want to take over anyoneā€™s project. (By the way, **vibrotronica** is extremely busy lately, but Iā€™ll try to rope him into attending as well.) ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/26 "2006-07-15T23:51:48Z")
And donā€™t forget a lady doper or three to whom I can surrender my virtueā€¦šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/27 "2006-07-16T00:08:21Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Whatā€™s this about a feline orphanage? I found the [link](http://www.houseofmews.com/) but is this a joint where folks hang out? šŸ˜• [/QUOTE] Naw: more like a place where people can hang around with kitties. I find it relaxing to drop by there every so often. Kitties get someone to pet and brush them, I get to de-stress and brush off enough cat hair to make a few new cats. (On both the cats and me.) My cat gets to sniff all the new and intersting scents on me when I get back home. (The set-up is that most of the kitties get to roam about the place freely: newbies, cats that donā€™t mix well with others, and ones that are fearful have their own areas to be in, seperated from the others. Last time I went, I was greeted by 5 or 6 cats demanding I pet them first.) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/28 "2006-07-16T00:22:18Z")
When I was a kid, Mother would stop in Memphis between LR and Dyersburg. I remember some Civil War era cannons in a park overlooking the river. Iā€™ve never been able to find them since I grew up. Maybe Iā€™m remembering the WWII guns that are there in a park. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/29 "2006-07-16T01:08:18Z")
**carnivorousplant** , I believe youā€™re thinking of Jefferson Davis Park, downtown at [Riverside and Jefferson](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Riverside+Dr+And+Jefferson+Ave,+Memphis,+TN+38103&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1). I was going to link to a picture for you, but Googling it turned up only a picture of a homeless guy sleeping on a bench. (Thereā€™s a reason for that.) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/30 "2006-07-16T01:18:07Z")
Thanks, Jackelope! Iā€™ll check it out. The [homeless](http://www.ihatemylife.us/cgi-bin/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/1701) may be my fault. Little Rock was the ā€œNationā€™s Meanest Cityā€ to the homeless in 2004, they may have moved. Hell, our Mayor may have had the cops take them there. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/31 "2006-07-16T01:58:53Z")
[QUOTE=jackelope] **carnivorousplant** , I believe youā€™re thinking of Jefferson Davis Park, downtown at [Riverside and Jefferson](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Riverside+Dr+And+Jefferson+Ave,+Memphis,+TN+38103&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1). I was going to link to a picture for you, but Googling it turned up only a picture of a homeless guy sleeping on a bench. (Thereā€™s a reason for that.) [/QUOTE] Thatā€™t not quite right, though itā€™s an easy mistake to make. The park with the cannons (and theyā€™re not true civil war cannon, btw) is Confederate Park; it sits overlooking the river, and has a statue of Jefferson Davis in the middle of it as well as the cannons on the west side. Immediately west of Confederate Park (with the street in between) is Jefferson Davis Park, where you would expect the statue of the confederate president to be, although, mysteriously, it is not. Both parks were constructed in the early 1900s, when the city apparently felt to need to make its position on the War of Northern Aggression entirely clear. :wally ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/32 "2006-07-16T02:07:48Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] the city apparently felt to need to make its position on the War of Northern Aggression entirely clear. :wally [/QUOTE] Hey, we next door fought on both sides. And they did spend a lot of time one night pulling those Yankees from the Sulatana out of the Father of Waters. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/33 "2006-07-16T02:12:08Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Hey, we next door fought on both sides. And they did spend a lot of time one night pulling those Yankees from the Sulatana out of the Father of Waters. šŸ™‚ [/QUOTE] You mean the famous Battle of Memphis, fought almost entirely on the river, which Memphians watched from the site of the future confederate park? Iā€™ll remind you that the south got pasted in that one. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/34 "2006-07-16T02:20:51Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] You mean the famous Battle of Memphis, fought almost entirely on the river, which Memphians watched from the site of the future confederate park? Iā€™ll remind you that the south got pasted in that one. [/QUOTE] No, the [Sultana](http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/sultana.htm) sank near Memphis April 26, 1865 with 1,700 Union Veterans aboard being taken to, I believe, Ohio. More people were lost than on the Titanic. Anyway, Memphians pulled them out like they were the same people. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/35 "2006-07-16T02:28:18Z")
ā€¦and dang it, on trips through Memphis in the 60ā€™s when I had to stop every thirty minutes to pee or have a Cokeā€¦hmmm, maybe they were relatedā€¦but I digress. There was a battery of [these guys](http://www.oldstatehouse.com/exhibits/changing/hoc.asp?img=9) that protected (not terribly well apparently) your Fair City from the Federal Invader. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/36 "2006-07-16T02:33:02Z")
Thereā€™s also a park somewhere near Baptist Hospital that has a statue of Forrest, with the inscription: _These hoofbeats die not on fameā€™s crimson sod, but live in his song and his story. He fought like a titan, He struck like a god, His dust is our ashes of glory._ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/37 "2006-07-16T02:42:21Z")
Iā€™m gonna have to see that. But see, I get into trouble with these things. If I donā€™t annoy one side by admiring his military abilities, I piss off the other when I spray paint on the bottom, ā€œBut his grammar was atrocious.ā€ šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/38 "2006-07-16T02:46:58Z")
So instead, spraypaint ā€œ_and his hair was perfect_ā€ in Pina Colada colorsā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/39 "2006-07-16T02:47:25Z")
[QUOTE=Oakminster] Thereā€™s also a park somewhere near Baptist Hospital that has a statue of Forrest, with the inscription: _These hoofbeats die not on fameā€™s crimson sod, but live in his song and his story. He fought like a titan, He struck like a god, His dust is our ashes of glory._ [/QUOTE] OK, I can definitely find [that one](http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=35.139406,-90.034676&spn=0.006071,0.009978&t=h&om=1); Iā€™m about 1000 feet from it right now. And by the way, I think you meant to say ā€œthe huge pile of rubble formerly known as Baptist Hospitalā€ā€¦ šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377/40 "2006-07-16T02:55:51Z")
I thought he was a Virginian. He was a tough guy, despite his grammar: > [@](#): > > On June 14, 1863, he was shot by a disgruntled subordinate, Andrew W. Gould, whom Forrest then mortally wounded with his penknife. Memo to self: No not PO Nahan Bedford Forrest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memphis-dopefest/364377.md?page=3)