Famous Quotations From the hilarious to the sublime, 1997 was the year of the sound bite. “It could be a conflict. Sometime, I’m sure the mayor is going to address the issue.” – Councilman E.C. Jones on the potential conflict of interest arising from Mayor Willie Herenton personally awarding $123,000 worth of city consulting contracts to longtime friend Robert L. Green. “It’s nobody’s business how I make my money or who I appoint to do things for Memphis. The editorial staff down there at The Memphis Flyer can go to hell!” – Mayor Willie Herenton, addressing Flyer coverage of his involvement with a Canadian casino business and the Green contracts. “Cohen is, in fact, so comfortable among journalists that he has been known to step out on the porch and smoke a joint with a group of them at a private party.” – a Nashville Scene writer on State Senator Steve Cohen, who denied the allegation. PHOTO BY DAVID SOWELL “That’s 15,000 [from Nashville], and I think there’s no question you can do over 30,000 locally. And that’s a minimum estimate.” – Oilers vice-president Pepper Rodgers last summer on how the team would draw at least 45,000 a game in Memphis. PHOTO BY ROY CAJERO “I haven’t smoked marijuana since sometime in the ’70s at a concert.” – Steve Cohen. “Until every school is good enough for our own child it is not good enough for anyone else’s child.” – Gerry House, superintendent of Memphis City Schools. “He’s insecure and he lacks courage.” – Willie Herenton on Jim Rout. “He’s trying to be an emperor.” – Jim Rout on Willie Herenton. “He is scared of his shadow.” – Willie Herenton on Jim Rout. “East Memphis has chased me my entire life. I’ve moved in two different directions to avoid it, but it keeps coming after me.” – iconoclastic music legend Jim Dickinson, on selling his DeSoto County home. “The bill was on everyone’s desk for 24 hours, and they should have known what they were voting for.” – Lt. Governor John Wilder, defending his “stealth” incorporation bill. “Let them die. Cities are made for people. People are not made for cities.” – State Senator Tom Leatherwood. “It isn’t clean, it isn’t quiet, and it isn’t safe.” – Charles Perkins on Memphis. “They are fishing for the right judge, the right court, the right date, and I’m afraid if this keeps up, they’ll snag it.” – Sen. Tom Leatherwood on Memphis’ annexation strategy. “If the city would hire me and fire Leo Bearman, I could resolve this thing.” – suburban developer Jackie Welch, on the attorney who handled the city’s side of the Chapter 98 court fight. “Anti-gay job discrimination drives us apart. Americans want solutions that bring us together.” – from a commercial that aired during the coming-out episode of Ellen April 30th. The ad was rejected by ABC affiliates in Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville. “I always thought California was for nuts and fruits.” – Oilers’ owner Bud Adams. “If we didn’t renovate, we would have been the only big city in North America without Phantom. It would have been a cultural sin.” – Orpheum President Pat Halloran. “Contrary to popular opinion here in the city, everyone can’t coach.” – Tic Price. “There’s no place in the world that deserves to have a Hard Rock Cafe more than Memphis, Tennessee.” – Jim Rout. “This is the McDonald’s in a strip center.” – Beale Street developer John Elkington on the Hard Rock opening. “Memphis is a very unique market. I think you have to live here to understand it, and even then you don’t always understand it.” – concert booking agent Bob Kelley. “If you’re a Memphian and have been duped into becoming an Oilers fan, I really think you need to see a doctor.” Ken Neill, publisher and CEO of The Memphis Flyer. “If there are Memphians who wish to support the Oilers, they should not be made to feel embarrassed, duped, used, lacking in self respect, or in need of a doctor for doing so.” – Guardsmark chairman Ira Lipman. “They’re letting Ellen DeGeneres out of the closet, and they’re trying to stuff me back in.” – FLARE leader Marilyn Loeffel on the resistance to her nomination to the state Board of Education. “A bullet don’t have no eyes. You don’t know who’s going to get it. … I don’t go outside. I take the back halls to the gym.” – Tanya Robinson, a 16-year-old majorette at Humes Junior High School. “People tell me I need to kept my mouth shut, but this is our third year and people expect us to be better. In the third year you should be better. I fully expect to be better.” – Rip Scherer before starting his third season, which ended with four wins and seven losses, the same as the year before. “If we don’t go to a bowl game, then I think the season is a failure.” – U of M quarterback Bernard Oden before the 1997 season. “This will be the first time in the history of hockey that the players have more teeth than the fans.” – comedian Dennis Miller on the awarding of a National Hockey League franchise to Nashville. “Lead me to the gas chamber.” – former University of Memphis basketball coach Larry Finch before walking to the Pyramid press conference where he announced his resignation. “I think there are some die-hard supporters of Larry who are mad at me and will probably always be mad at me...” – U of M athletic director R.C. Johnson, reflecting on his firing of Tiger coach Larry Finch. “…evolution should be taught, but not as a theory, because there’s no way to prove it….It should be given to them as a basis of thought….As many scientists believe in creationism as in evolution and it also should be taught.” – Nancy Northcott, chair of the Tennessee Textbook Commission. “Two days of Peace, Music and Wiffle.” – ad for Zinnie’s Wifflestock Wiffleball Festival. “You could string quite a few Garth Brooks together and still not come up with what Elvis did. That’s one billion records sold.” – Elvis Worldwide Fan Club president James McBride. “If you swing into a tree in the middle of the forest and no one is laughing, does the lifeless thump of your career hitting rock bottom make a sound?” – reviewer Elizabeth Lemond, discussing the acting talents of Brendan Fraser in George of the Jungle. “My polling says I have a bunch of people who forgive me and I have a bunch of people who don’t.” – pollster and professional foot-nibbler Dick Morris after the taping of a pilot television show in Memphis. “All this jewelry, designer suits, handmade shoes, I bought all that because I got a job...I make around $75,000 a year.” – James Robinson, (now former) MHA tenant leader and public-housing resident, speaking on Court TV. “He’s one of the strongest resident leaders in the country. He’s not a perfect person…” – MHA Executive Director Jerome Ryans, on James Robinson. “I got 36 children, not by the same woman, though.” – seminal Mississippi bluesman Junior Kim-brough, on family values. “The more times you run over a dead possum, the flatter it gets, and we’re that possum.” – U of M president V. Lane Rawlins in a speech about how the university is dealing with budget cuts. “In honor of the King, we got higher than a green-eyed bat’s ass.” – radio personality John “Bad Dog” McCormack, describing his reaction upon hearing of Elvis’ death in 1977. “He’s a thief.” – Assistant District Attorney Glen Baity, on James Robinson. “I’m sick of Princess Diana. That whiny baby!” – Joan Rivers, dissing Lady Di, prior to a July appearance at Sam’s Town casino. “I am a bi-polar manic depressive. I used to attend day treatment, when it was closed it took away my social life as well as working on everyday issues. … Without Spectra I have to start all over with new doctors, medicines, I get no therapy. My new clinic does not offer it. I am one lost soul.” – from a letter written by Lelia Melam, a former client of Spectra Behavioral Healthcare Systems, which was the largest provider of outpatient mental health services in Shelby County. Spectra closed in January because of financial problems resulting from the state’s TennCare Partners Program. “It’s so dirty I will probably have to move to Millington.” – writer John Fergus Ryan, on his latest novel, Watching. “You are almost preposterously twee.” – Anonymous e-mail to “Fly on the Wall” columnist Jim Hanas. “I’m the one making the decision about expanding this jail. I’m committed to it and I’m going to do it.” – Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout. “Tunica’s more interested in the bartenders’ association than the bar association.” – John Oros, senior vice president of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, explaining why Memphis and Tunica don’t compete for the same conventions. “The guy in the back has all the control. I’m just an influence paddler.” – artist John Ryan on the trials of being in the front end of a canoe. “This acquisition creates a powerful combination that will propel both companies to new heights.” – Fred Smith on the purchase of Caliber Systems Inc. “We are going to do a lot of things in this organization to try to link the old with the new, to try to bring the nostalgic, good feel that we all have had about the great game of baseball.” – Memphis Redbirds president Allie Prescott. n