Flyer Flashback
To mark the Flyer's 20th anniversary, we're looking back at stories from our first two decades.
by Bruce VanWyngarden
Back in the mid-1990s, the Flyer had a weekly feature called "The Week That Was." The column for the week of May 15, 1996, was pretty representative: Davidson County voters approved public financing to move the Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans) to Nashville; an accused rapist was caught with a flat tire 10 minutes after he committed the deed; and the suburban mayors joined a lawsuit that would ban Memphians from voting in Shelby County School Board elections.
In other news, the City Council was battling over funds for an affordable-housing project in Raleigh, and Councilman Rickey Peete held up a budget hearing for Pyramid funding to complain about the bad seats that had been allocated for government officials.
Jackson Baker's Politics column concerned charges that County Assessor Harold Sterling may have arbitrarily lowered some property assessments. Sterling called the charges "frivolous." But the big news was that the 40 or so potential contenders for soon-to-retire Representative Harold Ford Sr.'s seat in Congress would be joined by the congressman's son, Harold Ford Jr. We all know how that worked out — 40 losers.
And, in his We Recommend column, Tim Sampson offered advice to those who would be attending the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest: "If you are a man with a giant gut, please do not walk around shirtless with a special pig hat on making hog-calling noises. That does not need to be seen on national television." That advice still holds.
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