Nothing changed in Memphis after Obama's election because he is more conservative than Tricky Dick. Here is how to tell when there's been real regime change around here:

  • Memphis is now a village of approx. 250 souls. Nearby are similar villages called Whitehaven, Frayser, Raleigh, Hickory Ridge, Oakhaven, Germantown, Central Gardens, Alta Vista, Chickasaw Gardens, Southaven, Overton Park, Binghamton, Cordova, Sherwood Forest, Bartlett, Shelby Forest, Collierville, Olive Branch, West Memphis, among others.
  • Capitalism is a dirty word.
  • Sasha and New American Primitive are headliners at the Beale Street Music Fest.
  • You ride the monorail to get to the Beale Street Music Fest. Some ride the magnetic levitation train from fields afar.
  • The top occupation is farmer, thanks to land reform, followed by that of hypnotherapist, to provide proper care for all the victims of anesthetization. Oftentimes, a major goal of the therapy is for the victim to recognizethat feminists, the under 21, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Iraqis, undocumented immigrants, Vietnamese, Afghans, the openly gay, Muslims, persons with early disabilities, and the homeless were never, ever responsible in any way for their anesthetization(s), and understanding whoactually was responsible!
  • Conservatives are so terrified of the anti-sexuality and artificial intelligence movements that they have dropped the abortion and homosexuality issues like hot potatoes, and now act like they were never controversial.
  • It is now universally recognized that the anesthetized patient is not only the raison d’être of the Star Wars franchise, but also of RoboCop, the 1989 incarnation of Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and the Borg of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • There is one school district in Shelby County, where all schools start at 8:30. After busting their butts in the fields under a hot sun all summer, the kids are so grateful to be in an air-conditioned classroom that they would cut their throats before misbehaving. They are also grateful to be free from the irreversible intracellular damage inflicted by anesthetization in infancy in order to place worthless tubes in their ears. The devastating behavioral problems stemming from this neuropsychiatric catastrophe had previously been falsely attributed to daycare, resulting in two lost generations.
  • It is now universally recognized that the Bolsheviks were secretly sponsored from their inception to their demise by the Western ruling class to gain a strategic advantage in the First World War, to destroy the Orthodox Church which had been the original Church, and to discredit the labor movement, feminism, the Harlem Renaissance, other ethnic rights movements, and the peace movement.
  • Styles have changed a mite bit. Everyone generally wears biblical attire because it is the most comfortable and climate-appropriate. Instead of being festooned with skulls, the style now is for backpacks, jackets, gimme caps, purses, jewelry, duffel bags, belts and belt buckles, shoelaces, and bed linens to feature tongue-in-cheek imagery of anesthetized patients. Popular designs include spoofs of U.S. currency, emoticons, Mt. Rushmore, Michael Jackson, Disney characters, Looney Tunes characters, Marilyn Monroe, the Statue of Liberty, and Andy Warhol and Patrick Nagel graphics. Unless one is the victim of a serious head injury or hemorrhagic stroke, the now-rare anesthetized patient wears a reusable surgical bonnet festooned with imagery of the East European and tropical peasants who started the fad. The patient gets a lot of compliments about the bonnet over specially-designed headphones, amid music from an advance directive and other compassionate messages.
  • 103 FM has changed its format to 24/7 electronica. Buddy is its weekday morning host and Allan Bogle is its weekday afternoon host. Zero Ohms recorded the hourly station ID.
  • An unanesthetized native-born person born before the regime change is revered as an intellectual leader who is able to run with the East Europeans and the tropical peasants.
  • You ride the monorail to the Orpheum for the electronic musical version of the 1977 Star Wars.
  • Grafflin and Habersham are honored guests at the Mid South Con.
  • You ride the monorail to get to theMid South Con.
  • I-40 has been replaced by a magnetic levitation train, and US 51 has been replaced by a monorail. To the northwest of their intersection is a greenbelt called the Child Victims of Allopathy Memorial, which features an eternal flame, a sculpture of a broken teddy bear wrapped in barbed wire and razor wire, and a Vietnam Memorial-style black granite wall engraved with millions of children’s names. Millions make pilgrimages to it every year.
  • Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church jointly operate a permanent restaurant and bazaar, which provides significant stewardship. It offers various Mediterranean cuisines and merchandise as well as that of Greek.
  • Billboards feature wanted dead or alive posters of Nordic white criminals against humanityand the environment or the URLs ofpages on where victims damaged by allopathy and their custodial relatives can register for reparations, therapy, adult daycare, and respite care.
  • Critical, Dirty, On and On, Zero Ohms, and Grafflin play gigs on Sunday nights at Huey’s.
  • It is now universally recognized that the industrial-capitalist epidemic of homosexuality was intentionally caused by objectification of women as a corporate union-busting, family-busting, faith-busting, and coalition-busting technique.
  • “Reality TV” is the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the World Tribunal.
  • There is a flavor at Jerry’s Sno-Cone called “Anesthetized Patient.” It is black raspberry with sno-crème, and is served with a scoop that spoofs an endotracheal tube. It’s as popular as the “Wedding Cake,” the “John Deere,” and the “Tiger’s Blood.”
  • There is a single open primary in May instead of a second staggered primary in the dreadful heat of early August.
  • The Italian Fest actually has decent Italian food other than private parties.
  • The former Fed Ex Forum is now Freedom Forum, where white criminals against humanity and the environment are executed. On its Diamond Vision, one can see Chinese Communists, Latin American fascists, Warsaw Pact Communists, apartheidists, and other criminals against humanity and the environment being executed elsewhere in the world.
  • Clay Yeager, self-styled “Ba-ba-lu,” has finally learned how to pronounce Ishq (pron. Ish-Q). He also has finally taken a conversational Spanish class. “Waves” is now a part-time weekend job for him on 103 FM, while “Island Dreams” is a 5-hour block on Thursdays still on WUMR.
  • There are banners outside all Episcopal, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Methodist churches that read [name of church] WELCOMES ROMAN/LATIN PARISHONERS.
  • Arkansas jokes—and Aggie jokes and Polish jokes in other parts of the continent—have all been converted into anesthetized patient jokes.
  • There is a worldwide 12-step organization called Mormons Anonymous, witha Mid South chapter serving Memphis and surrounding villages.
  • Church of the Holy Communion offers an ambient music evensong one Sunday a month and an evening U2charist one Sunday a month. The rector has finally learned how to pronounce Bono. The Taizé and Celtic evensongs are offered one Sunday a month. In months with 5 Sundays, the extra Sunday is a traditional Anglican evensong.
  • There is decent Chinese food in Memphis and surrounding villages.
  • October 16 is a penitential fast day for every religion that keeps a liturgical calendar.
  • You walk into Huey’s and they’re playing Aphex Twin and the Orb.
  • They pipe Steve Roach and Stars of the Lid into dental offices.
  • You ride the magnetic levitation train to the regional premiere of a long-awaited grand opera: The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a joint production of the Memphis and Nashville operas. The world premiere had been in the Bay Area in observance of the film’s golden anniversary or diamond jubilee (hopefully not the centennial, as I would’ve probably gone on to glory by then). It’s very funny to see its familiar characters played by obese Wagnerian opera singers. It takes some getting used to Luke Skywalker being played by a 6’4”, 300-pound Heldentenor. Yoda is a 200-pound mezzo in a trouser role. Baritones fight over the rare romantic lead of Han Solo. Coloraturas pine for the serious role of George Lucas’ older sister, whose blistering tessitura captures the hours of psychological torture she endured in the waiting room. One of its posters features its cast standing on an industrial scale, weighing in at 2 tons, including their costumes. The scrawny kid who plays young George Lucas, wearing tarmac ear protectors underneath his vintage surgical bonnet so that he doesn’t suffer ear damage from all the high Cs, has to lie still and be unconscious amid the operatic firestorm as the characters fight over their creator’s soul. During intermission, he wears his ear protectors backstage and pretends to be standing on a tarmac directing taxiing aircraft. When he finally gets to wake up onstage at the end, he is still intubated and has to look all bleary-eyed. Then he gets up the next day and goes to middle schoolor freshman academy as though nothing had happened. In the posters, he is in character: unconscious, intubated, and limp as a rag in the Heldentenor’s arms. The opera piques public interest in dozens of other post-Common Practice Period operas, such as Wozzeck, The Rake’s Progress, Treemonisha, Vanessa, Billy Budd, The Tender Land, Street Scene, Jenůfa, A Streetcar Named Desire, La Belle et la Bête, and Satya Graha.

Copyright © 2010 by Marjorie E. Steakley. All rights reserved.