Here's the letter I mentioned a few days ago on what we might do about the Memphis Pyramid, published in this morning's Memphis Commercial Appeal:

"How about a boondoggle museum

I read your Oct. 5 article about debates over what to do with The Pyramid with some interest (“Plans for Pyramid differing widely / Candidates’ ideas often outside the box”). I propose a different solution: Privatize it by distributing ownership shares to all Memphis and Shelby County taxpayers. I would then encourage the new owners to convert it into an International Museum of Resource-Wasting Boondoggles.

Visitors could be greeted with a clip of Montgomery Burns from one of last season’s episodes of “The Simpsons” in which he describes “the American Dream: a billionaire using public funds to build a private playground for the rich and powerful.”

The museum could include an exhibit explaining the broken-window fallacy and another exhibit on badly done and arguably dishonest “economic impact” studies that tell stadium proponents what they want to hear, and it could offer numerous exhibits on how stadium projects fail to live up to their promises. They could start with an entire exhibit about how long it is taking to fill the giant mud puddle in downtown St. Louis where the old Busch Stadium used to be.

Art Carden

Memphis"