Paul Ryburn’s Journal

Yesterday I thought to myself, “What am I going to do with my day off? Also, I’m hungry.” I remembered that my visit to Slider Inn on Christmas Eve had been a success, so I decided to give it a try on another holiday. I considered ordering the Nachos For The People, add chili, but I didn’t feel hungry enough to finish an entire plate of nachos. So I picked the Reuben and Cuban instead.

Back: Cuban egg rolls
Center: Reuben egg rolls
Front: Perjorie T. (not an egg) Roll

At the time I ordered, I was looking forward to the Reuben egg roll a little bit more than the Cuban, but both were excellent, and the spicy yellow mustard that came with the Cuban roll was the hit of the day.

Due to the proximity to the MLK Day celebration, Slider Inn got busy, and the people around the corner of the bar from me ordered Nachos For The People. I’ll just say this – it looked like it was for at least THREE people! That plate was huge.

While there, I tried a sample of Shiner S’more chocolate marshmallow beer.

It was good, although I thought it tasted more like root beer or maybe sasparilla than it did a S’more.

For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the opening of Chester’s fried chicken in Bluefin’s side bar, Thursday is the day. From that point on, you’ll be able to get Chester’s fried chicken without having to drive to the truck stop at Exit 272.

Memphis Black Restaurant Week returns March 8-14. African-American owned restaurants all over the city will have 2-course lunch specials for $15 and  3-course dinners for $25 to help raise awareness of their businesses. This is a great week to discover something new. As time draws closer I will compile a list of Downtown restaurants that are participating.

Memphis Symphony Orchestra will perform Stravinsky’s tribute to a great Pontiac sports car of the 1960s through the 1990s. On February 29 and March 1, MSO will give performances of The Firebird Suite at the Cannon Center.

At this point in time I am ready to announce my pick in the March 3 Tennessee Democratic presidential primary. I will be voting for Joe Biden. He is not my ideal candidate, but this is a special election. More important than any single issue, more important than the candidate’s age, is that the Dems need to nominate someone who is appealing enough to the general public (not just their own party) to win in November and drive that fat, illiterate orange fuck out of the White House. America can’t handle four more years of this. I think Biden has the best chance to turn Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin back to blue. I also think we need someone with experience in the executive branch to repair all the damage that Trump has done.

The U.K. election is why I can’t support Warren or Sanders. Boris Johnson is not a likable fellow in the least, and he has some scary ideas, but Labour nominated someone who was so liberal that they scared the general public even more. I fear the same will happen here if either one of those two is the Democrats’ nominee. Also, if you’re a Sanders supporter, I encourage you to look up his record in the Senate on votes concerning Russia. It’s not good.

Back to work. I may take a day or two off from going out this week to work on my data science projects and also to offset some of the money I spent this past weekend. Back tomorrow with more news.

Happy MLK Day everyone. I’ve got 30 minutes until Bardog opens, so let’s see how much news I can squeeze in.

Main and Union, 10:55 AM, Sunday, January 19.

If you look closely when walking down the Main Street Mall, there are markers indicating the path a person in a wheelchair should take. But how is a person in a wheelchair supposed to get by this? The thing that really infuriates me is that I don’t think these were parked by careless riders. They appear to have been parked by an employee of the scooter company for maximum visibility at one of Downtown’s most prominent intersections… but parked with a complete lack of consideration for everyone but those who might want to pay to ride on a bright red scooter.

I watched the Kansas City Chiefs-Tennessee Titans game at the Silly Goose. General consensus was that nearly everyone in the room was for the Titans. “I’m not for the Titans so much because I live in Tennessee,” I explained. “It’s more because there’s this guy who wears a really stupid looking Kansas City hat.” About half an hour later Rahul came in…

… and people were like, “Is that him?” Yes, that’s him. I guess Rahul is one of those people to whom the phrase “too many Chiefs and not enough Indians” doesn’t apply.

Indie Memphis will host a one-night-only international film screening of The Chambermaid Wednesday, January 22 at Malco Powerhouse on G.E. Patterson. The central character is Eve, a chambermaid who works long days at a hotel in Mexico City. The movie is said to be “a salute to “the invisible women caretakers who are the hard-working backbone of society.” The movie starts at 7:30 and you can purchase tickets here.

A construction worker was left hanging from a rope Friday at St. Jude after scaffolding collapsed. He was rescued without injury.

Spaghetti stuffed garlic bread. Yummmm.

All right, time to get out. None of the remaining news is time-sensitive so I’ll push it back until tomorrow.

OK people. Listen up. Especially you folks at Start Co. I have a startup business idea. What we need is a national jukebox database, searchable from a phone, for when people want to play a song but can’t remember the CD number and track number of the songs they want to play. For example:

Select “State:” from a dropdown list: Select “TN”

Select “City:” from a dropdown list: Select “Memphis”

Select “Bar:” from a dropdown list: Select “Bardog Tavern”

At this point a search bar appears. You can either put in an artist’s name, for example “Def Leppard,” to view the CD and track numbers of all songs by that artist; or you can put in a title, for example “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” to view the CD and track numbers of all songs with that title. This is from a real-life example. Yesterday we wanted to play that song but none of us could remember the track number.

This would definitely be a crowd-sourced experiment, as it would require one of the following for each participating bar:

1. An employee at each bar who updates the database when the CDs in the jukebox change; or
2. A regular at each bar who updates the database; or
3. A computer nerd who likes to contribute to crowd-sourced information who goes by the bar once a month or so to take inventory of CDs.

Note that this would only be necessary for CD-based jukeboxes. At places like Max’s Sports Bar, for example, that have Internet jukeboxes, you can play “Country Roads, Take Me Home” by John Denver and “Crazy Train” by Ozzy back-to-back without knowing any numbers.

If someone wants to take this project and run with it, I will volunteer to maintain the CD list at Bardog and Earnestine & Hazel’s.

The Daily Memphian has a list of MLK Days of Service around Memphis. For those who want to volunteer Downtown:

• Pick up litter on the street near the entrance to Elmwood Cemetery
• Volunteer at Uptown Community Gardens
• Put a fresh coat of paint on Memphis’ riverside bluff walk

For those of you who prefer reading to volunteering, here are a list of 8 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches that are less well-known than “I Have a Dream.”

We are only four months away from BBQ Fest. My team’s Senior Deputy Director of Public Relations got in touch with me yesterday.

The Senior Deputy Director of Public Relations

She pointed out that decorated rib team Porkosaurus has billboards around I-240. “Our team needs billboards,” she said.

“Porkosaurus has a line of BBQ products they sell year-round,” I pointed out to the SDD of PR. “We don’t sell anything.”

“Just put pictures of me on the billboards,” she replied. I swear. This troll. What can you do.

So yesterday, I asked you to guess what day of the year had the most births, having worked with a 1969-1988 data set that answered that question. I bet many of you guessed November 14, nine months after Valentine’s Day. That was my guess as well.

It was wrong.

Turns out people get busy not on V-Day, but during the Christmas holiday season. The only two days during that time period that saw an average of over 5300 births per day in the US were September 15 and September 22.

The New Wing Order food truck unveiled all their new hot wing flavors yesterday. They include

• Spicy Garlic Wings
• Mo-Rockin’ Wings
• Riverside Ranch Wings
• Caribbean Heat Wings

They have also added Lemon Pepper or Nikki’s Hot Fries. Those of you at St. Jude can catch the food truck tomorrow from 11 AM to 1 PM.

The Daily Memphian has coverage of the Memphis Women’s March that took place yesterday and the reaction of women in Memphis to the Trump regime.

Jager bologna sandwiches have returned to the daily offerings at the Blind Bear.

Soul Jazz Trio performs at The Lounge at 3rd & Court tonight. No cover.

That’s it for this post. Tomorrow being a holiday, I will probably take it off from blogging and start my day of service early unless there is time-sensitive news. Back Tuesday with another post.

The Memphis Grizzlies are moving on up. Following last night’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Grizzlies

• Are just two games under .500, at 20-22
• Hold a two-game lead over the San Antonio Spurs for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference
• Are only three games back from the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 7th seed in the Western Conference
• Hold the longest winning streak in the NBA, at 7

Let’s see what’s coming up next week for the Grizzlies:

• vs. New Orleans Pelicans (16-26) Monday, MLK Game, 4 PM, at FedExForum
• at Boston Celtics (27-13), Wednesday 6 PM
• at Detroit Pistons (15-27), Friday 6 PM

So most likely the Grizzlies will be 22-23 a week from today, but having a winning season by the end of the week is possible if they go off on Boston.

ESPN has a video clip of Ja Morant checking out the peanut butter and banana sandwich, Elvis’ favorite, at the Arcade restaurant.

Downtown is getting a Dinstuhl’s Fine Candies location, the CA reports. They will be open no later than February 6 at 147 S. Main, in the store next to The Majestic Grille that at one time housed Shelton Clothiers. If you’re not familiar with Dinstuhl’s line of candies and chocolates, have a look at their website. Guys, if you pick up your sweetheart a box of Russell Stover’s at Walgreens for Valentine’s Day, you ain’t doin’ it right. Shop local at Dinstuhl’s, Phillip Ashley, and The Peanut Shoppe instead.

Yesterday I posted that the Downtown Memphis Commission is looking for retail businesses for its 2020 Open on Main initiative. I wonder where the storefronts are going to be? Because, both of last year’s storefronts are now occupied with long-term tenants. The future Dinstuhl’s space was one of the 2019 Open on Main spaces, and the other, the former Life is Good in the Peabody Place office building next to the post office, is now an Allstate office.

By the way, if you need insurance, go by that office and ask for my buddy Loud Ass Marc. Be sure to know what day of the week it is, because you will likely be asked. If you sign up for Allstate insurance, Marc might take you for a ride in his golf cart.

Oh my F’n God… Rahul and Tony have a podcast now. There are 10 episodes so far. In case you’re wondering what the content of this podcast is like, let me direct you to episode 7, Did Rah Rah have sex with a man? In other episodes, they interview well-known folks in the Downtown service industry, including Hanin from Blind Bear and B-RAD from Silly Goose. They also interview Pattie O’Furniture who calls drag bingo at Atomic Rose Sunday afternoons.

Trolley Stop Market is having a restaurant closing sale. If you need any kitchen or restaurant equipment, check it out.

Out-of-towners who come to Memphis to make money organizing bar crawls: Learn to spell the name of Memphis’ most iconic street correctly. “Beal.” Geez.

As your number-one source of news and information about The Edge District, it is my pleasure to tell you that you are invited to the Underground Cafe ribbon cutting and birthday celebration today at noon at Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe, 668 Union. They’ll have live music on stage all day, as well as new menu items and some special guests.

Willie Nelson returns to the Orpheum on Monday, April 20. I went to his 2019 performance and can tell you, it is worth going. It’s a fairly short set, clocking in at just over an hour, but the man is in his mid-80s after all. Remember, he gave up smoking weed, so don’t bring him any offerings.

Ughhhh… Vice-President Pence is scheduled to visit Memphis Sunday morning. He’ll visit the National Civil Rights Museum then make remarks at some church in Raleigh. Keep in mind that travel may be impacted in South Main Sunday morning. I guess he wants to tour the museum to get an idea of what kinds of civil rights he and the Trump administration can take away.

A new bill in the Tennessee legislature could protect drivers from red light camera tickets. I have heard lawyers (not lawyers in the firm I work for, but my Bardog friends) say that if you get a red light camera ticket, throw it away.

If you’re looking for a place Downtown to watch the Conor McGregor fight this evening, Loflin Yard will carry it.

Death: it’s been happening to humans for approximately 2.9 million years. Elmwood Cemetery will host A History of Death talk today at 1 PM. It will last about 45 minutes and you’ll hear the history of burials, funerals, and memorials. Cost is $20 and snacks will be served.

The Grindfather is once again employed by the Grizzlies organization. No, Tony Allen is not back on the court. He has taken a player development position with the Grizzlies G-League team the Memphis Hustle. He will be excellent in that role, developing players’ defensive skills and grit & grind mentality.

The Daily Memphian has a report on the St. Louis Cardinals Caravan that stopped in Memphis yesterday.

Also in The Daily Memphian today: Mud Island has a new Trail of Tears historical marker. Indian tribes passed through Memphis, making their way to the western territories after having been evicted from the land that then made up the states.

Finding a lot of cool stuff in my data science studies… question for you… for the period 1969-1988, what day of the year had the most births in the US? No fair Googling to cheat. I’ll give the answer tomorrow.

That’s it for now. The office is closed Monday, so I have a three-day weekend. Leading off at Bardog this morning, then playing it by ear after that. Back tomorrow with more news.

I just checked the MemphisWeather.net forecast, and their second-week prediction maps for January 24-30 are exactly what we do not want to see this time of year: temperatures projected to be below average and precipitation projected to be above average. We’ll have to keep an eye on that one.

Monday evening from 6 to 8, Wiseacre Brewing Co. will team up with Old Dominick Distillery for a collaboration at the Downtown Slider Inn. They’ll have their Gotta Get Up to Get Down coffee stout aged in Old Dominick Huling Station Bourbon barrels, as well as Ananda aged in Southern Gin barrels. In addition, there will be a few Wiseacre-Old Dominick beer cocktails that will be sold all day Monday.

If you’re off Monday, may I suggest the following plan?

• Noon: Visit the National Civil Rights Museum, free that day, and also check out the activities going on outside on the stage
• 2:30: Attend the National Civil Rights Museum’s Sports Legacy Award Symposium in the Grizzlies’ practice facility at FedExForum. This year’s award winners are Sheryl Swoops, Doug Williams, Robert Parish, and Caron Butler.
• 4:00 MLK Day game, Grizzlies vs. New Orleans Pelicans at FedExForum
• 6:30: Slider Inn for the Wiseacre/Old Dominick collaboration

For those who can’t make the events in person, the award symposium will be broadcast on Fox Sports Southeast and the game will be nationally televised on TNT.

It’s always nice to hear that our Memphis Tigers alumni are doing well, and one did well this week: Jeremiah Martin signed a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets. Under the terms of that contract, Martin will play primarily for Brooklyn’s G-League team, the Long Island Nets, but can spend up to 45 days on the Brooklyn Nets’ roster (and get paid NBA money for every day he’s on there).

South Main Sounds Songwriter Night returns tonight to South Main Sounds, 550 S. Main, from 7 to 9. Performers will include Alexis Taylor, Michael Graber, James Godwin, and Yubu Kazungu.

Memphis 901 FC has released its 2020 schedule. There will be 17 home games, the first of which will be March 7 vs. Indy Eleven. The April 29 and June 3 matches will be featured on ESPN.

If you’re a retailer who wants to give a Downtown location a try without making a long-term commitment, you might want to give the Downtown Memphis’ Commission’s Open on Main 2020 initiative a try. Selected businesses get a storefront on Main, rent-free, for a month or longer. There are certain requirements you must meet including having furniture and inventory to fill the store, and being open a minimum of 5 days a week.

Samite, a former refugee from Uganda, will share his stories in Lessons of Humanity: What My Grandfather Taught Me at the Halloran Centre tomorrow at 10 AM. Samite is a gifted storyteller and his stories are interspersed with vocals along with background music by African instruments.

That’s it for today. Back tomorrow with more news.

The National Civil Rights Museum has a full slate of events planned for King Day on Monday from 8 AM to 6 PM, including free admission to the museum for all. Get free future admissions to the museum by participating in the food drive or blood drive. There will be performances on stage all day long and plenty for kids to do.

The Daily Memphian reports that Downtown Memphis will soon have a monument to suffragists and the role the Tennessee legislature had in ratifying the 19th Amendment. The statue will be located near the U of M law school. Paula Casey, who pushed for the statue, notes that the unanimous support for giving women the vote from the Memphis delegation was what swung the Tennessee legislature to ratify the amendment.

Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers return to the national stage tonight, hosting Cincinnati in a 6 PM game at FedExForum, to be broadcast on ESPN.

A wrestling star who spent a lot of time in Memphis in the 1970s and 1980s passed away yesterday at the age of 75. “Soul Man” Rocky Johnson frequently challenged Jerry Lawler for championships here in Memphis, and he went on to win the WWF tag team championship with Tony Atlas. Rocky was the father of Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock.

I went back to River Time Market & Deli yesterday to get some of that pimiento cheese with bacon to go, and this time I got a photo:

Pam tells me she has ideas for future batches, including ingredients such as jalapenos, red Italian peppers, and Italian salami.

Three medical marijuana dispensaries are set to open in West Memphis. The mayor of West Memphis believes there are Memphians who would consider moving to West Memphis to take advantage of the dispensaries. He is hoping to use tax revenue from medical weed to fund a bus system, which West Memphis has not had since MATA pulled out two years ago.

Pabst is launching a new luxury beer line named Captain Pabst. The line is named for Captain Frederick Pabst, the brewery’s namesake. The first release in the line is an IPA, and it’s available now. As long as they don’t mess with the Cadillac of beers, the Blue Ribbon, I support Pabst in it business expansion.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow with more news.

I’m going to start off today with a food recommendation. Yesterday I checked River Time Market & Deli’s Facebook page to see what soups they had for lunch. They had white bean & ham, which I had not tried there yet, and I walked over after work and ordered a medium bowl to go. When Pam was packing up my order, I saw her take out a sample-sized cup. “I made some pimiento cheese and I want you to try it,” Pam said. “I made it fresh, with bacon.”

Pimiento cheese was one of those foods I was ambivalent toward as a kid – and as an adult. I never hated it, but I never went out of my way to buy it at a grocery store or order it as a restaurant. My attitude toward pimiento cheese was one of, “Meh, what’s the point?”

That sample cup from River Time, though, made me understand the point! The bacon made it nice and smoky and full of flavor. I will most likely go back today and see if I can order some of it to go. If you work Downtown and you have not yet been to this little deli on Court Square next to Blue Plate Cafe, you are missing a treasure. I don’t get off work until 1 so y’all don’t eat all the pimiento cheese before I get there.

You know people ain’t got no common sense when it’s necessary to hang a sign like this one in a restroom:

The Grizzlies secured another win last night, and this one was not against an NBA bottom-feeder… it was against the Houston Rockets, a playoff team led by James Harden, one of the top-tier players in the league. That makes it six straight for the Grizzlies.

Another look at the standings reveals the situation in the Western Conference. There are 7 good teams, with winning percentages ranging from .825 to .575. There are 7 not-so-good teams, with winning percentages ranging from .463 to .366. Last but not least (well, yes, least) is Golden State coming in at .214. There are 8 playoff spots, so the best of the not-so-good teams will make it.

Unless, that is, you look at it a different way… with 6 wins in a row, it could be argued that the Grizzlies are maturing faster than expected, and are on the path to move out of not-so-good status and join the list of good teams. At this point Memphis is only 3 wins away from .500.

The Grizzlies are getting noticed outside of our city, as well. From Bleacher Report: Ja Morant is torching defenses and becoming NBA’s newest must-see sensation. By the way, I didn’t have to dig deep into Bleacher Report’s NBA section to find that article; it was in the number-two position on the BR home page when I looked there this morning. Ja is a big deal. Unless Zion Williamson averages 30/10 for the rest of the season upon his return, the Grizzlies’ point-guard looks like the favorite for Rookie of the Year.

Your next chance to see the Grizzlies will be Friday, when they take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at FedExForum at 7 PM. First 5000 fans will get a Ja Morant pocket square. This will be a Hardwood Classics night with the team in their throwback Vancouver Grizzlies 25th anniversary uniforms playing on the alternate court that has elements of all the Grizzlies teams over the years.

I discovered a really useful tech trick this week. If you need to free up space in your Gmail account, type size:1000000 into Gmail’s search box. It will return all your emails that have attachments that amount to 1 MB or more in size. You can then pick and choose which ones to delete.

The final AP and coaches’ poll football rankings have been released, and Memphis finished number 17 in both, their highest end-of-year ranking since 1963.

I’ll wrap up with a couple of links that I discovered yesterday. These won’t be of interest to most of you, but my fellow computer nerds will appreciate them.

• OnlineGDB – online compiler, interpreter, and debugger for 20 different languages. Really useful for trying out code snippets to see what they do.
• Regex101 – fantastic way to learn about regular expressions. Put a regular expression in and the site will tell you exactly what it does. You can then test any string to see if it’s a match for the regex or not.

I feel like I have slightly less news today than most days; that’s because I came across a really interesting book while eating lunch yesterday and spent most of the rest of the day reading it. Off to work. Back tomorrow with more news.

 

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory kicks off a week at the Orpheum, with 8 performances between tonight and Sunday. There are no Golden Tickets to get in, but there are $20 student/teacher/hero rush tickets for the Wednesday performance.

Old Dominick Distillery celebrates a Birthday at the Bar Thursday during the hours its sampling room is open from 2 to 10 PM. This will be a celebration of the 177th birthday of the distillery’s founder, Domenico Canale. All day long there will be Old Dominick birthday punch drinks for only $5. At 7 there will be cupcakes and hors d’oeuvres honoring the founder’s heritage. Jennifer Biggs of The Daily Memphian has more info about the birthday celebration.

Oh. one more thing that’s happening at Old Dominick Thursday: At 7 Kevin Cerrito will host a special whiskey-themed Cerrito Trivia night. There’s no need to RSVP for this one. Just show up and you’ll be good to play.

The New Wing Order food truck will hold a New Flavors Release Party at Wiseacre Brewing Co. this Saturday from 2:30 to 8 PM. That day the brewery will have a wing flight pairing each new wing flavor with a sampler of Wiseacre beer. Follow the food truck on Facebook for a preview of the new flavors this week. Already announced as an addition to the regular menu: the Spicy Garlic Wings, their most popular monthly special of 2019, made with traditional Buffalo sauce, fresh garlic, and other spices.

Diamond Dave is doing a Sunday Fun Day British Bingo this Sunday at Belle Tavern from 4 to 7. I’m never able to make his Wednesday bingo sessions because that’s my trivia night around the corner, but Sunday? I could get down with some bingo in the late afternoon. It’s free to play and a lot of fun. Unless Dave has changed the format, there are six rounds with $100 in bar cash total given away.

What a fine victory by LSU last night, proving itself among the greatest national championship teams of all time. I wonder how many Clemson fans will call in sick to work today because they got hammered watching their team lose.

Michael Nelson of The Daily Memphian has an excellent op-ed piece about how late NBA commissioner David Stern embraced Memphis. Stern embraced the civil rights movement and wanted to bring NBA basketball to mid-sized cities. Most definitely worth 5 minutes of your time to read.

That’s it. I am outta here. Back tomorrow.

It was a good sports weekend for the state of Tennessee. The Titans won, advancing to the AFC championship game. The Grizzlies won yesterday, holding on to their 8th place in the NBA’s Western Conference. The Tigers snapped a two-game losing streak after trailing South Florida by as much as 14 yesterday.

Loflin Yard will hold another Titans watch party for the AFC championship game next Sunday, January 19, at 2 PM. I notice there’s no mention of dollar Fireball this time around.

People ask me, do you hate the Tennessee Titans as much as you hate the Tennessee Vols? No. I’ve got nothing against the Titans and have no desire to see them lose. I’m not really an NFL guy but if I had to pick a couple of teams to root for, I’d pick the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers because I think they have the best fan cultures in the NFL. The converse is why I root for whoever is playing the Vols; they have the worst fan culture in college sports.

The Grizzlies are back in action tomorrow night, with a game against the Houston Rockets at FedExForum at 7. It will be adoptable pet night and the first 5000 fans there get a free Grizzlies 2020 Team Pet Calendar. Tomorrow’s game will also the the halfway point, the 41st game of an 82-game season. I don’t think too many analysts projected Memphis to have 18 or 19 wins halfway through, having projected the Grizz’s wins in the high 20s for the entire 82.

Those of you running Windows 7 on your computers, take heed: Microsoft ends support for that operating system tomorrow. What does that mean? If a vulnerability is discovered in Windows 7 on the 15th or after and is exploited by hackers, Microsoft will not issue a patch to fix it. Lifehacker has the answer to, Am I screwed if I don’t upgrade Windows 7 by January 15?

To my friends who are in technical fields, I highly recommend getting a Medium.com subscription. You can tell Medium what your interests are, and it will tailor a daily email to those interests, as well as tailor its website content. Every day I receive an email with links to about 20 stories, one to three or four of which are directly relevant to the projects I am working on. It is so worth the $5 a month, and it’s a great answer to a technical interview’s question of “What do you do to stay current on the latest trends in your field?” They’re not just for techies, by the way: They have great articles on food, dating and relationships, psychology, and much, much more.

The Daily Memphian has a tale of two bridges, a story of the Harahan and Hernando de Soto bridges, which light up in the evenings to greet those arriving in Memphis from the west.

I decided to leave the Memphis Sandwich Clique Facebook group yesterday. I am grateful to them for all I have learned about where to get delicious  sandwiches (“dank sammies” to use their lingo) in Memphis. I am especially grateful to the group for introducing me to River Time Market & Deli, and its owners Pam and Bill who have become friends of mine. However, lately (especially this weekend) it seems like the group is more about the moderators than about the sandwiches. I got tired of it. I am still a member of There are many other foods besides sandwiches that are great and will continue to post there from time to time.

YOGA! Downtown Yoga has two workshop series coming up:

• Myofascial Release for Everyone, 4 dates between January 16 and April 16. The class is said to help increase mobility, get circulation flowing, and reduce muscle soreness.
• Shaolin Qin Na Joint Locks Series, 10 dates between February 1 and April 11. In these classes you’ll learn how to neutralize one or more joints of another person, taking away their ability to attack. It’s one of the four categories taught in any Chinese martial art.

The Flyer reports that Memphis Tourism recently rolled out a new Music Hub website. The site does a lot to promote one of the city’s greatest assets, its music. Have a look

It’s the Clemson Tigers vs. the LSU Tigers in the NCAA Division 1 football championship game tonight at 7 PM on ESPN. I will be solidly behind the purple and gold for this one. Probably I will watch the game at the Blind Bear. Although, it might be interesting to watch the table at Max’s Sports Bar, knowing that the corner table crew will be a house divided tonight.

That’s it for this Monday. Back tomorrow with more news.

Well, I don’t have much in the way of news today. If you like Memphis basketball, turn on

• ESPN2 at 3 PM for the Tigers vs. the South Florida Bulls
• Fox Sports Southeast at 5 PM for the Grizzlies vs. the Golden State Warriors

My first non-holiday week with the new laptop has been a success. I’ve worked through 165 pages worth of examples from the data science/Python book I have been reading, learning the numpy and pandas libraries. I have installed Linux Mint and Ubuntu virtual machines on my laptop, although I’m thinking about getting rid of Linux Mint because it doesn’t prompt for a password when I sudo a command (i.e. run it with root/administrator privileges). That kind of bothers me. I have installed the Apache web server, PHP, and MySQL on the Ubuntu machine.

I still plan on making my study of Python and data science my main project, but I have a project in mind for PHP too. I want to build a REST API in PHP in three different ways: using the Laravel framework, using the Zend framework, and using the CodeIgniter library. I want to expose service endpoints that return JSON when called, then write client-side code to consume that data using Angular, React, and possibly one or two other client-side frameworks/libraries. Starting out, I won’t care if these projects look pretty, but eventually I want to apply the Twitter Bootstrap layout framework so they look good on both a phone and on a screen.

I want to build a portfolio on GitHub… it’s the kind of thing I should have done years ago, but I came home so mentally burned out from sitting in cubicle hell every day that I never had the motivation to do so.

For the first time in years I am excited about what I can do in the world of computing. Not for the sake of earning a paycheck, but because I enjoy it.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow.