Paul Ryburn’s Journal

I’ve been getting a record amount of spam lately, with really idiotic subject lines. For example:

dampen Pharrgmaceuticalbandicoot PkharmacyPsharmacy ranunculusPharmmacy cistern

I know that these things only need a success rate of like 1 sale per million e-mails to be profitable, but is there even ONE person strange enough to go, “I’m gonna buy my drugs at [...]

- I’m getting a new digital camera! It’s an Olympus IR-300. 5 megapixels, 3x zoom, and 19 different modes to handle all kinds of lighting. It should be here tonight or tomorrow, so be on the lookout for some new Romanian pics this weekend. I’ll also be able to shoot some new pics for Memphis [...]

So last night, I was on the Madison rooftop for their weekly party, and I ran into one of my regular blog readers, a redhead named Lacey. So, we were chatting, and then she says this…

“I stuck my hair in an electrical socket today”

I stood there for a moment, trying to imagine how someone could accidentally [...]

Last night, The Rapscallions, trivia team consisting of No. 10 Main neighbors Imran, Carmel and myself went to the Flying Saucer for the weekly Trivia Bowl. We faced tough questions about buffets, space shuttles and chefs among other things, and managed to finish a very respectable third.

I was expecting a crap prize for third place but [...]

- Saw a lot of good T-shirts. One read: “I can only please one person a day. I PICK ME.” Thumbs up for having the right attitude.

- I signed petitions to demand a paper trail for voting machines, so there’s a hardcopy record, making elections harder to rig as happened in Florida in 2000; and to [...]

If you want to have fun and support Hurricane Katrina victims at the same time, here are two events coming up this week.

Wednesday night, September 21, the Flying Saucer will hold a “Buy the Beer, Keep the Glass” night with glasses costing $20 and 100% of the proceeds going to the Red Cross.

Thursday night, September 22, [...]

Forwarded message from Terre Gorham of the Downtowner magazine:

As most of you know, the Blue Monkey Downtownburned to the ground Sunday morning.

The owner plans to rebuild, but he needs our help! Andthis is the kind of help that provides a GOOD TIME, toboot!

Please soak off, air dry, and save your wine labels. Alsosave your wine corks. [...]

- New panhandler to avoid at all costs: Those of you who lived in Midtown in the mid-late 1990s may remember a blond woman, about 5 feet tall, somewhat overweight, who would beg for money and was extremely nasty. One day she approached me in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot, and when I politely refused she [...]

(Special thanks to Carmel, also known as Ms. It’s-Almost-A-Tube-Top-It-Has-Straps, for loaning me her digital camera.)

This is Liana (lee-AH-nah). Liana is the sensitive Romanian – if you walk out on a $2.50 Pint Night tab without paying her, she will cry. She thinks Ron, the drummer from the Dempseys, is cute, and upon hearing that he is [...]

If there’s such a thing as a silver lining to this Katrina disaster… I haven’t heard a thing about this stupid controversy about whether three Memphis parks should be renamed in almost two weeks.

For those of you who think the parks should be renamed, take solace in this fact… a pigeon is probably crapping on [...]