Friday update

– I’ve been meaning to say thanks to Leanne the Diva for mentioning my blog, and my Deal of the Week series in particular, in her new iDiva blog at the Commercial Appeal. The CA is starting to embrace the role of bloggers as a means of providing relevant content. iDiva is one of the new blogs to appear on the site, and it is geared toward women, with new posts every day divided into about a dozen different sub-blogs.

– Lots to do this weekend… I’ve already mentioned the Beale Street festivities for St. Patrick’s Day tonight, and the parade tomorrow. There’s also a lot going on at Peabody Place, where Venus Mission, Herman’s Circus, and DJ Tree will be performing. If it’s like past years, they’ll be selling green beer in the mall.

– Also tonight, there’s ShamROCK at Big Foot Lodge. A $10 donation gets you access to a DJ and $2 cups of 34 oz. green Big Foot Beer, as well as specials on green alcohol. Prize to the person wearing the most green. Donations benefit PALS of Porter Leath. This should be a good one – Big Foot is known to throw quite the party.

– Pat O’s is having a St. Pat’s celebration and charging a $10 cover (unusual for them – admission is almost always free there). If you want to go to Pat O’s, here’s a better idea – buy a $10 wristband, which will get you in not only Pat O’s, but all the clubs on Beale (except Alfred’s, which sucks anyway). Wristbands tend to sell out around 10:30-11:00, so come early. (Note: You might want to ask the doorman at Pat O’s if the wristband will get you in before you buy one – I think it will but I’m not positive about this.)

– Tomorrow (Saturday) night should draw an … um, er, interesting… crowd downtown with Kid Rock performing at the FedExForum. I’m steering clear of that scene; for some good music, check out FreeWorld at the Flying Saucer.

– The Happy Mexican at the corner of Second, St.Martin, and Huling is now open, if you are looking for a place to eat before you head out to St. Pat’s festivities or Kid Rock. Haven’t been there yet – am curious whether it can measure up to Rio Loco, the current gold standard for Mexican downtown.

– The WWE Supershow, featuring a Smackdown! taping and a live Monday Night Raw, will be at the FedExForum on Monday. I’m still looking for a source for free tickets if anybody knows of one…

– Speaking of the WWE, chairman Mr.McMahon is on the cover of this months Muscle & Fitness Magazine. They call him “the world’s most intense 60-year-old” and have pics of him working out with his son-in-law Triple H, one of the WWE’s top wrestlers. They give details of his workout regimen. Apparently he can keep up with Triple H in the gym, and actually out-lifts him on some of the machines.

– By the way… one of Mr.McMahon’s exercises is called the “Romanian deadlift.” Just thought that deserved to be mentioned.

– Financial guru Suze Orman will speak at the U of M on Tuesday, March 21 at the campus’s Rose Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

– There’s rumors of a new 400-unit condo complex to be built on the east side of Fourth between Union and Gayoso. I wonder if that means they are going to tear down the King’s Court Motel? If Downtown can get rid of King’s Court and the Greyhound Bus Station in the same year, it really will be hard out here for a pimp. It will be good for Downtown’s residents, tourists, and employees, though.

– Last week downtown, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference met and chose Bill Frist as the man they’d like to see as the Republican nominee for 2008. That’s why people were walking around Beale Street wearing “Frist Is My Leader” stickers. Here’s a website with info about Bill Frist.

– The author of one of my all-time favorite books, The 48 Laws of Power, has a new book out: The 33 Strategies of War. I flipped through a few chapters at Bookstar last night and it looks good. However, I didn’t buy it there, because Amazon has it for $9 less.

And that’s the report for Friday… 8 more hours in the cubicle, then it will be time for 48 hours of drinking!