I had an outstanding meal last night… after trivia we went to the Downtown Blue Monkey to eat. I had the jerk shrimp po-boy with twice baked potato as my side item. That was probably the best shrimp po-boy I’ve had in Downtown Memphis, topped with tomato, lettuce, and remoulade sauce. And the twice-baked potato… I’ve been saying for years that the potato is the key to the entire operation at the Monkey. If you’ve never had one, you owe it to yourself to skip the fries next time you’re at the Monkey and get the twice-baked potato instead.
Other food notes… one rule most of my friends and I live by is that everything’s better with bacon. Monday morning Dr. Booze reported on a bar that sells bacon-infused vodka. Well, here’s another example of “everything’s better with bacon”… my friend Air Traffic Mike went to Big Foot Lodge and ordered the fried ham and cheese sandwich. It’s slices of cheese wrapped up in thinly sliced ham, deep fried and served on a sandwich. Mmmm. I thought there was no way to improve upon the fried ham and cheese, but Mike did… “and top it off with bacon.” Great job, Mike.
Dr. Booze also posted a wine crossword puzzle recently, if you get bored and feel like doing something other than your job at work today.
A new group called Change Memphis has formed to educate voters on proposed amendments to the city charter, and to increase voter education and turnout in general. It’s the baby of New Path, which has done an excellent job educating the public and getting progressive, service-minded individuals elected, and the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. Now, the MSPJC and I may disagree strongly on the issue of panhandling Downtown, but educating voters is always a good thing. Check out their website, and if you want to help they’re looking for volunteers for school visits, phone bank, and canvassing.
Cancel that big restaurant announcement I promised you a little over a week ago… that deal fell through. However, I may have some big news about a Downtown restaurant/bar to report later today or tomorrow, to make up for it. Check back for details.
I woke up this morning to 36 unread messages in my Inbox. If you’ve e-mailed me in the past day, sorry if I haven’t responded yet. I’ll try to catch up today.
We went to the Monkey after trivia last night as a goodbye dinner to our friend Angie, who returns to Monterrey, Mexico after spending two months here. Hang on, let’s post a pic of Angie.
There ya go. That’s Angie. On the left, obviously. It’s been a pleasure having her here the past two months, and we already miss her. She’ll be able to follow the activities of the gang via my blog and Facebook from her home in Mexico. Hopefully she’ll return soon.
Rumor has it that Barack Obama will announce his running mate today.
All right. Time for work. I’m meeting with the Memphis Chamber at lunch. They asked for my advice on blogging, Facebook and other Web 2.0 stuff. Not sure how much help I’ll be, but I’m certainly willing to give it a try. Anyway, that means I’ll be tied up at lunch, so I’m not sure there will be a lunchtime post. If anything particularly newsworthy comes along I’ll try to find time.