Back on September 23, I told the story of a homeless woman on the Main Street Mall who vomited into a public garbage can, urinated behind it, and then fell backward and hit her head on it, knocking herself out cold. A bystander called 911 and was put on hold for 8 minutes. “If they had been calling about a heart attack, that person would have been dead,” I commented.
Apparently this is not an isolated incident. See this tweet from earlier today:
The man in charge of the Memphis Police 9-1-1 system says the system isn’t broken. I was on hold when I called Monday for almost 15 minutes.
— Mike Matthews (@local24mike) October 14, 2015
I hope Mayor-elect Strickland can get this fixed after he takes office. In the meantime, I would advise my readers not to get shot or stabbed or deathly ill.
For those who travel: Andy Wise reports that if you check into a hotel, get to your room, and then get a call from the front desk asking for your credit card information again, it’s not the front desk or anyone associated with the hotel. If in any doubt, hang up and physically go down to the front desk.
Facebook’s Memories feature is really nice for the most part. It helped me rediscover the PBR MAN costume I wore to a superhero party at the Silly Goose four years ago, and which I am reviving as my Halloween costume this year. However, Facebook doesn’t know what it is displaying for you. What if it displays a memory that reminds you of a really rough time in your life? What if it brings up a photo of an ex or another person it is unpleasant for you to see? Well, one of Facebook’s newest features lets you block particular dates or people from appearing in its memory generator, so that you only see memories of times when things were less shitty.
The Memphis Zoo attempted to house two reptiles from Madagascar in the same exhibit in the herpetarium. One of the two reptiles, a snake, wasn’t too happy about the tortoise that was its new roommate, and attacked the tortoise, biting its head and attempting to wrap its body around the tortoise. They were separated with the help of a zookeeper and both animals are okay.
Video: Felicia of Felicia Suzanne’s shows you how to make the best grits ever.
Heading out for beer unless work calls. Back tomorrow.