Wednesday update

MLK50 day has arrived and the eyes of the world are on Memphis. Here’s hoping we present ourselves as a city of peace, progress and dignity, and not one of violence and divisiveness.

Allow extra time and plan alternate routes if you go Downtown today. The area around Main, Talbot, Second and GE Patterson is closed to traffic. Also, according to TDOT Smartway, Danny Thomas is closed from Madison to Crump, and portions of Madison, Beale, Pontotoc, Vance, Mississippi and Crump near Danny Thomas are also closed. The streets southwest of Crump and Danny Thomas are closed as well, in the area of Mason Temple where Dr. King gave his final speech.

There will be a nationwide bell toll for Dr. King this evening at 6:01.

Bass Pro at the Pyramid will have a job fair/hiring event for its two restaurants 10 AM to 7 PM this Thursday and 8 AM to noon this Friday. Interviews will be done on site for server, cook, host, busser and steward positions.

Dweezil Zappa plays the New Daisy tomorrow night, Thursday, April 5 at 8 PM. It’s a stop on the “Choice Cuts” world tour. This is an all ages show and tickets are $25-90.

Details of Penny Hardaway’s contract have been reported by the CA. The new Memphis Tigers men’s basketball coach will get $1.3 million his first year, $1.6 million his second, and $1.9 million his third, with an option for contract negotiation after year two. He will receive a $300,000 bonus in any year where average turnstile count at FedExForum exceeds $12,000. He will also receive a $50,000 bonus any year season ticket sales exceed $5 million.

Jerry Lawler’s Bar and Grill on Beale Street will host a watch party for the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame inductions this Friday at 7.

If you drink Stella Artois bottles, switch to something else for a while. They have been recalled due to contamination by glass particles.

From Rolling Stone: Hear Elvis perform a rare, stripped-back take of “Suspicious Minds”

Maya Angelou would have turned 90 today. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time” is my favorite quote of hers. I definitely kept that in mind when I responded to a Facebook friend request a few months ago.

Michael Vick is hosting a football camp in Memphis this weekend. If I wrote that this is a sign our city is going to the dogs, would that be inappropriate?

It’s time for “what I had for lunch in my Germantown work neighborhood.” Yesterday I had to make a Target run to get diapers for Panda’s diaper party, and I learned something valuable: How to get to the Target at Poplar and 240 without ever setting tires on Poplar. North on Kirby to Quail Hollow to Briarcrest to Ridgeway Loop Road. Got there in only 3 minutes. After getting the diapers, I ate at (appropriately, considering who I was shopping for) Panda Express in the same center.

I had the Beijing Bowl, with crispy beef, bell peppers and onions in a sweet-tangy sauce over a choice of side (I chose fried rice). It was my first time ever at a Panda Express and I liked a couple of things about it. First of all, the food is already prepared. If there’s no line, you’re sitting down with your food in about 2 minutes. The other thing I like is that I can see the kitchen and see that it is clean. In some Chinese restaurants I wonder about that. And, of course, any time I can get lunch in East Memphis/Germantown that’s not at a crappy fast food place for under $10, that is good.

That’s it for this post. Back tomorrow.