I led off yesterday at the Memphis Farmers Market. I have said for years that there are so many reasons to go there beyond fresh produce. Here are three I discovered yesterday.

Beautiful day to be out at the Market and not the least bit crazy out there. After that I walked over to my home away from home on the south side, Max’s Sports Bar, for Purple Drank.

I posted a photo to Facebook and Rahul commented “that looks good, what’s in it?”

I replied, “Purple stuff and ice.” I mean, seriously? Do you go to the counter at KFC and demand to know what the 11 herbs and spices are in the Colonel’s secret recipe? Do you hesitate to put your 75 cents in the vending machine and press the Coke button because you don’t know the formula? It’s Purple Drank. C’mon man.

Prediction: Purple Drank will become iconic in the same way that hot fudge pie is iconic at Westy’s.

Max’s slushie machine is a two holer, and in the second hole he mixed up mint juleps for Kentucky Derby day.

I don’t bring my troll out with me on Music Fest weekend, but she would have loved how this drink matched her hair. It was so beautiful that Max took a photo of it and posted it on social media.

After that I headed north to Pontotoc Lounge to visit Joe who works the Saturday lunch shift, and then I was off to Beale Street to watch the Music Fest freak show. The religious nuts with the huge signs were out.

The street was overrun with these people telling us we’re all sinners and we’re going to burn in everlasting hell. Their kids were handing out comic books with titles like “This Was Your Life.”

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow with more.