Prediction (hope I’m wrong) and Sunday news

I’ve always had really strong intuition. Outcomes of events come to me days before they happen. I remember back in 2005, when a bunch of us were brunching at Sleep Out Louie’s. We had the TV tuned to the weather, and Hurricane Katrina was about a day away from making landfall. “It won’t be as bad as the weather people are predicting. It never is,” said one of the guys at the bar.

I thought to myself – and I didn’t really consciously have this thought, it just came to me – “It’s going to fill up New Orleans like milk fills up a bowl of cereal.” I just knew it was going to be a disaster on scale with the 1872 Chicago fire and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Unfortunately that turned out to be the case.

Well, yesterday I got another intuition and I pray that I am wrong about this one. I had just gotten out to Bardog, and after chatting with the other regulars and the bartender a bit, I pulled up Twitter on my phone. Twitter is my main way for keeping up with the news. I follow plenty of local and national sources. I learned there had been a second earthquake 150 miles north of Los Angeles, a magnitude 7.1 quake. News analysts were calling the 6.4 quake the day before a foreshock.

At that point, I had a thought, and again I did not consciously think it. It just came to me.

“No, the 7.1 quake is a foreshock too.”

I just have a really bad feeling the two quakes are foreshocks for an 8-point-something quake that will happen within the next two weeks. Back in the days when iGoogle personal home pages were a thing, I had a live earthquake monitor widget. I would see that foreshock pattern from time to time on the Pacific Rim – Japan, Chile, Indonesia. I hope I’m wrong, but I think it may be California’s turn.

Loflin Yard and The Vault posted yesterday that they would open early for the Women’s World Cup final. So the complete list of places opening early (or already being open by 10 on a normal basis) are

  • Downtown: Brass Door, Flying Saucer, Silly Goose, Majestic, Loflin Yard, The Vault, Max’s Sports Bar
  • Midtown: Railgarten, Celtic Crossing, Sweet Grass/Next Door

Yesterday was the first day NBA teams could officially comment on trades they have negotiated. Grizzlies owner Robert Pera commented that Mike Conley’s #11 jersey will be retired. He has made similar comments about the jerseys of Zach Randolph, Tony Allen, and Marc Gasol in the past.

If you want to try a different beer, Memphis Made Brewing Co. has Prince Mango on tap this weekend. This beer is a Zambodian IPA with aromas of frickle pear, pink zorbel berries, and overripe mango. At 8% ABV, it will make you feel like you’ve been on the spaceship to the planet Zambodia and back.

Orpheum president Brett Batterson is warning the public about the secondary ticket market for upcoming show Hamilton, which starts its Memphis run at the theater Tuesday. Tickets are being sold online for amounts like $750 and even $2000. Batterson said tickets can be had for much more reasonable rates through the theater’s ticket office, and tickets are being released right up to the days the shows occur.

The Brass Door has announced they will be closed Monday-Thursday to give their staff time to recover from a very hectic Women’s World Cup schedule. They will re-open Friday for lunch and will resume normal hours after that.

This is funny:

New Wing Order has announced that their special wing flavor for the month of July is Spicy Garlic. I will let you know the next time their truck is scheduled to make an appearance Downtown.

There will be a family-friendly birthday bash at Mud Island River Park this Saturday to celebrate summer birthdays. There will be a splash pad, inflatables, games, food trucks, music, hula hooping, an obstacle course and more.

Our city’s pro soccer team has introduced the Memphis 901 FC Collection:

By the way, I want to send compliments to whoever is doing the Memphis 901 FC Twitter account. You are KILLING IT, sir or ma’am. I had to scroll way back in the 901 FC Twitter feed to find the tweet above, but that’s a good thing. Yesterday was game day and I didn’t get a chance to watch. That feed made it possible for me to re-live the game as it happened. Everything from injury reports, to video of goals and other key plays, to substitutions, to the final score and post-game celebrations of the victory – it was all right there. Very well done. Give @Memphis901FC a follow on Twitter if you haven’t already.

I’m headed to the Silly Goose to cheer on the USWNT. Back tomorrow with more news.