The Memphis Flyer reports that Downtown has a new coffee shop. Heaven has opened at 333 Adams. This is a spacious coffee shop with 5000 square feet spread over two stories, plush chairs, and a good food menu. I had to type in the address into Google Maps to see exactly where this place was. It appears to be at the southeast corner of the intersection of Danny Thomas and Adams. That area does not see much pedestrian foot traffic – well, pedestrian foot traffic that can afford coffee and a panini. With several coffee shops on the beaten path Downtown, they’re really going to have to be superior to attract a lot of customers from the neighborhood. I wish them all the luck in the world though.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan is bringing his Secrets and Pies Tour to the Orpheum on August 17.
I learned something about the restaurant and bar industry this week. A while back, I was in the habit of checking my balance on one of my debit cards every day. One Thursday, the balance had dropped by nearly $50, even though I knew I had only spent $18 the night before. This week I found out that some bars and restaurants batch out their credit/debit card tips once a week. So that extra thirty dollars or so were all the tips I put on the card for seven days, not just one. Makes sense.
Wiseacre posted that they will open their taproom at 1 PM today for the World Golf Championships. Anyone know what channel that’s going to be on? It doesn’t appear to be on the Golf Channel.
Local Memphis has an article about the support Magan Hall has received from the community in her battle against cancer. Her fellow members of the Bluff City Mafia have fundraised for her treatment, as has Memphis 901 FC and Zach Myers, the lead singer of Shinedown. Magan was named honorary captain of 901 FC for their match against Nashville last week.
Monday is National Chicken Wing Day and Hooters is celebrating with $15.99 all-you-can-eat wings all day long.
I’ve been asked where the wrestlers will go to party after Tuesday night’s episode of Smackdown Live wraps up at FedExForum. Well, first of all, wrestlers don’t party like they used to. Gone are the days of Ric Flair routinely running up $1000 bar tabs; of Andre the Giant drinking 128 beers in a single day; of Jake Roberts peeing on a hotel carpet because he was too drunk to make it to the bathroom. A lot of wrestlers prefer to go back to the hotel and play video games nowadays. However, I have been told that Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair have been known to go to the Flying Saucer after shows. Sasha is not on the road right now so if Charlotte hits the Saucer, I would expect her to be with Andrade who she is dating.
Of course, Jerry Lawler’s Bar and Grill on Beale is usually a good bet. However, most of the current crop of Smackdown wrestlers have never come through Memphis and don’t have a connection to Lawler. My guess as to the most likely to show up there would be R-Truth, who spent some time in Memphis under the name K-Kwik in the early 2000s.
Those who know me – especially those who play trivia with me – know I am not big on watching movies. However, I might go see one on November 1st, about the woman who should have been on the $20 bill, Harriet Tubman.
Mashable has some Google settings you should enable right now to protect your privacy.
Here’s a recipe for the rectangular school lunchroom pizza. Of course, if you don’t feel like doing the work in the kitchen, Max’s Sports Bar has it on their menu. If you want, you can have them add extra cheese, bacon, or any of the toppings from the sandwich bar there.
Well, I guess I should have kept watching the Mueller hearings. I kept up with the hearings on FiveThirtyEight’s live coverage. The morning session was mostly a waste of time, but in the afternoon session Mueller agreed that Russians meddled in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump, that the Trump campaign knew about the Russian assistance and welcomed it, and that no one from the Trump campaign reported the meddling by a foreign power to the FBI.
Not that it matters. The House may vote to impeach Trump, but even if that does happen, the Senate won’t vote to remove him. As Trump himself has said, he could shoot a man in the middle of Fifth Avenue and his base would still support him.
Yesterday I talked about how Congress has become a bunch of grandstanding bozos who have abandoned civility and cooperation. I have a reading assignment for anyone who chooses to take it. Read a biography of Gerald Ford. Not the part about Watergate and becoming vice-president and then president; read the years 1949-1973, when Ford was a member of the House. He was the very picture of treating his colleagues with respect no matter which side of the aisle they sat, of working out win-win deals for everyone. He was a Congressman who was there to serve his constituents, not accumulate power (although he eventually did become Minority Leader).
Oh, read the part about his years as the center for the Michigan Wolverines football team too. He nearly refused to play in a game because of discrimination of a black teammate. The only reason he relented on his stance was at the insistence of that teammate.
All right, that’ll do it for this post. Back tomorrow.