Wednesday update: Slider Inn opens this morning at 11 AM

Slider Inn Downtown will be open for business this morning at 11. For the first two days they are only open from 11 AM to 7 PM. Friday they will start their regular hours of 11 AM to 3 AM. Slider Inn will be 21 and up from 8 PM to close.

I guess ESPN was right when they made the Oregon Ducks an 84% favorite to beat Memphis. They did just that last night, the Tigers looking like absolute garbage, turning over the ball, clanking 3s. Has James Wiseman been watching tape of Jaren Jackson Jr.? Two fouls in the first five minutes. Geez.

The community will continue to support Wiseman, though. Longshot has announced that a new menu item named for him, Wise Fries, will be available the day of every Tigers home game. It is made with pastor sausage, queso, sweet potato and russet potato fries, enchilada sauce, lime sour cream, baby Romaine, and pico de gallo. Yum!

It’s 19 outside as I type this. Fox 13 Memphis has a story about how outside workers dress for the weather. Interviewed is Downtown’s own Shun Windless, owner of The Lifter shuttle that will take you around Downtown. Shun is good people and I highly recommend this mode of transportation if you don’t feel like walking in the cold.

The football Tigers came up three spots to number 18 in last night’s College Football Playoff poll. Cincinnati is still one spot higher, at 17. Boise State, Navy, and Appalachian State are also in the top 25 and in the conversation for the Group of 5 Cotton Bowl berth.

The Peabody’s annual tree lighting ceremony will happen Friday, November 29, the day after Thanksgiving. Local choirs will sing all day. Following the 5 PM duck march, they will light the tree and Santa and Mrs. Claus will hand out holiday candy.

Last week I had to go get a cracked debit card replaced. It was the end of my blue First Tennessee card and the beginning of my white First Horizon debit card. One week into having it, I did something I have not done in 11 years last night… I left my debit card at a bar, the Silly Goose specifically. Fortunately, the people there know my routine well, and someone ran it over to me at the Blind Bear around the corner. I guess I was more likely to forget my debit card because it was white, and did not stand out among the receipts the way a blue card would. Keep that in mind if you are a First Horizon customer who switches over to the new card.

Yesterday was a day I absolutely dreaded: driver’s license renewal. The Downtown County Clerk office has been known as the hidden gem of the license renewal stations, the one where you didn’t have to take a half day off work to stand in a line that snakes around a building. However, a couple of friends told me it does not enjoy that reputation so much any more, with wait times of an hour and a half or more being typical. All morning at work I had an “ugh” feeling as I anticipated my afternoon.

I came home from work, ate lunch, then walked down to the clerk’s office on Washington, entering the building at 1:50 PM. There were only three people in line! By 2:25 I walked out with my new, temporary paper license, my permanent one to arrive in the mail in about a month. 35 minutes was much less than I expected! However, by the time I walked out with my license, the line had grown to about a dozen people. That leads me to believe 1:45 or so is the time to go. It makes sense – those who renewed in their lunch hour have gone back to work, and those who took the afternoon off to get it done haven’t arrived yet. It’s an extra $8 fee to renew at the Downtown location, but in my opinion it’s well worth it in terms of time and frustration saved.

The man in front of me had a helper with him because he didn’t know how to read. That made me sad. It made me feel like we’ve failed as a society, letting a member of our society go so long without a key skill you need to survive in modern times. I felt like telling the man, “When the Cossitt Library opens in a few months, if you want to meet me there I’ll teach you to read.”

Xfinity, which loves to screw its customers for more money every chance it gets, has moved Fox Sports Southeast channel 831 that a higher tier. So you have to pay for an upgrade in order to see Grizzlies games. That absolutely sucks. The Grizzlies play a road game tonight at Charlotte at 6 PM.

There will be a Couples Dance Class tonight at 6:30 in the third floor event space of Puck Food Hall, 409 S. Main. Cost is $20 and the class is presented by Cat’s Ballroom.

Off to work. My job has taken much more of an IT focus this past week, as we attempt to solve a problem that has never been solved before. I’ve been using tools I’ve known for years as well as new ones. It’s really been fun.

Speaking of work, it’s about that time. Back tomorrow with more news.