Wednesday update: Get Global Cafe delivered Downtown, Pontotoc Lounge open for dinner, and much more

Sometimes the coronavirus pandemic inadvertently causes good things to happen… such as Global Cafe‘s menu being available for Downtown delivery!

Global Cafe offers food prepared by immigrant/refugee chefs. Their current lineup of chefs are from Syria, Sudan, and Venezuela. Their pickup/delivery menu offers family meals as well as their usual menu items. The delivery is a Crosstown Concourse-wide project, so you can order delivery from Saucy Chicken and Curb Market as well.

Fellow 38103’ers, may I make a suggestion? Let’s support this to the extent that Crosstown Concourse doesn’t even consider discontinuing Downtown delivery once the pandemic is over.

Pontotoc Lounge brings back its dinner menu effective today (click image to view in a larger, more readable size).

You can get Pontotoc’s cocktails to go with dinner. Call 901-207-7576 to order.

From WIRED: The rapid spread of boredom across the world is a crisis of its own. This in my opinion is the one of the most under-reported effects of the pandemic. No, it is not as important as the rapid spread of death, but to dismiss it as completely unimportant is wrong. I continue to worry that in a couple of weeks’ time, it will lead a percentage of the population to rebel against the social distancing recommendations; I don’t think it will be a majority of the population, but as author Seth Godin writes, majorities aren’t needed to produce a tipping point.

The pandemic’s economic spread has now affected the Memphis Redbirds organization, who have idled 18 positions.

Warning from a local restaurant owner:

BEWARE!!!!!
Ass hat clown going into local businesses, asking for a manager that worked the night shift. Alleging his wife ordered food last night that had hair in it. Wanted a refund was in a hurry to get back to work. Problem is we don’t serve crabcakes anymore.

5 foot 7ish
Blonde hair
Caucasian
Black long sleeve shirt
Tan camouflage pants
Tan military style boots.

From MATA’s website: “EFFECTIVE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: The Riverfront Trolley Shuttle Bus will detour off Riverside Drive, turn right on Main Street, left on Talbot, right on Second, left on G.E. Patterson, and right on Main Street to head north onto the regular route.”

Bruce V from the Flyer with a valid point about face masks that protect the wearer from viruses and germs:

John Paul Keith is doing a concert next Monday, April 6 for his fans in Europe, but Americans are invited to watch too (1 PM CDT).

Pam and Terry are doing another concert from their patio Friday night. They didn’t list a time but last Friday’s show started at 7.

From the New York Times: A nationwide map plotting people’s temperatures as measured on Internet-connected thermometers indicates that coronavirus restrictions are starting to work. Today is the 13th day since Memphis restaurant dining rooms and bars were ordered to close, and about the 18th day since early-adopter cities like San Francisco started locking down. It was said at the time that it would be more than 10 days before we would see any results, due to the virus’s incubation period.

From the Flyer: A Brookings Insistute study reveals that coronavirus-related job loss in Memphis could top 121,000

I wonder which number is higher:

  1. The number of people who have been saved by Jesus because they read the pamphlets handed out by the religious zealots with the big signs on Beale Street during Music Fest; or
  2. The number of people who decided to stay home during the COVID-19 outbreak because they were surfing Twitter and saw someone who had put “Stay Home” in their screen name.

Air Canada is suspending service between Memphis and Toronto through April 30.

You can get 3 months of Skillshare Premium for free right now. This is like an online continuing education site, where you can learn a variety of skills, including photography, graphic design, cocktail mixing, creative writing, and many more. The free trial is sponsored by Bombay Sapphire.

Calls, emails, or texts about government stimulus checks are scams.

I agree with this Daily Memphian op-ed by former CA editor Leanne Kleinmann. Names of Memphians who die from COVID-19 should be released. This pandemic needs to be made personal so people will take it seriously. As she says, normal times would dictate respecting the privacy of the loved one’s family. These are not normal times.

Now here’s a rare case where I’ll be rooting FOR the virus:

(for those who can’t see the photos in Twitter embeds, the doctor and Vladimir Putin are shaking hands)

William Howard Taft may have lost his title as America’s heaviest president:

That’s it for now. Back later today or tomorrow with more news.