Nominations are now open for the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis 2020 awards. There are several publications that run “best of” awards in this city, but the Flyer poll is the gold standard. Let your voice be heard!
Chris Herrington’s observations in Midtown this weekend match mine Downtown for the same time period. It’s not that a large number of people are anti-mask or anti-social distancing; it’s that they’re apathetic. Wearing a mask is important, but it’s less important to them than ordering another vodka cran or going to a pool party. I hate to say it but I think it will take a rollback to Phase 1 to get people to pay attention.
I’ve decided I’m going to start taking Sundays off from going out. My observation this past Sunday was that there is too much risk and too little reward. I have a number of books to read that I expected to get to during the house arrest, but didn’t because Memphis re-opened a couple of weeks earlier than I thought we would. That’ll be my plan for this Sunday and the next few, unless something unexpected and fun comes my way.
Memphis 901 FC has made a return to full-contact training. Players and staff were tested for COVID-19 last week and all the tests came back negative.
Now that the schedule has been released for the NBA’s seeding games, the Grizzlies are still favored to make the playoffs, but not by as much as they were previously. They were at -155 (bet $155 to win $100), but now I see them at either -115 or -120. The New Orleans Pelicans, with the easiest schedule of any team in Orlando, are probably the biggest threat. Zion Williamson’s a nice kid, I’m sure, but I’m going to be rooting for teams that play the Pels they way I root for whomever is playing the University of Tennessee.
Loflin Yard is bringing back Girls’ Night Out on Thursdays. From 5 to 10 PM ladies can get half-off bottles of wine and large cheeseboards for the price of a small.
The new version of Apple WatchOS will be able to detect hand washing motions and will remind you to wash for 20 seconds. I’m sure local health experts like Dr. Manoj Jain, Dr. Alisa Haushalter, and Karen from Facebook will applaud this new feature.
Very interesting article worth a read, especially those of you in the restaurant industry: Our ghost kitchen future
Protesters continue to camp outside Memphis City Hall in protest of the Memphis Police Department budget. They’ve been there a full two weeks now. Damn, one protester quit her job so she could protest full-time. That’s commitment. The protesters say that if some of the money used to fund the police is diverted to meet everyone’s basic needs, crime will decline in Memphis. The protesters have also created a community garden outside City Hall.
If you ate at Babalu at Overton Square last week, you might want to go get a COVID-19 test. The restaurant is closed indefinitely after an employee tested positive for the virus. The employee’s last shift was Friday.
That’s it for now. Back tomorrow.