Tuesday update

If you’re looking for a job in the service industry, there’s a chance to become a member of a Memphis restaurant family this week. Aldo’s Pizza Pies Downtown will hold a job fair Wednesday and Thursday of this week, 3 to 7 PM each day. They’re hiring chefs, servers, delivery drivers, managers, and more. If you have experience tossing pies, that’s a plus.

Aldo’s is staffing up at a time of year when things would normally slow down. Perhaps this is another hint that the Health Department may be about to relax the regulations that have strangled Shelby County restaurants and their customers since July.

The folks who run the Saucer think such an announcement will come no later than next week, because they will have a re-opening party September 30 and thereafter will be open Monday-Friday 4-10 and Saturday-Sunday 11-10, with the hope of bringing back weekday lunches soon.

Are the closing times a sign that the Health Department-mandated 10 PM closing time will remain in place? I’d be OK with that. It’s the really stupid regulations (no seating at bar areas, 2-hour window to dine in, must order food to purchase alcohol) that need to go.

I wouldn’t mind seeing them keep contact tracing in place too. That basically requires restaurants to have a doorman at all times, which prevents a lot of idiotic behavior that doesn’t need to be happening during a pandemic.

The owners of The Office @ Uptown are retiring and are planning to sell the business. They hope to find new owners who will keep the restaurant as a neighborhood hub. The Office @ Uptown closed for what they thought would be a week or two when the pandemic hit, so I guess technically they’re on the list of business pandemic casualties. COVID RUINS EVERYTHING.

Holy crap, I may soon be able to say that I went to college with a Supreme Court Justice. I hope not though. Amy was two classes behind me, I believe, or possibly three. This afternoon I’ll try to find my yearbook from senior year. Fellow Rhodent or not, she’s a poor replacement for Notorious RBG.

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra returns with the latest in its Unplugged series Thursday and Friday, October 15 and 16. The concert title will be Amadeus: Inside the Mind of a Genius, exploring childhood prodigy composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How much of the movie Amadeus was true? How did he compose so much in only 35 years? Rock me, Amadeus! This event will be at the Halloran Centre and of course all that “important policies and procedures” crap will be in place so you don’t catch COVID-19.

The Birds Aren’t Real movement has made it to the Upper West Side of New York City.

The Memphis Tigers, by then recovered from COVID-19, will be back on national television on October 3, traveling to Dallas to take on SMU at 2:30 on ESPN2.

Catch Napoleon Dynamite on the big screen tonight at the Orpheum tonight at 7.

Tropical Storm Beta has made landfall on the middle Texas coast. It is expected to turn northeast toward Houston, Shreveport, and Memphis. It will be a rainy rest-of-the-week after today. High tomorrow is unlikely to make it to 70.

There will be voter registration and a showing of All In: The Fight for Democracy at Memphis River Park today. Advanced registration required on the All In website if you want to watch the movie.

I’m scheduled to have an article appear in The Ascent today, although as of the time I’m typing this (7:20 AM) it’s not up yet. At nearly 120,000 followers, The Ascent is larger than the three other Medium publications my work has been in, combined. Life lessons are what The Ascent is all about and it’s described as “A community of storytellers documenting the journey to happiness & fulfillment.” I’ll try to have a link and an article summary for you tomorrow.

I’m gonna be reloading the Shelby County Health Department health directives page every few minutes this morning to see if a new directive is issued. Possibly back with a COVID-19 press conference recap this afternoon. If not, look for a recap in the morning.