Sunday update

I strongly encourage all of you to read James Aycock’s end-of-week COVID analysis thread on Twitter, and take it into consideration when planning your activities for the coming week, especially on Halloween. To sum it up, new cases are spiking this week, not just in Shelby County but across Tennessee. Other counties are starting to send their cases here. Aycock fears that we will have to put the old Commercial Appeal building to use as an alternate hospital by Christmas.

I’m not going out on Halloween at all. My friends and I have even canceled our normal 11 AM Saturday meetup at Bardog. That holiday will make too many people feel as though they have license to disregard masking and distancing guidelines.

I completely agree with James on this point:

Shutting things down again will force business owners, possibly including friends of mine, to close permanently. We can’t do that. On the other hand, if cases rise to the level of 500 or more new ones per day, which the data suggests they will, we can’t just keep on with business as usual.

We’re close enough to Halloween now that weather forecasts are out. Let’s see what we’ve got:

  • Normal: 69/49
  • MemphisWeather.net: Mid 60s, mostly sunny
  • Weatherbug: 64/49, mostly sunny
  • Weather Channel: 67/49, mostly sunny
  • WREG: 62/45, mostly sunny
  • WMC: 63, partly cloudy
  • Local 24: 63/45, sunny

Big news for those who live on the island: Soon you won’t even have to drive across the A.W. Willis Ave. bridge to get Cocozza Italian-American Kitchen dishes. Their line of Take & Bake products comes to Cordelia’s Market Thursday, October 29.

The Forsyth County (Georgia) News has a good piece on the history being how Elvis acquired Graceland.

The Broke Backpacker has a list of places to stay when visiting Memphis. Not surprisingly, they recommend Downtown as the neighborhood to stay when visiting Memphis for the first time. They have some AirBNB recommendations and for those who prefer a hotel, they recommend Springhill Suites.

We ordered Insomnia Cookies again yesterday. Here’s a pic of Pejorie T. Roll eating a chocolate mint cookie. Those are her favorite because the chips are the same color as her hair.

Wishing a very happy birthday to Mama Bear AKA Jeannette, proprietor of the Blind Bear, today.

The Memphis Tigers got a win over Temple, 41-29, yesterday. Alabama rolled to a 48-17 win over Tennessee.

The first College Football Playoff rankings will not be revealed until Tuesday, November 24 since COVID has totally f’d up the schedules this year.

From Scoops Memphis: Man gives officers fake name after being caught with chopped catalytic converter. I wonder if this is the guy who has been stealing catalytic converters in The Edge District and from parking garages in the Downtown core.

Time for a full day of professional writing-related stuff. Back tomorrow with more news.