Friday update

Man, I gotta feel bad for Shelby County Health Department Director Dr. Alisa Haushalter, Assistant Director David Sweat, and County Health Officer Dr. Bruce Randolph. They have some difficult choices to make this week.

I’m gonna say what no one wants to hear… from purely a fighting-the-coronavirus standpoint, not taking economics or sentiment into it at all, the appropriate course of action would be a 4-week Safer at Home order.

If it were January 6 or January 23 or February 12, I think they would do that. However, doing it now means casting themselves as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas… or Thanksgiving. Yet the virus doesn’t care what holidays we celebrate.

The health officials presented their recommendations to mayors of Shelby County municipalities yesterday morning… and the suburban mayors fought back. So, if you’re able to spend next Friday off work at a bar, thank Germantown mayor Mike Palazzolo and Bartlett mayor Keith McDonald.

In the press conference yesterday, Dr. Randolph saying they are trying to find a middle path between shutting everything down and letting the virus rage with no restrictions in place. He talked like there would be some kind of limit on the number of people in restaurants, but I did not get the sense that any would be closed down. He said a new health directive would be issued no later than Monday, and could be issued today if agreement is reached. WREG reports that several mayors and business leaders think it will be issued today.

Here’s a link to James Aycock’s excellent mid-week COVID data analysis.

The marketing staff at the Memphis Zoo finally got to do something they’ve been wanting to do for a year: Name a baby animal after Grizzlies breakout star point-guard Ja Morant. The baby’s name is Ja Raffe. I will leave it up to you to figure out what kind of animal the baby is.

Happy birthday to President-Elect Joe Biden!

The rescheduled performance of Farewell Angelina takes place tonight at the Halloran Centre. The country trio will perform in a socially distanced setting. Tickets for the original October date will be honored.

The Memphis Farmers Market presents a Turkey Day Market tomorrow from 9 AM to 1 PM. Late fall produce will be available, as will packaged foods and crafts. If you get hungry, food trucks will be on hand. The MemphisWeather.net forecast has the low dropping to only 53 tonight with a high of 70 tomorrow, so it should be a beautiful day to shop outdoors. The Market is located under the pavilion at Front and G.E. Patterson behind the Power House movie theater.

Big River Crossing Half Marathon and 5K is tomorrow.

Memphis Symphony Orchestra will perform a free show at Wiseacre Downtown tomorrow 2-3 PM. Limited indoor seating is available, unless a new health directive goes into effect.

The MBJ has a slideshow of the Museum Lofts Apartments, just north of the National Civil Rights Museum.

I did not know there was a style of design called Memphis… see this Financial Times article.

Stacks & Rowell take the stage at 7:30 tonight at Momma’s.

Rodell McCord plays Tin Roof at 8 tonight.

In case you missed it… Donald Trump’s number-one flying monkey sweated hair dye at a press conference this week.

Georgia has completed its recount and has declared Joe Biden the winner of its 16 electoral votes. With that announcement, Joe Biden has defeated Donald Trump 306 electoral votes to 232.

We shall see whether a health directive gets issued today… I kinda hope they wait until Monday, just so the Facebook “health experts” have something to whine about all weekend. Back later today or tomorrow with more news.