And so this is Christmas… and what have we done… another year over (thankfully)…
Did you know Cordelia’s Market has a wine & cheese club? Members get monthly boxes of 4 to 5 items, perfectly matched, curated by Cordelia’s staff. The monthly selection always includes wine, cheese, and crackers, as well as 1 to 2 seasonal items. It’s $40 a month to sign up, with a 3-month minimum. Boxes are available for pickup or delivery (38103 delivery only) the first Thursday of the month, which would make January 7 the day for the next one. They can work with you on dietary restrictions. Sign up here
B.B. King’s has decided the health department’s stupid 25% capacity restriction on restaurants is not worth the bother. They will temporarily close their doors following Sunday, December 27, their last night of operation.
Kooky Canuck will be closed today and tomorrow (25th and 26th) for the holidays.
The Nine Thai & Sushi is taking a holiday break and will return for curbside pickup on January 5.
Cocozza Italian-American Kitchen inside the Majestic Grille is also taking some time off and will reopen January 5.
Forbes: Memphis maps out its coronavirus comeback. Kevin Kane, president of Memphis Tourism, was interviewed for the story, as is Dean Dennis, senior VP of the Renasant Convention Center, and Malvin Gipson, VP of Sales, Sports, and Tourism from Memphis Tourism.
Hooters will have a $1 off burger special Tuesday, December 29.
The Daily Memphian has a look at the problems a ninth-grader at Hamilton High faces as he tries to do his assignments online, on a school-issued laptop that sometimes does not work.
A man has been charged with breaking into 8 cars in the 200 block of G.E. Patterson.
Great news for Memphis Tigers football: Arizona Wildcats sophomore quarterback Grant Gunnell is transferring to Memphis. He’s the leading passer in Texas high school history, and should be able to step into Brady White’s shoes quite nicely.
The Grizzlies don’t play on the NBA’s Christmas slate of games, but you might get a peek at a couple of former Tigers today:
- New Orleans at Miami (and Precious Achiuwa), 11 AM, ESPN
- Golden State (and James Wiseman) vs. Milwaukee, 1:30 PM, ABC
Draymond Green, who plays center when Golden State uses small-ball lineups, will be out with an injury, increasing the chance that Big Ticket will see some time on the floor.
I read a very interesting article on Medium yesterday. It was written by a creative writing teacher who took a job this year as a COVID contact tracer. When he was a teacher, he advised his students to cut back on the amount of prescriptive language – words like “should,” “must,” and “need” in their writing. Prescriptive language communicates that the speaker/writer’s advice is right and the reader/listener is wrong if they do not comply. He found that the more he avoided prescriptive language, the more successful he was as a contact tracer. What I’ve Learned from Being a Contact Tracer is behind Medium’s paywall, but you get to read a few free stories a month.
Personal announcement: I’m taking a break from going out for the next four weeks. It’s not so much the Safer at Home order as it is that I really need to focus on my professional writing career on Medium for a while. I tried to do that after Thanksgiving, setting a goal to write 92 stories on Medium in the 92 days between the Thanksgiving weekend and March 1. However, the death of a friend and the uncertainty about whether the health department would close my friends’ businesses interrupted that plan. Now that the uncertainty has been removed, I’m going to try again.
So, if you don’t see me out between now and late January, don’t worry about me. I’m in a good place. This blog will continue to operate as normal.
To those who work in my favorite places to go: Don’t pop a PBR the minute I walk through the door in the coming weeks. I’m probably there to order take-out.
That’ll do it. Christmas is typically the slowest news day of the year, so I’m not sure I will have anything to post tomorrow. Then again, I didn’t think I’d have anything to post today, and look what happened. I’ll be back when there’s news to report.