Saturday update

We are now in the last 7 days of the Safer at Home order and Health Directive 16. Health department officials say all options are on the table for when the directive expires at 11:59 PM Friday – extending the restrictions, making some minor adjustments to them, or rolling them back in a sweeping way. However, this tweet from 117 Prime steakhouse is promising:

I don’t have this confirmed, but having observed many health directives come and go, it’s my theory that the restaurants have an “inside line” to the health department. Meaning, assuming current conditions remain largely unchanged, they’re given a rough idea in advance of what the health department intends to do. It gives them time to hire employees back and order inventory so they can hit the ground running.

117 Prime setting a reopening date seems like a sign that the ridiculously stupid 25% capacity restriction on restaurants is going away.

You know, a bartender friend of mine posted to Facebook that he received his W-2 yesterday. He made about 35% of what he would have reasonably expected to make at the start of 2020, but had 100% of the bills. That’s the situation our service industry folks have been in for 10 months now. A Shelby County grant of $1000 per worker is nice, but it in no way is fair compensation for what these folks have been put through. Enough is enough. It’s time to open up.

The owner of Primetime Movers has been charged in the Capitol riots. This is not the only time recently he has been in trouble with the law – he was featured in Scoop Memphis late last year.

You can order Girl Scout Cookies to be delivered through GrubHub for 2021. Even the Girl Scouts are pivoting to these pandemic times.

Neat site I discovered yesterday: Antiweather. You choose your location and it gives you the weather at your location and the exact opposite location on Earth by latitude and longitude. Let’s give this a try. As of 5:56 AM Central Standard Time:

  • Memphis: Partly cloudy, 33 F
  • Indian Ocean: Clear, 66 F

Apparently, nearly the entire continental US corresponds to the Indian Ocean, confounding a goal many children have of digging a hole so deep that they end up in China. The only US location I could get to correspond to land was

  • Honolulu: Clear, 74 F
  • Ghanzi District, Botswana: Overcast, 84 F

If you liked the two stories above, I got them from Morning Brew‘s Sidekick newsletter, a “newsletter full of ideas” that’s emailed Monday and Thursday afternoons.

The Memphis Grizzlies’ game at Minnesota was postponed last night after Timerwolves’ center Karl-Anthony Towns tested positive for COVID-19. KAT’s mother was one of the first in the U.S. to catch the virus and she passed away from complications last April. Get well soon, KAT, and we’ll see you on the court.

Look for a pop-up art gallery at 55 S. Main for the next 6 months, featuring regional artists. Cat & Nick Peña are the current exhibitors, and they’ll do a live Zoom interview next Friday 6-7. It’s part of the DMC’s Open on Main project to keep storefronts on the pedestrian mall occupied and open for business. You can safely view the artwork from outside if you’re scared of COVID. The pop-up gallery is just steps away from Ben-Yay’s, so my suggestion would be to stop in for some gumbo and the signature beignets before or after you view the art.

There’s a booklet that advises readers to remain 6 feet apart, to avoid shaking hands, and to send only one person from a household out to shop. What sets this booklet apart is that it was published in the 1580s. One can imagine the 16x-great-grandmother of Dr. Haushalter at a Renaissance-era podium telling people how to stop spreading the plague.

The Grizzlies host the Philadelphia 76ers tonight at 7. Catch the game on Fox Sports Southeast.

That’s the news today. Not much going on this cold late-pandemic weekend. Back tomorrow.