Word is starting to come in about openings & closings this week and next for the holidays or out of concern over COVID. Let’s see what we’ve got so far, then we’ll get on to other news:
Atomic Rose: Drag show at 10 PM Christmas Eve with ugly sweater contest with a $100 prize; closed Christmas Day; drag brunch Sunday 12/26 at 12:30 PM
Ghost River on Beale Street: Thursday 12/23 4-9 PM with music by Kaleidoscope; closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; Sunday 12/26 1-8 PM with music by Pam and Terry
Ghost River on Main: Wednesday 12/22 4-9 PM with trivia and The Vegan Table food truck; Thursday 12/23 4-9 PM; closed 12/24-12/28
Gray Canary is closed “out of an abundance of caution” until Wednesday, December 29.
Little Italy Downtown will be closed on the 24th and 25th. They will be open on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Max’s Sports Bar will be closed Christmas Eve and will be open 5-11 PM Christmas Day.
Sunrise Memphis will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Check back for further updates as the week goes on. Now, on to the other news:
South of Beale has a new chicken curry bowl that is quickly becoming one of the most popular dishes on the menu. Both the Downtown and East Memphis locations have the curry bowl.
Volunteer Memphis has its signup form online for corporations who want to volunteer as teams for the 2022 MLK Days of Service, January 13-17.
Yesterday President Biden signed a bill into law removing the name of former KKK member Clifford Davis from the Memphis federal building. The name of Odell Horton Sr., the first African-American judge in Tennessee to sit on the federal bench, will remain.
The DM reports that the historic Mallory-Neely House in Victorian Village will reopen for tours. It will also host a special Roaring ’20s event on March 5 called “Blind Tiger Speakeasy.” The mansion, built in the 1850s, has survived the yellow fever pandemic of 1878, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2022.
President Biden announced yesterday the federal government would give away 500 million free at-home rapid COVID tests. People will be able to order them on a website and they’ll be delivered via U.S. Mail.
Biden went on to say that hospitals will overflow with the unvaccinated this winter and federal troops will be deployed to help. He stressed, however, that for those who have been fully vaccinated and boosted, COVID is not the threat now that it was in March 2020. It does not sound like the U.S. is heading for lockdowns like those being implemented in other countries.
Biden also had some rare praise for his predecessor, the Trumpster, who announced recently that he got his COVID booster.
Methodist has seen COVID hospitalizations increase 50% in its hospitals in the past week.
Independent data analyst James Aycock (@firstresponses) tweeted that we are up to a rolling average of 341 cases a day and a positivity rate of 9.0%. Things are going down the crapper fast COVID-wise. If you are unvaccinated, you are taking a big risk if you socialize this holiday season.
That’s the news for today. Back tomorrow with more.