Tennessee State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, Vickie Terry of the NAACP’s Memphis branch, Shelby County Commissioner Reginald Milton, and others held a press conference yesterday morning about a finding by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released Friday. The FDA said that over 1000 live and dead rodents and birds had been found in a Family Dollar warehouse in West Memphis. The warehouse supplies 404 stores in six states, including Tennessee.
The story received worldwide coverage. The UK’s Daily Mail has a story on the warehouse with a video of a warehouse employee feeding a rat a Pringle with his bare hands. “Here ya go, friend, you want some chips? You want some chips? Look at him, he wants that m*****f*****.” The video also showed a rat climbing up the side of steel shelving, a litter of baby rats, and two rats fighting. Family Dollar is urging people to destroy products bought in the six states the warehouse serves since January 1, 2021 – nearly 14 months ago.
The officials held the press conference to note that many of the Family Dollars in Memphis, served by the warehouse, are in food deserts. When the chain shut its Memphis stores on Saturday, residents were left with no place else they could shop for food. They may have been using contaminated products for as long as a year or more. One woman brought her dog to the press conference to illustrate that pets have been possibly eating contaminated food, too. The officials believe that corporate greed is responsible for the warehouse conditions. They noted that past discussions with Family Dollar about cleanliness and blight have not produced results.
Big Blue Bug Solutions says that a rat produces 35 to 50 droppings per day. Assuming we take the midpoint of that range, 42.5 droppings, and that there have been 1000 live rats in the Family Dollar warehouse every day since January 1, 2021, that would mean rats produced 17,765,000 droppings in the warehouse between that date and today. If we further assume that a rat dropping weighs about 1 gram, that’s more than 39,165 pounds of feces.
One question that may come up – the news reports have mostly stated that the warehouse has been infested with rodents. That may lead the reader to ask, were there mice in the warehouse too? According to this Terminix report, probably not. “Rats will kill and eat mice,” the report states. It’s known as muricide. So an infested facility likely has a rat problem, or a mouse problem, but not both.
Maybe Family Dollar could hold a benefit concert, raising funds to provide compensation for those who consumed possibly contaminated products. Here’s my suggestion for the concert headliner.
I don’t normally promote Nashville events on this blog, but there is a concert coming up there Saturday, July 2 that sounds fantastic. Morris Day, Zapp, Cameo, SOS Band, The Bar-Kays, Midnight Star, Lakeside, and the original Mary Jane Girls. Event info and tickets
This is Insomniac Week at Insomnia Cookies. They have the following deals going on:
- Buy 12 classic cookies, get 6 free in the app (no code needed, just add the deal to the cart to redeem)
- Free nationwide shipping for Loyalty club members with code TWOSDAY
- 2 free classic cookies with any purchase in-store today, 2/22, when you show them today’s Insomnia Cookies social media post
Silly Goose posted that they’re going to start doing a Buy 1, Get 1 deal on their wood-fired pizzas 4 to 8 PM Fridays.
There was a report of shots fired near Monroe and Lauderdale about 4:45 yesterday afternoon.
Michigan men’s basketball head coach Juwan Howard has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season (5 games) and fined $40,000 for his actions at the conclusion of Sunday’s game against Wisconsin. Wisconsin coach Greg Gard called a timeout near the end of the game, which Wisconsin won 77-63. Howard thought the timeout was unnecessary given the size of Wisconsin’s lead. He jawed at Gard, grabbing him by the shirt, in the handshake line, and seconds later Howard threw a hand at the face of Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft. You can watch the video here (YouTube won’t let me embed it because of “age-appropriate content”).
By popular demand, Tattooed Chef foods have been added to the freezer section at Cordelia’s Market. Their plant-based, healthy offerings include a Cauliflower Mac & Cheese Bowl, a Buddha Bowl, and a Pesto Harvest Bowl.
It’s that time of year – Girl Scout Cookie time. CraftBeer.com has a beer and Girl Scout Cookie pairing guide you may find useful. If you don’t know where to find a Girl Scout to order cookies, DGX has knockoff versions for $2 a box. I’m eating Fudge Mints (knockoffs of Thin Mints) right now and they’re pretty tasty.
The Blind Bear has posted the special dinner menu they will offer 5-9 PM this Saturday, the night of their Mardi Gras masquerade party. The dinner is $45/individual or $90 couple and comes with a bottle of bubbly. Call the restaurant to make reservations if interested – tables tend to fill up quickly.
First course
Fried oysters on a bed of greens with Creole mustard remoulade
or
Red beans & rice with andouille sausage
Second course
Crawfish etouffee
or
Shrimp & grits
or
Grouper Ponchartrain
Third course
Kraken Bananas Foster bread pudding
Bananas Foster? Wonder if any members of the Squeal Street BBQ team will make reservations. That dish is their specialty.
If you’re a Grizzlies fan and a Daily Memphian subscriber, be sure not to miss Chris Herrington’s Grizzlies mailbag in this morning’s edition. It alone is worth the monthly subscription price.
Smart City asks, is Downtown Memphis in trouble or on an upswing?
Putin ordered Russian troops to cross the border into the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of Ukraine. These provinces had been controlled by rebels hostile to the Ukrainian government headquartered in Kyiv. Today’s POLITICO Playbook has more on the latest moves.
Congratulations to King Jerry Lawler’s on Beale, recipient of a recent 100 on its health inspection.
Congratulations to the city of Memphis on landing another major convention. The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority will hold its national conference at the Renasant Convention Center March 1-6. About 6000 sorority members are expected to attend.
Memphis is under a tornado watch until 11 AM.
The great thing about the Day of the Deuces is that you don’t even have to leave your own bathroom to celebrate. Back tomorrow with more news.