Saturday update

Ukraine news this morning:

  • There’s street fighting in the capital, Kyiv, but Russians have not yet taken the city
  • The U.S. offered an evacuation plan to Ukrainian president Zelenskyy, but he said he was staying put
  • Ukraine shot down 2 Russian planes

More from ABC News

Those of you who frequented Puck Food Hall may remember a restaurant named Kinfolk, opened by chef Cole Jeanes. It served gourmet biscuits. The food hall may be gone, but Edible Memphis reports that Kinfolk is back as a pop-up restaurant inside Comeback Coffee at 358 S. Main on the weekends. They’ll serve 8 AM until they run out on Saturdays and 10 AM until they run out on Sundays. Their menu has classics like chicken, egg, and cheese biscuits and sausage biscuits with strawberry jam, but it also has innovations like S’mores biscuits with Nutella chocolate gravy and marshmallows.

Cordelia’s Market announced that it carries Don Pancho foods. They have chicken enchiladas with red sauce and creamy green chile chicken enchiladas meal kits available in their grab & go, and they also carry Don Pancho cilantro lime creme.

Important PBR news: I’ve been told by people who attended the grand opening of Civil Axe Throwing on South Main that they have PBR on draft. They have about 10-15 beers on tap and it’s self-serve. You put money on a card and then use the card at the pouring stations.

This video came up in conversation yesterday and I thought I’d share it. George Takei almost got to finally be captain of a ship… but he was outranked.

March 10 is rumored to be the opening date for South Point Grocery on Webster Ave. in South Main.

UZ brings The Decade Tour 2022 with DMVU to Carolina Watershed on Saturday, April 23. UZ has collaborated with stars like Ice Cube, T-Pain, and 2. Chainz.

I finally gave it and joined Snapchat yesterday. I really didn’t want to be part of another social network but I was missing out on videos of an inebriated friend twerking in Las Vegas. My username is paul_ryburn if you want to add me.

The CDC did indeed give people a break from wearing masks yesterday. They also said those in low- to medium-risk areas could stop social distancing and can gather in indoor spaces. The CDC has an updated evaluation tool that looks not only at the number of new COVID cases per day per 100K, but also at COVID hospital admissions per 100K and percent of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients. Based on those metrics, Shelby County’s risk is measured as “low.”

The Grizzlies travel to Chicago for a 7 PM game against the Bulls tonight.

Tonight is Open That Bottle Night.

From WREG: Apps and programming are making it easier for thieves to steal cars

The Blind Bear’s Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball is tonight beginning at 8.

Almost Elton John & The RocketMen play the Hard Rock Cafe tonight at 8.

Chloe Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies play the Orpheum tonight at 7:30.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the Russia-Ukraine situation this week. People are asking, “What did Ukraine do to offend Putin so much that he felt the need to invade?” From what I’ve read, there are two possible reasons.

One is that Putin can’t stand the thought of a successful democracy operating in a former Soviet state right on Russia’s border. He’s terrified Russians will look at Ukraine and think, “If a democracy is working so well next door, perhaps we should oust Putin and install a democracy here too.” If that’s the reasoning, Putin is attacking Ukraine out of insecurity.

The other possible motivation is delusions Putin has of grandeur. He sees himself as one of the greatest Russian leaders, up there with Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible), Tsar Peter the Great, Tsar Alexander I (who fought Napoleon), and Lenin. Putin wants to restore the Russian Empire as it existed in the mid-1800s. At that time, the empire included Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and most of Poland including Warsaw. With a puppet government in Belarus since the 1990s, Putin is ready to take his second step toward rebuilding the empire by installing a puppet in Ukraine.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow.