Author: paulryburn

Halloween is among the most popular holidays of the year, but attending loud parties or handing out candy to trick-or-treaters is not everyone’s cup of tea. Here’s something different. Regina’s Cajun Kitchen at 60 N. Main will be hosting a murder mystery Wednesday, October 31 from 5:30 to 7:30. $30 cover includes an appetizer, dinner, and a glass of wine and a well drink. If you just want to solve the murder, cover is $15. You get $5 off cover charge if you wear a costume (no masks allowed). Cash prize to the first person or team to solve the murder.

Another option is Rocky Horror Picture Show trivia at Loflin Yard on Halloween night. If you plan on going, click the link and register. Tables at Cerrito Trivia often get all reserved in advance.

Rep. Brian Kelsey wants to introduce a bill into the Tennessee legislature that would allow sports betting in Downtown Memphis and Downtown Nashville. The gubernatorial candidates stated their positions on the issue Friday night in a debate. Karl Dean would sign the bill if the legislature passed it. Bill Lee would try to prevent the legislature from passing such a bill, although he would be more open to it if left to local governments to decide. We need sports betting in Memphis. With Tunica just a few miles away, any Memphian who wants to gamble on sports, is going to do it. Why not keep that tax revenue in the state?

Plus, having a sports book lounge-type place Downtown would be one more amenity that would bring people down here. Perhaps bettors would have dinner, spend a night in a hotel, go watch a Grizzlies game while here.

There’s a tea tasting experience at The Broom Closet, 546 S. Main, this afternoon 3-5. $15 to participate and note that they ask you to bring your own cup.

Carolina Watershed will show Silence of the Lambs tonight at 7:30.

Teardrop City and Limes will play the amphitheater at Maria Montessori School on Mud Island, in the third installment of this fall’s River Series. DJ at 3, bands start at 4. A $5 donation benefits the school.

I saw a photo of low-cal beer PBR Easy sitting on the bar at Max’s Sports Bar, so add them to the places that carry Easy along with Silly Goose, Bardog, and Blind Bear.

I see people saying, “I’m going to hate on UCF for the rest of the season now” following their 31-30 victory over Memphis yesterday. Why? UCF didn’t beat Memphis; Memphis pissed that game away. I knew when Mike Norvell burned a timeout to ice the UCF kicker, that he had made a mistake. The Tigers would have been able to call that timeout with two seconds left and get a chance at the go-ahead field goal.

Also, why wouldn’t Tigers fans want an American Conference team to have a chance at the College Football Playoff? Good ole West Virginny (WAY overrated at 6), Washington, and Penn State lost yesterday, so UCF could move up to as high as 7 in today’s AP poll. If UCF runs the table and Clemson and Ohio State stumble, I’d think UCF would at least have to be in the conversation. The committee seriously considering a Group of Five team for a playoff spot is a mindset change that could benefit Memphis in the future.

I finally signed up for a Daily Memphian subscription. Being an IT guy, I know how to get around paywalls if I want, but why wouldn’t I pay $7 a month for quality writing about the topics I care about? Proud to support local journalism.

Time for Sunday brunch at Pontotoc Lounge. B-RAD only works one day a week so it’ll be time to catch him up on who’s being shady and who’s being crazy down here. Rain’s moving through so I guess I will take the umbrella. Back tomorrow with more news.

Downtown Dining Week for 2018 has been announced. 40 Downtown restaurants will offer amazing deals, often multi-course, for the low price of $20.18. (Some will offer lunch for $10.18.) Click the link to see participating restaurants and their menus. Many restaurants have menu “to be announced” at this early point in time. The dates are Monday, November 5 to Sunday, November 11.

Let me repeat the advice I give every year: If there’s a restaurant you KNOW you want to visit for Downtown Dining Week, go ahead and make reservations NOW – even if they haven’t announced their menu. The most popular times at the most popular restaurants will get booked up quick. If you procrastinate, you might find yourself with a 5:00 or a 9:30 dinner seating – or no seating at all.

However – I do want to ask you to not do one thing I heard some people did last year. “Well, we’re not sure whether we want to dine at McEwen’s, or Majestic, or South of Beale Tuesday night. So we made 6:30 reservations at all three, and we’ll decide the day of.” PLEASE don’t do that. It’s inconsiderate and unfair to both the restaurants and your fellow diners.

When we get closer to time and menus get posted, I’ll come back and do a “Paul’s Picks” for DDW. For now I’ll do a “Can’t Go Wrong” list of places where I would gladly make reservations, menu unseen. First and foremost, Rizzo’s, where Michael Patrick always manages to offer a tremendous value every year. Felicia’s, McEwen’s, Majestic, and Bleu are on the list as well.

Fourth Bluff will host the grand opening of River Garden at Mississippi River Park and the new River Line walking and biking trail on Friday, November 9.

The Redbirds are looking to hire a Special Events Manager who will work aggressively to bring more weddings, conferences, and corporate events to AutoZone Park, as well as create new signature events.

The Redbirds are also seeking a Motion Graphics Designer to join their team.

A C-17 will conduct a military flyover at the end of the National Anthem at today’s Memphis-UCF game.

From the DailyMemphian: Chef Gary Williams is back in the kitchen at Krewe of DejaVu at 936 Florida.

The Flyer reports that there’s a GoFundMe effort to save the Gay Hawk, the popular soul food restaurant on S. Danny Thomas. The building is in need of extensive repairs.

City Block Salumeria and Wok’n in Memphis will team up for an October Butcher Dinner on Friday, October 19. Courses will be paired with beers from St. Louis’ Earthbound Brewery.

Very glad to hear that MPD and the Tennessee Highway Patrol have stepped up presence on local interstates in an attempt to get aggressive drivers off the roads. The people who go 100, weave in and out of lanes, never signal, and tailgate 3 feet behind the car in front of them are the problem – not the person going 72 in a 65 trying to get to work on time. Too bad it took several road rage-related deaths before the police shifted their focus.

For the second day in a row, Bardog Tavern had pho, Vietnamese noodle soup, as one of its specials. I gave into temptation and ordered it.

What makes pho such an interesting dish is that you can customize it to your liking. You start with meat and rice noodles. Bardog’s version of pho came with shaved New York strip and two meatballs.

Then you get to decide what veggies you want to add to your soup.

Bardog’s pho came with a plate of cilantro, bean sprouts, green and white onions, jalapenos, and a lime.

My complete creation. I added almost all of the veggies to my soup, although experience has taught me to go easy on the jalapenos. This was yummy and was a special I never expected to see at Bardog. They’ve got it going on in the kitchen there.

Unfortunately, with the closing of Oshi, there is no longer a place Downtown where you can get pho on a regular menu. There are several places not far away in Crosstown and Midtown that have it, Phuong Long being the one I hear the most talk about.

I didn’t know until a couple of years ago that pho is pronounced “phuh” (rhymes with “ugh”), rather than “phoh” with the long “o”. There’s a restaurant in L.A. called “Pho King” and, knowing the correct pronunciation, that’s a really good name. A quick Google search revealed that there’s a restaurant in Houston called Pho Q Long.

The Memphis Tigers host UCF in the Liberty Bowl in the biggest game of the Tigers’ year at 2:30. People are talking like a Memphis win would be a huge upset, but ESPN FPI shows UCF as a 54-46 favorite. That’s a probability I am well familiar with from playing poker. If you have a pair of Nines pre-flop, an opponent goes all in, you call, and he flips over Ace-King, you are about a 54-46 favorite and commentators term it a coin flip because it is so close to dead even. Assuming the Memphis that beat UConn, and not the Memphis that got blown out by Tulane, comes out to play, it will be close. One fumble, one interception, one missed field goal could make the difference.

You don’t have to leave Downtown to get Nashville hot chicken today. Hattie B’s food truck will be at Ghost River noon to 7. They have six heat levels for their tenders – Southern, mild, medium, hot, damn hot, or shut the cluck up. A word of advice, based on recent stories friends of mine have shared: If you’ve never had Nashville hot chicken before, don’t go above hot the first time.

That’s it for now. Time for a long day of football. I’ll start off rooting for Auburn to embarrass Tennessee (although the Vols are quite capable of doing that without help). Next up it’ll be time to cheer for the Tigers to get a signature win over a Top 10 team, and after that I’ll be pulling for Arkansas against Ole Miss.  Back tomorrow with more news.

Yesterday I had a good shooter at Bardog Tavern. It was a Peanut Butter Cup, with peanut-infused Jameson whiskey, floated with Kahlua. If you like Reese’s and you like alcohol, and you don’t have a peanut allergy, give one a try.

Oh hey guys! At Bardog Tavern today we have concocted the perfect fall shot inspired by @barmageddon.tv Drink of the Week: Peanut Butter Cup Shot Peanut Butter Infused Jameson Irish Whiskey floated with Kahlúa . #barmageddon #trickortreat #jameson #kahlua #yum pic.twitter.com/6wskZJ4zeU

— Bardog Tavern (@BardogTavern) October 11, 2018

(I took the shot in the photo by the way)

While there, a beer rep came in and talked with some of the staff at the far end of the bar. About four people said “Paul Ryburn!” all at once, and I learned the rep had asked if there was anyone who was a big fan of PBR. He brought me a beer in a sample glass. “Try this and let me know what you think,” he said.

The beer was PBR Easy, a new, low calorie version of PBR. It tasted like PBR although slightly lighter. The rep said the ABV is 3.8%, a little lower than I’m used to, but these days I drink to socialize, not get drunk. I sure as hell would drink that before I’d drink low-cal swill like Mich Ultra or Miller Lite.

Later in the day I found out Silly Goose and Blind Bear carry PBR Easy. Rico at Bardog apparently promised the rep he’d order some if I liked it.

While at Bardog, Bloom and I posed for a photo in our hoodies. Jameson and PBR just go together.

Weezer along with the Pixies will play FedExForum March 22, 2019. Tickets go on sale to the public next Friday, October 19.

The Flying Saucer has announced its Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween party Saturday, October 27. $3 mystery beers, costume contest with $300 in prizes, live DJ, Nightmare Before Christmas themed cocktails.

The Memphis Wassail comes to Memphis Made Brewing Co. Saturday, December 8. It’s free to join this sing-along of holiday drinking songs, carols, and even some Christmas pop.

Great news for Silly Goose poker players. Starting Monday, their weekly game becomes a River Rat Rounders league game. Muruako will still be around, and the weekly gift card prize structure will remain the same, but there will be opportunities to get into freerolls for real money at affiliated casinos, as well as swag, prizes and Silly Goose card guards. Game starts at 8 with late entries through 9:35. So very excited to finally have a weekly River Rats game at one of my regular spots… Hey Nikki, ice down a few extra PBRs for me… you’re gonna start seeing more of me on Monday nights.

Oh also they will have a 10 PM turbo as well, so those knocked out of the main game early will still have a chance.

Don’t know what to be for Halloween? Ask Siri.

Sunday, November 18 is Bring your dog to bingo day at Loflin Yard. All players with a dog get an extra card. That day is also Buy Paul a Beer for his Birthday if you’re so inclined.

Yesterday as I was crossing Union, I saw my friend Rahul on his first day on the job on a delivery truck. “Put this on the blog!” he said. Knowing how his boo thang Tony loves a man in uniform, I wonder if Rah Rah is going to be uncomfortable sitting on that truck bench seat for his second day on the job today.

Celebrate the Indie Memphis Film Festival a bit early with the Indie Memphis beer release at Crosstown Brewing Co. next Thursday, October 18. Talk with the fest organizers about the films you’re most excited to see. My friends with the New Wing Order food truck will be there.

The Blind Bear started putting their Halloween decorations up this week. For the benefit of my readers who can’t go there for whatever reason, here are a couple of photos.

The demon baby is back

Spooky Jeannette and Spooky Stacey

Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean plays the Halloran Centre tonight.

There will be a 13 mile bike ride starting at Health Sciences Park tomorrow morning at 7. There is a 0.00% chance I will be there.

I can pretty much guarantee you I will be following along with this Saturday’s Memphis Farmers Market theme: Hit the Sauce. You can buy fresh ingredients at the Market to make your own sauces, or you can buy pre-prepared sauces from the creative vendors. Project Breathe will be at the Market all day tomorrow, with recommendations on the right vaccines to beat the flu, as well as information about asthma. Live local music all day. The Market runs for three more Saturdays under the pavilion at Front and G.E. Patterson, 8 AM to 1 PM.

The Farmers Market has the 2018 Farm Fest photo album online. So glad I got to attend this event.

Thaddledoo it for now… back tomorrow with more news.

So, LYFE Kitchen in the Chisca closed a couple of weeks ago. What I had been hearing was, they had wanted to close for months, but they had to find a business willing to take over their lease. This led to much discussion among Downtowners, particularly about how the space is so big, including that large patio, and it is in such a prime spot, that a chain restaurant might have to take over the lease rather than a local operator.

Some of my friends lamented the thought of a chain restaurant coming to the heart of Downtown. I disagree. There are chain restaurants that wouldn’t work Downtown. I can’t imagine a Cracker Barrel down here, for example. Or an O’Charley’s. Or a Chuck E. Cheese. Those are restaurants that appeal almost exclusively to suburbanites. However, there are restaurant chains with cool, hip vibes that I think would add a lot to Downtown.

Yesterday I got a text that such a chain restaurant will be taking over the LYFE space. I haven’t confirmed this yet, so I’m not going to name the restaurant; but I will give you a couple of hints.

1. I’m not saying this is a posh or upscale restaurant chain, but maybe you could get a thesaurus and look for a synonym for those two words.
2. Several years ago there was a rumor this chain would open a location in One Commerce Square, but it never materialized.

In this week’s edition of The Daily Memphian’s Bar Talk, Jennifer Biggs sits down with Drew Barton, co-owner of Memphis Made Brewing Co. She sampled three Memphis Made beers that will be served at Cooper-Young Beerfest on October 20. She got to hear about the beers from the very person who brewed them, which is exactly what you get at the beer festival.

Jennifer Biggs also went In the Kitchen with my friend Jonathan Cole who writes the excellent Place at the Table food blog. He shared his recipe for squash soup.

Liz Brasher performs tonight at Old Dominick Distillery in the next installment of the Pure Memphis Music Series. $5 of every ticket sold goes to nonprofit partner The Soulsville Foundation which funds projects like the STAX Music Academy. Doors at 6:30, music at 7:30.

McEwen’s lost power for a couple of weeks due to a fire next door. Good news… the power is back on and they will spend today prepping food… then tomorrow, Friday, October 12, they will open for lunch at 11 AM! Come support a great restaurant.

LocalMemphis.com has an interview with Shamichael Hallman of the Fourth Bluff/Cossitt Library about CitizenFEST which is coming to Memphis this weekend. It’s an enlightening day where people learn how to truly be citizens. In a preview of what will be discussed, Hallman said there are two keys to being a citizen: power and character.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow.

Yummm… Perjorie T. Roll and I are having a Mushroom Swiss Burger for lunch from Sam’s Hamburgers and More. The new location is open at 7 N. Main and it is already popular. By 11:10 there was a line four or five people deep.

117 Prime has a deal for Orpheum members. 5-7 PM through Sunday, October 14, enjoy a 3-course dinner for $35 when you show your member card. Not a member? You can get the dinner for $45.

Beatles tribute band The Mersey Beatles: Four Lads from Liverpool perform at the Halloran Center tonight.

Catherine & Mary’s has a featured drink this week:

This week’s featured drink is the “Spanish House,” a play off of a classic New Orleans cocktail, the Vieux Carré, and our beer pick is Yazoo Pale Ale- a traditional style pale ale that features malt and citrus. Come try our #CraftsOfTheWeek! Our bar opens at 4 p.m. 🍻🥂 pic.twitter.com/7Ja1RNUY4d

— Catherine & Mary’s (@catherine_marys) October 9, 2018

Video: D.J. Stephens on what he can bring to the Memphis Grizzlies and Hustle as a 2-way player

Bluesman Eric Hughes will play brunch at Sunrise Memphis this Sunday from 10 to 1.

Funeral arrangements have been set for legendary Rendezvous server Big Jack Dyson.

On Friday, October 19 at 409 S. Main there will be a City Block Salumeria Butcher’s Dinner featuring Spencer Coplan of Wok’n in Memphis and Nick Scott of Alchemy, Brad McCarley, and Lee Mitchell.

The CA has info on the Museum Lofts Apartments to be built by the Civil Rights Museum.

Fourth Bluff will present Outdoor Library at Greenlaw Park in Uptown, 190 Mill, Friday from 4 to 5. The Cossitt Library will bring books, and there will be pumpkin carving and lawn games. PRO TIP: The park is not far from Roxie’s Grocery, so go get you a Mr. Good Burger.

I hope my friends who live on the Florida Gulf Coast all evacuated safely. Hurricane Michael is expected to make landfall near Panama City Beach in the next few hours and it looks like a nasty one. Hurricane warnings through central Georgia, and tropical storm warnings all the way to the Carolina coast.

That’s it. Back tomorrow with more news.

The New Kids on the Block will headline a throwback tour coming to FedExForum Friday, May 10, 2019. The MixTape Tour will also include Salt-N-Pepa, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, and Naughty by Nature.

Former Memphis Tiger D.J. Stephens has signed a two-way contract with the Grizzlies. That will make him a member of G-League affiliate the Memphis Hustle, but he will be able to spend up to 45 days on the Grizzlies main roster. Great PR move with that signing. D.J. will put butts in seats at Hustle home games.

Check out this Curbed.com article on Memphis redevelopment.

KIX 106 will present two free shows in Handy Park on Beale in the upcoming weeks. The Thursday, October 25 show will be headlined by Walker Hayes with special guest Dylan Schneider. The following Thursday, November 1, Maddie & Tae will perform along with special guest Waterloo Revival.

The Breeders with special guest Flasher play the New Daisy tonight at 7.

Today is the last day to register to vote for the fall election. Your vote matters more than ever!

Random tip I received Sunday night: If you say “elephant” when you feel like you’re about to sneeze, you won’t. “Yeah, but why not just sneeze?” was my response.

Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari recently commented that Penny Hardaway’s desired Memphis-Kentucky home-and-home series Is unlikely to happen, but the two coaches have talked.

From the CA: RiverArtsFest moves from South Main to Riverside Drive. The annual arts festival happens October 27-28.

A new Thai and sushi restaurant called The Nine is going in the former Bangkok Alley location on Union.

And they’re hiring.

I walked past The Nine on my way to Kooky Canuck, where the Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October. They had a special Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings yesterday.

My troll especially liked the green bean casserole, commenting that it was the same color as her hair. I guess she only has 8 crayons in her Crayola box.

After lunch I saw this outside the Flying Saucer:

Are they trying to win my business back?

Clayborn Temple will have a Preservation Open House Sunday, October 21 from 2 to 5 PM.

The Grizzlies players and coaches volunteered at the Mid-South Food Bank yesterday.

Memphis Bigfoot Festival returns to Memphis Made Brewing Co. Saturday, November 17. It will feature The Year In Bigfoot report, trivia, a costume contest, videos, and your stories. T-shirts and posters will be on sale. This is a free event.

Memphis hosts #10 UCF at the Liberty Bowl at 2:30 Saturday. For my out-of-town readers who are Tigers fans, you’ll be able to catch this game either on ABC or ESPN2, depending on where you live.

The other day I saw an ESPN analyst propose an interesting scenario, one which I’m not totally crazy about because it involves the Tigers losing Saturday. Let’s say that UCF runs the table and goes undefeated for a second year in a row. Furthermore, let’s say that Clemson, good ole West Virginny, Washington, Penn State, and Texas suffer bad losses between now and the end of the season. That could leave us with the following CFP rankings:

1. Winner of Alabama-Georgia SEC title game
2. Notre Dame
3. Loser of SEC title game
4. UCF

That would leave the Big 10, the Big 12, the ACC, and the Pac-12 – four of the Power 5 conferences – on the outside looking in. Bet a bunch of ADs would be screaming to expand the playoff to 8 teams if this (unlikely) scenario plays out.

So, Friday I posted that both my laptop and my router were having issues, and the blog only stayed populated with new content over the weekend due to my iPhone’s WordPress app. Well, good news… after a day of troubleshooting menu options, I got the laptop to do a reset and it is working again – no more blue screen of death. I lost a lot of programs but that’s okay. I would rather spend a day re-installing programs than a day at Best Buy buying a new computer.

By the way… this past weekend reminded me a lesson that I would pass on to my Computer Literacy students if I were still teaching. Any important document, file or image – anything you can’t afford to lose – should be saved to the cloud, not to My Documents or some other place on a local hard drive. Hard drives fail. Computers in general fail unexpectedly. I save my documents to Dropbox, but iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive are also good. Just get some kind of service where your files are accessible from any device, via a web interface or an installed program or an app.

As for my wireless router, trying to work on it getting back up. The issue there is, it thinks the Wi-Fi password has changed, but I never changed it. This is an Arris router I own outright, not one I rent from Xfinity. I unplugged the Ethernet cable from the router and plugged it directly into my laptop, and voila – I had working Internet again, but I can’t carry my laptop around the apartment with me. I Googled the model number and found instructions to access the router’s control panel via an IP address. I got in, but when I tried to access the Advanced settings, it wanted a Password of the Day, which is different than the router’s Wi-Fi password. I found a couple of different Password of the Day generators. The promising news was, they all generated the same password for October 9, 2018. The bad news was, that password didn’t work. So I’m trying to figure out a new way to hack my router. If I can’t figure it out by the end of the week it’ll be time to visit Best Buy. At least I can make it a fun trip and get in a visit to PizzaRev while I’m out in that neighborhood.

That’s it for now. Kind of a long post today but it’ll make up for the short ones the past few days. Back tomorrow with more news.

With 3 football home games left in the regular season, the Tigers are selling 3 game packs for $75. That gets you tickets to see the Tigers play UCF, Tulsa, and Houston.

The musical School of Rock, featuring 14 new songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, will be at the Orpheum Tuesday through Sunday.

There will be live wrestling at Meddlesome Brewing Co. in Cordova this coming Saturday, October 13 at 6 PM.

Mighty Lights, the lighting of the I-40 bridge, will happen Saturday night of RiverArtsFest, October 27. Admission to the festival will be free after 5 and the bridge will get lit at 6:30.

There will be a protest of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation tonight outside of Bob Corker’s office, 100 Peabody Place, at 7 PM.

The monthly South Main Association meeting will be this Tuesday at 2 Vance. Christin Yates, contributing columnist for the Daily Memphian and co-founder of BreakFest 901, will speak as will a representative of Mighty Lights. Light apps and beverages by SMA. 6:00 social, 6:30 meeting. Free for members, $10 guests.

That’s all for now. Back tomorrow.

There will be a benefit for Dr. Herman Green Saturday, November 10 at Rum Boogie Cafe and The Blues Hall. Dr. Green, saxophonist for FreeWorld and legendary Beale Street musician, is recovering from an illness and hospitalization earlier this year. Over 20 musicians and groups will perform and there will be a silent auction.

The Blind Bear has its annual poker tournament to fight breast cancer on the 18th.

The MBJ has The 20 top selling beer brands in the U.S. Give me number 18 all day long!

The Harahan Bridge goes purple Wednesday night in a show of support for survivors of domestic violence.

There will be a safety meeting this Thursday, October 11 from 6 to 9 PM at 409 S. Main. Representatives from the MPD’s North Main Precinct, DMC, and Blue Suede Brigade will be there. Obviously the main topic will be what can be done to keep Downtown safe in light of the recent murder of Phil Trenary.

Sad to hear of the passing of longtime Rendezvous server Jack Dyson.

Fall is on the way. A cold front moves through Wednesday, and following that, MemphisWeather.net is predicting highs in the low 70s and lows in the 50s. WeatherBug is predicting even cooler than that, with mid-upper 60s highs Thursday to Saturday.

I’m disappointed by the Kavanaugh confirmation, of course, but I am equally disappointed in some of my fellow liberals’ reaction to Phil Bredesen supporting the confirmation. Seeing a lot of “F you, Phil, I was going to vote for you but now I am not so sure.” While I understand the anger, withholding your vote will only make things worse.

Phil has unique advantages in that he is well known and popular, and he has accomplished things like balanced budgets and sensible health care plans that no one in Washington seems to be able to get done. The problem, as Memphis Flyer staff pointed out recently, is that Philly-B (nice nickname by the way) cannot win by appealing only to his base. There are not enough Democrats in Tennessee for that strategy to work.

Bredesen has one more asset; an opponent, Marsha Blackburn, who is completely unlikable. A lot of Republicans don’t want to vote for her. If Bredesen can show that he will not be s rubber stamp for the Democratic position as Marsha will be for Trump, he has a chance to siphon votes away – the votes he needs to win.

So please, don’t let Phil’s comments deter you from getting out to vote. It’s too important. Tennessee could be the state that determines if the Senate is red or blue next year.

Tuesday’s the deadline to register. Check to see if you’re registered here.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow with more news.

Canadian Thanksgiving is back at Kooky Canuck this Monday, October 8. You don’t have to wait for November for turkey and dressing, eh? Traditional Thanksgiving dinners will be available.

Hattie B’s will make its Downtown debut Saturday, October 13 at the Ghost River taproom noon-7 PM. Three tenders plus chips $10. Six flavors: Southern, mild, medium, hot, damn hot, or shut the cluck up. The Flying V’s will perform at 4, and the Tigers vs. UCF will be on TV.

There will be a Disco Music Fitness Festival at Memphis Park today from 4 to 10.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Concert, featuring the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, happens tonight and tomorrow at the Orpheum.

The Grizzlies host the Indiana Pacers in a preseason game tonight at FedExForum at 7.

I went back to Felicia Suzanne’s for 25 cent martini Friday lunch yesterday. I had the crab crepes.

My friend Stacey had the BBQ shrimp.

And my friend Nate had the chicken enchiladas.

There’s some good news this morning. Got my laptop up and running again. Router is still not acting right though. Thanks to my WordPress phone app I’ll probably be back tomorrow with more news.

Still having laptop and router problems so I’m doing this from my phone. The WordPress app has gotten really easy to use. This isn’t much harder than blogging from my laptop.

Some big names have been announced for the 2018 Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony. These include the late Aretha Franklin, the Box Tops, and 8Ball and MJG. The induction will take place at the Cannon Center on Thursday, November 1.

For those who are fans of “Everything” bagels, my personal favorite bagel flavor… last night I received a tip that the Starbucks at Main and Monroe has Everything bagel bites, round bites with cream cheese in the middle. Yum!

Historian Jimmy Ogle will give a free lunchtime tour of the Pinch District next Tuesday, October 9. Assemble at Westy’s, 346 N. Main, at 11:45.

Cooper-Young Beerfest, set for Saturday, October 20, has once again set a record for the number of breweries that are coming. This is my preferred beer festival in Memphis because there’s such a focus on education. The festival requires that each brewery send a representative who actually works at the brewery (whereas, at many festivals, the distributor sends a rep) so you can actually talk to the brewers about the beer. They also limit ticket sales so each attendee has plenty of opportunity to talk to brewers. In addition, they only invite breweries within a day’s drive of Memphis, so if you like what you’re tasting, it’s accessible.

If you need an additional reason to attend CY Beerfest, every cent goes to the Cooper Young Community Association. It’s one of the biggest fundraisers of the year for the CYCA.

From FiveThirtyEight: Tennessee really could flip that Senate seat blue. Please, everyone check and make sure you’re registered to vote!

NF is bringing The Perception Tour to Mud Island on October 28. Tickets are now on sale.

How do you like them apples? Is the theme at the Memphis Farmers Market this Saturday. Apples are available by the bushel at the Market this week. UT College of Pharmacy will be on hand with info on heart health, and there will be live local music all day. The Market happens every Saturday through October 27 at the pavilion at Front and G.E. Patterson, 8 AM to 1 PM.

Coyote Ugly on Beale Street is having open auditions for bartenders tonight 9-12.

Today our country has its collective eyes on Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. Their votes will likely determine whether Brett Kavanaugh sits on the Supreme Court for life. But just think, the needed 51 votes for Kav likely would have been a done deal had Alabamans not nominated a pedophile for the Senate.

That’s it for now. Apologies for any typos but a post with typos is better than no post at all. I can’t promise I will be back tomorrow but I will try.