Author: paulryburn

I just added a new category to my Mid-South Alcoholic Supply store. This year I’ve seen a lot of people playing cornhole, a game played with two wooden platforms facing each other, each with a hole. Each player stands by one platform and attempts to toss bags filled with corn (so I guess it’s technically incorrect to call it a bean bag game) onto the opposing platform, and ideally through the opposing platform’s hole. It’s an outdoor game similar to horseshoes, but more fun and easier to score. I’ve seen people playing it at BBQ Fest, the South Main Trolley Tour, and other places around town this spring and summer.

It isn’t a drinking game per se, but I’ve never seen it played by anyone who did not have a drink in their hand. So I went ahead and added a cornhole category to Mid-South Alcoholic Supply, where you can buy cornhole boards, cornhole bags, and accessories like scoring stands with drink holders. Cornhole is very popular among college campuses, and the store sells cornhole platforms with popular college logos, including the Arkansas Razorbacks and Tennessee Volunteers (I couldn’t find one for the Memphis Tigers, sorry). Perfect for tailgating season, which is coming up soon. There are also standard cornhole platforms not tied to particular teams.

Off to the South Main Association meeting in a few minutes. As usual, I’ll take notes, and hopefully have a report typed up on the blog sometime tomorrow.

Just took a walk down the Main Street Mall and noticed that the restaurant at 51 S. Main is now closed and is available for lease.  This was the home of a breakfast/lunch spot whose name I cannot remember.  (Renee’s maybe?)  They served burgers and also had a focus on healthy food.  Not sure why they didn’t make it but the place is now closed.

If you’ve been thinking of opening a restaurant in Downtown Memphis, this might be a good one to check out.  Here are the details of the place, as posted on the window:

• 2000 sq. ft.
• Freezer/Refrigerator
• Tables & Chairs
• 14 ft. hood system
• Fryers & Griddle
• Charbroiler
• Steam Table
• Refrigerated display case
• Salad and sandwich units
• 100% turn-key operation
• Seats approximately 50

Contact phone numbers are 901-531-8497 or 901-409-0975.  This would probably work well as a breakfast/lunch or lunch-only operation.  It’s on the Main Street Mall with lots of office buildings within a 2-block walk.  Not sure how well it would work staying open for dinner, since there’s no parking connected to the business, although I would love to see someone give it a try.  It’s less than half a block away from the Union Avenue trolley stop.  If not a restaurant, it would be a great location for a coffee shop, and that might be something that actually work there staying open evenings.

Hope someone grabs this space and does something with it soon.  Downtown employees can always use another option for eating out for lunch.

Over the July 4 weekend, a new hot-dog-eating world champion was crowned.  Joey Chestnut took the title from 6-year champion Takeru Kobayashi, downing 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, a new world record.

You may not realize that Chestnut has a Downtown Memphis connection… on March 23 of this year, he became one of the very few people to win Big Foot Lodge’s Sasquatch Challenge.  The Sasquatch, a burger made with 4 pounds of ground beef, is free if you can finish it in under an hour.  Many, many people have tried and failed.  Joey Chestnut, however, finished it off in only 7 minutes and 36 seconds.

Congrats to Joey on his victories in both the Sasquatch Challenge and the hot dog eating world championship.

today is MEGHANS day to write a blog, and no I didn’t hack into Paul’s website. He’s actually being a normal human being and not an ass today. Hahahaha. Im kidding.

Paul decided to let me write a blog about whatever I want and he would post it. Believe it or not, I have to give Paul credit- writing blogs is not as easy as it looks! I mean, what can you seriously talk about for about 5 or 6 paragraphs? Hell, I can’t think of anything and Paul says this is my “golden moment.”

AND….. for my golden moment.
1st off.. i wasn’t a horrible BFF, Paul only chose to write about things that weren’t nice. I am a very nice person!!!! Also, Paul stretches the truth most of the time. Like when I would, as he said, “chase him down” at Saucer so I could be his waitress…. NO, i would walk by and he would stare at me if I didn’t say anything and then he would hit me in the arm. So, there!! The truth comes out! Paul is MEAN TO ME!!! He is the “bad BFF.”

okay, and now what about the times that Paul walks by Bigfoot, sees me working, and flips ME off?!? hmm… REAL, REAL NICE! Then, stumbles his drunk ass in and wants me to serve him, but I get called out on the blog for not serving him. Hmmm, who’s responsible?? That would be good, ole former BFF Meghan!

and third, lets clear this whole me being mean to him and his current BFF thing up, I WAS NOT a complete bitch for no reason. ANYONE who was at the bar at Bigfoot that night will assure you that they acted very rude towards me when they came in.. Paul told me that his drink was the worst drink he had ever had, and he had a makers mark and coke.. how could i mess that up??? Because I didn’t that’s how!! Paul was trying to show his ass in front of those girls! (p.s. this is not a “paul bashing” blog) Then, I did get a little angry when his BFF said her drink was horrible and blah blah blah afterwards because we were out of olive juice, which I told her before I even made her drink. Then, she proceeded to say that she was an upgrade from me. Whatever, Im not a catty girl, i wasn’t gonna come back with anything, so I did the most simple thing that I could do, which I also went to a manager first with, it wasn’t a decision that I took upon myself. Regardless, I have nothing against Suzy, I don’t know her. She did come in and invite me to Tubetopalooza, which was very nice of her. SEE Paul, I am a nice girl!

By the way, Paul says this is a great post so far AKA he’s totally being full of shit.

I’m thinking the only reason he’s letting me write this is because he said he has been drinking since 1 p.m. today because he totally called in to work today (Hi Camille ) He “says” it was a planned vacation day, whatever. Also, as Paul already knows, i’m totally expecting a 100% tip for being very very nice today and being an awesome server!

ALSO, thanks to me Paul found out that we serve mountain dew here.. see i’m about as helpful as Paul’s blogs!

SOOOO, for all of my fans/and not-so-much fans… Here’s what I have to say!

Day off work today.  Sitting here at the Second Street branch office getting some stuff done on the laptop.  Although, the connection sucks here… the Saucer’s Wi-Fi seems to be down, so I’m sitting in the window and MoochNetting off Jillian’s across the street.

The South Main Association will have its monthly meeting tomorrow at 6 PM at Ground Zero Blues Club.  The UrbanArt Commission will be there to discuss ideas for murals to brighten up the South Main streetscape.  They’ll be looking for your ideas too, so if you’re an artist or creative person, this would be a good meeting to come to.  Free appetizers for members (non-members $5 to attend) and cash bar.  Ground Zero is on Lt. Lee Avenue next to the Westin Hotel, one block south of Beale.

Just received information about a dodgeball tournament to benefit Youth Villages:

Dodge This will be a 32-team dodgeball tournament to be held at the Wellworx sporting club on Shelby Oaks Drive on August 2nd.  Presented by CH Robinson.  The tournament is co-ed, and registration is $180 per 6-person team, $10 per additional player.  All players must be at least 18.  Registration deadline is July 25 and only the first 32 teams get in, so sign up now.

Had a beer with a friend of mine yesterday, and she told me that she’s now working for ADP, the largest payroll processing company in the country.  She’s signing up small businesses that have 1-49 employees, and she told me stories about saving some of them a couple grand a year.  They also have a guarantee that they can match or beat the price of their competitor.  If you own or manage a small business and want to talk to her, shoot me an e-mail (paul@paulryburn.com) and I’ll put you in touch with her.  ADP is a great company, one of the true blue-chips… I used to own shares of them in my Roth IRA.

Speaking of businesses, if you read the blog from work and haven’t scrolled back through the weekend’s posts, you may have missed the announcement about my newest website, Mid-South Alcoholic Supply.  There you can find books about beer, wine, liquors, and drinking in general, as well as drinking games, glasses, mixers, bar sets and equipment, everything the accomplished drinker needs.  My friend Dr. Booze is writing a blog for the site as well, where he’ll keep you informed on the latest developments in the world of alcohol.

It’s killing me to look at that picture of that South of Heaven Roll I took last night… I’m starving for one now, and Hoop’s Bar doesn’t open until 7 PM (or whenever Hoop puts the sign out).  My health guru AL commented that her heart is palpitating just looking at it.  Guess I’m going to have to hit Publish and go find SOMETHING to eat… so that’s all for now.

Tried the South of Heaven Roll on the menu at Hoop’s Bar tonight.  Here’s how the bartender described it.  You take a cheddar & jalapeno sausage.  Wrap it with a slice of cheese, bacon and onion in a tortilla.  Roll it up, dip in tempura batter and deep fry it.  Result is shown above.

Hoop’s Bar is open from 7ish PM to 3 AM.  Walk down Second between Peabody Place and Beale and look for the yellow sign that says “Hoop’s Bar” pointing to a flight of stairs.  Wheelchair-accessible admission through EP’s next door.

When you think print media in Memphis, your first thought is probably The Commercial Appeal, right?  Not according to Google.  This morning I downloaded Google’s toolbar, which shows how relevant Google thinks a site is, called the PageRank, on a scale of 1 to 10.  The higher the number, the more relevant Google considers the site to be.  For example, Yahoo, considered a very relevant site, carries a ranking of 9.   Wikipedia, another relevant site, is an 8.  PageRank is one of the factors Google uses to order search page results.

So I decided to look up the PageRanks of some well-known Memphis media sites.  The Commercial Appeal had a PageRank of 4 as of the time of this post.  However, the daily newspaper is outdone by two weekly newspapers, the Memphis Flyer and the Memphis Business Journal, both which hold PageRanks of 5.  It’s also outdone by a smaller daily newspaper, the Memphis Daily News, which also holds a 5.

Looks like the CA has some catching up to do.

TV station WREG had them all beat, though, with a 6.  Eyewitness News is only a 2.  Google doesn’t seem to know what to do with WMC-TV as its site doesn’t have a PageRank at all.

My blog has a PageRank of 4.  I pulled up a few of the other popular Memphis blogs and they were 4s as well.

After almost a month of work, it’s finally done! It’s my pleasure to announce to you my latest website:

Mid-South Alcoholic Supply is your place to go for all your drinking-related supplies. Whether you’re an alcoholic, a drunk, a boozer, a lush; whether you prefer to get hammered, trashed, wasted, or sloshed, there’s likely something on this site for you. Inventory includes

• A large selection of drinking games and books on drinking games. Beer pong has its own section.
• Bartender guides/drink recipe guides
• Books about the art and humor of drinking, as well as books on wine, beer, and various liquors
• Kegerators/keg refrigerators
• A huge assortment of coolers including electric cooler scooters
• Everything you need to build a bar at home. The store has the bars themselves (ranging from inexpensive ones around $100 all the way up to $10,000 restaurant-quality ones) as well as bar mirrors, signs, mixer sets, liquor dispensers, and everything else you need to stock up.
• Glasses of all shapes and sizes. If you pour booze in it, we likely sell it.
• Hangover cures
• Accessories like cocktail napkins to make your next party unique
• Wine openers, stoppers, refrigerators/wine cellars, wine racks, wine cabinets
• All kinds of cool flasks

… and much, much more. Checkout and shipping are handled through Amazon.com, so you know your order will be processed securely and professionally.

The reason I decided to create this store is because Amazon.com carries a huge selection of drinking-related products… but good luck trying to find anything on there. Their site is a mess. Items that are placed in the wrong category, items that are really cool but get buried under pages and pages of search results. What I tried to do (and in general, this is what I do with all my Amazon storefronts) is to find the best of the best and present it to you in a format that’s easy to navigate.

When you make a purchase, I get referral commission as an Amazon Associate. The commission scale slides upward from 4% to 8.5% as I sell more and more items per month. All of my stores – Tube Top Boutique, Pro Wrestling Book and Video, and the others – count toward my total monthly sales. Last month enough items sold to put me in the 6.5% commission category. This month I’ll probably move up to 7%. You have to sell a TON of items to top out at 8.5%. I’ll probably never get there.

Why do I spend a lot of my free time creating these sites? Well, one of these years I plan to actually break down and finally buy a condo. But, I’m not a big fan of committing myself to a $1500-1800 payment for the next 30 years. I’ve always held the belief that a paycheck from a job is a really risky way to pay a mortgage, even though it’s what almost everyone does. I’d prefer to have passive income coming in to pay the note. When these stores throw off enough passive income to pay for my mortgage, then it’s time to start shopping for a condo. (Real estate agents: “Cool your jets, Turbo,” to use a Mikeyism… it’s still a year or more from happening, so don’t start contacting me yet.) That way, if I buy a place to live and then leave my job at some point after that, I’m still covered and don’t have to be scared to death of foreclosure.

Better yet, if I buy a place to live and then don’t leave my job, I have an extra $1500-1800 of paycheck that’s not going to pay for a home. I can use that money for other things, like drinking at the Saucer or taking trips to Romania to check out cute Eastern European girls.

And yes, there is some risk involved in my plan. If Amazon goes out of business, its Associates program will be gone and my monthly commissions will evaporate. But come on, it’s AMAZON. Do you really see that happening? And as I go along, I’ll be looking for ways to diversify into other affiliate programs as well, just as a stock investor looks to diversify by buying stocks in different sectors, or by buying mutual funds.

So anyway, that’s why you didn’t see me out yesterday. I had plans to meet a co-worker and her friends at Tom Lee Park for the July 4 fireworks, but by 7 PM I was seriously close to being done with Mid-South Alcoholic Supply and I didn’t want to stop. I stayed up ’til midnight working on it. Then I stayed up ’til 5 re-reading Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

Lots left to do… gotta put links to the new site on all my existing ones, then it’ll be time to start on my next site, which is a much smaller niche. I’ll be spending the afternoon doing DVD screen captures for it. If this rain moves out of here maybe I’ll take the laptop to the Saucer.

I’m skipping brunch tomorrow, because I want to continue work on the next site, and I may get out by myself for a while mid-afternoon and see what goes on besides the Monkey/Majestic and the Saucer on Sundays. Sunday night a friend of ours from Monterrey, Mexico is cooking an authentic Mexican dinner for the gang… YUM! I said I was going to be a hermit all weekend but there are some events you just don’t miss. Hopefully having the food in my stomach will let me make Sunday a late night, since I have Monday off. I’ve been meaning to check out the Red Rooster’s SIN Night with tricycle races, cornhole and other games, but just haven’t had the energy after getting started at 11 AM the past few Sundays.

Woohoo… I feel a sense of accomplishment this morning. Happy Saturday everyone.

Great article in the Commercial Appeal this morning about the conversion of the old WDIA building, at Main and Union, to apartments. Those have got to be some unique living spaces with lots of character, and it’s great to see new apartments (as opposed to condos, of which there are already too many) opening Downtown.

Also in the news: The conservative movement really is dying. Literally. Former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms kicked the bucket this morning.

Cool site I found this morning, Zon, an interactive multiplayer site for learning Chinese language and culture. I’ll have to spend some time on this site. Chinese girls are hot.

Speaking of foreign nationals who are hot, it’s the time of year when Eastern European college students travel to America on their summer vacations. They come over here on visas that allow them to work in the US for up to four months, and many of them take service industry jobs. Hottest among these Eastern Europeans are the Romanians. I encourage all Downtown business owners to beautify Downtown by hiring some Romanians if any come to you and apply for work. Then e-mail me (paul@paulryburn.com) and let me know where they’re working.

Lenny’s in the Falls Bvilding (no I didn’t misspell that), at Front and Court, has expanded their hours. They are now open 10:30-6:00 Monday-Friday, and 10:30-3:00 Saturday. That’s a great move… it’ll give Downtown residents a chance to run by after work and pick up a sub for dinner. My favorite: The #11 Philly Cheese Steak sub with hot pepper relish. Nice to see them open on Saturdays too. Looks like they’ve cut out their breakfasts. Recommendations for displaced Lenny’s breakfast customers: Elliott’s on Second just south of Madison, and Blue Plate Cafe on Court Square.

My plans for today: Going to work on the two websites I plan to roll out this weekend. Later today I’ll be watching fireworks. This time I’m actually going to the celebration at Tom Lee Park, rather than watching from a rooftop as I’ve done the past several years. A friend of mine wanted to go, and I realized that the rooftops have become a “been there, done that” thing over the past couple of years, so this will be something different.

Downtown rooftops are taking measures to prevent filling up beyond capacity. My apartment building is only allowing residents one guest each this year. The condo building where I’ve spent the past two July 4s is only handing out 40 passes to their rooftop, mostly to residents and a few to go to guests. If you’re looking for a rooftop, the Madison Hotel will have a party on theirs with Amy LaVere tonight, although you might want to call in advance and make reservations.

Time to get some websites done… happy Fourth!

Welcome to another installment of the “what’s going on Thursday night” post.

• Conch Republic on the Peabody rooftop 6-10 PM, $5 cover, ladies free until 8.
• Amy LaVere on the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10:30 PM.  $7 cover.  Amy LaVere will also be performing at the Madison Hotel’s July 4 rooftop cookout tomorrow night.
• Jazz and Blues with Andrew Sharp and Matt Gooden on the River Inn of Harbor Town rooftop, 6:30 PM.  It’s also Ladies’ Night at Tug’s in the River Inn, with half-price drinks for ladies.
• Lyle Jennings and Friends at the Cannon Center for Performing Arts, 8 PM, $39.50-49.50.  Prior to the show Jennings will be at Shoe Happy Hour at Tyiese Scarpa (515 S. Main) from 6 to 7 PM.
• $2 34 oz. Coors Light all day at Big Foot Lodge
• FreeWorld at the Flying Saucer, 9:30 PM, $3 cover.
• Ordinary Citizens at the Red Rooster, ladies get in free and get a chance to win a trip and other prizes.
• Eric Hughes Blues Band at Ground Zero, 8 PM.
• ’80s for the Ladies Night at Hollywood Disco (formerly Raiford’s), doors open 9 PM, mixed drinks and quarts of Bud Light available.
• Poser Night at Club Lame… I mean, Ladies’ Night at Club Atlas

With most everyone off for the Fourth, this will be an additional weekend night and Downtown should be quite busy.  Drive safely – the cops are going to be on the lookout for drunk drivers.  Also, keep in mind that liquor stores are closed tomorrow, so if you need any spirits for July 4 partying, you better go get them tonight.