Someone from People for the American Way hit my blog a few minutes ago. I visited their site and it looks like a good organization, so I figure I’d give them a little free publicity.
Category: Uncategorized
Our trivia team’s secret weapon
I’m sitting in the Saucer working on my laptop right now. The waitresses are standing on ladders hanging Mardi Gras decorations.
Since I used to be a college faculty member, it is my pleasure to offer the following SAT prep question:
LADDERS : MINISKIRTS :: TRAMPOLINES : _______________
a) jump ropes
b) sweatsocks
c) nachos
d) tube tops
The correct answer is at the end of this post.
This is my first of two visits to the Saucer today, as I will be back tonight for Trivia Bowl. The Rapscallions continue to pile up victories, with something like 8 first-places in the past five months. People always ask me, “How do you guys do it? What’s the key to your success?”
Well, I’m going to give away our secret. We are fortunate enough to have a true Trivia Master on our team. Definitely one of the all-time greats. Here are a few pics of the master himself:
With a trivia stud like this on our team, we could probably win every week if we wanted to, but we feel it’s only fair to take it easy and give the other teams a chance.
If you think this post was a waste of bandwidth, wait ’til you see what I have in store for tomorrow.
The correct answer is d).
Wow! Memphis has a roller derby team! Didn’t know
Thanks to Rachel, who writes A Pulp Faction, one of the best Memphis blogs, for sending this info: a pulp faction: Tuesday: Memphis Roller Derby Practice and Meeting
Back in the ’80s I used to watch roller derby on TV. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s a physical-contact sport on a round skating rink. I don’t know if this is true of the local team, but the roller derby I saw on TV had some of the sports-entertainment aspects found in pro wrestling, with babyface and heel teams and evil managers.
My vacation is going very well for the most part… I’ll be out somewhere laptopping this afternoon, making updates to a website. I may very well jump over to Blogger and post a Tuesday update at some point.
Just checked my tracker. Someone from Disney is reading my blog. Cool!
Court Square snow pic
Pic from Saturday when the snow was fresh – this is of Court Square, taken from my rooftop on No. 10 Main. Click on the image to see it in full size. Warning to dialup users: this file is almost a megabyte, may take a moment to download. Shouldn’t be a problem for cable, DSL or wireless users. I didn’t want to resize this one (2560 x 1920) and lose any detail.
Snow is pretty rare in Memphis, so this pic is a keeper. You’ll notice that there is something else rare about this pic of Court Square: there aren’t any pigeons or bums.
Deal of the Week
Continuing my “Deal of the Week” series, in which I scour the ads in the Sunday paper to find the best deals…
This week’s Deal of the Week is the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 5000, a wireless keyboard and mouse combo. It normally runs for $99.95 but Office Depot has it on sale this week for $49.95 ($59.95 plus $10 mail-in rebate). It’s a good opportunity to eliminate some wires from your desktop, and users seem to especially like the feel of the mouse in their hand. It also provides one-touch access to photo-editing and screen magnifying features.
The Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 is also on sale for $49.95, but reviews on the Web seem to indicate that the Optical Desktop 5000 is better put together and a more comfortable product to use.
One word of caution: Other devices that emit electrical current can interfere with the wireless signal. My manager at work has a wireless keyboard/mouse, and sometimes his telephone cord gets in the way and knocks the signal out. So if your wireless keyboard suddenly stops working, it’s not necessarily a sign that it’s defective; you may just need to move some things around on your desk.
Back next Sunday with another deal.
Update from last night’s party
Due to the wishes of one of the people at the party, I’m not going to post the images from last night. My apologies for leading everyone on, but it’s important to respect people’s wishes. To the person in question: No hard feelings and we would still love to have you guys join us for trivia night or some other night sometime soon.
“Deal of the Week” and the restroom post coming soon.
Attn wrestling fans
Tickets for the WWE Supershow, to be held at the FedExForum Monday, March 20, go on sale today. This will be a joint TV taping – first, they’ll be taping Smackdown to be shown on UPN Friday night, and then they will have a live Monday Night Raw which will be broadcast on USA Network. This show will occur right before Wrestlemania so it should be a good one.
I haven’t been to a live wrestling show in 8 years – went with one of my students to see Memphis Wrestling in 1998, and I went with a fellow instructor to WCW Monday Nitro in 1996. Normally, I’m not that interested in seeing it live, but this time I might be for one reason:
“I’m… the… BOOGEYMAN! ha ha ha… and I’m coming… TO GETCHA! ha ha ha ha…”
I know WWE sometimes “papers” arenas, meaning they give away thousands of free tickets so that the arena will look full on TV. Anyone got info on how to score some of those tickets?
Going to Zydeco Fest today?
If you are, buy a wristband from this guy:
He’ll be standing outside Tater Red’s/The Black Diamond. Tell him Paul sent you. Wristbands are $12 and get you in all the clubs that are participating in Zydeco Fest.
He also sells wristbands for Beale Street’s weekly Friday night wristband night, so look for him then too.
Drop a Brain in Bush
This is a repeat but since my readership has multiplied x 10 in the past year…
Lots going on Saturday, if there isn’t an ice storm
First of all, congratulations to my former student Naseera (aka The One Normal Person Who Works At Autozone Corporate HQ) and Ron Perrone, Jr., drummer for the Dempseys, who both turn 30 today. Ron has mastered the art of time travel, as he has found a way to jump directly from age 16 to age 30.
Bad weather is moving in, but in case the forecast is wrong (NAH! that never happens) here are some things going on tomorrow night (Saturday, February 18).
– Zydeco Fest on Beale Street, 5 pm to 5 am. You can buy a $12 wristband that gets you into all the clubs, and it looks like even Alfred’s is participating. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is worth going to just for the people-watching. Imagine the street and all the clubs packed with sexy, beautiful women. Got that? Well, keep imagining, because that is definitely NOT the crowd that attends Zydeco Fest. Lots of people come up from Looziana for this. Not Louisiana, but Looziana.
– If you want to be downtown but zydeco isn’t your thing, check out FreeWorld at the Flying Saucer. They should start around 9:30 and are always a good show.
– And over in Midtown at the Hi-Tone, there will be a Save Libertyland benefit with the Luv Clowns, Harlan T. Bobo, and the Minivan Blues Band. I may not have been Libertyland’s biggest fan over the years, but I can explain why it needs to remain open in three words: LIBERTYLAND HIRES ROMANIANS. We need to support local businesses that make it possible for college-age Romanian girls to come to Memphis to live, work, and play. Especially “play.” And there’s now a serious offer on the table to keep the theme park open. So if you’re in Midtown, come by, lend a hand, hear some bands.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll make it to any of these fine events. I have the James Bond party being thrown by neighbors in my building, and I’ll be hanging out with a friend who is about to leave town for 13 weeks.
In local news, the Rapscallions trivia team (minus me) hit TJ Mulligan’s last night and won second place, for which the prize was a $25 bar tab. Meanwhile, while watching the Dempseys I got handed coupons good for a free appetizer and a free drink at Swig. Considering they had to split the tab four ways, I came out better than the team did.
All right – time to get some work done, because I have a week’s vacation next week! Not going anywhere. Downtown Memphis IS my vacation. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
I’ll be back with a Deal of the Week post on Sunday, and who knows, maybe before that.