Tuesday update: “New” breakfast spot coming to the southern end of the Downtown core

Listen up, AutoZoners, you’re about to have a new place to stop for breakfast as you head into the “store support center” in the morning. MLGWers, you’ll have a new way to get your protein and vitamins to kick off a busy day of cutoffs. ServiceMaster folks, you’ll want to hear this, as will people who work in the Peabody Place office tower and the Gayoso/Pembroke complex.

The COVID-19 numbers continue to drop according the the often-not-working Shelby County Health Department COVID-19 data dashboard.

  • New Cases by Specimen Collection Date 7-day rolling average is 197. That’s only 17 above the trip wire for limited service restaurants to reopen under Health Directive No. 10.
  • Shelby County COVID-19 7-Day Rolling Positivity Rate is 12.3%, only 2.3% percent above the 10% trip wire set in the same document to allow limited service restaurants to open.

So, owners of limited service restaurants don’t know when the reopening date will be yet, but they are getting excited and starting to make plans. Jeannette, owner of the Blind Bear at 119 S. Main St., announced the following schedule yesterday when the Bear is once again able to let customers inside:

  • 7-11 AM: Breakfast every day
  • 10 AM-3 PM: Brunch Saturday and Sunday
  • 11 AM-3 PM: Lunch Monday-Friday
  • 3 PM-11 PM: Dinner (3 PM-10 PM while COVID-19 hours are in place; she’ll consider staying open for to-go after 10)
  • 11 PM-3 AM: Hibernation menu (when allowed to stay open)

She has completely re-done two of the menus and is planning changes to the others. Every menu will contain vegan options. (Ariel does happy dance)

Jeannette didn’t say specifically, but I wonder if the health department has something in the works to help limited service restaurants. Due to the changing economics of COVID and increased to-go, Uber Eats, and DoorDash owners, the Bear’s food sales were outpacing their alcohol sales when open in 2020. Texas is allowing its bars to temporarily reclassify as full-service restaurants for the duration of the pandemic; I wonder if the Shelby County Health Department and the Tennessee ABC will work together on a similar plan?

The breakfast expansion is a brilliant move in that respect. Food sales should far outpace alcohol sales during those hours. If she can offer breakfast that people who work nearby can easily pick up and take back to their desks, that should prove quite popular.

The Memphis Tigers have lost another football game from their fall schedule. UT-Martin informed the University of Memphis it would not be able to make the November 21 date. That leaves the U of M with 10 dates, the first of which is September 5 vs. Arkansas State.

There was a shooting at a Summer Avenue nightclub early Monday morning. Health Directive No. 10 specifically says clubs are not supposed to be open right now. Even if the place was operating under a restaurant license, per regulations it should have closed at 10 PM.

Holly has info on the Virtual Memphis Beer Festival happening in October. A portion of the funds raised will benefit Memphis food workers. The event is organized by Cerrito Entertainment & Trivia and Memphis Growler & Bottle Shop. When you purchase a ticket, you select a pickup date, time, and location. There are four date/time pickup slots available, two at High Point Grocery and two at the Cash Saver on Madison. $30 ticket includes 8 beers and a Memphis snack, and the $50 VIP ticket adds two more beers, a commemorative growler, and upgrades you to a deluxe Memphis snack. Ticket-holders will be given a Zoom link for an interactive experience Saturday, October 3 from 2 to 6 PM.

As your number-one source of news and information about The Edge District, it is my pleasure to link you to this Memphis Business Journal article about presumptive NBA Rookie of the Year Ja Morant teaming up with an area business. Ja and 7 other NBA stars are participating in the #PlayItForward Challenge to raise awareness of Black-owned businesses. DoorDash will donate $1 to the National Urban League for every order from an NBA player’s chosen Black-owned restaurant through the end of August, and there will be $0 delivery fees for those restaurants during that time. Morant has chosen The Edge’s very own Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe as his restaurant to support. Order you some stuff from Chef Tam’s scrumptious menu so Ja can put the goggles on when challenge results are announced!

The Sheraton on North Main seeks a PM Housekeeping Supervisor.

In other job news, Williams-Sonoma is gearing up for the holiday season. They’re hiring 200 now and looking to add as many as 3000 in the weeks to come.

The revised SEC football schedule was released yesterday.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Tennessee’s vote to ratify the amendment was the final state vote needed to make it official.

There will be a vigil to save the post office in Navy Park, G.E. Patterson at Second, Thursday night-Friday morning 7 PM-7:30 AM. The location was chosen because of its proximity to the main post office.

That’s it for now. I will try to watch the COVID-19 task force press conference and will be back this afternoon with a recap if anything interesting is announced.

Monday update

After a year far exceeding expectations, the Grizzlies bowed out of the season in Saturday’s playoff game, our rookie point guard scoring 35 with a broken thumb. So where does that leave Memphis in respect to the 2020 NBA draft?

This Yahoo! Sports article explains. The Grizzlies are considered to have the 14th worst finish in the NBA this year – to put that another way, they will be a lottery team but will be considered the best of the worst. Therefore, they will have the least number of chances to jump to one of the top four draft picks in the 2020 NBA lottery, set to take place Thursday at 7:30 on ESPN. Precisely, they will have a 2.4 percent chance to jump into the top four, and a 97.6 percent chance they will end up with the 14th and final lottery pick.

But wait… the Grizzlies still have to CONVEY THAT PICK to the Boston Celtics to compensate for the Jeff Green trade that happened years ago. The pick is top-6 protected for 2020 and unprotected for 2021. So if the Grizz hit their 2.4% chance and jump into the top four this week, they keep their pick this year, but unconditionally send their 2021 pick to Boston, even if it is the number-one draft pick. If the Grizz land in the 97.6% in the 2020 lottery, Boston picks 14th in this year draft and the trade obligation is fulfilled.

As exciting as the thought of James “Big Ticket” Wiseman in Beale Street Blue might be, it would be far preferable to CONVEY THAT PICK this draft rather than next. The 2021 draft class is considerably deeper to the point that a No. 7 pick next year might turn out better than a No. 3 pick this year. It’s by no means the end of the world to pick in the top 4 in 2020, but Memphis would probably be better off hoping for no first rounder and some savvy second-round moves by the front office in the 2020 draft.

Interesting development: A lawsuit alleges that late 19th-early 20th century robber The Sundance Kid is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. The suit seeks to exhume the remains of a man who died in October 1930 and who is buried in the cemetery for comparison.

Local musician John Paul Keith is back with another online concert tonight at 8.

There’s an online cooking class with Chef Eli, presented by the Downtown Memphis Commission, on Facebook tonight at 6.

If you need some stunning new wallpaper, how about an image of Mars?

The 2020 Democratic National Convention is this week. Here are the ways you can watch. Regardless of your party affiliation, this convention will be historic because of the pandemic’s effects on its organization. Scheduled to speak during prime time tonight: Sen, Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Jim Clyburn, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

I didn’t get around posting until about 4 yesterday afternoon, and the post was analysis of Shelby County COVID-19 data. We could hit the tripwires allowing limited service restaurants to reopen before Labor Day, if things keep trending in their current direction. Scroll on if you haven’t read yet. Back tomorrow with more news.

Sunday afternoon update: Trip wires finna trip?

I was going to take today off, but I caught the Shelby County Health Department’s COVID-19 data dashboard page in a rare moment when it was actually working, and the numbers are looking good.

7-day rolling new case average (third chart from the top) for August 10, which is the last 7 days of new cases including today, is 211. That’s the average based on the date the test was administered, not when the results were reported.

  • Trip wire to consider opening limited service restaurants is 180, only 31 lower.
  • Rolling 7-day new case average dropped by more than 31 in the past six days; hopefully it’ll do so again in the next six.
  • Down from a high of 405, which was the 7-day rolling average July 13-19. That’s quite a drop in less than a month.

7-day rolling positivity rate (fifth chart from the top) is 12.8%. Again, that’s the average for the date tests were administered, not reported.

  • Trip wire to consider opening limited service restaurants is 10%, only 2.8% away.
  • Rolling 7-day positivity rate dropped by more than 2.8% in the past ten days; hopefully it’ll do so again in the next ten.
  • Down from a high of 16.4%, the rolling 7-day average July 18-24. Not as significant a drop as in the new case rolling average, but still, heading in the right direction.

Keep an eye on these charts (when they’re working). It could well be that in another week or two it’ll be time to have a conversation about getting things back to normal.

Saturday update

From Nextdoor: Everyone be on the lookout for a package thief, especially on Mud Island. He stole packages off porches on the Island last Friday, August 7, and was seen again yesterday around Isle Creek Drive. Description:

  • 2018 Chevrolet Malibu, black in color
  • African-American male, 40s, medium build
  • Known to dump empty boxes near the back entrance to the island

There’s a reward for up to $1000 for information leading to the arrest of this individual.

City Tasting Boxes are the latest brainchild of Cristina McCarter who does (or did, before COVID-19) City Tasting Tours. If you want to send someone a taste of Memphis, she can help.

WMC Action News 5 reports that Malco theaters will begin reopening this month. Friday, August 28 is the target date for South Main’s Malco Powerhouse. Tickets and times will be available on the 26th.

This Daily Memphian article sheds some light on the COVID-19 “tripwires” recently adopted by the Health Department. The main point of the article was that schools could stay open until COVID-19 testing hits a 25% positivity rate, much higher than in other cities. However, the article goes on to say that schools could be shut down and a return to Safer at Home put in place if there’s 25% positivity OR more than 750 new cases on average per day OR if a week-over-week 40% increase in number of new cases is seen.

If the “bad” tripwire triggers are ORs, does that mean the “good” ones are too? Specifically I’m wondering, can limited service restaurants reopen if we get to 180 cases or fewer per day OR a positivity rate of 10% or lower, as opposed to AND? Because we’re getting close on the number of cases. The Shelby County COVID-19 data dashboard (parts of which don’t work half the time, it seems) had us at 221 new cases/day last night.

I know people in the media read this blog. If any of you want to call into Tuesday’s COVID-19 task force press conference and ask the question about OR vs. AND as relates to the bullet points in the trip wires, you will be my favorite person ever and I’ll buy you a beverage once the limited service restaurant wire gets tripped.

Grizzlies vs. Portland Trail Blazers, 1:30 PM, ABC. Am I a horrible person for hoping Damian Lillard comes down with a 48-hour case of food poisoning?

Useful article from Gizmodo: Browser extensions that will show you who is tracking you as you surf the web. Several extensions are listed, but Privacy Badger from the Electronic Frontier Foundation seems to be the gold standard.

From the police scanner at 9:53 last night: Disturbance at Jefferson Ave. and North B.B. King Blvd., about 8 subjects on Bird scooters riding into oncoming traffic on one-way B.B. King. For some reason traffic laws don’t apply whatsoever the moment you set foot on a Bird, or so riders believe. The scooters are shut down 10 PM-5 AM in the Downtown area, but it sounds like that 10 PM start time may need to be backed up to 9.

Interesting: What really happens to whiskey when it is aged in wine casks and rum barrels? This’ll give you something to talk to the bartender at Belle Tavern about, you know, in October 2022 when the Health Department finally allows you to sit at the bar again.

Clarification on what I posted yesterday: The NCAA has canceled fall sports championships, but in football, the NCAA only crowns the FCS champion. They do not crown the FBS champion, the champion among all the teams that are eligible to play in bowl games. So there is some hope of an FBS champion this year, although I don’t see how this happens when 40% of the five most powerful FBS conferences have already said they won’t have a season. Thanks to regular reader Dennis for texting me and clarifying.

Late-night special at Local! (But late-night’s not what it used to be):

The newest Pabst product: PBR Ginger Whiskey Mule cans

Memphis 901 FC has a road match this evening at 6 at the Charlotte Independence. You can watch on CW30 locally.

The candlelight vigil in observance of the 43rd anniversary of Elvis’ death will be livestreamed from Graceland tonight starting at 8:40.

Yesterday I did something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. If you’ve hit the root page of my domain – not www.paulryburn.com/blog which you’re on now, but www.paulryburn.com – anytime in the past 6 or so years, you’ve seen a generic “If you’re looking for my blog, here’s a link” message. I finally redesigned the root page to make it look like the owner of this domain actually knows how to design a website, using the Bootstrap 4 responsive framework and a cool photo I snapped on my rooftop about 25 minutes after sunset one day last month. Check it out. It was at most a 20-minute design job. Really, it took me as long to remember my FTP password so I could upload the new page as it took me to build it.

In other website news: I’m strongly considering a second blog. I spent a considerable amount of time during the late March-early May “house arrest” period studying, contemplating, and writing reactions to some spiritual material (note that “spiritual” is not the same thing as “religious”) and I’ve been doing the same since the bars closed in early July. It has kept me sane in the lack of social outlets, and I feel like I have evolved quite a bit. I feel like I’m nearing the point of sharing some of what has been on my mind with whoever chooses to read it.

If this second blog becomes a reality, I don’t see myself using a blogging engine like WordPress, but rather free-form HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I feel like my web design skills are evolving along with inner understandings, and I want to see where that leads. Let’s just say that 2020 is shaping up to be a massively creative and expansive period for me. If and when the new blog becomes a reality, I will link to it from here.

Unless something really good comes up, my plan is to stay home this afternoon and watch the Grizzlies. Back tomorrow with more news.

 

Friday update: Food news, Grizzlies, COVID-19 numbers

Got a couple of culinary additions to the Downtown landscape to start off this post. No new restaurants opened, but a couple of existing restaurants have expanded in most delicious ways.

Rumba Room on South Main just south of Pontotoc is no doubt hurting. Social distancing has nixed their popular salsa dance nights on the weekends for several months now. So, they decided to try to bring in some revenue a different way, by offering lunch – a Guatemalan menu. A copy of the menu was posted to Facebook yesterday. On it were

  • Two Guatemalan sandwiches, the Del Campo and the Shuco
  • A chorizo chimichurri burger
  • Chicken chilaquiles
  • Fried chicken sandwich
  • Vegetarian wings
  • Chicken shish kabobs
  • A 3 taco flight (grilled chicken, adobo pork, churrasco)
  • A shuco BLT sandwich
  • Grilled chicken or fish with grilled yams, rice, cucumber salad
  • Rumba salad
  • Chicken, beef, or pork tacos

Anyone want to do a late lunch next week and meet up? The hours were not printed on the menu I saw.

From River Time Market & Deli on Court Square:

I got the baking bug! River Time’s 6 inch Mini Pies! $6.99 – Banana Pudding Pies, Cherry Pies, Peach Pies, Apple, & Chocolate. I will start taking orders on Monday or just come by the Deli on Monday and take a look at our selection in the store.

One more Downtown food announcement, this one from 117 Prime steakhouse on Union:

New to the menu!
•
Cioppino | mussels, clams, crabs, whitefish, tomato broth, capers, grilled bread
•
This classic seafood stew has its humble origins in late 19th century San Francisco. The poor Italian-American fishermen there would sometimes come back from a hard day of work empty-handed, and they would rely on the charity of their neighbors to help “chip in” whatever they could spare for a community pot of seafood stew. The same charity would be extended to any other fishermen who had empty nets at the end of the day. That spirit of community and humanity is something that strikes a chord with us now more than ever, and we infuse every bowl of this American classic with that same love and care.
•
Call us at 901.433.9851 or visit our website at 117prime.com to book a table. We can’t wait to see you!

Let’s get on to sports news… the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the Grizzlies’ final seeding game yesterday, qualifying for a spot in the Western Conference play-in series for the NBA playoffs. Unfortunately the Portland Trail Blazers won their game too. Portland will therefore be the 8 seed and Memphis the 9. Memphis will have to beat Portland both Saturday and Sunday to steal their 8th seed and face the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. If the Trail Blazers win either Saturday’s game or (if necessary) Sunday’s, they advance.

The Grizzlies made their 8th and-one (made free throw following a shooting foul on a made basket) of the seeding games yesterday, which qualifies app users for a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich. Check your app for details. The announcers said you had 24 hours to score your sandwich. Tip-off of the game was 3 PM yesterday, so the clock is ticking from some time after there.

NCAA president Mark Emmert has said there will be no fall championships in college sports this year, and that includes football. Bad news for Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU, Baylor and other teams that are perennially in the conversation for one of the 4-team playoff slots.

Wonder of wonders, the graphs on the Shelby County COVID-19 data page are working this morning, and there are a couple of key points:

  • The seven-day moving average of number of new cases (third graph from the top) is down to 222. That’s only 42 above the the requirement to open the bars, at 180. It’s down from a high of 405 a month and a day ago. The daily average number of new cases, by date of testing, has been cut nearly a half in one month.
  • The seven-day rolling positivity rate (fifth graph from the top) peaked at 16.3% June 18-20, was still at 16% as recently as July 30, and was still as high as 15.3% four days ago. Since then it has dropped to 14.6%, to 13.9%, to 13.6%. The Health Department needs to see 10% or less to open the bars, so as is the case when the boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there’s beer in Texarkana, we’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there. However, getting there looks a lot more possible than it did at the beginning of the week.

Best pandemic DJ name: DJ DanceAlone. He’ll give a streaming performance from Health Sciences Park today from noon to 1.

The fairgrounds will be reimagined as Liberty Park with hotels and a sports complex.

That’s it for now. Keep scrolling if you haven’t read the recap of yesterday’s COVID-19 task force press conference. Back tomorrow with more news.

8/13 Shelby County COVID-19 task force press conference recap

Well this wasn’t the most exciting press conference. Just going to hit the high points.

Mayor Strickland started off. Said that the CARES Act allocated $12 million to the city for enhanced COVID-19 testing. Of that, City Council allocated $2 million for a pilot program for pooled testing. Pooled testing means you test multiple samples for the virus at one time, and if they all come back negative, individual sample tests are not needed. This has the potential to increase capacity, allow more asymptomatic people to be tested, and reduce costs.

A testing committee that meets 3 times a week was created. City employees were tested first, and after that program proved successful, it was expanded to include schools open for in-person learning, with the capacity to test 4000 students and teachers per day.

Strickland said he wanted to be clear that the COVID-19 task force is not recommending in-person learning at this point in time; however, for those schools and districts that adopt in-person learning, the expanded, pooled testing is one more tool that is available.

There were several followup questions on this topic. In response to one, Strickland said the $2 million pilot program is limited to testing within the city limits, but they hope to build best practices that can be replicated countywide.

Strickland was asked if there is a plan to maintain testing infrastructure beyond the expiration of spending CARES money on December 31. Strickland said, nothing definite yet, but they are looking to see if the stimulus package currently in Congress contains additional funding.

Strickland emphasized that the in-school testing will be for asymptomatic people only. That is because the tests will be administered at schools. If your child is sick, you shouldn’t send them there and should instead take advantage of external testing for the symptomatic. Same goes for teachers, who shouldn’t be coming to work sick.

Tiffany Collins, deputy director of general services for the city, said that kids as young as 2 went through the pilot testing programs, and the tests were more well-received than expected. Tests were administered by third-party medical professionals.

David Sweat of the Health Department said that with 8000 slots this week, if you want to be tested, you probably will be able to call one of the local testing sites and get in, even if asymptomatic. They prioritize those who have symptoms and/or have been exposed when testing is tight, but there should be enough testing to expand beyond that this week.

Sweat said we are down to an average of 256 new cases/day. (180 is the threshold to reopen limited service restaurants)

Dr. Bruce Randolph, Health Officer, reiterated comments that the Health Department will be happy to advise on schools’ plans to return to contact sports, but is not in the business of approving or disapproving plans.

Again shocked there were no questions about the trip wires in Health Directive No. 10. Back in the morning with more news.

Thursday update

This fall we will have one more delicious reason to be lucky to be Memphians. You remember MK who did those home-delivery Quarantine Cuisine dinners and Lockdown Lunches?

She and her business partner Kat have bought a food truck and will hit the streets in Fall 2020. “Like” The She Shed Food Parlor on Facebook to find out when the truck will be in your neighborhood, and what will be on the menu.

In other food service industry news, one heck of an opportunity has come open at the Memphis Airport:

Today is a huge day for the Grizzlies, who have a 3:00 game against the Milwaukee Bucks. It’s the final seeding game of the season and here’s how this works:

  • If the Grizzlies win, they are guaranteed an appearance in the Western Conference play-in game(s) as at least a 9 seed;
  • If the Grizzlies win and Portland loses, the Grizzlies are in the play-in game(s) as the 8 seed. That is advantageous because the 8 seed has to beat the 9 seed in only one play-in game, whereas the 9 has to win two in a row;
  • If the Grizzlies lose today, and Phoenix and San Antonio also lose, the Grizzlies are in the play-in as the 9 seed;
  • Any other result and the Grizzlies finish 10th or lower in the West and fall into the NBA draft lottery; however, unless Memphis gets extremely lucky (top six I believe) the team has to CONVEY THAT PICK to Boston to fulfill a leftover obligation from the Jeff Green trade.

You can catch the game on Fox Sports Southeast and the Fox Sports GO app. Other important games today:

  • Dallas at Phoenix, 3 PM, TNT (Go Dallas! …unless the Grizzlies win, then it doesn’t matter)
  • San Antonio at Utah, 5:30 PM, TNT (Go Utah! …unless the Grizzlies win, then it doesn’t matter)
  • Portland at Brooklyn, 8 PM, TNT (Go Brooklyn!)

Good news from the Memphis Flyer:

Good news about the public health crisis: In Tuesday’s COVID-19 update, Mayor Strickland reported that Shelby County is doubling its coronavirus cases once every 35 days, the longest duplication period since the pandemic began. The virus is having more trouble than ever finding hosts here.

The Daily Memphian’s Jennifer Biggs checked in with the folks at Bari restaurant in Midtown, and let me tell you, if you’ve ever wanted to dine with them but have not got around to it, now is the time. They only had two reservations the day Biggs spoke to them. They have about 38% of the revenue and 100% of the bills, pretty common for a restaurant in 2020. They are crippled seating-wise because of the Health Department requirement to close bar areas. They could seat 6 to 8 more socially distanced at their bar if allowed. That is such an arbitrary and unnecessary rule, the epitome of government bureaucracy making a regulation “so we can say that we did something” even if it hurts more than it helps.

The South Main Bumpus Harley-Davidson is the latest Downtown business to not make it amidst the pandemic, but the prime location at 525 S. Main already has a taker: ceramics business Paper & Clay will move in. Seems like a great fit for an art district and for South Main Trolley Nights the last Friday of each month. Check out the Paper & Clay website

The same Daily Memphian article that announced Paper & Clay’s move also said The Haven Memphis is set to move in next to Renee’s Sandwich Shop on G.E. Patterson Avenue. According to their Facebook page, The Haven is “a Safe Place to feel safe and empowered” and a “men’s drop-in facility that provides outreach services to men of color in the community. The Haven’s mission is to promote the physical, mental, and social well-being of men of color by educating, equipping and empowering them to embrace their worth in a safe environment.”

Elmwood Cemetery is back with Part 2 of its Memphis street names presentation tonight at 6:30. This is an online Zoom event and the fee is $10. Streets covered will include Park. Kate Bond. Bingham. Austin Peay. Dunlap, Overton, and Willis.

Central BBQ Downtown is temporarily closed because an employee tested positive for COVID-19. The location will remain closed until all employees who had contact with the infected one are tested and the business is deep cleaned. The other Central BBQ locations are not affected.

Chris Hill plays Slider Inn Downtown tonight at 6 and he’s bringing a full band from Nashville to back him.

The Downtown Hooters will have the PGA Tour – Wyndham Championship on TV today.

I will very possibly be back between 1:30 and 3 with a recap of the Shelby County COVID-19 task force press conference, so check back.

Wednesday update

Want to play mini-golf without hundreds of screaming teenagers rioting, throwing furniture and Plexiglas barriers? Want to play mini-golf without leaving Downtown? Now you can. The Memphis Flyer reports that the Orpheum has set up 9 holes of mini-golf on stage. The course will open Saturday, and will be open Thursdays through Sundays through the fall. Each hole will represent a Broadway show that has played at the theater. $10 per person with a maximum four-person party. Register here. I want to do this! Let’s get a foursome together.

Bird scooters are off the streets for a week after the company disobeyed a curfew last weekend. The scooters are to be disabled 10 PM-5 AM in the Downtown area Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights to slow down traffic problems related to teenagers riding the scoots through areas of heavy drag racing and cruising. The Birds are gone for a week starting yesterday. Next Tuesday they’ll be allowed to bring 50 scooters back, and if they observe curfew the following weekend, they’ll be allowed to bring the whole fleet back. Spin and Ojo scooters will still be on the streets and operable during non-curfew times.

Yubu and the Ancient Youth Band will perform at Live at the Tracks at Central Station 8 to 10 PM Saturday. They’ll bring smooth pop, R&B, and reggae to the patio, and if you feel more comfortable at home you can catch the performance online.

Downtown agencies have approved changes for tax breaks to be received by The Walk on Union, formerly Union Row. This is the mixed-use complex to be built on the south side of Union between Fourth and Danny Thomas. The project will include at least one grocery store, retail, four hotels, and over a thousand apartments.

Today’s weather:

Yesterday was a pretty terrible day in the NBA. The Grizzlies lost and every other team in contention for the number 8 seed in the West won. Portland is now in 8th place in the West with Memphis, Phoenix, and San Antonio a half game back. The Grizzlies can make the play-in series with a win over Milwaukee tomorrow. None of the teams vying for the final Western Conference playoff spot has a game today.

The Big 10 and Pac-12 conferences have canceled fall sports, effectively ending any hopes for a normal college football season. ESPN has a look at spring college football scenarios.  Their idea for a 32-team playoff, with 11 Auburn vs. 22 Memphis in the first round, sounds appealing.

Dentists warn you could get mask mouth, affecting the health of your teeth, if you don’t wash your face masks frequently.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee announced his pick for his vice-presidential running mate yesterday: California Senator Kamala Harris. Coming into this week, I thought, you simply can’t go wrong with any of the four names most commonly in the VP conversation: Susan Rice, Karen Bass, Elizabeth Warren, and Harris. Any of those four could step into the Oval Office today without missing a step. However:

  • Rice has ties to Benghazi, which could lead to Republicans painting her as a surrogate for “Crooked Hillary.” Also, Rice has never held elected office.
  • Bass could have cost Joe Biden Florida due to pro-Castro comments she made a few years ago. RealClearPolitics currently has Biden up by 5 points in Florida, and if he wins that state, he will need only one of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Ohio, or Texas to win the electoral vote.
  • Warren would have made one hell of a president, but Biden would have perceived as being out of touch with the times for not selecting a woman of color when there were so many highly qualified choices available. Also, two 70+ year olds on a ticket isn’t a great look.
  • Harris, though… that’s like the Grizzlies selecting Ja Morant. There’s so much upside and very little downside. The knock against her is she’s “ambitious”… would you really want a president who’s NOT ambitious? Plus, the Republicans will probably be stupid to pin that term on Harris in the fall, driving the female electorate away from their party even more. One more bonus – you know Russian dictator Vladimir Putin HATES this pick.

The FiveThirtyEight presidential forecast launched today. As of this morning, Biden is a 71% favorite to win the election, to Trump’s 29%. Their “winding path to victory” shows Wisconsin as the current tipping-point state, with Biden a 70-30 favorite to win there.

That’s the news for today. If you’re interested in coverage of yesterday’s Shelby County COVID-19 task force press conference, keep scrolling.

8/11 COVID-19 task force press conference recap

Before we do the press conference recap, let’s have a quick look at the Shelby County Health Department COVID-19 dashboard statistics.

  • 7-day rolling average for new cases/day: 236 (180 or fewer needed to open the bars). Not there yet bur down from a high in the low 400s about a month ago.
  • 7-day rolling average for positivity rate: 14.5% (10% needed to open the bars). Down from a high in the low 16%s but we’ve still got a ways to go on this one.

All righty, let’s roll with the press conference recap. Dr. Haushalter, Shelby County Health Department director, led off today, and she had several pieces of good news. First of all, the COVID-19 mortality rate is low in Shelby County compared to national averages. That is in part because of a younger average age of COVID-19 patients here, but also attributable to strong local health departments.

Currently the health department is closing 59% of contact tracing investigations.

Dr. H had some excellent news on testing. Lab turnaround is back in the 1 to 3 day range for most tests, and there are over 8000 open slots per week now to be tested.

Community based testing sites will post what age groups of children they are taking to test, as we anticipate the start of the school year. Go to the city COVID-19 website for then whens and the wheres.

The department is exploring new testing modalities including saliva testing and antibody testing. These too are in anticipation of the school year. In Q&A Dr. H said the saliva tests are pool tests and need to remain below a certain positivity result rate to prove useful.

As far as hospitalization, despite acute care and ICU beds being over 90% full, Dr. H said the county has ample bed capacity available at this time, with the surge facility on Union available if needed.

The COVID-19 team has moved to their new facility on Dividend Drive. 125 of the 141 new positions have been filled, and the remainder are mostly highly specialized positions. Dr. H does expect there to be some part-time contact tracer jobs opening for evening and weekend shifts in the near future.

County Commissioner Mickell Lowery took the podium. He noted that certain businesses defined as close-contact businesses – barber and beauty shops, nail salons, tattoo parlors – had to reconfigure to be able to reopen back in May. They had to distance customer stations, implement shifts in which employees could work, limit access to waiting rooms, purchase disposable capes, and impose other restrictions. The new rules caused considerable financial difficulty for those businesses, and Lowery noted that while restaurants can serve to-go meals, there’s no such thing as a to-go haircut. Therefore, Comm. Lowery said, every owner of one of those brick-and-mortar locations is invited to apply for a $2000 grant to offset expenses. He stressed these did not have to be paid back and said to go to the Shelby County COVID-19 website to apply. In a followup question, Dr. H said she expected applications to be open today and processing to be expedited. Comm. Lowery said $1 million has been set aside to support 500 businesses.

Next up was Dr. Jack Shannon, president of CBU. He said the semester starts Monday. This year there will be no fall break and final exams will be over before Thanksgiving in the hopes of minimizing travel to and from campus. Other CBU notes:

  • Resident advisors are already moving in and are going through COVID-19 protocols and extra steps in addition to their usual beginning-of-the-year checklists
  • International students have returned and are currently quarantined in off-campus housing
  • Dorm rooms will be single-occupancy
  • Cafeterias will focus on meals that can be taken outside or back to dorm rooms
  • Students will be able to chat virtually with staff like librarians and career counselors
  • Classes other than the nurses’ and physician assistants’ programs are 80% online or hybrid. Of those in-person, only 5% have enrollment more than 16 and there’s always 6 feet of distance.

Haushalter was asked what her message to parents would be as the school year begins. She said to be attentive to what your child’s school is doing to reduce transmission, because while you can’t eliminate transmission you can drive it down. She said ideally you want to see kids and teachers in masks, and parents can help by teaching kids how to wear a mask and what to do if their mask is soiled. Teach your kids proper hand washing. Be attentive to their health and don’t send them to school if you suspect they are sick.

Dr. H was asked about nightclubs serving food, no doubt referring to the Hughes Nightclub shooting last weekend when the owner said he served the victims ribs about 4 AM. She said sometimes there are venues not licensed as restaurants that serve food anyway, and to let the health department know. She said that some venues think they can skirt health department inspections by being open at 3, 4 in the morning but inspectors can work 24/7.

Dr. H was asked, other than masking up and not going to bars, if there’s anything else people can do to drive transmission down. She said to consider social activities in your personal lives. If you have people over, how many will come, how long will they stay, will you require masks, will everyone be able to keep 6 feet of distance, how will you ensure proper hand washing. She advised against going to visit family and friends in other communities, where you might bring COVID back to Memphis with you. She said to be aware of activities involving alcohol, and the resulting behaviors – talking louder, singing, forgetting to mask.

I am really surprised Haushalter didn’t get drilled on some of the ambiguities in the trip wires in Health Directive No. 10. The Facebook and Twitter “medical experts” need to find an ally in the media who will ask those questions, or find a way to get media credentials themselves.

That’s it for today. Everyone remember to mask up and keep your distance so school can start this month! More importantly, everyone mask up and keep your distance so teachers can go to bars and enjoy an after-work cocktail. Back tomorrow with more news, and Thursday with another recap. Go Grizz!

Tuesday update

Fudge brownie M&M’s. You need these in your life. Do yourself a favor and stop by your nearest drugstore or convenience store after work and pick some up. Don’t bother with the single-serve packs. Get one of the 9.05 ounce “share packs” with the resealable top. You will thank me for this later. They’re in the light purple package.

The CA’s Jennifer Chandler listed five must-try dishes for Elvis Week and two Downtown restaurants made the list. Arcade restaurant’s legendary fried peanut butter and banana sandwich was on there, a favorite of not only Elvis, but of Ja Morant as well. Also on the list were the Elvis pancakes, banana pancakes topped with a peanut butter sauce and sliced bananas. They are served only at Slim’s brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Good Morning America has a deal on BBQ from the Rendezvous that can be shipped anywhere in the country. The Taste of Memphis Box, on sale for $88 (50% off), comes with two slabs of Rendezvous ribs, two pounds of BBQ pork shoulder, BBQ nachos ingredients, mustard-vinegar slaw, and baked beans. Reheating instructions are included and you can choose any shipping date between August 19 and September 4.

The Memphis Grizzlies play the Boston Celtics today at 4 PM on Fox Sports Southeast and the Fox Sports GO app. The Celtics are first in the Eastern Conference, so this won’t be an easy game. However, with their seed secured, Boston may rest its players for next week, giving Memphis a chance to pick up another crucial win.

Western Conference standings as of this morning: Memphis in 8th place, Portland 0.5 games back, Phoenix and San Antonio 1 game back.

Other games of interest today:

  • Houston at San Antonio, 1 PM, NBATV. We want the Rockets to win.
  • Phoenix at Philadelphia, 3:30 PM, no national TV. We want Philly to win.
  • Portland at Dallas, 5:30 PM, TNT. We want the Mavericks to win.
  • Sacramento at New Orleans, 8 PM, TNT. This is a meaningless game but worth watching to see the sad expression on Zion’s face, knowing he won’t be going to the playoffs.

From Fox 13 Memphis: Downtown restaurants expand outdoor seating

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America.

What’s especially appalling is that this week many people observed the 75th anniversary of the events that really did end World War II, the dropping of atomic bombs on two cities in Japan. And yet Trump and his base have the gall to insinuate that Joe Biden is not mentally all there. This is called “projection” and is a classic behavior of a narcissist.

I’ll try to recap today’s Shelby County COVID-19 task force press conference this afternoon. It’ll be the first press conference since the tripwires were released in Health Directive No. 10 and I have a feeling the news reporters will have some juicy questions awaiting.