House arrest day 26 (Tue)

Silky O’ Sullivan’s is doing a virtual happy hour tonight starting at 5 with musical guest Craig Schuster. Having played piano at Silky’s for 20 years, Craig has plenty of songs to sing and stories to tell. Pick up his latest album on Amazon for 99 cents, and follow him on Facebook and Instagram to stay in touch. Craig will have a virtual tip jar running during the performance. Can’t make tonight’s happy hour? Craig will do one at 5 every Tuesday for the foreseeable future.

The Rusty Pieces will play live on Facebook Thursday night 7 to 8 PM.

The Downtown Memphis Commission announced its first forgivable loans to help see Downtown businesses get through the pandemic. These include

  • Alcenia’s
  • Premier Flowers
  • South Main Book Juggler
  • The Broom Closer
  • Brass Door
  • Rachel’s Salon and Day Spa (where I get my hair cur! Ask for Beckii!)
  • Wrapzody
  • McEwen’s

Click through on the Daily Memphian link above to learn how each business will use the money.

As your number-one source of news and information about The Edge  District, it is my duty to inform you that Mayor Strickland announced yesterday that the old Commercial Appeal building on Union Avenue will be used as an overflow hospital for COVID-19 patients. It will be the primary overflow site due to its proximity to the Medical Center District.

Did you know that you can get grocery delivery Downtown?

From The Green Beetle – Oldest Tavern in Memphis on Facebook:

Happy Monday everyone! We have great news AGAIN! This Friday the 17th we will be cooking up our famous burgers and catfish as well as offering whole homemade coffee cakes and bushwackers (with a food order) for curbside pickup.

We are taking preorders for lunch or dinner so if you just can’t go any longer without some beetle food shoot us a DM with your order, phone number, and preferred pick up time and we will be in touch! Pickup is available from 11-2pm or 5-7pm and we are offering discounts on bulk orders (10 or more). We are accepting cash, credit, or Venmo.

The available menu is:

Beetle Burger (w or w/o American Cheese) with house cut fries $10
Catfish Plate served with fries, BBQ spaghetti, and bread $13
Homemade Cinnamon Coffee Cake $15 (8″x8″ cake serves 6-8 and is simply amazing)

If you have someone in your life who is crazy about Elvis, Lansky Bros. has a new TCB belt.

From Lifehacker: Now is the time to infuse a bunch of vodka

Wow…

Thank you to all our police officers who risk their lives to keep us safe… not just from the coronavirus but everything else as well. The other day, I was listening to the police scanner and they got a call on a “mental consumer”, 6 feet tall, 385 pounds, known to be violent when off his meds, who was off his meds. I can’t even imagine how you deal with a situation like that.

If you think at some point in the future you’ll want grocery delivery from Amazon or Whole Foods, go ahead and get on the waiting list now.

The Peabody tweeted its vanilla muffin recipe yesterday:

Blood drive today 10 AM-3 PM at the Red Cross, 1399 Madison.

Kids, this is the one chance you’re gonna have in your life to wear a bandanna over your face to court. Better take advantage of it!

The DM’s Jennifer Biggs recently enjoyed some quarantine cuisine at Aldo’s Pizza Pies and Slider Inn. She went to the Midtown locations but you can get the same stuff Downtown.

Any place Downtown selling masks? I feel kinda bad going out on my runs to Walgreens and City Market without one. Just don’t know where to buy one.

This is the kind of person I was talking about in yesterday’s post: She was about to start a new job. Then the economy collapsed. So her health insurance hadn’t kicked in yet, and she can’t file for unemployment since she quit her last gig, but was never actually employed by the new one. Those of you who have steady incomes, and who are saying that the Safer At Home order may need to be extended until July or August, need to consider cases like this one before you preach. If you’re going to expect people in these situations to pay up to five months’ rent and bills without any income, then walk the walk and donate your own income for the period of the quarantine.

Another group that will be most heavily affected if the quarantine gets extended for months: 2020 graduates, who face an evaporated job market.

Although, these are the people who will be most heavily affected of all:

As goes professional wrestling, so goes life.

What the world has come to:

Bernie endorsed Biden for president yesterday. “We’ve got to do all that we can to make Trump a one-term president,” said Sanders.

That’s the news for this morning. Back this afternoon or tomorrow with more.

House arrest day 25 (Monday): news and thoughts on where the response to COVID-19 is heading

The Teach901 virtual job fair will happen online April 20-24. Teach901 recruits passionate and high-quality teachers to our city’s schools, and seeks to retain them. Your week will start off with a talk with a counselor about the positions which are a fit for your skill set. Your counselor will then direct you to Zoom sessions which will prepare you for your career goals, and then you will be put in touch with partner schools. Although the initial sign-up must be done online, those who don’t have an Internet connection at home can participate in the week-long fair via phone.

Former Grizzlies star Mike Conley beat Tamika Catchings in a game of HORSE in the quarterfinal round on ESPN last night. ESPN graded the participants, giving The Conductor an A. He is considered a favorite to win the tournament. The semifinals will be Thursday at 8 PM CDT on ESPN. Conley will play former Detroit Piston Chauncey Billups for a chance to punch his ticket to the finals.

So, let’s talk about this COVID-19 thing. One model, which has been the prevailing model the majority of the time we’ve been under house arrest, shows that the virus peaked in the United States two days ago and is expected to peak in Tennessee April 19 (pick Tennessee from the dropdown list at the top of the page linked above to see state information). If this model can be believed, that’s a good thing; we’ll be past the peak a week from now.

However, another model has come out showing that COVID-19 cases in Shelby County will peak sometime between late May and mid-June. If that model is accurate, that’s also a good thing, showing that recent social distancing procedures along with improved testing protocols have pushed the disease’s peak back, preventing hospitals from running out of rooms, ICU space, and ventilators.

Which model is right, or if neither is, which is closer to being right? The thing is, we don’t know. Last night I had the TV on, watching meteorologists predict the path of the storms that were moving through. They had it down to the minute: They had the heaviest band hitting Mud Island at 10:27, the University of Memphis area at 10:31, and Germantown at 10:34. The reason they’ve been able to train their forecasting models to such a high degree is that there has been lots of training data. Storms blow through here dozens of times a year. Pandemics, not so much, and thank goodness for that!

(By the way, before we continue, I’d like to tip my hat to John Bryant, meteorologist at Local 24, for the job he did last night. He was able to spell out all the scientific stuff in layman’s terms, as well as address the human side of severe weather. For example, he discussed what to do if sheltering from a tornado meant violating social distancing best practices. Very well done.)

Yesterday afternoon on Twitter, an elected official – one who I respect and on most issues agree with – made note of the model with the late June peak, said, let’s just assume we’re going to be under quarantine through August 1, and suck it up and get through it together. My reaction to that statement is below, but before I get started, Disclaimer: I am not a medically degreed professional with experience in how pandemics work. I am a guy who writes a blog.

Ideally and optimally, my opinion on fighting the coronavirus has always been, we must listen to the experts. If the doctors, if the health care professionals who know the most about the disease recommend we follow a course of action… not the talking heads on your favorite media outlet, not national politicians, but the experts… recommend a particular course of action, then that’s what we should do, if practical.

The problem is, I don’t know if extending the Safer at Home order, or the house arrest as I like to call it, until August 1 is practical. 20 to 30 percent of the population of Shelby County lost their jobs because of the virus. We’re really going to expect them to come up with April, May, June, July, and August rent/mortgage without a source of money? And pay all their other bills? It seems like we’re expecting that sector of the economy – non-athletes whose livelihood depends upon large sporting events, the servers in restaurants whose business model did not support staying open for take-out, gig economy workers, owner/proprietors of businesses deemed nonessential – to make the biggest sacrifice. It isn’t fair to them.

There’s also the fact that months of isolation from the people and routines we care about is going to lead to severe boredom, and beyond. As someone who goes out every day and writes about my experiences, I think many of my readers expected the house arrest to hit me particularly hard – however, I am an only child, and I am more of an introvert than an extrovert. It took a few days, but I adjusted to the change, and if the quarantine lasted until August, I would survive – I wouldn’t like it at all, but I’d survive. My extrovert friends, though, especially the ones who live alone, could be in for some psychological damage. Not sure if there’s a publicly traded company that offers psychiatric services, but if so, moving some of your 401(k) into that company would not be a had move right now.

I also think there’s going to be civil unrest. I already see seeds being sown on social media. If the quarantine lasts past May 1 with no end in sight, or if the quarantine lasts past June 1 whether there is an end in sight or not, there will be protests. We’ll have people violating social distancing guidelines not because they don’t know any better (which is what is happening now; listen to the Memphis police scanner for Safer at Home violations), but because they’re fed up. People hit the hardest – those driven to the brink of bankruptcy, those who had their wedding ruined by the ‘rona, those who had their dream job pulled out from underneath them – will be on the front lines. It will be less partisan than personal.

One last point I want to make – when you have your freedoms taken away, it’s natural to get angry with the entity depriving you of those freedoms. However, how do you get angry at a virus? It has no feelings. It’s not like it sat down and mapped out a plan to kill thousands of people and affect the lives of millions more. So, what do humans do when they’re angry, but for some reason it doesn’t make sense to be angry at the source of their anger? They project it onto a person or entity that did nothing to deserve that projection. I believe we’re going to see a lot of that this spring and early summer.

Those are my thoughts for now. Again, I’m just a guy with a blog, not a guy with a medical degree, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Back later today or tomorrow with more news.

House arrest day 24 (Easter Sunday)

OH MY GOD, TWO MORE MONTHS OF THIS SHIT???

On to the news…

One thing I’ve learned this past week: If you’re looking for a free alternative to Microsoft Office, LibreOffice is miles and miles better than SoftMaker FreeOffice. I think I may even prefer LibreOffice Writer to Word itself.

I mentioned recently that I started reading Paul Stanley of KISS’ autobiography on Scribd. Now Twitter is recommending I follow Gene Simmons. Hmmm, I think now I understand how Scribd could afford to give me that 30 day free trial… it’s sharing/selling info about what books I read.

The Paul Stanley book, by the way, is one of the best rock bios/autobios I have read. Stanley explores himself as a person and his growth over the years as he responded to challenges put forth by his family, the music business, the band, and relationships. He is clearly a person of depth who is capable of self-examination.

There’s an online Reggae Sunday party, with performances by Kennard Farmer, Tyler, and Yubu tonight at 6:30.

The Side Street Steppers perform Quarantunes this afternoon at 4 on Facebook Live.

Ally & The Walrus are doing a live stream today at noon.

High risk of heavy wind this afternoon/evening:

Batten down the hatches, everyone.

I had a nightmare about a burger last night, but I can’t remember any more than that. Is Dyer’s serving to go? I need to get down there this week and bring a Triple-Triple home. After all, ’tis better to die of a heart attack than COVID-19.

Very slow news day, as Easter often is even when there’s not a pandemic. Back tomorrow with more.

House arrest day 23 (Sat) / update 2

Mashable has a review of the gerbil art museum mentioned in this blog earlier this week.

Here’s something to do while you’re stuck in house arrest: Get a new ringtone for your phone

Something else to do: Bake Doubletree Hotel chocolate chip cookies. The recipe has been made public for the first time.

Video from Bass Pro: Calling basics every turkey hunter should know. Study these secrets and you won’t have to depend on Kroger this Thanksgiving.

I went to Walgreens about 10:25 this morning and… SCORE! They had toilet paper! Not very much of it, just a few lonely six-packs of Quilted Northern on the shelves, one of which came home with me. As an added bonus, they were $2 off. Not sure why any retailer would be discounting toilet paper right now, but I’ll take it. I think Saturday at 9 AM is the normal time for their toilet paper deliveries.

MemphisWeather.net has a blog post on the potential for severe weather in the PM hours on Easter Sunday.

I’ll go ahead and hit Publish since this post has news of events happening several hours from now. Back later today or tomorrow with more.

House arrest day 23 (Sat) / started day 22 (Fri) (drunk)

Last Sunday I got an invite to a virtual Bardog happy hour on Zoom, but I didn’t have any alcohol in the house and I felt weird about attending without booze. So this week I went to City Market and got a 6-pack of PBR. I intended to wait until another virtual happy hour but yesterday evening I could not resist. I had a very productive week and felt like celebrating. I put on Facebook that it was my first PBR in 22 days, but after doing the math I realized it was actually 18 days; I got invited to Midtown for chili the night before the Safer at Home Order went into effect and they had PBR there.

From Max’s Sports Bar:

Just because you can’t hang out doesn’t mean you have to go without! Peruse our top shelf and grab a cigar togo too!

While I was hitting that fourth PBR, I wundered, “Are any Lyfts or Ubers out?” I pulled out my phone. As of 9:18 PM:

  • Lyft: No cars within 10 minutes but 5 within the 240 loop or closer
  • Uber: No cars shown, along with a “stay home if you can” reminder. I really don’t need Uber telling me to stay home; I have plenty of preachy accounts I follow on Twitter if I need that.

No I didn’t order a Lyft and go anywhere. Where would I go?

There’s a virtual foam rolling class today at noon. It’s said to relieve tension and stress. The class is hosted by Sundara Wellness.

Event social media managers: If your event is not happening, please either remove the event listing on Facebook or add CANCELED to the event title. According to Facebook, there’s a St. Patrick’s Day parade, a drag show, an Easter parade, multiple concerts, and a Grizzlies game happening today.

Don’t forget that local musician Eric Hughes hosts Scrappie’s Jukehouse every night at 8 on Facebook.

For those of you who like to visit Memphis’ historic cemetery, Elmwood, here’s something to print out and take with you on your next visit: A visual guide to cemetery symbols

That’s it for this morning. This is kind of a small post, but it’s hard to come up with news to report when almost nothing is going on.

 

House arrest day 22 (Fri) / update 2

Rolling out on Netflix today:

For those of you who want a non-troll reason to watch this movie, Ozzy guest stars.

Here we go again:

Those stupid storms are going to ruin everybody’s Easter… wait, the coronavirus beat them to that.

Don’t forget, folks… 50% off Peeps at Walgreens Monday, April 13. Good timing too. My candy stash at home is getting dangerously low.

Lansky at the Peabody has a code, SPRING2020, that you can use to get $50 off a $150 purchase on running shoes and new performance socks from their online store. Code expires April 25.

America’s infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci recommends that we stop shaking hands and there is a movement to get the Too Sweet gesture adopted as the new standard greeting.

The CA reports that food trucks, including my friends on the New Wing Order truck, are adapting their business model to make things work during the pandemic. Parking in front of liquor stores is a smart idea.

Special at Saucy Chicken at Crosstown Concourse today. They deliver Downtown.

Interesting:

Radical Major League Basbeball proposal: Eliminate the American and National Leagues for one year, teams and divisions realigning based on the location of their spring training facilities. Games would be played at those facilities only, without fans. If this proposal is accepted, the Memphis Redbirds’ parent team the St. Louis Cardinals would have the Washington Nationals, New York Mets, Houston Astros, and Miami Marlins as divisional rivals this year.

Greg Gaston interprets the stats:

In other sports news, looks like the coronavirus may have claimed another victim: the XFL.

That’s it for now. Back later today or tomorrow.

House arrest day 22 (Fri)

From the Flying Saucer:

We just got an order of these awesome Memphis Grizzlies growlers in and we are ready to fill them up for you! 32ounces for only $12, and if you bring the growler back in it’s only $8 for a refill of anything on our tap wall!

Thieves are taking advantage of the fact that there is very little foot traffic outside. If you have property that normally stays outside – patio decorations, furniture, that kind of thing – might want to bring it in until the quarantine is lifted.

Still spending a lot of time listening to the Memphis police scanner these days… I like to hear the addresses of the calls, then look them up on Google Maps and walk around the neighborhoods on Google StreetView. I didn’t realize how many “mental consumers” there are in Memphis… rarely do I spend 30 minutes listening to the scanner without hearing that term at least once.

From the police scanner, I learned that the cops were called to break up two large gatherings yesterday evening not far from Downtown, at Fourth and Crump and also at Lauderdale and Georgia. One of the gatherings even had a food truck.

WREG reports that nearly a third of Americans didn’t pay rent this month.

Two Broke Bartenders and a Truck, founded in Memphis after the Railgarten/Loflin Yard family of venues had to lay off employees, has expanded to other areas of the state. The broke bartenders and their truck can perform a number of odd jobs for you.

Memphis’ historic cemetery offers something outside you can still do during the coronavirus quarantine:

Remember, folks, you don’t have to socially distance from people if they’re dead.

Prediction on how high the number will get for my “House arrest day ___” post titles: 54. Dr. Anita Haushalter of the Shelby County Health Department recommends social distancing through the end of May, which would suggest the house arrest day number would reach the 70s. Unless the pandemic takes a turn for the worse, I don’t see that happening though. People will get sick of this quarantine (especially the not-earning-money part) and will rebel before then.

New arrival at Downtown Wines & Spirits on Madison just east of Main:

Live music alert:

Did Pandora make its free service commercial-free during the coronavirus pandemic? I had music playing for an hour and a half yesterday on my iPad and never once heard an ad.

Play virtual bingo tonight at 8 with Cerrito Bingo.

The Memphis Flyer’s latest issue is digital-only. Make sure you don’t miss it! If you want to support quality journalism during these uncertain times, you can become a Friend of the Flyer. We don’t want to see anyone at the corner of Front and Union holding a “Will Write for Food” sign.

For those of you who were laid off and are bored with absolutely nothing to do, I’ve read that you can make $5-7 and sometimes as much as $10 an hour doing tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk. I’ll grant ya, that’s not great money, but if could help you make that May rent check, and it could help you pass the time. Not sure how money earned there affects unemployment benefits.

Normally, in this space, I would tell you that the Memphis Farmers Market is tomorrow. I’d likely tell you what musicians are booked to play live there this week, what food trucks you’d find there, what kids’ activity will be going on, and any special happenings at the Market this week. I might even mention that I planned on being there, followed by a stop at Max’s Sports Bar to watch some baseball.

But, coronavirus. So…

Wash your hands
Stay at home
Practice social distancing
Wear a mask
Flatten the curve
And all that other crap I’m supposed to say since I’m a “social influencer”

 

 

House arrest day 21

Max’s Sports Bar brings its crawfish boil back this Saturday – for to-go orders, of course.

Looking for another reason not to touch your face?? Come pick up some Curbside Crawfish at @maxs_sportsbar this Saturday starting at NOON! We will have a limited supply so come early and get your crawfish fix in for Lunch! They will also have their usual food and drinks to go! #glazescrawfish #maxssportsbar #crawfish #spicy #washyourhands #quarantineboil #curbsidecrawfish #boiledseafood #boiledcrawfish #memphis #downtownmemphis #southmainmemphis #outdoorcooking #localbusiness #weekend #purpledrank #lunch #corn #sausage #potatoes @ Max’s Sports Bar

Cost is $10 per pound, and your box includes corn, taters and sausage which don’t count toward the pound weight. You can pre-order your crawfish on Facebook and Glaze will have them ready for you at the window.

One thing I’ll add – Max’s can sell you drinks to go along with your crawfish. Get you a Purple Drank or Dreamsicle slushie to take with you, or one of their many draft beers to go, including the Cadillac of beers, PBR. The first batch of crawfish usually comes out shortly after noon.

Amy Lavere will perform on #dontletmedownmem today at noon.

Executive Order 17 has been extended another week, allowing to-go wine and liquor sales in Tennessee through April 14. However, the ABC is cracking down on some restaurants, particularly regarding portion size violations.

Sunrise Memphis reminder:

Former Grizzly Mike Conley will participate in the HORSE challenge set to begin Sunday, April 12. The competition will be shown on ESPN and the ESPN app. Conley’s first-round opponent will be WNBA legend Tamika Carchings.

Kind of looks like a booth at BBQ Fest, doesn’t it?

Legendary blues musician Bobby Rush is quarantined at home with a possible case of COVID-19.

MLGW is the latest workforce to be hit by COVID-19.

On a personal note as relates to the utility company – Thank you, March: My MLGW bill is $44 this month. The last time I had a bill that small was in a year that began with a “1.” The temperatures last month rarely required heating or cooling.

Well said indeed:

That’s it for this morning. Back later today or tomorrow with more news.

Lunch delivery from Global Cafe

Today I sat at my computer desk thinking, “What’s for lunch?” The options were

  • Frozen dinner I bought at Walgreens
  • Canned meal I bought at Family Dollar

Neither option was terribly appealing, especially considering today would be the fifth straight day for those options. So I delayed lunch and surfed Twitter to come up with content for my second blog post of the day (scroll down for “House arrest day 20/update 2” if you haven’t seen it yet). While surfing I found this:

It reminded me that Global Cafe delivers Downtown now, and trying its cuisine has been on my to-do list since we were all put under house arrest we all agreed to socially distance and flatten the curve. Global Cafe is a really neat concept in Crosstown Concourse, offering cuisine made by Syrian, Sudanese, and Venezuelan chefs. I decided to order enough to have leftovers for tomorrow. I put my two entrees in the online cart and moved to checkout. I was able to put in my credit card information, enter a tip, and save my information for future orders.

I placed my order at 1:07 PM and the receipt I was emailed said to expect my delivery between 1:45 and 1:55. However, Global Cafe and Crosstown Concourse exceeded expectations; at 1:37 I received a text that my delivery driver was outside. I ran down to meet her, and she had on a mask covering her face and nose for safety. No need to do anything other than take the bag; no contact at all. Completely, totally safe.

The Chile Guajillo Shrimp was one of the two entrees I ordered.

This Venezuelan dish consists of seared shrimp in a mild chile Guajillo sauce with Spanish rice. This has some really good flavor but it was not overly spicy – something I was wondering about, because I’ve had Guajillo shrimp in Mexican restaurants that set off a four-alarm fire in my mouth. This dish is one you can enjoy no matter what your preferred level of spice is.

The other dish I got was Dama with Rous.

This is a Sudanese dish of beef tender in tomato sauce with rice, topped with onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Yummy! The beef was tender and juicy and the sauce – well, it’s impossible for me to describe the sauce because I’ve never had anything like that before. It was a perfect complement to the meat and the rice, though.

This dish is slightly spicy, which I thought was perfect, but if you’re a wuss when it comes to spice you might want to call the restaurant and ask if there’s anything they can do to tone it down a bit.

Apologies to my Syrian friends for not getting to sample your country’s delicious food. I want to try some chicken shawarma on my next delivery order. I also want to go back for a second helping of Venezuelan food and get a stuffed arepa next time.

Check out Global Cafe’s website to see what they’ve got. In addition to appetizers, entrees and desserts, they have supplemented their delivery menu with family dinners, wine, beer and mixed drinks. They currently have a pretty sweet deal going on with Memphis Made Fireside, Wiseacre Tiny Bomb, or Crosstown Sirene for 99 cents. I am pleased to report that they also carry the Cadillac of beers, PBR, in 16 ounce cans for $1.95.

Given them a try to expand your culinary horizons. Back later today or tomorrow with more news.

House arrest day 20 (Wed) / update 2

Those of you who park on the streets Downtown overnight may want to pay to put your car in a parking garage this evening. The storms predicted to move through between 10 PM and 1 AM have the potential to produce up to 2-inch hail. From the National Weather Service: Using everyday objects to estimate hail size

Also, you might want to get a full charge on your phone and other portable devices this evening.

Soul food news:

Mighty Lights news:

Pass this on to our friends at the CA and anyone else who affected: there’s a journalist furlough fund

River Time Market & Deli has announced that they plan on gearing back up for curbside and grab & go later this month. Follow the deli on Facebook to keep up with the latest news. They are tentatively looking at April 24.

Mongo with a very solid plan to get us through this pandemic:

Bernie is dropping out of Democratic presidential race, leaving Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee.

Nacho suggestion from Max’s Sports Bar:

You’ve had our BBQ pork nachos, but have you had them with our white queso? Come get an order togo for lunch. And maybe even a beer or 6!

Hopefully you’ll make a better beer decision than the person above did, though.

The Rendezvous was featured on Good Morning America’s Deals and Steals segment this morning.

News from the island: Tug’s Casual Grill is getting in to the Easter dinner to-go action. Order by 7 PM Saturday, April 11 at 901-260-3344 for curbside pickup between 10 AM and 3 PM Sunday. $3o for two people or $60 for 4 people. Garden salad, choice of five entrees (with sides), choice of three desserts, dinner rolls. Fifteen bucks a head is not bad at all for a prepared Easter dinner.

That’s it for now. I just ordered Global Cafe for lunch and I am pretty damn excited. Back later today or tomorrow with more news.