Paul Ryburn's Journal

We got third place in trivia tonight. Some of our team members left early, after question 15.

Question 16 was about subatomic particles. It asked which type of particle had “down” or “charm” variants.

We got it wrong. One of our team members, who had just left, recently completed supervision of the building of a nuclear power plant.

D’oh.

Another question: What animal did Bill Clinton say gave him the most severe beating of his life, when he was 8 years old?

A sheep.

He got kinky early. You go, Bill.

We were lucky to get third place.

Scratch the rumor about the ground floor of Barboro Flats being a Maria’s Cantina. It’s going to be something much better.

That may be the longest post title in the history of this blog. This has been a very, very newsy day.

Normally I’m not one to blog about Valentine’s Day dinners Downtown (or elsewhere), because I think the holiday sucks. However, I have to admit this is a really cool option – Trolley Stop Market is having A Tasty Soiree that night. It will be a fancy affair, with candlelight, flowers, white linens, chocolate, music by the Adams Avenue Camerata, and a three-course locally-inspired meal. Trolley Stop Market is one of the best new restaurants Downtown, and if I celebrated this Satanic holiday it is where I would be taking a date. E-mail trolleystopmarket@live.com or call 901-526-1361 for reservations.

The Rumba Room (@RumbaRoomMphsTN) tweeted that Salsa Memphis will be offering 5 salsa lessons for $25 for the remainder of this month. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to salsa, you likely won’t find a better deal than this.

Memphis in May will hold a Volunteer Expo Thursday night from 6 to 8 in Central Station. If you want to help with MiM (Music Fest, BBQ Fest, Sunset Symphony, International Week) as well as enjoy the events, this is where you can learn how to get involved. Honored country this year is Belgium.

I saw a Facebook post by Bar None that they’re having a Ladies Night on Wednesdays. Hmmm, I thought, might have to stop by. Even if I don’t get a discount on drinks, it’s a good deal if the female-to-male ratio is favorable. Then I read on and discovered that Wednesday night at Bar None is also… UGH…

Karaoke.

If you’re into karaoke, don’t get me wrong, this would be a good place to go. Good food, good wine and liquor selection, good atmosphere for that kind of event. Unfortunately for me, I like karaoke about as much as I like Bruce Pearl, so I’ll pass on Wednesday night. Have fun, and if you go to Bar None Thursday-Tuesday (it’s open 7 days a week now) maybe I’ll see you there.

Afternoon tea at the Madison Hotel, a staple there from opening in 2002 until it was discontinued in early 2010, was brought back for the 2010 holiday season. It proved so popular that they’re keeping it permanently. You can enjoy tea at the Madison from 2 to 4 PM weekdays.

This afternoon Kerry posted to the I Love Memphis Blog that there will be a job fair for the new Cooper-Young Urban Outfitters store next Tuesday and Wednesday, January 25 and 26. It will be held Downtown at the Holiday Inn Select. Applicants are asked to bring a resume, and are asked to show up dressed as they would if they already worked for Urban Outfitters. Gotta love a job fair where it’s a bad idea to show up in a tie.

Here’s a tip I saw today on how to move your Twitter conversation to a private Twitter chat room. Some of the people I follow on Twitter REALLY need to learn to use this feature. #HappyMexican8

The Visible School will have a ground-breaking event for their new facilities, to be located at 200 Madison, at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, February 1. The independent music and worship arts college hopes to move into its new campus within the next year.

Time for trivia at the Saucer. Who knows, maybe there will be another drunk post tonight. Thinking about bringing them back on a more regular basis. I haven’t been offending enough people lately.

The Peabody is starting a monthly wine club that will meet in their corner bar. First meeting is Wednesday, February 2 from 5:00 to 6:30 PM, and will feature four wines from Tuscany paired with light bites from their Petite Phillippe menu. $15, or buy an annual pass for $100. Details here. Sounds very intriguing, but that start time is awful early for people who live Downtown but work in other parts of the city. I’d only be able to make it to the last 30 minutes most days.

South of Beale sent out its weekly newsletter today. For those of you who don’t subscribe, be aware that there’s a Foursquare special – show your checkin to get $3 off any “plate” item.

Foursquare, by the way, is really irritating me lately. Last night it took me two minutes to start the app, change the tab from “Friends” to “Places,” have the app list possible places it thought I could be, pick the Saucer, type a comment and check in. Way too long. I should be able to do that in no more than 30 seconds. I saw there was an update to the app and downloaded it, which if anything made it even slower. Get it together, Foursquare!

For my Mississippi readers, I want to mention an organization well represented at Saturday’s Winter Warmer beer fest – Raise Your Pints. This is a group lobbying to change the arcane Mississippi beer alcohol content law. When Mississippi legalized beer after Prohibition (over 30 years after), the only way they could get it through the legislature was to limit alcohol content to 5%. Other states did this too but every other state has repealed this limit. Mississippi has not. Most craft beers, including most IPAs, Dubbels, Trippels, Trappist ales and many more, are above 5%. So Mississippians can’t enjoy those high-quality beers unless they travel to other states to purchase them (thus denying Mississippi of tax revenue). If you live in MS, please consider supporting Raise Your Pints. More info about them here.

Speaking of beer festivals, tickets are now on sale for the 2nd annual River City Brewers Fest, to be held March 26 in Handy Park. Festival will benefit the Autism Society.

If you dine at the Trolley Stop Cafe, be sure to check out my friend Boo Gardo’s pottery while you’re there.

Attn Hog fans: The 2011 Razorbacks football schedule has been released. The Arkansas-LSU game is back to the Friday after Thanksgiving, where it belongs.

I also, I learned that the Hogs’ baseball team will visit AutoZone Park on March 23 to play the Memphis Tigers. Very cool… if the Razorbacks win, I promise not to disrespect the home team by plugging my iPhone into a local bar’s speakers and playing the Arkansas fight song, the way a certain person played “Rocky Top” after the Tigers-Vols basketball game.

That’s it for now… I actually have several more things but I need to eat. Possibly a second post tonight.

Just received this pic from one of my fellow Winter Warmer attendees, and I promised I’d post it, although having seen it I’d rather not:

Jeez… I mean, she looks great, but I look like I’ve had about 90 beers. Which, at the point this photo was taken, was probably not too much of an exaggeration. Feel free to pull this pic into your favorite photo editor and crop out the leftmost two-thirds, to make it look much better. That’s Emily on the right, by the way. Fellow Rhodesian.

By the way, I heard from the organizer of the event. He realizes it turned out a bit cramped, and I think it was an honest mistake that will be corrected at future beer fests. Everyone join them for Memphis Brewfest on April 16. Ooooh, is that the same day as Hot Wing Fest? That’s going to be a tough call. The third weekend of April is unusually loaded this year due to Easter being the fourth weekend. Attn Jesus: If you come back, this time please try to die in a month when not much is going on. February would be good. Or July, but not around the Fourth. kthanksdrivethru.

Possible snow day on Thursday/Friday? This MemphisWeather.net blog post says it’s a possibility. I’m hearing that the high on Friday may not even make it to freezing, and some snow on the ground would be much appreciated to make it a 3-day weekend for many of the citizens of Memphis.

Interesting night at the Saucer for Pint Nite. Pete the Trivia Guy made a rare Monday appearance, as he was showing around an out-of-town guest. Bartender Kelly tried to fix Pete up with her mom, commenting, “I need a stepdaddy.” Hmmmm OK then.

Twitterers I follow who are on a roll tonight: @the_ironsheik and @DocHancock

Just ate wings from Huey’s. Guess I’ll go to bed now.

Short post this noon hour…

The Fuzzy Brew blog, a good one to read if you’re a Memphian who is into beer, wrote a review of the Winter Warmer beer fest. Agree with most everything said, positive and negative.

The Peabody tweeted that they have 7 management jobs open in Sales, Banquets, Housekeeping, F&B, Front Office, Convention Services, and Bars. Check out their job listings here.

That’s all the news I’ve got. Time to grab some chili and spend the rest of my lunch hour reading the poker book I left behind on Friday.

Oh great. I see I put up a drunk post last night, issuing a poker challenge. I really need to figure out a way to attach a breathalyzer to my MacBook. Oh well. If she takes me up on it, fine, I still think I’m a better poker player than she is.

Yesterday I was summoned to Texas de Brazil for brunch, to celebrate a weekend visit of a friend whose job moved him out of town. The meat was delicious as always, but the next time I go for brunch there I may just get the salad bar. It’s probably the best salad bar in town and it’s a shame I’ve always overlooked it en route to the tasty dead animals. A few highlights:

1) The chocolate mousse. When we got there, some of us were lamenting the fact that they replaced the fresh fruit salad with chocolate mousse. We changed our tune real fast. So rich and so good. This is an absolute must-eat if you visit TdB.

2) The au gratin potatoes. I could have loaded up an entire plate of them.

3) Mozzarella balls. Just the perfect amount of chewy.

4) I forgot to do it yesterday, but one of my favorite things to do there is get a bowl of lobster bisque and dip the bacon in it.

5) The whole jalapenos. Thank goodness they’re fast about refilling the water glasses.

Those are just 5 of the 50 or so reasons to love the salad bar at TdB. I really had a good time there yesterday. Also I think I speak for my entire group when I compliment Fabiana on the excellent service.

Sad news this morning: Fred “Good Guitar Playing” Sanders, one of the last old-style Beale Street bluesmen, passed away this weekend. He was an influence on many Memphis musicians. He was 71.

I hope those who have the day off enjoy themselves. Can anyone find proof that Martin Luther King played bridge? If so I might be able to lobby my company to make it a holiday. Drinking the flavor of Vitamin Water named “Revive” to try and get myself ready for the pile of work that awaits me today.

Grizzlies play on ESPN at noon, as part of the NBA’s MLK Day celebration. Details here.

All right. Time to hit Publish and get in the car. Holiday will mean less insane Memphis drivers on the road than usual.

The Nuh-Uh Girl was out tonight.

Here she is eating food she probably didn’t pay for.

The Nuh-Uh Girl was bragging about winning Super Bowl poker. WTF? I’d like to offer a challenge. Heads up. 100,000 stacks, blinds start at 500/1000 and double every 15 minutes. Loser pays for winner’s night of drinks, even if it means going to some crapass bars and clubs. In? We’ll find someone with chips.

Winter Warmer beer fest at Central Station was pretty good. I’d estimate that 60% of the beers were ones not available anywhere in Memphis, even at locations like Raffe’s that specialize in beer. Crowd was good also… wow there were a lot of hot women there. Whoever marketed this festival, congrats on drawing a good crowd. There was even one tube top dress there. In January. If you’re reading this blog, you, ma’am, have incredible fashion sense.

Tastings were only one ounce, which is the smallest I’ve seen at a beer fest, but it was because a lot of the beers were high in alcohol and they wanted to avoid people getting completely hammered. I got to try Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, an 18% beer that was actually quite good. Also some excellent beers by Rogue, Avery and Sweetwater.

Winter Warmer sold out and the Nuh-Uh Girl was unsuccessful trying to find a ticket at the last minute. So she had to sit at home and read about it on Twitter, which I guess kind of makes her the Bruce Pearl of Winter Warmer. She said on Twitter that she waits until the last minute to find tickets to these things because it allows her to be more flexible. Translation: “Maybe someone will have a ticket they can’t use and give it to me for free.”

In other news… it’s 99 cent Bud Light Draft day at Kooky Canuck, as an early celebration of MLK Day.

Don’t forget that tonight is Cardinals Caravan at AutoZone Park. This will be a meet-and-greet with current Redbirds players, former Cardinals players, and Cardinals staff. Program starts at 6:30, but better get there early to get a seat. The event is free and there will be complimentary hot dogs and drinks. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Other stuff going on today: Memphis Jazz Orchestra rehearses at Alfred’s from 6 to 9; Jazz Jam at Earnestine & Hazel’s from 8 to 11; FreeWorld at Blues City, 10:30.

Little Cafe Eclectic, the Harbor Town coffee shop and restaurant, now sells the hot dogs that are so famous at its big brother in Midtown.

They just posted a pic of their Lox Dog with salmon, cream cheese, capers, onion and lettuce, topped with the ultimate ingredient, bacon. Take a look here.

… in terms of appreciating quality beer.

In 2007 or so, Memphis beer lovers would have been thrilled to have one beer festival a year. In the past 12 months, we’ve had at least five that I can count. There was the River City Brewers Fest at Handy Park in March. That was followed by Memphis Brewfest in AutoZone Park in April. In the fall there was the outstanding Cooper-Young Beerfest, and then the Flying Saucer’s Oktoberfest on Peabody Place. And now today we have Winter Warmer, presented by Memphis Brewfest, in Central Station. Very pleased to see that they sold out, because that means there are 800 people in this city who love beer.

Good choice to put it in South Main as well. That neighborhood is well deserving of a beer festival.

Time to look over the beers for today’s festival and make some notes on what I want to try. For those of you with tickets, see you at 4!