Paul Ryburn's Journal

Today marks the beginning of Downtown Dining Week, which continues through Sunday, November 21. Nineteen restaurants will offer a 3-course meal for $20.10, and another five will offer two meals for $20.10. This is an opportunity to dine outside the box, to try restaurants you don’t normally frequent. Click the logo above or the link to go to DDW’s website. Once there, click any restaurant logo to see what’s being offered.

Restaurants tend to be quite busy, so it’s for the ones that will be in the highest demand (Felicia’s, Chez Phillippe, Inn at Hunt Phelan) it’s a very good idea to call ahead and get reservations as far in advance as possible.

Happy dining!

Last weekend, I was in Savannah for a social media conference. Thursday night, we had an after-party at the Distillery, a beer bar similar to the Flying Saucer. I mingled with my fellow conference attendees on the outdoor patio.

Most of the attendees were from Georgia or South Carolina. I was telling them about my blog and how there’s a lot to do in Downtown Memphis. “… and I can walk to Grizzlies games at the FedExForum a few blocks from my apartment.”

“Grizzlies?” someone asked. “Who are they?”

“They’re our pro basketball team,” I replied.

“Memphis has a pro basketball team?” he said. “I’ve never heard of them.”

“We’ve had them for 10 years,” I explained. “They’re an NBA team.”

“Really? You mean like the developmental league?”

“No,” I said. “They’re a major league NBA team.”

He looked at me like he didn’t believe me.

“You’ve heard of Pau Gasol who plays for the Lakers? He played for us for six seasons before we traded him. His brother Marc plays for us now. Marc is becoming one of the best centers in the NBA.”

“Okay…” he said, and we moved on to other topics. But I still got the feeling he wasn’t completely sure I wasn’t just making the whole thing up.

Wow. Maybe the guy wasn’t a basketball fan. Or maybe he’s seen Hasheem Thabeet play and just assumed we were a developmental league team.

Dan Wolken just posted it to the CA website. View article here.

Best of luck to Jelan, and I hope he works his way through whatever issues he’s facing. It would be a shame to throw away a career that could potentially lead to the NBA.

Heading out for shirt shopping and lunch.

A conversation I just had on Twitter made me realize who I’m cheering for in the Tennessee-Ole Miss football game.

I hate the Rebels. Their fans are the most obnoxious in college football. They dress like idiots for their games. You can put white trash in a tie or a sundress, but it’s still white trash.

I hate the Vols too. It’s more because their basketball coach Bruce Pearl is a huge douche, but their fans are almost as obnoxious as Ole Miss, and I hate being told I “should” support UT because I live in the same state as a school that is more than 300 miles away.

So, who to root for?

Simple. I’m rooting for whatever result is more likely to ensure that neither of these teams will finish 8th in the SEC, and get invited to the Liberty Bowl. I don’t want Vol or Rebel fans crapping up Memphis during New Year’s weekend. Stay away!

Here’s the link to the video. You have to watch a 30-second commercial before the live video begins. As of right now (12:13) it looks like they’re at lunch, so it may not be real exciting for the next few minutes. I believe the afternoon sessions start at 1.

For those wondering why Jelan Kendrick didn’t play for the Tigers last night, Dan Wolken has updated information in his blog. It’s a sad situation. The guy is clearly talented, but as Wolken notes, no one member of a team can be allowed to command so much time, effort and energy as to distract everyone else.

Best of luck to Jelan. We would really like to see him in a Tiger uniform this season, and in an NBA uniform in a season in the future.

As usual, I started the evening at the Saucer last night, but I knew I needed to move to another bar before the post-Tiger game rush hit. So I moved south to Max’s Sports Bar, where I found that Nikki once again had on a tube top.

Tube tops in November have become the latest fashion trend, and Nikki is leading the way. Of course, the unseasonably warm weather has helped, but I’d like to see tube tops become a year-round fashion statement.

My 4th plate party at the Saucer will be held sometime before the end of November, and I was thinking of doing a contest in my blog to invite one of my readers to the party… but never mind, the contest is over before I even invented it. Nikki won. I told her she’s invited to my plate party. I also told her she had to wear a tube top, no matter the temperature outside.

It’s Saturday morning and I’m doing laundry and cleaning the apartment. As I was cleaning, I found a travel reimbursement check from work for over $600. It read, “Void after 90 days” and was dated August 19. Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t put off cleaning for one more week! A trip to the bank is in my immediate plans.

No, I’m not at BarCamp… it is a fantastic event with excellent topics and speakers, but the 8 AM start time is simply TOO FRIGGIN’ EARLY. 8 AM is an unnatural time for me to even be awake, much less doing something that requires intellectual activity, and I already have to conform to that schedule five days a week. Not interested in making it six. If they’d started it at 9, or better yet 9:30, I’d likely have attended. I’ll have to keep an eye on Twitter today, in the hope that attendees tweet some of the key points that they learned.

Congrats to the Tigers on their lopsided victory over Centenary last night. Hopefully the immense amount of talent on this team will gel over the next three weeks to the point where we can take down #7 Kansas the first week of December.

Outta here for now… only plan for today is to stop by Lansky and cash in a $50 coupon. May post again later.

Forwarded from CCC safety director Larry Bloom:

Please be aware that there is now an active burglar/thief downtown—Elbert Hubbard, black male, aged 45, last seen wearing a black t-shirt and rolled up blue jeans. I have attached Mr. Hubbard’s picture for your reference.

Hubbard has been an extremely active thief in the Medical Center area and specializes in taking small, expensive items such as laptops. His M.O. is to walk into buildings that are open—or break the door handles to gain entry—and make himself at home until he finds valuable property to steal. Hubbard is an opportunist and will go into commercial or residential buildings.

This date at approximately 12PM he was seen in the Claridge House apartments taking a backpack as well as looking through vehicles. Our CCC security officers spotted him and gave chase, but lost him. Hubbard dropped the backpack with his personal identification in it, so we are positive we are dealing with Mr. Hubbard. Our officers and MPD bike officers are actively looking for Mr. Hubbard at this time.

It would appear that Mr. Hubbard has moved to the downtown area because of the heat that is on him in the Medical Center area. If you see him, please call MPD because he has only one goal in mind, and that is to steal. He was just released from Shelby County jail this week for Criminal Trespass at the VA Hospital. Furthermore, Mr. Hubbard is a suspect in a break-in that occurred at Methodist LeBonheur last night.

While we normally strive to make our visitors welcome, Mr. Hubbard can be considered a definite exception.

I want to start off by saying thank you to the people who e-mailed and texted me congratulating me on poker last night. “We all wanted to win,” commented one person who played, “But once it got down to heads up, a LOT of people in the bar were rooting for you.” Thanks and I really appreciate it. I won’t be able to make it to poker the next two Thursdays, but I do plan on spending more time at Max’s in the coming weeks.

Yesterday as I was walking around Downtown, I noticed a sign in Havana Mix’s window saying that they’re having a birthday party today from 4 to 11. Sounds like it would be a lot of fun for smokers. Among other things the sign said “free buffet.” Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

The Flying Fish has been offering Tiger Challenges on its Facebook page (friend Flyingfish Memphis to see them). On the night of Tiger home games, if the Tigers reach a certain milestone (such as scoring a certain number of points), you can bring your ticket stub in after the game to get something for free. Tuesday night it was a cup of gumbo. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will try to get a free ticket to the game so she can show up at the Fish afterward.

I see that the Fish is also taking pre-orders for whole fried Thanksgiving turkeys.

Hollywood Disco is having a Turkey Ball the night of Friday, November 26. Guests are encouraged to dress as sexy pilgrims and Indians. There will be a turkey ball bowling contest. Doors open at 10 PM.

Follow @tmj_mem_jobs to receive tweets about available jobs in the Memphis area. Apparently there’s a site called tweetmyjobs.com, related to this Twitter account, where you can sign up for tweets about job listings in more specialized areas.

Last day of warm weather. Ladies, why not follow the example of Nikki November in the previous post, and show off those tube tops one last time tonight?

That has got to be one of the best stripper names ever.

Actually she’s not a stripper. But it’s November and it was 80 degrees outside today and Nikki has a tube top on. Compliments to her for that.

I won poker tonight at Max’s. Had a good time talking to Jean/Kitty. Jean is scared I will mention her in the blog or on Twitter. I had a great time talking to you tonight Jean. So there you go. Your worst fears have been realized; you’ve been mentioned. Had a great time talking to Mikey as well.

Home now. Got a Senor Huey made as a turkey burger to go.