Paul Ryburn's Journal

My love/hate relationship with the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center continues.  They and I will probably never see eye to eye on the issue of panhandling.  However, they sent me the e-mail below, about an attempt in the Tennessee Legislature to reverse the living-wage law that ensures Memphis and Shelby County employees a decent living.  Thousands of people could see their standard of living reduced if this is allowed to pass.  On this issue I’m 100% in agreement with the MSPJC.  Please read the letter below, and if so inclined, take the suggested action.

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It is urgent that you take a minute to email or call your state senator about Senate Bill 83. This legislation, which has passed out of committee and could be voted on the Senate floor THIS WEEK, forbids local governments from setting wages higher than the minimum wage. That means it will overturn the living wage ordinances we worked so hard to get passed in the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission, and it will keep other communities across the state from passing living wage ordinances. It will also overturn the prevailing wage ordinance passed by the City Council. This will mean lower wages for thousands of workers in a time when so many families are already in crisis. It is also a disturbing interference into local government affairs by our state legislature.

This type of legislation has been introduced for many years in the state legislature, but this is the first time since 2003 that it has passed out of committee. Our current legislature is more hostile to workers than it has been in past years, so your action is urgently needed to stop this bill.

Call or email your state senator TODAY or TOMORROW. To find out who your senator is, and his/her contact information, go to State Senate and type in your street address and city under “Find My Senator.” Right now, only calls to senators, not representatives, are needed. If you have trouble with this feature, call Rebekah at WIN at (901) 332-3570 or email rebekah@workersinterfaithnetwork.org with your full home street address and she will look up the information for you.

Sample message:
This is ________ and I live in your district. I am calling to urge you to vote NO on Senate Bill 83. This legislation takes away control from local governments and will overturn the living wage ordinances passed by the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission. Especially in a time of economic crisis, the state legislature should not act to lower workers’ wages.

If you email, be sure to include your full home address to show that you live in your senator’s district.

The Silly Goose is the latest business to be affected by what some people are now calling the second Great Depression.  In particular, it has affected their drink prices.  Every Monday from 5 to 7 PM, they’re going to offer classic cocktails (Manhattan, Rob Roy, Old Fashioned, etc.) at Depression-era prices – they’re going to sell them for a DOLLAR.  Wow.  Looks like I won’t be showing up for Pint Nite at the Saucer until 7 from now on.

In other economic news… FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) will print your resume for free next Tuesday.  Bring them your resume in printed or digital format, and they will print up to 25 black-and-white copies on resume-quality paper, a $5 to $10 value.  For Downtowners, there’s a FedExOffice in the Peabody Hotel, at Third and Union.

Yesterday I blogged about the Tonga Lounge with DJ Mark Anderson every Saturday at Automatic Slim’s, starting this Saturday.  I’ve since heard that this Saturday is a grand opening private party and you have to have a ticket.  So if you can’t get in this Saturday, no worries, you can go Saturday the 14th or after that.

Kooky Canuck takes its Kookamonga Challenge to the RiverKings at the DeSoto Civic Center Saturday, March 14 and 21.  Participants from the audience will be selected to try and finish the 7 lb. Kookamonga burger in under an hour.  You’ll also be able to bet on which participant you think will win, with proceeds from the betting to benefit St. Jude.

Check back later today for info on a gala fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society.

The South Main Association will hold its next meeting at Circa on Tuesday, March 10.  The theme will be “Justice for Tennessee” and the featured speaker will be TN Supreme Court Chief Justice Janice Holder.  Meeting starts at 6 PM; usually there is a half hour or so of socializing before the program starts.  Complimentary appetizers, and $2 wine and beer.  Free for SMA members, $5 for non-members.  Don’t forget to bring old cell phones and ink cartridges for the SMA’s recycling fundraising program.

New promo code for Restaurant.com gift certificates: Enter CHEF at checkout to save 50%. That means you can buy $25 face-value certificates, which normally sell for $10, for only $5. Many Memphis-area restaurants take these. Click here to search for your favorite restaurant.

Now and then people e-mail me questions about how to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to promote a business.  Here’s a place to go for answers:  Social Camp Memphis.  This is a one-day seminar on Saturday, March 7, from 8 AM to 5 PM.  There you’ll learn how to leverage social media sites, as well as how to promote blogs and videos related to your business.  There will be an optional mixer the night before, Friday, March 6, at Celtic Crossing from 5:30 to 7 PM.  Some of the brightest social media people in Memphis will be there, so I can promise you will learn a lot and make some very valuable contacts.

Silly Goose is going to start offering a $5 flatbread lunch special, a different one each day.  Their flatbreads are outstanding, so this is worth checking out.

Don’t forget that Automatic Slim’s starts their new “Tonga Club” DJ night this weekend.  Mark Anderson will DJ from 11 PM-’til Saturday night.  It’s billed as the only ultra lounge in Memphis, with delicious wines and popsicle martinis.  Hmmm the “dress to impress” thing usually doesn’t go over too well Downtown… if I’m barhopping between 4-5 places, I don’t like having to dress up because one of them has a dress code – especially in the summer when it’s hot outside.  I do hope it works out for them though.  There are some great people at Slim’s.  Maybe this will have some of the vibe of the old Club Ten in the Toyota Center, which was a great scene.  Don’t forget about Chef Michael Patrick’s late-night menu.  Since he took over the kitchen, the food there has been superb.

Outta here for now… got an appointment in the airport area at 2 PM.

I found an interesting article on How To of the Day that might be useful to Memphians:  How to make a decoy wallet.  It protects you from having to cancel all your credit cards and get new IDs if you get mugged.  Basically, you get a cheap wallet and dress it up with a minimal amount of cash (maybe a 10 or 20 and a few 1s), an old photo ID, a couple of expired credit cards, and whatever else you can find with your name on it that you don’t need.  Then, in the event you get mugged, you hand the robbers the decoy.  By the time they figure out that you’ve handed them a few bucks and a bunch of useless cards, you’ll be long gone and safe.

Today I went to the Silly Goose to check out “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” where they have a Bloody Mary bar and hangover breakfast from noon to 5 PM.  Here are a few pics:

The setup.  You pay Ashley $3 for a glass filled with ice and vodka, then take it over to the Bloody Mary bar and add what you please.

Five different kinds of Bloody Mary mix:  Bold & Spicy, Zing Zang, regular, low sodium, and Ashley’s special mix.  They said they’re going to get Memphis Mary in future weeks but the shipment didn’t arrive in time.

Worcestershire, Tabasco, A-1 sauce, several different types of salts and peppers.  They also had Clamato and Beefamato for those who prefer them to the five house mixes.

Celery, carrots, peppers, okra, olives, horseradish.

The $6 hangover breakfast:  Eggs, toast, biscuits & gravy, bacon, and sausage links.  Except for the eggs this is how it came out of the kitchen, jelly already on toast.  I asked the bartender if I could borrow her Sonny Salt to top the eggs.

It was a lucky accident that I ended up at the Goose.  I was going to head to the Majestic at 11 for their brunch, but I was in an online poker room and there were a couple of people making really idiotic moves.  I knew I could clean them out if I just waited for my cards.  So I played until noon, collecting about $10 in the process.  Then I realized, “Hey, the Goose is open, why not there?”  Glad I made that decision.  The Bloody Mary bar was an excellent value and the food was also a value for $6.

I do want to address one thing here – you may have heard negative stuff about the Goose’s brunch.  This was their third Sunday to do it.  I was there for their first Sunday and they were completely unprepared.  Bloody Mary bar was not set up as promised and the food was, in a word, awful.  I decided not to blog about it, believing they would learn from their mistakes and come back with a good brunch, and they did.  If you were there the first week or if you’ve heard what happened, consider giving the Goose’s brunch another try.

Back at the Goose playing poker as I type this post… wish this morning’s poker players were still online.  This group is more challenging.  Battery is about dead, so I’m going to hit Publish and get out of here.

It may be snowing outside here in Memphis, but tomorrow is the first day of meterological spring, and warm weather is right around the corner.  So, while it’s been snowing, I’ve been working, re-loading my web store the Tube Top Boutique with 2009 inventory.

Some of the highlights of the new inventory:

• Increased number of solid color tube tops.  In most cases these are basic tube top styles that are available in multiple colors.
• Tube tops are still broken down into individual colors too, for quick, convenient shopping.
• I added a separate category for Ed Hardy tube tops since they’ve become so popular.
• Rather than just have one overwhelmingly large tube dress category, I’ve broken then down by color, again to make the shopping experience more convenient.
• I’ve broken out formal strapless dresses and tube dresses into a separate category.
• Just for fun, I added Santa tube dresses.
• I’ve greatly expanded the strapless bra selection on the site this year; in fact, there are more bras on the site (over 700) than there are tube tops.  I’ve also broken out convertible strapless bras, push-up strapless bras, adhesive bras, and backless bras into their own categories.
• And, of course, the sexy/scandalous category has new inventory as well.

When you shop at Tube Top Boutique, checkout is handled by Amazon.com, the Internet’s pioneer in the secure checkout process, so you can rest assured that your information remains safe.  They handle shipping too.  I never see your name or credit card number; I just receive a notification that items were ordered.  I get a commission on the items, ranging from 4% to 8.5% depending on the total monthly volume sold by all my Amazon affiliate websites.

Tube Top Month is three months and a day away, so it’s time to get ready!  Happy tube-topping!

A few snow pics I just took from my bedroom window:

On that last image, you should be able to see the Mississippi River in the background, to the right above the buildings.  The snow is so thick that a sheet of white has made the river disappear.  I heard we were going to get 2-4 inches and for once it looks like the weatherman may be right.

I ordered a clear license plate cover yesterday. If you park in a garage Downtown, it might be a good idea to get one of these.  The bums have been going into the garages late at night and scraping the “09” and “10” stickers off license plates.  If you have your plate covered, then it’s more trouble than it’s worth and they’ll move on to another car.

There’s a zydeco festival on Beale Street tonight.  This is an annual event and it always makes for some very interesting people-watching.  Would be a good night to hit Beale if you’re looking for something to do.

I also see that there’s an artists’ market with music today at the Burkle Estate at 826 N. Second.  That’s the house that used to be a station on the Underground Railroad.  It’s now been converted to a museum and there are Saturday tours.

Slow news day, so, short post.  Gonna get an hour of online poker in, then head to the bar to watch the noon Memphis vs. Southern Miss game.  Go Tigers!

I had a bad beat at the poker tournament at Calhoun’s last night.  I never went above my initial 10,000 chip allotment, and it quickly got whittled down to half.  Not sorry about the hand that took me out though.  I had AJ suited and the flop came down AJ3.  I went all-in.  Little did I know that Otto had pocket 3s, one of the few hands that could beat me.  Sucks to lose, but I wouldn’t have played that hand any differently.  I figured he had paired up an ace and I wanted to get him out of the hand before he had a chance to pair up his other hole card, which might be higher than a jack.

I did learn why playing online for real money is not the best prep to play Buzztime poker tournaments.  Online you have to manually enter your bet (or select it using a slider control), and rarely do I see people betting more than 4 x big blind in the early rounds.  On the other hand, Buzztime has easily-selected options to bet 1/2 pot or to bet pot, and people were using them aggressively last night.  I wasn’t used to those after a week online, and got scared when I saw 16 x big blind bets or more in the opening rounds of the tournament.  Didn’t play those right.  Makes me think I’ll start betting 1/2 pot to pot online, to get better prep for Buzztime tournaments, and to get more money on the table in online games.

So I was out by 7:50, and the Tiger game started at 8.  Calhoun’s was starting to get crowded beyond my capacity to want to be there, with people bumping into each other trying to get down the aisles.  So I paid my tab and headed north, eventually ending up at the Saucer, then moving to Bardog and then Voodoo Room with Glo and Flo.

Calhoun’s got their 120″ projection HDTV hooked up on the back deck last night, so it’s ready for March Madness and other spring events.

Last night I got word that there will be another series of crawfish boils on Sunday, in March and April, in the Downtown core.  More to come after they secure their beer permit for these events.  Calhoun’s already plans on doing crawfish boils on Sunday, so there will be both a core and a South Main option for crawfish.

This morning I received word that the sign in the window at 14 S. Second has been changed to “Paula & Raiford’s Disco,” and that will be the name of the place.  Talked to some people last night who went by to check the place out, and got put to work making handprints on the wall.

Not sure what I’ll do tonight.  It’s Trolley Tour but there’s rain in the forecast, so I may skip it.  Anything else fun going on Downtown?

Calhoun’s, the friendly sports bar on G.E. Patterson next to Cheesecake Corner, has its weekly Buzztime Trivia Texas Hold’em tournament tonight at 7 PM.

The tournament is played not on a table, but on the Buzztime trivia system, where you use blue hand-held boxes (called “crack boxes” by the regulars) to register your bets and raises.  You can view action against the other players on video screens located throughout the bar.  The boxes are easy to learn to use.  It’s free to play and is done in true tournament style – each player is given 10,000 chips, and the small and big blinds go up every 15 minutes.

Play continues until one person is left with chips, and the prize is a $15 gift certificate.  If you think that sounds small, keep in mind that PBR pints are $1.50 at Calhoun’s, so that’s 10 beers.

There are only 10 crack boxes available, so this will not be a case where you can show up at 7:10, 7:15 and still expect to get in.  I’m fairly sure they will all be spoken for by the time the tournament begins at 7.  In fact I’d recommend getting there by 6:30 if you want to play.  When the crack boxes are gone, they’re gone.  Calhoun’s, being a sports bar, will likely be busier than normal tonight, as people arrive not only to play Buzztime but to watch the Memphis vs. UAB game as well.

You do not have to be a member of the Buzztime network to participate.  As people lose in the tournament, they tend to hold on to their crack box and play Buzztime trivia on one of the other monitors.

I’ll probably get their an hour or so in advance and try their new BBQ nachos or chicken wings before poker starts.  See you there!