Paul Ryburn's Journal

Update 6:07 PM:  A reader of this blog spoke to someone in the US Attorney’s Office who said that the rumor is absolutely not true.

I’ve heard from two different sources this afternoon that King Willie has been indicted and taken into federal custody. People at my work (who don’t know either of my sources) heard the same thing. For some reason the media isn’t covering it yet. Might want to keep your eye on the TV or local news websites tonight.

If this turns out to be a hoax, the people spreading it did a very convincing job.

Yesterday I was reading this week’s issue of the Memphis Flyer, and I noticed a classified ad looking for bartenders and waitstaff.  The address was 73 Monroe, which would be the address of the old Mike’s restaurant which is being renovated into Bar Dogs, “A TRUE NEIGHBORHOOD BAR” according to the ad.  That’s likely a sign that they’re getting close to opening… usually restaurants start advertising for staff about 4 weeks out.

Looking forward to this place.  I’ve been told it’s going to be a neighborhood bar much like Sleep Out Louie’s was, and I’ve heard they plan to stay open late to give service industry people a place to hang out after they get off (badly needed, now that McGuinness has closed).  Also, it’s less than a block from my front door, and my BFF Suzy’s front door as well.  I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a lot of time there.

PLEASE COME AND LEND YOUR SUPPORT

AT A RALLY FOR

CONGRESSMAN STEVE COHEN

JULY 19, 2008

7:30 PM to Midnight and beyond

Kris Kourdouvelis’ The Warehouse

36 G.E. Patterson

Corner of G.E. Patterson and Front

Free beer and sodas for registered voters and

those registering on site

21 and over, ID required

Music by

Keith Sykes

The Infidels

Steve Lockwood

Bluff City Backsliders

Juego Listo (with members of Devil Train and Minivan)

Could there be surprise guests?????

Let’s all thank Steve for his great contributions as our 9^th District Representative

Hope Lottery Scholarships, Micro-Brew Beer, support of Local Arts and Music in Memphis, Literacy Grant for Memphis City Schools, Grants for St. Jude, Animal Welfare and so much more!

DON’T MISS THIS EVENT!

RE-ELECT CONGRESSMAN COHEN

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY AUGUST 7

VIP PRE-PARTY

543 S. FRONT STREET

6:00PM

MINIMUM SUGGESTED DONATION FOR VIP PARTY $100

RSVP Joan Robinson joan@dccrealtors.com or Brice Timmons, 901-274-5100

I had several people e-mail and say they liked the BBQ map… the map’s creator e-mailed back and says he has one for Chinese restaurants in Memphis as well.

Did you know there are more Chinese restaurants in Memphis than barbecue restaurants?

There has been a rumor going around that the Majestic Grille is closing.  I think this is due to the fact that the Peabody Place Mall is closing, and Belz who owns the mall also owns the Majestic Grille.  However, the Majestic is a block away and not at all involved in the Peabody Place shutdown.  I talked to one of the owners this afternoon, and the Majestic has had an incredible spring and summer and will be here for a long, long time.  So that rumor can be put to rest.

Glad to hear it since I still have about $50 in unspent gift cards.  Their steaks are the best Downtown.

I found an interesting story on Time Magazine’s website this morning:  A textbook company plans to give its books away. If more and more professors adopt free textbooks, this could spell the end of the ridiculously overpriced textbook publishing/college bookstore industry.  It would also make a college education more affordable to everyone.

Every week, Pete the Trivia Guy offers trivia teams 5 bonus points for buying a beer from a particular country or region. Last night it was German beer. Some weeks it will be beer from the Southern U.S., or from Great Britain, or one of the other popular beer-brewing regions.

Pete came over to us and commented, “If the bonus beer is Belgian beer, you’d be able to get the points with one of these,” and he held up a Budweiser. Heh. The Anheuser-Busch sale is rocking the world of beer.

Save the date: Tuesday, August 5 will be National Night Out and there will be a big party in the South Main area. More details to come, but there will food and games for children and the opportunity to meet the police officers who keep Downtown safe.

RealClearPolitics has updated their electoral map, which now shows 255 electoral votes solid or leaning Obama, 163 solid or leaning McCain, and 120 toss-ups. That leaves Obama just 15 votes short of the magic number to win the election. RCP still considers Ohio a toss-up, but recent poll averages have Obama up 4.5 percentage points there. Its 20 electoral votes would be all he needs to win. He’s also leading in toss-up states New Hampshire, Indiana, and Colorado. Nevada is a tie and there’s no poll data for New Mexico.

About to grab lunch from Court House Deli and head back to work…

A Discovery Channel blogger recently visited Downtown Memphis, and surprise, surprise… he was hit up by panhandlers asking for money.  In fact, he was approached by my new least favorite bum, who is going around telling people he is collecting money for St. Jude.  Talk about the scum of the earth… claiming to represent a children’s charity in order to finance his next bottle.  That guy makes the parking scammers look like Mahatma Gandhi by comparison.

Anyway, the Discovery Channel writer posted one of the best articles on panhandling in Memphis that I’ve seen.  He makes the distinction that homelessness and panhandling are different problems, and points out that most of the homeless do not panhandle.  He goes on to explain that the scammers we see down here – the people charging to park cars in metered spaces, selling copies of the Memphis Flyer, etc. – are painting the true homeless in a negative light.  That’s a vital point that needs to be emphasized, that people come down here, see the BUMS running their scams, and that becomes their mental image of “the homeless” and as a result, they feel less motivated to give to organizations that help the homeless.

If you’re as sick of these bums as I am, don’t forget that we have an online forum called Handling-Panhandling where you can contribute information about the people who try to scam you.  Sharing info is the best way to identify which ones are the criminals/scammers, so that the Downtown safety patrol and the police (both of whom monitor the forum) know who to watch out for.

Just found a neat software tool at work and figured I’d post it.  If you do a lot of stuff with PDFs, this might be a nifty program to have.  It’s called PDF Tools and you can get it here.  It can split one PDF into multiple ones (which is why I needed it), or it can join many PDFs into one.  It can also encrypt and decrypt PDFs if you need them to be secure, and it can put a text or image stamp on a PDF.  It can also create a PDF from a source XML file.

By the way, the website where you can download the program, FreewareFiles.com, is one of my favorite places to go when I need free software.

Cool thing I was e-mailed this morning: The Memphis Barbecue Map. It’s a Google map with locations of BBQ restaurants pinpointed. Now that’s a handy map to have.

There’s going to be an Obama meetup this coming Sunday, July 20 in Midtown. Let me start right off with the most important detail of this event: THERE WILL BE A KEG. It will be at 4 PM at the home of Adam and Amy Hill, at 440 Garland in the Evergreen Historic District. They will have a PA set up and are trying to confirm that Rep. Steve Cohen will attend. Free beer… what a great reason to attend a political rally!  Here’s a link to the event, called Midtown Memphis for Change, where you can RSVP.

I forgot to mention that when I stopped by the Red Rooster last night, the bartender asked me what I wanted, and I looked at the taps and said, “Ummm I don’t know, I guess just a Miller Lite.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “We have $1.50 Newcastle tonight.” Hmmm, really? If the Rooster is going to do buck-fifty beer, it may become a regular stop on my Sunday night agenda (and probably other people’s as well, once word gets out). It was a little slow yesterday but I have the feeling that will change once people hear about $1.50 Newcastle at the Rooster. Could become a good spot for locals to hang out on Sunday evenings.

Worst title for a computer programming language ever: “Ruby on Rails.” What were people thinking when they came up with that name? It sounds like a really bad bondage porno movie that you could rent at one of the adult video stores on Getwell.

Got a note from The Orpheum that Rocky Horror Picture Show has been added to their Summer Movie Series.  It will be shown on Friday, September 19 with tickets available for purchase two hours before the start of the show.

If you’re trying to figure out what to do tonight, I’ve got two words for ya:  PINT NITE.  Dat is all da people need to know.  $2.75 for your choice of about 70 different pints of beer.  I’ll be at the Saucer shortly after I get off work at 5 PM.  My 14-beer Pint Nite personal record still stands, but maybe tonight will be the night.

Yesterday I got forwarded a great article by the Memphis Blues Society, listing places in Memphis to hear authentic blues.  Warning:  The article bashes Beale Street a fair bit, so if you’re a Beale lover you may want to skip the first six paragraphs or so and just scroll down.  But it goes on to list the Blue Worm, Reba’s Place, Wild Bill’s and some others that are worth knowing about.  I’m bookmarking it because I get asked this question all the time.  You can read the article here.

In the news:  This morning I was checking out Dr. Booze’s blog and discovered that Belgian brewer InBev has bought Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud and Bud Light.  So I guess Bud Light is now “Belgium’s beer” rather than “America’s beer.”  John D: “Wha… wha happened?  Paul, how do I book a plane ticket to Brussels?”

Also in the past 24 hours, Dr. Booze reported on the best and worst alcoholic drinks to consume if you’re on a diet.  He also had a report about Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood going on a 2-week vodka binge and hooking up with an 18-year-old waitress (Wood is 61).  He’s so far out of it that Keith Richards is telling him he needs to sober up.

I missed brunch for the second week in a row, doing website work until 3:30.  Then I hung out at the Flying Saucer, where the Fire Sale was a new beer called American Lager made by Bud (or now, by InBev).  It was not bad.  It’s the tap with the American flag handle.  Glad to see them putting some new and different stuff on the $2.75 Fire Sale.

Then I had a great dinner.  Cafe 61 had seafood lasagna as one of their specials, and I couldn’t resist.  It was actually more of a seafood manicotti, but whatever… it was outstanding.  Their food has been superb every time I have gone in.  Definitely going to keep my eye on their sandwich board for specials in the future.

After that, I walked south to Calhoun’s and hung out at Max’s bar for a couple of hours, then hit the Saucer for round two, then the Rooster, then Hoop’s Bar.

Apologies to the Majestic Grille for missing both weeks of their two-week rotation for Sunday brunch (we do two weeks Majestic, two weeks Downtown Monkey on a rotating basis).  I just had stuff come up that distracted me.  Next week I’m going to do a full Sunday Fun Day, 11 AM to 11 PM.

Time to get ready for the long commute across the trolley tracks to work.