Paul Ryburn's Journal

My friends at the Peabody e-mailed to tell me that they are now selling eight martinis for $5 at the Corner Bar at Second and Union. Here’s the list:

Bechetini
Snickers
Peach Smoothie
Watermelon Martini
Grape Kool Aid
Tennessee Manhattan
Chocolate Monkey
Chocolate Covered Banana

Hmmm…. most of those are girl drinks. But, it’s not a bad marketing strategy. If you get females to come to your bar, the guys will follow. And unlike a certain pricey martini bar a couple of blocks away , the Corner Bar doesn’t have “Gentlemen, please remove your hats” on the door.

Grape Kool Aid… heh, bet my favorite blogger/MILF will be in there next time she comes Downtown.

What a great day hanging out with friends yesterday. We started at Dan McGuinness for brunch, then headed to the Saucer about 1:00, where for the first time in a week they had something drinkable on $2.75 Fire Sale – Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat, my second favorite beer. Unfortunately they did it the one Sunday when I couldn’t stay and drink the entire day… around 5 I prepared to hop a cab to Midtown for my friend Preggo’s baby shower, but three friends who were hanging out with me at the Saucer decided they wanted to go too, and one of them was sober enough to drive. So we piled into his pimpmobile and off we went.

The baby shower was at Dish, and I think having baby showers at bars is a great idea. For one thing, it means guys can come too, so you get twice as many presents. Also, if you’re a guy, baby showers absolutely suck without the presence of alcohol. But this one was a LOT of fun. Thanks Preggo and Nick for the invite. Hung out there for a couple of hours, then moved over to the Young Avenue Deli where the following picture of me was taken:

Ha… that’s one of the best pics of me in a while. I may have to make that my new profile picture on the blog and on MySpace, but I don’t have time to resize it right now. Note the PBR can in my right hand.

My original plan was to go back to Dish where the party was still going on, but around 8 one of the gang pointed out, “If we head back Downtown now we can still make it to Huey’s to catch the Dempseys.” I decided that I wanted to keep my 4-year streak of not missing Huey’s Dempseys shows alive, and so back Downtown it was.

The Dempseys were great as always. All of us made it through all three sets, and six pitchers of beer. Good times.

Mikey the Camera Nazi took a bunch of pics and I need to go through them and see if any of the others are blogworthy… I have a feeling some are.

Tonight: PINT NITE!!!!! Weird thing, I actually went four days in a row last week (Wed-Sat) without going to the Saucer. First time I’ve been away from the place that long since 2005. I just hung out at some other places last week (Hoop’s Bar in particular) and had such a good time that I didn’t want to leave. Besides, the Saucer had some really horrible Fire Sales last week. They were doing a better job throwing good beers into the rotation, and then last week the selections just completely sucked. Oh well. Tonight I get to drink what I want for cheap.

Coming soon: Where to find cheap martinis.

The Dempseys play Downtown Huey’s at 8:30 PM tonight. Although, it’s possible I won’t make it to this show due to a conflicting event in Midtown. If I miss it, it will be the first time since 2003 I’ve missed the Dempseys at Downtown Huey’s.

Coming soon to this blog: Info on cheap drinks and huge drinks.

Agenda for today:

Brunch at McGuinness
Walk to Flying Saucer
Listen to Pete talk a lot of trash
Beat Pete at pool
Notice Pete isn’t talking so much anymore
Hop a cab to Midtown.

I received the e-mail below this morning and wanted to share it. An important mentoring program that helps disadvantaged students at the University of Tennessee is in danger of being dropped because of stupid government bureaucracy. Please read, and if you feel like it pick up the phone or send an e-mail to protest.

——————-

Dear friends,

Your help is needed to create an internet howl of protest sufficient to reverse a decision that will be a blow to UT and a setback for a quality education.

UT’s McNair Scholars program is a superb resource. It takes kids from disadvantaged backgrounds who have made it to college and helps them prepare for graduate education. It is one of the most successful McNair programs in the country, and each year it also does a regional conference of other similar programs. I have volunteered as a McNair mentor to a young scholar five times, and found it to be a phenomenal program.

Now the program may lose its federal money (called the TRIO program) because its 2008 application was three minutes late. UT’s Office of Research Administration blames a slow link in the grants.gov site. Sadly, so far all attempts to correct have fallen on deaf ears.

Today I visited the local offices of Congressman Duncan, and Senators Alexander and Corker. All shake their heads, but seem resigned to accept the pronouncements of low-level persons who merely cite procedure, or who claim the money is already distributed (when they really mean they don’t want to change their allocation formula).

You can call these offices, too. However, I recommend the direct approach, making an appeal for reason and human judgment. You can make that appeal to the program administrator, Dr. Linda Byrd-Johnson (Linda.byrd-johnson@ed.gov, phone 202-502-7729). I recommend politeness but persistence, and spreading the word to other internet sites so we can magnify the message so it will not be ignored.

Today I saw a flyer in my apartment building saying that Calhoun’s Sports Bar and Grill is hiring waitresses. That must mean they’re pretty close to opening the doors. Calhoun’s will be located on G.E. Patterson Avenue (which used to be named Calhoun Avenue) next door to the Cheesecake Corner, in the space that used to a convenience store.

Calhoun’s has a website – not much there right now but hopefully they’ll update it as opening day draws closer.

You know you spend too much time at bars when… you’re walking down the Main Street Mall in the middle of the day on a weekday, and someone asks you, “Aren’t you supposed to be at the Saucer right now?” Not, aren’t you supposed to be at WORK, but the Saucer.

Not much to write about today, so here are a couple of links:

Dr. Ivan Misner, one of the nation’s foremost experts on professional networking, wrote a good article about e-mail and nutcases. I think we all know people of the type he’s talking about.

Street-People.com has a good article about bums in Confederate Park. Funny thing, I can see the park out our office window and I see the very people he writes about.

… and that’s all I’ve got. No idea what my plans will be for tonight. I may just stay home and use tonight as a “recovery night.” Although, stopping by the Saucer after work for a happy hour beer isn’t totally out of the question.

Before heading down to Hoop’s Bar/EP’s for the usual Thursday night fun, I stopped by Sauces where my friend Ugly Steve was working. Looks like they’ve kicked their happy hour up a notch. It runs from 2 PM to 7 PM Sunday through Friday and here are the specials:

$1.50 beer

$2.50 wells

$3.00 wine

Not bad at all. Happy hour starts at 2? Attn work: I think I’m coming down with the flu or something and may have to leave early this afternoon.

I played quarters for the first time in a long time last night. I won, but I lost. Today is going to seem like about a 42 hour workday.

To protect the not-so-innocent, I won’t say who I was playing with.

It’s funny, but quarters is one of those games where you get better as you drink more. Or at least I do. At the beginning of the game, I couldn’t hit the side of a barn. Toward the end, I was hitting 5, 6, 7 in a row.

(Edit: It wasn’t actually “quarters” but rather “dollars” – I was shooting with that new dollar coin. Does that mean you can give away 4 drinks rather than one?)

The Cotton Museum, in the Cotton Exchange Building at Front and Union, is having a party/fundraiser Saturday night. You’ll be able to dance on the cotton trading floor to the Memphis Knights Big Band, which will play swing era favorites, modern jump-jive-wail, jazz standards, and holiday tunes. The theme is “step back into 1939” and they have the cotton quotes on the chalkboard and other museum displays set to 1939.

Downtowners will like this: Not only will you be able to dance on the trading floor, but DRINK on the trading floor as well! The event is BYOB, with mixers and soft drinks available. Here’s an idea: Stop by Frank’s Liquors at Main and Vance (which is newly remodeled, looks really nice, and no longer sells bum wines) and pick up a pint to bring with you to the party.

$10 cover which is a donation to the Cotton Museum, doors open at 7, music starts at 7:30. The event ends at 9:30, so you’ll have plenty of time to do other things Downtown afterward. They say the party is likely to sell out early, so you can call 531-7826 and order your tickets in advance. You also get $1 off ticket price if you order by Friday.

This sounds like fun… I may very well end up going. Sounds like a chance to do something different, and meet some different people.

And that’ll wrap it up for today’s lunch break. In the few minutes I have left, I want to read the Rolling Stone magazine I just bought, which has a story on the upcoming Led Zeppelin reunion and possible tour.

Went to Target to shop for a present last night, then headed back Downtown. “I’ll hang out at McGuinness for a couple of hours,” I thought, “Then I’ll head over to the Saucer.” Well, what ended up happening was that I had so much fun at McGuinness that I never made it to the Saucer. Yes, you read that correctly. I had so much fun that not even waitresses in miniskirts could pull me away.

Met several of my blog readers last night who I learned were also McGuinness regulars. One of them wanted to be mentioned in the blog, so I pulled out my camera and took a picture of us. Here ya go:

She asked me to guess her profession, and apparently my guess (“Dancer at the Pony?”) didn’t go over very well. She’s actually a special ed teacher. She had some comments about my blog which are worth a separate post of their own, but I’ll save that for later as I’m trying to get this done in my lunch hour.

Nice meeting you, Taylor, Leigh, and all the other people whose names escape me 12 hours later. Great group of people to hang out with. Glad you find this blog entertaining.

I also came away from the evening with possible plans for New Year’s Eve (Sunday brunch crew/trivia team: details on this to come).

I’m really starting to warm up to McGuinness. If I continue to have fun there I will grant the place co-equal status with the Saucer.

Plans for tonight: A beer at either Saucer or McGuinness (whichever I feel like going to) around 7, then Hoop’s Bar/EP’s at 8 and for the remainder of the evening.