Blogs

The most positively Griswoldian holiday displays

By Jen Simmons on December 6, 2011 3:04 PM
 

Does your neighbor have an over-the-top Christmas light display that's visible from space? Have you seen horribawesome Christmas decorations that just make you shake your head? Or are you the one whose decked-out lawn attracts passersby from the street, stopping their cars to take photographs?

I wanna see!

Send photos my way of the best holiday displays you've seen, with a vague idea of what part of town they're in, and I'll post them here. 

You can email, or send a Twitpic to @memphisnews, or post them on our Facebook wall. The more lights, the better!

Tags:

Al Kapone and Memphis Symphony Orchestra, "Whoop That Trick"

By Jen Simmons on December 1, 2011 4:47 PM
 
Of last month's Opus One concert featuring Al Kapone at the New Daisy, Live From Memphis' Christopher Reyes writes:

"Memphis, you have no idea how insanely cool your city really is." 


Find out more about the Opus One series here. 

Build your own sandwich at bleu

By Jen Simmons on December 1, 2011 2:08 PM
 
It's early to make such a bold prediction, but I think bleu might give Houston's a run for its money in the "Best Business Lunch" category in next year's Memphis Most contest.

The reason can be summed up in four words: build your own sandwich. The online department went today, and we all got sandwiches. They're fully customizable -- you choose your protein, temperature, bun, sauce, cheese, toppings and side. One of the bread options is "grilled cheese" and it's exactly what it sounds like.

Here is my order sheet when I finished making my selections. As you can see I did not follow Scantron protocol. 

bleuordersheet.JPG
And here is my sandwich.

bleusandwich.JPG

Tags:

Make a Memphis Zoo resident's holiday special

By Jen Simmons on November 30, 2011 10:54 AM
 
babyelk.JPGMaybe you can get this baby elk a little something for its first Christmas. CA file photo/Mike Maple

How cool would it be to go to the zoo, see your favorite animal and tell the person next to you "See that ball he's playing with? Yeah, I bought that." You can, if you give to the Memphis Zoo's Enrichment Tree program.

Today on their Facebook page, they posted a letter to Santa from Yukon the grizzly bear. 

Dear Santa,
My name is Yukon and I live at the Memphis Zoo. I am a grizzly bear. I like to dig a lot, but sometimes my keepers don't like me to dig so much. Could you please bring me a 12" feeder cube (from www.sanctuarysupplies.com) so I don't get in trouble so much. I have a brother and sister. Cochise would like a 19" tire (from the same website), and Else wants a small bobbin (www.boomerball.com). Have a happy holiday and say hello to the reindeer for me. 
Love, Yukon (a grizzly bear)

They've set up Enrichment Giving Trees in the zoo lobby hung with ornaments on which keepers have requested specific gifts for the animals. Visitors can pick an ornament and either buy the listed gift or donate the amount of money the gift would cost. Prices of the gifts range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. The small bobbin requested above, for example, is $42.80. That's less than the "Let's Rock Elmo" dolls that keep tormenting me when I walk past them at Target. The gifts are intended to encourage species-appropriate behaviors and satisfy animals' physical and psychological needs. 

More info is here, including a FAQ. 

Tags:

Listen up y'all, it's Christmas in Memphis

By Jen Simmons on November 29, 2011 1:40 PM
 
Now you can check out Flashback's famous Christmas display without backing up traffic on Central Ave.

Tags:

Memphis' best parody Twitter accounts

By Jen Simmons on November 18, 2011 3:09 PM
 
Inspired by Memphis' newest parody Twitter accounts @RCSearchHistory and @CACommenter last month, I made this Storify of some of the best (active) fake Twitters in town.

Obviously I forgot to hit "publish." So without further ado, I present to you...
Who's your favorite? Are there any I left out?

Tags:

Memphis sights and smells

By Jen Simmons on November 17, 2011 1:03 PM
 

One of my favorite things about working at The CA is being able to smell one of Memphis' best aromas -- Wonder Bread on Monroe -- from my desk. It seems like the scent becomes more powerful as the air gets colder. Other favorite smells? BBQ Fest and Muddy's Bake Shop. Surely I'm forgetting countless others.

The photo above is part of a Flickr set called Memphis Neon and it features more than 350 photos of the cool neon signs around town. Go take a look.

Tags:

Jury duty

By Jen Simmons on November 16, 2011 11:30 AM
 
juryduty.jpg
Elizabeth has a tip for those of you looking to get out of jury duty: talk back.
I honestly never had a clear plan for what I was going to do to attempt to get out of it, because really I figured I was screwed and that, like a hiker dying of hypothermia on Everest, I should just give in to the warmth and just let it happen. I knew that no excuse I had was good enough reason to be excused, so I didn't even try. I wasn't about to lie, or even exaggerate. I've seen enough of my murder stories to know how this whole thing works. I was stuck.
...
And the truth is, I never intended to do what happened next. It's just that this guy was just about incompetent. And he was talking to us as though we were his kindergarten class and he was trying to teach us the basic principles of the justice system. And hey, maybe that's a thing. Maybe that's what lawyers DO. But it was driving me nuts. And finally, my inability to suffer fools gladly crept up so high that it just jumped right out of my mouth. 
 He'd just wrapped up some ridiculous story about two kids in a room with a baseball bat and a broken television and how it illustrates our inability to see people as not guilty until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And y'all, I just couldn't help myself. So I raised my hand....

I am probably jinxing myself by confessing this, but I've never had jury duty. Not that I'm complaining, because it sounds like a complete nightmare. Is it really that bad?

Tags:

Another rainy day

By Jen Simmons on November 16, 2011 10:54 AM
 
Rainy Day on South Main
Photo by SusanKC in The Memphis Blog Flickr pool

But is it ever going to get cold?

Tasty trailer tacos

By Jen Simmons on November 15, 2011 3:36 PM
 
Last week we ran a story in our M section by Stacey Greenberg about the food trucks that are finally starting to show up in Memphis. I've seen Fuel's and YoLo's, but I had no idea there were at least 23 more trucks! Sure wish one of them would park in front of 495 Union sometime. 

Since most of the vendors aren't on Twitter and Facebook yet, the trucks can be hard to find. But Stacey has a review of the Los Jarochos truck on Dining with Monkeys. She and her family recently had dinner from the truck, which you can find at the corner of Perkins and Summer most evenings. 

We went at about 6:30pm on Friday and there was a small group of people there. I asked a few of them if there was a menu, and since there wasn't, I asked what they had. "Tacos," was the answer. With the help of bystanders and the nice woman taking orders, I determined that they had shrimp, lengua, tripa, and carne asada, but no chicken. Jiro, full from our pre-dinner of paletas and elote at La Michoacana, opted out when he heard there was no chicken.
Read the full review. And if you know any food truck operators, tell them to get on Twitter so we can track 'em down!

Tags:

« Previous

Search this blog