THE DAILY DIVERSION

Yesterday was official "Bums Night Out" in Memphis.

Actually, we had ourselves a little heat wave yesterday. I don't know exactly how high the temperature got, but it was really, really nice outside, even at nearly 9 pm.

A new restaurant, Flying Fish, opened downtown yesterday, so we decided to go try it out. If you like Po' Boys, fried catfish-oysters-crawfish (I call 'em "crawdads")-shrimp, fish tacos, oysters on the half shell, shrimp cocktail, boiled shrimp (okay, I'm starting to sound like Bubba from Forest Gump), etc, then you'll like this place. The atmosphere is pretty funny too. They currently have a deal going where if you bring in your "Singing Billy Bass" (hopefully you remember what that is), then they'll give you a fried catfish basket for free. They've already got several mounted on the wall up front.



The restaurant is on Second Street, in the old J. Beck location, across from the Peabody Hotel/Texas De Brazil. Check them out!

Now, onto "Bums Night Out"... Normally there are "Girls Night Out" deals at the local bars, where women pay no cover and get good deals on drinks all night. Well, last night was a little different. With our heat wave came the normal "other things" that come out of the woodwork, more specifically, BUMS!

They were out in mass last night. Just sitting in Flying Fish we saw at least five different guys hit up tourists and locals for money. At one point a group of three guys, trying to decide if they wanted to come in and try out Flying Fish, stopped and gave a bum some money. I just wanted to yell out to the guy, who actually pulled his wallet out of his back pocket where the bum could see how much money he was carrying, not to do it, but it was too late.

So, we finished up our tasty meals and headed home. No sooner than we made it out of the front door there was a bum waiting for us. We'd already seen him "working" the entire time we ate. We politely said "Sorry" and we meandered off.

We got to the corner of 2nd and Union and, again, got hit up. I was carrying my "To Go" box, so the guy asked "Do you have any food for the homeless?" The sad thing was, this guy was dressed a little better than myself, so I seriously doubt he was homeless (mind you I was wearing a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and sneakers).

Then, we get across the street and another bum starts following us. He's keeping his distance of about 15 feet behind me, which just makes me more and more nervous, because I don't know exactly what his intentions are. All three of us turn around and look back in his direction, just to keep an eye on him, on several occasions before he finally asks something incoherently. Not know exactly what he said, but assuming he's asking for money, I just say "Sorry" again, and he turns around and walks off.

This is the shit that I hate dealing with in Memphis. I can't go to dinner with my wife and a friend, when it's nice outside, without having to virtually wade through panhandlers and hustlers. I really feel sorry for tourist who have no idea what they're getting when they come to downtown Memphis. I wish there was a flyer given to every tourist that gets to Memphis that says "If you plan on going downtown, be prepared to say "No" and "Sorry" every other second, because you will be bombarded by panhandlers and bums." Man, I hate the fact that I have to say that, but you've been warned.

Up until last night things had been a lot better on the panhandling front. The police have been great about keeping them away from the more populated areas. However, Memphis' finest had other things to deal with last night. Last night was the first "Bike Night on Beale Street" event of the season. We saw plenty of police officers heading that way, which meant there were less of them to patrol around The Peabody and the surrounding area. Also, who could blame them for having a little less patrol units out. It is February after all. How could they have known it was going to be 65 degrees?

Speaking of "Bike Night"... I have a little bit of a pet peeve. Now, don't get me wrong, because I think some motorcycles are absolutely beautiful to behold. However, once you have your dinner, movie, TV show, ball game, or sleep interrupted enough times by the wailing of these beasts, it just gets old. Last night we had to actually stop our dinner conversations until the groups of motorcycles went by, on numerous occasions. They're just loud and obnoxious. Really!

It kind of disappoints me that there are noise ordinances in place for car stereos, but a motorcycle that is 20 times louder than any car stereo I've ever heard is allowed to "rev" up their engine and "rumble" down the street without any problems. Does anyone else see a double standard there?

Okay, well on to work now!