"memphis" news and stories

Fortunately for Alabama State University fans, Tyone Rogers, the school's defensive line coach, really likes Popeyes chicken.

On a recent recruiting trip to Memphis, Rogers insisted on a fried-chicken lunch, even though head coach Reggie Barlow opted to eat at McDonald's. When he walked into the restaurant, his Alabama State polo shirt prompted a staffer to ask whether he was affiliated with the football program. The staffer went on to explain that Rogers ought to see a fellow employee's son, Kirby High standout Deion Woods.

Employee Mary Woods was ready with a laptop and a highlights DVD. "Coach Rogers called me and he was like, 'Coach, I don't know where you are, but there's a person over here who says her son is the best in Memphis, and everyone in the restaurant, they're saying the same thing'," Barlow recalled. "He watched the film and was blown away."

If the Memphis & Shelby Country Music Commission has its way, local musicians may soon be singing the blues about their sore pecs and cholesterol counts.

The commission is challenging soul singers, rockers, bluesmen and their partners to lose a collective 2,010 pounds in 2010 through a free health program that includes cooking classes, yoga sessions and nutrition coaching.

"We want our musicians to look as good as they sound," commission director Johnnie Walker explains. According to Walker, musicians' waistlines are often stretched by a steady diet of pub grub and alcohol.

"We're providing them with a variety of options so they don't have to eat hot fries and greasy potato skins," says Walker, who's planning to take the program's 55 participants on a tour of a Whole Foods grocery store this week. Walker hopes the field trip will inspire gig-going musicians to pack lunch boxes with carrots and celery sticks instead of ordering their meals from nightclub menus.

Add Albertson's to the roll call of companies shutting doors due to the recession. The grocery chain has announced that they will be closing multiple stores in economically slammed locations like Florida, Texas, California and Nevada. Albertson's will still be the second-biggest supermarket chain in the U.S., but a bit of the bloom will be off the rose (or, if you prefer, ripeness off the tomato or mayo off the macaroni salad).

Of course, this means that there are bargains to be had at stores that are being terminated, with discounts of 10-90% off. I myself have picked up bags full of Indian specialties for 75% off (thus, my normally overpriced $4 jaipur vegetables are now a solidly discounted dollar), as well as staples like soup and beans for less than a buck and stacks of disposable foil baking pans for a dime apiece. I also scored some Bumble & Bumble hair products for under $10, but you can't eat those.

If you see an Alberston's with a "Store Closing" sign, it's worth checking out.

Whenever I  visit my boyfriend's parents in South Carolina, I 'm amazed by Southerners' allegiance to the Memphis-based grocery store, Piggly Wiggly. Known simply as "The Pig" by all (as in "We're out of milk and onions. Looks like I need to go to the Pig!"), Piggly Wiggly's status in the South cannot be overstated.

I mean, when you see adults wearing a tee-shirt that reads "I'm Big on the Pig," you know that it's more than just low prices and convenient parking that's bringing them in.

Leave it to the New York Times Magazine's food writers Matt and Ted Lee to bring us Piggly Wiggly -- no matter where we live -- via Boiled Peanuts, their Southern food products site.

• Magnets are 5 for $7.25.
• "I'm Big on the Pig" t-shirts are $19.50.
• "I'm Big on the Pig" bumper stickers are $2.

Free Memphis street cred with every purchase!