Are you ready to get a little bit wacky? Then this weekend's events are for you. One gathering combines two trends — eating pudding with a fork and day-raving with coffee — while another combines the Pink Palace and Opera Memphis and LaZer Divas with Sky Pirates of Destiny. (See, wacky.)

Today, editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips discuss those events, plus an illuminating new event at the Memphis Zoo and a bus to all the Irish bars in the Memphis area.

Plus:

• The bill that ended the government shutdown could pay Tennessee's US senators a minimum of $500K each
• Longtime Highland hangout Newby's is closing
• Shelby County moves money toward a new Regional One
• A South Korean manufacturer is to invest another $157 million and create 240 new jobs in Memphis
• The Sheriff's office demands an apology for a sexual assault lawsuit
• Crosstown Concourse will have coworking spaces beginning in the spring