Can it be true? First?

The boodle has editors!!, I mean besides tomfan and 'mudge. Or is the A-blog different from the kit of the boodle. I am confused.

The first Kit of the first full day of summer and we get, what? An assignment?

Actully, one of my memories is from right here at home. There once was a brickskeller (name unremembered) in one of the rowhouses across the street from GWU. It was the kind of place you'd expect to find in Berlin or Munich. The chef had some kind of secret seasonings that he mixed into the ground beef. The burgers were cooked over a real flame grill, and were probably the best in the City.

Not in same category, but there was a B&B in Camden, Main that sat on a bluff overlooking the entire harbor. Having blueberry pancakes after a restful night's sleep while watching the morning sun glint off the sea--heaven!

I agree, TBG. I didn't sign up for the writing class. Altho I'm sure I need it.

Not bar-like in the least, but precious nonetheless.

In the late seventies, my bro was working for the BBC and invited me to work with him on a feature story about some dissidents in Prague. So to Prague we duly went, and by devious means got to meet some very interesting people doing very interesting things. One fellow became a sort of instant friend, and he invited us to meet him in a disused church down a little alley. Very le Carre. We showed up around 10:00 pm one night, he let us in, and drew aside an arras that concealed a door into an ante-room, which was populated by a chamber music quartet of former Prague Symphony firsts who had been fired for political reasons (or so they said, but they were drinking Bulls Blood or its equivalent at the time, so who knows). Their dissidence took for form of secretly meeting to play music not approved by the regime.

It was terrifying and magical at the same time. Great music and safe-houses!

Real places, right? I could write about several bars in MT that served also as
honky tonks
post offices
tackle shops
diners
grills
am coffee spots

One would be Lampkins of Lincoln, MT, which figured in the background of the arrest-the-Unibomber AKA stories more than ten years ago.

From the Land of Sky Blue Waters:

What I remember, however, was sipping homemade hot cocoa while my dad drank over-percolated coffee -- cowboy black complete with grounds; A fishing day on Wolf Creek or the Sun River started with this breakfast at Lampkins. The fry cook packed fried egg sandwiches for our dinner (the noon meal then and there was not lunch). If he included SPAM, I would run this grease on my line to help it float and perhaps tease the coveted cut-throat trout closer. Thin-sliced, fried SPAM, dressed with Velveeta, is better than you think.

We capped off such a day of catch and release with a burger basket, back at Lampkins. My father tossed down a Hamms, following that with two cups of Joe. On the juke box? Kitty Wells, Conway Twitty, and Great Falls home-boy Charley Pride. I remember a couple dancing a two-step. They both wore fitted Wrangler boot-cut jeans and pearl-button snap shirts. dancing at distance that reflected the times. But I was just old enough at 11 to see something dark and rich pass between their eyes. Like crushed red velvet to my gingham.

My favorite inner Frommer's place was something we stumbled upon quite by chance. Early in our married life my husband went through the first of several IT Department downsizings. We were young and foolish and when faced with a large severance payment did what any fiscally responsible couple would do, we paid for a last minute vacation to Jamaica.

Only problem was we really had no idea of where we were going in Jamaica or what the place would be like, we just knew we were flying to Montego Bay and then transferring to another flight to some place called Port Antonio. It was quite the trip, 747 Toronto to Montego Bay, then a short layover in Montego where we met several other couples travelling to the same place we were, we were all Canadian and all about the same age and all developing a rapid love for Red Stripe.

We soon saw the plane that would take us to the "mountains" in Jamaica, it was small, and we flew up the coast, stopping once before landing on at an airport? in Port Antonia, loaded on a large van for the scariest drive of my life, up the winding hilly roads, with steep ravines inches from the road at high speed.

At the end of this we finally saw our destination, a very small resort set on a hillside, with main building/restaurant/bar being an old house with a porch where meals were served overlooking the water. I do not recall a single meal that trip but it was made special by the people and the location but mostly because it was such an unexpected surprise.

One of my all-time favorite joints was about two blocks from the Post, Joel--the Gaslight Club. This was a chain of key club-type "Gay Nineties"-themed places with an annual membership fee and you got a key (a small token thing). They started in Chicago and had clubs in DC, New York, Paris, etc., and were the model Hefner used when he started the Playboy Clubs. The one in DC was on 16th St., IIRC, in that row of stone-front houses across from the Hilton. It was (still is) a three-story building. On the ground floor was the restaurant, which had great food (the first time I ever had steak tartare was there, and it was to die for). The bar was on the second floor. It was a long, narrow room, with this huge marble bar running all along the righthand wall, and a few small tables along the other side. But it was a terrific room. And then on the third floor was the "speakeasy." You went up a narrow stairway and there was a door with a "Judas" gate thing on it, and when you knocked the little gate door opened and somebidy looked out and you had to say the secret password (only there wasn't any) to get in. And inside was a really nifty bar with a small bandstand and an upright piano, and they did cabaret-type stuff and had a singer, lots of jazz and Dixieland, and so forth, and it was great fun. The waitresses wore spangle-covered outfits kinda like Playboy Bunnies, with black mesh stockings, but no bunny ears or cottontails. But it wasn't tacky like I suspect Playboy Clubs are (sad confession: never been in one).

I was a member there for several years, and then one year it just closed up and went out of business. There's still one in Chicago, I understand, in the O'Hare Hilton Hotel. Here's a link to the history of the Gaslights: http://www.gaslightclubs.com/History.htm

Although they were considered "gentlemen's clubs" and seemed to have a somewhat racy reputation, by the time I joined about 1980 they were pretty tame and (shame to say it) pretty respectable. The boss of the company I was working for at the time was a member, and he took me as a guest, and then I joined. I took my soon-to-be wife there before we were married, and again afterward for several years until they closed.

In Philly, my favorite place above all was a restuarant called Bogart's on Rittenhouse Square. It had a Casablanca theme, obviously, and great food. I took my then-significant other there for dinner the first time we...uh...um. Never mind.

As for various low dives and hangouts, I have several. In college when I was working for the school paper, after we put the paper to bed we went to a pub in Cheltenham called Churchill's that had great butcher-boy roast beef sandwiches. We did a lot of beer-drinking downtown in Philly at a joint called "Pop Edward's" on Market Street a few blocks west of City Hall. My aforementioned sig, oth. was then a reporter for AP, and after her midnight shift we'd go over to Pop Edward's for a brewski.

When I moved to Maryland in 1982, I had two local hangouts: Riordan's a bar/restuarnt at the foot of City Dock in Annapolis (it's still there), and a little hole-in-the-wall bar/restaurant in Deale, Md., called The Happy Harbour. I was at that time a boatbuilder, and we worked a four-day, 10-hour-day workweek. So we got paid on Thursdays, and a bunch of us, still in our grungy boatbuilding clothes, would go to Happy Harbor and drown our sorrows in their excellent Maryland crab soup, and, oh, one or two brewskis, etc. We'd get there about 6:30 and leave about midnight.

Sunset Grill, Pacific Beach, San Diego, California. I like this place because the bartenders are nice and cute, the beers are cold, the fish tacos are excellent and best of all it's right on the beach=wonderful sunset everyday.

And can't forget McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, 1652 K Street NW, Washington, D.C., Great happy hour burgers, oyster shooters, and the best imaginary friends in the world.

One can buy Bull's Blood wine here. It is pretty good strong cheap red wine, and what a name.

Best hamburger ever: Burgerville #2, located in Rice Village in Houston. No doubt it is gone now as Rice Village has gentrified almost beyond recognition. It was a no-nonsense grill, same guy cooking the burgers for decades.

Rice used to have a "dive" called Valhalla, the graduate student pub. It is probably still there. It was a dim windowless cavern underneath the steps of the old chemistry lecture hall. Had beer on tap and, I think, peanuts or similar simple food. The place was filled with vaguely threatening, bearded geeky science grad students, mostly male, who tended to eye newcomers without welcome. Although it was open to all, in theory, only the boldest undergraduates - or those dating grad students - ventured through the heavy wooden doors.

The law school hangout was, I think, the Three Aces (some number of aces) pizza parlor in Cambridge Mass. Cheap pitchers of domestic beer and cheese pizza that dripped grease. I still miss it sometimes.

Next door was Bence's pharmacy, where they'd make you an old-fashioned cherry or vanilla coke at the fountain.

Yes, how could I have forgotten M&S. Shame, shame.

I have a question that will reveal the unrivalled depths of my ignorance. What exactly is a 'dive?' I hear about dive bars, or dives, but I don't know what that means.

Arturo's on Houston Street in Manhattan, a tiny place with a coal-fired pizza oven, a three-piece jazz band and frequented by Dutch ex-patriates, including the occasional trio of lovely blondes with broken English.

The 1369 Jazz Club in Kendall Square in Cambridge, basically a large row house with a great band and reasonable scotch prices. I drank a large amount of Johnny Walker Black there Election Day in '84.

But my actual best "Cheers" type experience was a Ground Round in Trenton of all places. The bartender had your drink ready when he saw you coming into the parking lot. He could tell what to pour by the day and how fast you were driving.

The regulars had a great breadth of backgrounds and jobs. Need a TV news reporter? Phd in geology doing medical research? Union guy? Telemarketer, car salesman, landscaper, graphic artist, software, all colors and ages.

We'd get managers fired if they messed with our favorite employees, changed the menu, and basically ran the place. It was a blast.

Click here Yoki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dive_bar

That part about the low quality of the drinks isn't necessarily true however. One of the best dives in DC called the Raven in Mount Pleasant sells Yuengling and Makers Mark for instance.

Now that I am older and respectable I think of a dive bar as somewhere I wouldn't be comfortable going.

but they also serve Pabst Blue Ribbon and Gordans vodka

But they also serve Pabst Blue Ribbon and Gordons Vodka, so you can get low quality if you REALLY want it...

Thanks omni.

I wonder if there will be verdict in the pants suit today?

From Omni's Wikipee link:" These laid-back establishments were often full of leather couches and divans and quickly became known as "dives" for short."

Yoki -- divan makes me think of a fainting couch. Would'nt that be great in a bar? After one drink I am woozy. Pointing me toward a fainting couch or divan would be a practical kindness.

"Mudge, can we get a leather divan for the break room? We promise to not slipcover it....just a pansy-needle-pointed pillow or two, for when the Queen visits.

Oh, how did I forget City Gardens in Trenton? Nestled comfortably behind 10ft chain-link fences in a concrete building in an area where most people wouldn't go during the day, it hosted a lot of big-time punk acts in the late 70s and early 80s. Dimly lit with miles of couches and cheesy little tables, a large dance floor and mosh pit and a back room with more, uh romantic sort of plush upholstery and a second bar.

I know dives from the inside. I worked at the Saskatoon dive where a lot of students hung out. Bad food, bad bands, really great service if I might say so myself. I also worked at various times, at all the dives in my home town (and yes they were all dives in the greasy sppon tradition).

The thing about working in a dive, even though you didn't know it was a dive when you started, was that you really didn't go to them yourself.

I do howver recall going with a friend to a coffee house where Stan Rogers was singing. I remember nothing but his singing. Not the songs, nay not even the name of the friend I was with. I do remember that voice. Such a shame he is lost to us. An Eva Cassidy sized shame, only a gent and of the sea.

CP, you have to promise me: no doilies, and no Lladru.

You guys gotta read this editorial cartoon: http://www.gocomics.com/stuartcarlson/2007/06/22/

During the summer of 1980 my High School Debate partner, Mike, and I attended the National Forensics League championships in Huntsville Alabama. On our first night there the hotel manager recommended a nearby eating establishment famous for its Authentic Southern Breakfasts. More sophisticated travelers might have better appreciated the deep import of this phrase, but we, who were young and had never ventured east of the Rockies, were unsullied with sophistication of any sort.

When we arrived at the designated location we were met with a vision out of a Southern Gothic. A stark corrugated metal shack with a tar paper roof. What prevented us from retreating in terror to the closest IHOP was the presence of many cars conspicuous for their size and, to our eyes, ostentatious ornamentation. The drivers of these cars were clearly citizens of great import, so we assumed they knew how to do breakfast right.

The interior was not much improved from the exterior, but we were quickly smothered, linguistically marked as we were as strangers to these parts, with the enthusiastic hospitality of the hostess. A woman who, before suggesting the house special, pointed out various local luminaries, including, I believe, the mayor.

The waitress returned quickly with a platter of food nearly as generously proportioned as herself. We gorged ourselves silly on such delightful, though unfamiliar, fare as biscuits with red-eyed gravy, honey-cured ham, and hush puppies. We were overwhelmed.

The down side of this early-morning feast became apparent later in the day when, during the heat of competition, we felt an unfamiliar weariness come over us. A sluggishness and general deadening of our wits. While we did reasonably well at the tournament, we wondered if that heavy rich Southern food, to which we were totally unaccustomed, had in some sense overwhelmed our vulnerable constitutions.

What made our curiosity turn to deep suspicion was the discovery that the tournament had been won by the local favorite. Perhaps, we theorized, the recommendation of this diner had not been simple hospitality.

Perhaps it had been sabotage.

I'm sure I've mentioned this place on the blog -- where you ordre a steak and they give you a raw slab of buffalo and point toward the grill in the corner:

'
Aside from the regular motels in Brooks, old-time accommodations are provided at the Patricia Hotel (16 km/10 miles southwest from the park, 403/378-4647). Known for its Western atmosphere, the hotel has basic rooms with shared and private baths from $40 s, $45 d. In the downstairs bar, many of the cattle brands on the walls date back more than 50 years. Choose from buffalo burgers or steaks at the nightly cook-your-own barbecue.'

http://westerncanadatravel.com/alberta.dinosaur.park.htm

JA, I hope they offered bacon slices, too. Bison is lean, so lean that you can cook the slab into shoeleather.

My cousins raise bison and beefalo. Three strips of bacon on top of the buffalo steak, remove and replace, as you grill.

Tastes fine, as bull and boar are wont to do.

I believe Joel's recommendation is in Yoki's neck of the woods.

Update on the Nats BPH tomorrow night. I just called the Nationals office and was told the best place for a group to meet is at the ticket "booth" located at the Main Gate.

So... Let's meet at 5:30 at the Main Gate, close to the ticket booth. For any newcomers, we'll have some sort of "BPH" regalia; you should be able to find us.

Just look for the extremely friendly and attractive group.

Let's get $9 "Lower View Outfield" seats. Cheap, but not too high. (There are some seats so high that the steps don't reach; you must climb over other seats to get to them. Not me.)

See you there!

While I was hitchhiking through Brooks Alberta in 1971 a couple of the locals offered free haircuts to a friend and me. I won't repeat our counter offer.

Joel that description for some reason triggers memories of the Brady Bunch trip to the Grand Canyon.

Here is the great place/restaurant I didn't get to eat in, we tried but at the time we were passing through they were not open to the public for lunch (guests only), we would have had to wait around until dinner. It was another place we stumbled upon only to realize later it is considered one of the best places to go to in Canada.

RD if you are still looking for a 20th anniversary trip, another consideration and in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

We did tour the place and its organic gardens really lovely, they also used edible flowers in their salad and food. Perhaps someday I will get back out there.

http://www.ila-chateau.com/sooke/

The closest I get to a favorite dive is M&S. Sometimes the smoke CAN be strong enough to make you faint ;).

I've attended bars and cafes in my time, but I wouldn't call them dives, although I did like this one cafe in Ann Arbor.

I've forgotten the name already, but it really did have divans agalore, books, games, and was a great place to hang out, and the smoking section was completely walled off with glass so it was REALLY nice for nonsmokers and smokers alike (no puffing outside near the door, such an annoying habit). You could talk directly to a smoker seated inside the smoking section and not inhale any of that nasty burnt toxin. At least in sign, if not via voice.

Is there a category for best knife fights on the dance floor? I have a couple of those from when I did sound.

Thanks for the update TBG.

"Just look for the extremely friendly and attractive group." I will just look for a glow coming from near the main entrance.

Our Family does a family ballgame every year, we have found it better to have 2 or 3 rows bunched together. It makes it a closer social gathering.

If there was a way to communicate really loud guffaws on this blog, you'd have heard that, Joel. By your familiarity with hotels going by the name of females in small town western Canada, I would guess that your knowledge is intimate and shall we say painful? There is a pretty good chance that I've seen that hotel as we drove through Brooks many times in the late 80's. If not that one, I have seen many many others just like it.

Don't ask questions about the food, just close your eyes and eat. Don't ask about the rooms, just close your eyes and think of England.

That whole shared bathroom line pretty much says it all.

If I don't get here tomorrow, y'all enjoy that Nats BPH, y'hear? I wish I could be there. I'll be singing at our local minor league ballpark this week, but it just isn't the same.

Happy trails, auf wiedersehen, a bientot, vaya con queso, fondue.

I absolutely did not know that JA had ever been to Alberta. I hope he enjoyed himself. He probably didn't avail himself of our haircutting expertise either.

Patricia is a fairly common place name in Western Canada. Our Governor General (the Queen's representative in Canada) at the outbreak of WW I was the Duke of Connaught. His daughter, Princess Patricia, was a kind of Lady Di of her day (in the Empire, anyway).

There are two small towns near Brooks, Princess and Patricia. Joel's hotel would have been named for her as well.

Most famously, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, my old regular army regiment, was named after her. That regiment still exists, and the 3rd Battalion of that regiment is currently in Afghanistan. The last three casualties were from 3 PPCLI.

It's just not fair. Worked late and missed the whole last kit & kaboodle. I had answers to it all: "Senator Walmart" is correct. Brakes NEED to be struck with a hammer, and unseemly force (but not unapproved sex) used to press back the pistons. The gotta be yourself & wear what you like song was apparently written by Marlo Thomas of all people. I had a reminder that Roger and Me had the definitive explanation of the difference between bunnies and rabbits, and a story Slyness reminded me of, about a kid who hunted squirrels and skinned them and brought them to my mother, (his science teacher)who brought them home and being reared in the Depression, promptly pan-fried them and they were great.

I also wanted to ask Joel about Senator Walmart's upper thighs, and their exact size.

Okay, I went to Google images and it took 14 pages of images, and a mysterious but temporary freeze-up of the webpages, but on page 14 there is a somewhat unflattering but therefore believable photo, and it proves the lady is in good new and improved physical shape and I will give credit to anyone who diets and works out successfully. So good for her. (Senator Walmart, that is.)

I thought of you SoC when that came out. PPCLI has taken half of the causalties in Afghanistan or so said the news last night.

The Patirica Hotel has a website!

http://www.thepatriciahotel.ca/

I'm thinking if it has a website, it might be a great dive rather than a dive dive.

The true dives of Western Canada - the deep down ones where the only safe food to order is the deluxe burger because you know it comes from a frozen puck and the cola is only safe if its in a can, those sort of dives - that kind of dive will have a single phone line, and bedding that predates the fall of the Eatons catalogue (1972 IIRC).

JA visited our fair province to check out dinosaurs with Dr. Currie.

When I was in college there was a famous donut shop known as Fosters. It was about ten miles from the campus, but well worth the trip. Those few who had cars viewed it as a sacred honor to ferry the less affluent (me) to this shop on late night expeditions whenever the collective craving for freshly fried sweet dough become overwhelming. This happened on a regular basis, and was mandatory during finals.

These sojourns were known as "Fosters Runs," a name that I believe still endures even though the name of the shop has changed. Those who made these nocturnal pilgrimages were rewarded with donuts and various pastries still steaming from the fryer. I was especially fond of the cinnamon rolls, which were roughly the size of a dinner plate. I still recall the warm glow of ultimate gastric satisfact6ion known only to stressed out college students who have no fear of calories.

Fosters was most famous, though, for their seasonal Strawberry Donuts, which were composed of massive glazed chunks of cake donut sliced down the middle and stuffed with local strawberries the size of tennis balls. Each year the college unicycle club, then in its heyday, would ride, en masse, to Fosters just to get these donuts. For some this was the cultural highlight of the year. Being terminally off-balance, I was forced to be a mere observer, although I rode with them in spirit.

Although I have known many a fine donut since then, my heart, and several layers of arterial plaque, will always belong to Fosters.

Sam bek ee ship il. The phonetic spelling of my O'Club number in Korea circa mid '80s where every dive trip started. We worked 6 day weeks so Friday was just another night and Saturday meant a trip to the "ville" for dancing in clubs where you always looked for the exits upon entering should there be a fight or fire. Our drink of choice OB, the Other Bud, or Oriental Brewery was a safer bet than anything which might require contact with ice cubes and thus questionable hygiene. It was rumored the bite in OB came not from hops but from formaldehyde so the ice might have been a better bet.

Can your own home qualify as the best of the best of some truly great dives? I lived in a 4 person hooch where one of the occupants was the civilian woman in charge of the rec center. She had a connection in the states who sent videotapes of Miami Vice episodes right after they aired. An inordinately obnoxious group of aviators would pool our liquor rations ($1.75 for 2 liter bottle of Vodka)and fire up the blender about 0700 on Sunday morning. We typically ended up at my hooch because it was connected to the back up generator at the O'club (an essential service because that's where most of us ate our meals). Strangely our bathroom had only hot water so the toilet seat was always warm, even when there was frost on walls inside the bedrooms. Anyway, we would watch an episode or two of Miami Vice, uninterupted by the usual Sunday power outage, and an hour of MTV without commercials from a 6 hour tape a friend sent me. Then we'd nap for a couple hours, and go out in the ville again. A full weekend packed into one day.

I am loathe to admit it, but I arrived in Korea at the tail end of the "party suit" era. Yes, I had a custom made Elvis style jumpsuit of black and red, complete with kick pleat in the bell bottomed legs, in an indescribably horrid polyester fabric. I did pay for said hideousness, but wore it only once to an official function and then was glad to follow a fearless Warrant Officer in his revolt against such nonsense. His leadership in the revolt is the only thing that saved him when he taped over my 6 hours of lovingly edited MTV with, of all things, the entire Indie 500. The MTV tape had been wildly popular with my brother pilots who attributed aphrodisiac powers to the solid hour of Duran Duran.

SCC: The donut shop was known as "Foster's Donuts" not Fosters. Although I think it is now known as "Donut Man" or something similar. Also, I'm not exactly sure what satisfact6ion is, but it sounds pretty good to me.

Hey, anybody know if we can take soft coolers into the Nats game, with sodas, etc.?

The "Silvermoon Cafe" in Baton Rouge, near the LSU campus, a little shack next to the railroad (literally 20 feet away). Dumpy-looking place, hard to believe it wasn't condemned. They only had five things on the hand-written menu. Best red beans and rice I ever had. I went there once when it was raining, and water was pouring through the ceiling in a dozen places--pouring, not dripping. It had made lakes on the pool tables, and was pouring off in waterfalls into the floor, but they were still open and serving.

"The Gunpowder" was a bar and grill in St. Georges, Bermuda, in an old, partly-restored coastal fort. It sat overlooking the bay where I was doing a research project with my roommate. Menu was "Hamburger plate" and "Cheeseburger" plate, with Fosters. I think you could get a Coke if you wanted it, and that was it.

Talked to a Peruvian teacher today--he was on his way to a conference where they were discussing future teaching standards for Peruvian schools. During the conference they were reading all kinds of different teaching and assessment methods, from all over the world. NCLB was one of them. His take on NCLB--"What are these people thinking? Have they ever taught before? We couldn't even figure out what they were saying half the time!" They're using NCLB as a model for how NOT to develop a system of teaching standards.

Mudge - I'm afraid the answer is no. (I checked when my family went last year.) From the Nat's website:

"Guests are not allowed to bring any glass or plastic bottles, aluminum cans or Thermoses into RFK Stadium. If a guest is found to be in possession of these items inside the stadium, he or she will be subject to ejection from the stadium.
EXCEPTION: Plain water in plastic bottles (not sports drinks or soda) will be allowed in the stadium as long as it conforms to the specifications listed below:

* It must be in a factory-sealed, clear plastic container.
* The water may not be frozen.
* It must be no larger then 1 Liter (33.814 fluid ounces)"

If you folks click on that link Joel gave above, you'll read about Dinosaur Provincial Park, and in the course of that read you'll discover that once upon a time there was such a thing as the "Great Canadian Dinosaur Rush" (which incidentally took place from 1911 to 1925, if you were wonderin', which I know for a fact you were).

Now, I grant you, a dinosaur rush isn't nearly as exciting as a gold rush, but hey, standing in freezing streams panning for nuggets while starving to death in arctic weather conditions in white-out blizzard conditions certainly sounds way neater than brushing old dirt off of fossils with a whisk broom. And yes, our Joel did indeed visit that Dinosaur Park with dinosaur expert Dr. Currie, as dr mentioned above. But dr failed to mention a third member of that historic trip--and what happened.

Yes, there's more to the story than that. You see, Joel's trip has been commemorated in a song which some of you may remember, and it goes

a little something

like this (and dedicated to all our Canuckistani friends):

Way up north, (north to Alberta.)
Way up north, (near to Patricia.)
North to Alberta,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.
North to Alberta,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.

Big Joel left the Beltway in the year of '92,
With Dr. Phil Currie, and brother Kevin, too.
They crossed the Elbow River and found the dinosaur bones,
Below that old white mountain where there ain't no telephones.

Joel crossed the horrendous badlands where the beefalo are the meat
That he fed to his team of Bernese as he mushed on through the heat.
With the northern lights a-running wild in the dives of West Drumheller,
Yes, Achenbach was an explorin' man
But his bro was a homesick feller.

Where the river is winding,
Big femurs they're finding.
North to Alberta,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.

Way up north, (north to Alberta.)
Way up north, (near to Patricia.)
North to Alberta,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.
Near to Patricia,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.

Kevin turned to Joel with his guitar in his hand,
Said: "Joel, you're a-lookin'at a lonely, lonely man.
"I'd trade all the bones that's buried in this land,
For a Weber Grill in Boulder, where I left my old rock band.

"'Cos a man needs a 52-inch flat-screen high-def TV,
While barbecuing giant slabs of meat.
I'm too much a Renaissance man to dig up all them bones.
I'd rather watch a Gators' game wearing Bose headphones."

Where the river is winding,
Big femurs they're finding.
North to Alberta,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.
North to Alberta,
They're goin' north, the rush is on.

Way up north, (north to Alberta.)
Way up north, (near to Patricia.)
Way up north, (north to Alberta.)

Mudge, you have a frightening gift.

Bravo Mudge!

Oh, and frostbitten - I really liked your story. It sounds like one those places that are fun to revisit in your memory.

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My sister says bottled water in soft coolers only. But I think food is OK.

The best contraband? Bottle caps. When you buy a soda or a bottled water in the stadium THEY TAKE THE CAP. So if you've got an extra cap from a Pepsi or Coke bottle stick it in your pocket--it may come in handy.

Those of you who attend the game can find out my secret to bringing food into Dan Snyder's Fedex Field. When they search you there, they're not looking for weapons, they're looking for ham sandwiches.

See you all at the RFK Main Gate tomorrow night!

TBG - here's the official list of prohibited items:

1. Metal, plastic or glass containers of any kind (except for factory-sealed plain water containers, no larger than 1 liter)
2. Hard coolers or ice chests
3. Backpacks and any bags that exceed 16"x16"x8"
4. Large flags, banners or signs
5. Poles and staffs of any kind
6. Weapons and illegal substances
7. Professional cameras and equipment including large lenses, tripods and monopods
8. Pets (except service dogs)
9. Fireworks
10. Whistles
11. Brooms
12. Bats may not be brought into the stadium
13. Large umbrellas
14. Beach Balls
15. Horns and all any noise makers
16. Laser pens/ pointers

I find the exclusion of brooms bizarre. What, they are afraid of unauthorized sweeping?

RD... you remind me of Carol Lee doughnuts in Blacksburg. It was located near the corner of College Ave and Main Street. (College Ave leads from the Va Tech campus to Main Street.)

They made the doughnuts next door, one building closer to the campus and vented out the air so that it blew right onto the sidewalk on College Ave so that you walked right through the blast of hot, sweet air. Three steps later, you were at the door of the doughnut shop. It was nearly impossible to walk by without going in.

My son and I visited Blacksburg last year and I was surprised to find the shop had moved farther out of town. We found it and I'm happy to report the doughnuts are still great and the shop still does a pretty good business.

RD.. I see they don't allow pointers. What about ring fingers?

TBG - I must admit that out of prurient curiosity I went to the Hungarian woman website. I fear they may need to hire a new translator, for they seem inordinately proud of their ability to offer, and I quote, "Chat to old women in our free chat rooms."

Warm doughnuts and college students. Always a marriage made in heaven.

Mudge writes:
Now, I grant you, a dinosaur rush isn't nearly as exciting as a gold rush, but hey, standing in freezing streams panning for nuggets while starving to death in arctic weather conditions in white-out blizzard conditions certainly sounds way neater than brushing old dirt off of fossils with a whisk broom.

Yeah, says who? This pair of 10-year-olds even got to appear on Jay Leno's "Tonight" show.

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1181186719282800.xml

McMINNVILLE -- The shock isn't that the earth yawned open and bared a mammoth's tooth several weeks back; it's how everyone now knows about two 10-year-old boys' secret hideaway.

That densely wooded ravine -- which just produced the 10-pound, geologist-affirmed tooth of a 9-year-old mammoth -- has revealed all sorts of other wonders to Charlie Gilpin and Bryant Ashton in the past.

Lizards. Dead deer. A kind of plant that tastes like licorice. And grass crumpled by Sasquatch. During the time they've been friends, it's been the place where they can be Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Or prehistoric adventurers. But now they really are famous explorers.

"It was so weird because this was a place that me and Charlie always used to come to just explore and use our instinct and talk amongst ourselves," said Bryant, skeetering Wednesday down a tangled path beneath towering maples and twining vines.

Now, they're speaking to scores of people -- including scientists, teachers, students and journalists -- about "the dig," a place by the stream that runs near Charlie's home into the South Yamhill River, where the boys found the tooth.

At first, they thought it was a boot sticking out of the mud, said Charlie. In fact, they did nothing for days but spook each other with stories about whose boot it was. A dead hiker's? A wanderer who had run into Sasquatch? Sasquatch is territorial, Bryant says, which is why -- since one terrifying afternoon when the boys' heard something hooting like an owl and lurching through the foliage -- they've decided to give him space by staying on their of the ravine.

Then, last week, the boys decided to give the boot a pull and saw it was no such thing.

So their families called in journalists and a real scientist, William Orr, retired University of Oregon geologist and director of the Thomas Condon State Museum of Fossils at the University of Oregon.

Orr gets about a dozen such teeth from around Oregon every year, he said, but many are deteriorated and "crumble like popcorn" at the first washing. He praised the boys' tooth as "a beauty."

"It's in excellent condition, and what's more exciting is that that tooth -- that fourth molar -- was in the animal when it croaked."

Speaking of bars, I'd like to raise a glass to the safe return of the shuttle crew.

Seconded. Hey Mudge, mind explaining which song you're parodying? Cause I can't get enough of the tuneless cooties, man.

BTW... in addition to your talent, your memory for rock n roll and other songs is truly amazing, Mudge-box.

If you poke a finger into people's ears, will they hear any song parody they select once they give you a quarter?

I seem to have no memories of exotic gathering places - it's all become a blur, and wasn't exotic to begin with, I guess.

I got all teary-eyed just now watching Ken Griffey Jr's return to Seattle. It's the first time he's played here since he went to Cincinnati, and they had a pre-game celebration. He got a 5 minute standing ovation from a packed stadium, and he seemed really grateful and appreciative of that. I guess he wasn't sure how he'd be received - Alex Rodriguez still gets booed. First time I've watched baseball in years - but I may set foot in the consarned stadium for the first time for the Stitch and Pitch in July.

Have a great Nats BPH! Whaddya mean, no beach balls? (I can understand no bats, having been at games where they gave away baseball bats to kids - very dangerous!) But no beach balls! Sheesh.

Mudge, loved it.

Wilbrod, "North to Alaska" by Johnny Horton

http://www.lyricscrawler.com/song/82711.html

Dinosaur rushes must have been quite exciting at one point, right? Dooley, like when men and dinosaurs lived at the same time? I learnd bout it at the Creation Museum.

Okay, favourite dives, bars etc.

Hofbrauhaus, Munich. Not a dive. The Granddaddy of Beer Halls. Every beer drinker should make this pilgrimage at some point in their life. Damn those Germans know their beer. Not sure about Americans, but I think every damn fool Canadian and Aussie backpacker (both noted for their fondness for beer) passes through here.

I have a sentimental spot for our Administration Company O Mess in Cyprus. It was called Ponti's Taverna. Ponti sounds vaguely Greek, but it was actually a joke acronym for Persons Of No Tactical Importance. $0.25 Brandy sours.

The St. Louis in Calgary would qualify as a dive that a person would want to hang out in (a favourite haunt of the former Premier). Also maybe the Strathcona Hotel in Edmonton, and the Athabasca Hotel in Jasper (the "Atha-B").

TBG, I've learned many things from my imaginary friends, but bringing your own caps to stadiums - now there's a good idea!

The stadium security must have read Mudge's problems with the bats, hence the prohibition. That would be quite a kerfuffle if one got into a dressing room you know.

Is the broom thing because they will be thrown on to the field? I think I've seen that (because a series was won in a sweep)

SofC-When I rant about Mr. F having spent 2 weeks in Paris and never set foot in the Louvre, lived in England for almost 2 years and never saw a single painting at the Tate, he counters with "I've been to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich! Twice!" Philistine.

Should give him this quiz:
Philistine.http://reverent.org/this_is_art.html

SCC-where do I begin?

G'night peeps. Pow-wow starts tomorrow and I will be selling root beer floats and giving books away to children. I just might have to eat some fry bread. I will resist holding a piece over my head to perform the miracle of the fry bread.

Thanks, SoC!

The St. Louis closed almost 2 years ago. A sad loss to dive-bar aficionados of the Western flavour. When the City published its Stampede Calendar in April of this year, it reminded us all that the St. Louis has not only closed, but been demolished. So no more wings 'n fries 'n horse races from that odd soul.

I started out my legal career in Chicago in 1988. I rented a small apartment first in a venerable old apartment building on the near north side. Just north of Dearborn, a block from mass transit.

Here was what made it special:

http://www.chicagobarproject.com/Reviews/Zebra/Zebra.htm

92% on both the art quizzes! Guess going to museums when I'm at business conferences has payed off. I'm too tired to try the writing quizzes, though.

Frosti, a pow wow! I haven't been to one in a long time. Mmmm, fry bread.

Bad Sneakers, congrats on the job.

I have fake Crocs and I wear them in the garden, with socks because they're a bit too big and they hurt my feet without socks. A colleague's wife sold official Crocs for awhile, and I would have bought some, but they never could keep the small size in stock. I have a terrible time finding comfortable shoes - and that's all I look for in a shoe, comfort.

Mudge, that parody made me laugh.

I like the idea of writing about favorite out-of-the-way places. I'm going to have to collect my thoughts and decide which of my old faves I'm going to write about.
The Bayou in Georgetown. The Vous in College Park. The Dim Sum at the old Tung Bor in Wheaton Plaza. The Twist & Shout (yes, the one in the song) at the Legion Hall in Bethesda. Tracks in SE. The Marrakesh. The original Babe's on Wisconsin Ave (where the McDonald's at Van Ness is now). Dinner at the Roma on Connecticut Ave, then across the street to the Uptown Theater for a movie. Gosh, I could go on...

But you know what, it was not really about the places themselves, but the people in them.

More later.

bc

Ain't it always? I feel there must be a thousand hokey songs in that concept alone--

"Without you, Paris is a cow town,
Without you, Pisa just falls flat..."

The Chateau Lafayette, known as The Laff to its denizens, was a wild and wooly joint in the '70s and '80s. Students, junkies, musicians, poets, actors and folk who just enjoyed a good scrap guzzled beer by the quart. They cleaned it up a while ago and it just isn't as much fun as I remembered it. Either that or I'm getting old and not much fun anymore.
It's been open since 1849 and looks it.

http://www.ottawaplus.ca/portal/profile.do?sectionID=104&categoryID=5&contentType=0&profileID=44633

SCC remember. misremember?

It's my experience that nothing ruins a good dive quicker than a bunch of repectable folks showing up, so I'll just say that I've really enjoyed myself in a bunch of crappy holes in a lot of places.

Not that I would recommend that sort of behavior to anyone else!

Morning all!! *countdown-to-Nats-BPH Grover waves*

Dives? Hmmmm...

Only place that qualifies is a Gasthaus that was just down the street from the first base I was stationed at in Germany. I stuck to schnitzel primarily, but it was a welcome respite from mess hall food. Pleasant owner and staff, just a good place to get away to, even though the barracks were just over the fence.

:-)

The Vous vamoosed, bc, having tranformed itself into something called the Cornerstone. Town Hall is still there. I like Town Hall; it qualifies as a clean and earnest dive. The mix of grad students and locals works well.

For friendly neo pubstyle, try Franklin's on Route One in Hyattsville. Brewpub, restaurant, and silly gift shop.

Off to a swim meet.

As somebody already said, the song was indeed Johnnie Horton's "North to Alaska," Wilbrod, but you also need to know they made it into a John Wayne movie, which was significantly enhanced by the presence of one of my heroes, Ernie Kovacs, in it. It was NOT enhanced by the presence of Fabian, however.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054127/

Ernie Kovacs was a Trenton native. I remember my dad used to talk about him. One of our better exports.

Btw, there's also a Loomis Ave in Trenton. :-)

I recognized the melody to Mudge's tune immediately. The lovely Mrs. Gallagher, 5th grade teacher from the exotic Cincinnati, gave us a contract for our projects on Hawaii and Alaska. We could form groups as we desired and do a skit for the class as part of the project. My group sang North to Alaska while pretending to pan for gold. I think of her every time my students have trouble even identifying all 50 states, much less remembering where they might be.

"One of our better exports."

Well... Trenton makes; the world takes!

Morning all, another beautiful day here and I am off to plant some more plants in my garden.

Have fun at the game tonight for those attending.

Mudge loved the song.

Good morning.
I suppose its too late to pick a nit.
chant·ress -n. a woman who chants or sings.
chan·teuse -n. a female singer, esp. one who sings in nightclubs and cabarets

Hello Boodle! It's been a while. It has been an interesting week. First my roommates workplace caught fire on Tuesday afternoon (he works at a mushroom farm and we all know how well straw and manure burn). So the workers there have pretty much been running split double shifts to make sure the entire farm didn't burn down after the fire department got the blaze under control.

Then I find out that my team at my workplace is restructuring and it is requested of me to transfer over to another department. No longer am I a computer help guy, starting next week I get to try and figure out printers. I hate printers, but the knowledge will serve me well in my desire for promotion so I took it.

Then when I came in to work this morning, I found that my manager went and cleaned out my desk on me. I am a little bit miffed about that, but there's nobody to complain to today.

From the Q & A on the Dave Barry for President Forum at McClatchy News
Q-Dave, Given that The Washington Post already employs former Miamians like Gene Weingarten and Joel Achenbach, do you really think that Washington DC needs yet another Florida driver? Would you hire either Gene or Joel as your Press Secretary? Which one would you have to pardon, and for what?
wiredog 6/20/07
A-I think Gene and Joel could both serve full-time in my administration while continuing to work full-time at the Washington Post, because, as they both freely admit, they hardly do anything there anyway. They would both receive full pardons for everything they have ever done, including those things involving underage farm animals, which I will not go into here, out of respect for the animals.
Dave Barry 6/21/07

That Dave Barry! Isn't that just like a politician: covering up for the sexual peccadillos of his do-nothing friends. Why, if I wanted this kind of crap, I'd vote Republican. Of course, none of these three alleged "humorists" can hold a candle to that madcap Dick Cheney. What a laff-riot that guy is. Just imagine, saying he's not a member of the executive branch! Stop, Dick, you're making my sides hurt. He's such a card.

Hey. Speakin' a ya favorite dives and udder low places, da travel section got dis piece 'bout wonna my favs, da Joisey shore, which we usta call "donnashore." Yiz can read about it heah: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062200662.html?hpid=artslot

Ya see on 'at map all them towns? I beena all them towns. I like 'em. An' ya see Lanic City (dey mis-spelled it Atlantic. Wadda buncha idiots)? Ya see just north of it dere's dis big islanad wit no name attached on it? Dat's Briantine Island. Dat's where my grandparents had a house, an' I spent a great part o'
my yoot dere. It was a quiet, family kinda place, din have no boardwalk or nuthing, but it did have dsese two piers, one at the north end and one south, and onna piers dere was these cozy dive-like taprooms, and dey had a room fulla pinball machines and stuff for the kids, and you could go out on the piers at night like 2 o'clock in the morning, and there'd be people out dere fishing.

And ya see just below 'Lanic City dere's Ocean City? OC is a dry town--no booze. But right across from it on the mainland is Somers Point, which is nuthin' but a big traffic circle, an' around the circle is a joint called Tony Mart's, where they had rock bands and all the kids went there. Tony Mart's is featured in the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers"--it's where Frank first meets Eddie and the band. So yeah, dat's wonna my favrit low dives.

Also, when I was 16 I went to Ocean City with some friends and we stayed in a guesthouse, and that night under the boardwalk a friend and I drank vodka right out of the bottle and got totally wasted. The first time I ever got drunk, drank vodka, puked, fell down, etc. Kids, don't try this at home. Drinking warm vodka out of the bottle is just about the most wretched horrible-tasting thing a dumba$$ teenager can drink. Ah, good times, good times. (This was all before drugs like marijuana and LSD and so on were even heard of. Yes, boys and girls, take it from Uncle Curmudgeon: there really was such a time. You could look it up.)

Gotta go jump in the shower and find my Nats hat--gotta a ballgame to go to!

Have a good time at the ballgame, folks!

Mudge, I thought about you and laughed yesterday. Went to the grocery store to purchase libations for a brunch I'm hosting tomorrow. Harris Teeter is wont to give coupons with receipts, based on what one purchases. I looked at the coupon they gave me. It was a recipe for mojitos made with Equal. Actually, it looks like it would be really good.

Thanks for that link, Mudge. When I was a little kid, my family vacationed on Long Beach Island a couple of times. I still remember some things, like playing with my toy horses in the house (probably because it was raining). Those were the toy horses that my mom later threw away, because I packed them in a brown paper bag and she thought it was garbage. So traumatic. And I remember playing in the ocean, and pretending we were in a boat instead of a car on the long ride there and back. My dad used to describe the island as the one that looks "just like a pencil" on the map.

Here's a baseball related link, about Griffey's return to Seattle. The Reds massacred the Mariners last night.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/321059_griffey23.html
We're having hot dogs later, which I only like for baseball occasions, like a Baseball BPH across the country.

Mudge, geez I don't put up links to stories about YOUR favorite vacation spots! Fortunately I have my reservations already.

Annie's Cafe' at the Back Bayou bridge on State Road 24, Cedar Key, Florida, including the bar (open by appointment only or by reservation or for special occassions) is my favorite haunt. It is safely enough away from the "tourist traps" on Dock Street and bracketed by the safety of Back Bayou and the Episcopal Church to enjoy a regular crowd of locals - including weekend-home locals from Gainesville. Yet it is off the beaten track (although directly on the beaten track) enough to attract bird watchers who arrive with the same feeding frenzy as the seasonal white pelicans on the bayou. The eponymous Annie was the great-grandmother of Glenda, the current owner-operator of the present incarnation of the circa 1950s eatery and old-fashioned juke. It's an experience that brings people back.

Not having access to your highbrow baseball BPH activities, I took myself to the local cineplex to see La Vie en Rose, or as they put it on the marquee, LAVIEENROSE (I guess maybe they thought that in French you don't need spaces between the words...)

I enjoyed the movie very much, cried about four or five times, laughed out loud several times, was fascinated throughout. I couldn't help being reminded of Judy Garland, but it is a thoroughly French movie, complete with a tears-down-the cheeks-inducing rendition of La Marseillaise and a few digs at America and her citizens (quoting the New York Times: "Americans don't deserve [Piaf]")

The scrambled up time sequence didn't bother me. It was stream of consciousness stuff, the story of Piaf's life told as if it were the memories flashing through her head, and sometimes the fantasies and hallucinations too. All the acting is superb, and the directing is artistic. In one sequence Edith's manager is trying to convince her that her singing voice is not enough; she needs to be more expressive and dramatize the songs more. To illustrate that point, her next performance is shown with background music instead of her singing on the soundtrack. Judge for yourself; how important is the showbiz part?

If I had a quibble with the American version of the movie, it would be that they didn't subtitle all the songs. I understood enough of the words to know that the lyrics WERE important to the story. And, I was surprised that they didn't show her singing the title song in its French version, only in English. That doesn't seem right.

Overall, though, it compares very favorably to the most recent AMERICAN movie I saw (Oh, wait, the last American movie I saw was Ocean's Thirteen. Maybe that's unfair. Oh well, I just call them as I see them.)

===

I'll be looking for the baseball report this evening, hope all went well and a good time was had by all!

Hi, kb! I had lunch with my movie fanatic friend the other day. She was just back from the Seattle International Film Festival, where she saw an average of 4 movies a day. The actress in La Vie En Rose won the Best Actress vote. She liked the movie very much - I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Good evening,friends. Thought I would check in, and find out what is going on. I see we've been asked to write, and to write about "dives" or fun places of the past?

I'm not going there, folks. Too many not so good memories. I've walked past them with the help of Christ, and I don't want to revisit them. Thank you, but no thank you. The only way I knew to have fun was to do what Martooni is trying not to do.

Vacation Bible School is over, and I'm getting ready for the kids. It is still too, too, hot here, and no rain in sight. Just imagine the weather I'm talking about, and riding in a car without air conditioning. Not pleasant, not pleasant at all. Of course, I am riding, and for that I am thankful.

I see the news is not good for the lady that was missing. That is sad. And the WashPost has a piece about Jolie playing the part of Daniel Pearl's widow, the implications being Hollywood is practicing racism big time. And this is news?

Well time to turn in. I've had a busy day, and a busy week. I hope your weekend is good, and not too hot. I can't get in touch with my grandsons, and I'm getting worried. I've called, and called, and don't get an answer. I'm seriously considering getting someone to take me there.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

Hi, Cassandra - I was wondering earlier where you had been today. It's good to hear you're OK. It is worrisome about your grandsons - are they on their own? Hope they get in touch soon.

Amen to that, Cassandra. Altars to alcohol are way overrated as pleasure spots.

Finally -- I have been waiting for this moment -- the Cheney series by Gellman/Becker.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/

Hi, yourself, mostlylurking!

Cassandra, I had some thoughts similar to yours and Wilbrod's regarding "dives"--the spot I was reminded of by the day's assignment, in fact, didn't serve alcohol.

There used to be a restaurant in Boston called The Golden Palace. It was run by Sikhs and it served only vegetarian food, served by turbaned waiters dressed all in white. For one reason or another I never got any of my friends to go there with me, but it was a sort of sacred place to me, and it is a precious memory. I can't really explain it, but going there was like going to church. The atmosphere was peaceful and the food was both delicious and healthful. I never knew what I was ordering but I trusted that anything they served would be good and it always was. Mysterious and wonderful, that restaurant definitely qualifies as a special place.

Joel, you are asking for trouble starting the boodle off on a Cheney comment thread.

But thanks for the link. With no Achencontent two weeks in a row, I had just about given up reading WaPo altogether.

CP and mo and momom: omni here, home safe, unfortunately we can't say the same for the Nats, tho it was a great game and an amazing end, MVP goes to the Cleve pitcher, what a great save (is that the right terminology?).

And ooh boy, what a walk (hour and a half I think)...

For the details we'll have to call on Mudge (he actually kept a score card). But in general: Nats scored first, Cleve tied it up (don't ask me the innings,ask mudge). Then the Nats scored two more. Then we enter the top of the ninth at 3 to 1 (top means Cleve's at bat then Nats go last). I'm not a hundred percent sure how Cleve scored three runs, but I think it was a homer with two on base. Then the third out, and the Nats are up. Nats get two on base: second and third, with one out. Pitcher walks batter(intentional), bases loaded. Pitcher pitches, batter bats (it's a hit). Pitchers jumps to his left and lunges for the ball as it bounces off the ground, snags it and throws it home: second out for the Nats. Catcher throws to third (and I have no idea why the Nats man at third isn't on base cause I was watching the pitcher-catcher action, but he wasn't (this is the man who was on second, ran to third, rounded third, and was on the base line to home, turned around to go back to third, but didn't make it (I think, Mudge?)). Third out for the Nats, end of game. Cleveland Indians win 4-3 over the Washington Nationals.

Cleveland is first in the AL Central. Prolly the the second or third best overall in the AL, and second to fourth overall in the entire majors. Nats up 3 to 1 as they enter the ninth inning:WOW.

I definitely want to go to another game. (I'll have to sit next to Mudge so he can help me learn score carding (or is card scoring?))

For the most part, almost everyone was spending more time chatting than watching the game. At one point our esteemed boodler visitor L.A.Lurker (*waving* (don't personally know how to do Grover waves, so they're just regular *waves*)) had her back to the game talking to us in the row behind for about 10-15 minutes. And CP was knitting And chatting, but you all knew that would be the case, right.

That's all for now, Hope Mudge can confirm my general descriptions with more specifics or set me straight where I prolly have it bass awkwards backwards. But the important thing is that I Know we all had a good time, because there were smiling faces all around and lots and lots of hugs as we said our goodbyes.

Oh, and we even and the good grace to applaud for the Indians fans seated behind us (they're visiting a daughter or niece (I missed that part ) attending AU).

I can see the beer effect causing me to many simultaneous thoughts (hence all the parentheticals (and those within parentheticals)).

and...

signing off...no over...just out

    one of my longer posts ever and only a one and a half SCC score.

Hit preview and saw a three SCC score in the above sentence alone (fixed before post). Somethings not right...

                                    goodnite

I don't eat out much. But Portland, Ore. had plenty of divey experiences for non-eaters.

Gorge Performance Board Sports. Two tin sheds. They've become more comfortable since my first visit, with snow flurries floating in the open garage door.

The dumpy little theater across from Andy & Bax Surplus and Rafting Basement, whose parking lot I used while watching "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade" in a gloriously amateurish performance. I think the guy playing the non-speaking role of guard/disciplinarian had the most fun. They didn't do the nude stuff. My pastor said he'd seen it while a student in Chicago.

Then there was Imago Theater. Atmospherically run-down, but the Frogz were amazing.

Lovely new Kaul Hall at Reed housed a performance of Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire." Wonderful singer: it was remarkably simple to understand what was being sung. It somehow seemed an initiation.

Dawn Upshaw in the same 500-seat hall.

Watching "Fight Club" in a third-run theater on a just-gentrifying part of Belmont Street, blocks from the church whose family homeless shelter I helped at. The church's kitchen was obviously exacerbating the problem of this residential neighborhood becoming a night roost for non-family homeless).

Figuring out some of the stairway routes in the West Hills and Alameda.

Pelican Pub on the beach at Ocean City in the winter. If this place doesn't make you want to drink beer, no place will.
http://www.pelicanbrewery.com/

Regrettably, Portland has hardly any alleys. The blocks are too small.

The Cheney report seems the best explanation yet of what's been going on. Looks like the VP took all the kinds of shortcuts he warned against when he was younger.

Kind of interesting that his behavior is forcing the courts to formalize constraints on Presidential prerogatives. I can hear future presidents excoriating his memory.

How about sending him to his nice office in the Senate wing of the Capitol?

l.a. lurker is in town - cool! Did you tell her you posted the June 22 song in Cyrillic? Sounds like you all had a time - and gosh, omni, that sounds like a long walk home!Reminds me of the time I walked from Georgetown to somewhere downtown with some friends who kept telling me, "2 more blocks, it's just 2 more blocks."

Saw Walter Mondale on a panel on C-SPAN talking about the vice-presidency. It was taped in April of this year, so no mention of the WaPo article. But there were questions from the audience about Cheney's penchant for secrecy, etc. Mondale didn't think it was impeachable, or at least didn't think that Kucinich's push for impeaching Cheney would go anywhere (I guess it hasn't because I haven't heard anything about it). Stu Eisenstat didn't think that Cheney has committed impeachable offenses, and said that the President must have approved of what he's done. Of course, this was before the "not in the executive branch" argument came along.

What scares me is that Ashcroft looks like a reasonable guy in all this. Ashcroft! Now if he'd only let the rest of us know what was going on at the time, or resigned in protest, I would actually admire him.

I can't sleep. Reading Niall Ferguson's "War of the World: twentieth-century conflict and the descent of the West" possibly contributed. Page 457:

"Most empires purport to bring peace and order. They may divide in order to rule, but they generally rule in pursuit of stability. The Nazi empire divided the peoples of Europe as it ruled them--though, ironically, the divisions that opened up in Central and Eastern Europe generally had as much to do with religion as with race (most obviously in the conflicts between the Poles and the Ukrainians or between Croats and Serbs). But the 'skillful utilization of inter-ethnic rivalry' the Germans consciously practised did not lead (in the words of one German officer) to the 'total political and economic pacification of occupied territory. On the contrary, in many places their rule soon degenerated into little more than the sponsorship of local feuds; the institutionalization of civil war as a mode of governance."

It sounds as though the Nazis did more or less deliberately what the US has managed to do unintentionally in Iraq.

Good Morning!!!

I've been at my parents' house all week, keeping away from computers and relaxing. I think I slept more this week than the previous six months. I see, as usual, I missed some interesting stuff.

Well, here is my dive bar story. The Bayou in Baton Rouge. I spent so much time there, they should have charged me tuition. When I met this cool new guy from California once, I told him he had to come with me to meet the cool people. He walked in with me but refused to sit. He still married me, though. They served Abita beer and played awful grunge music. Claim to fame: supposedly Paul Simon liked hanging out there when he visited Louisiana. Many times I dreamed of meeting him there. And, the place was mentioned in the moview Sex, Lies, and Videotape.

I'm off to Atlanta today to attend NECC. Yay!!! The airport has wi-fi. I'll backboodle while I wait.

Good Morning!!!

I've been at my parents' house all week, keeping away from computers and relaxing. I think I slept more this week than the previous six months. I see, as usual, I missed some interesting stuff.

Well, here is my dive bar story. The Bayou in Baton Rouge. I spent so much time there, they should have charged me tuition. When I met this cool new guy from California once, I told him he had to come with me to meet the cool people. He walked in with me but refused to sit. He still married me, though. They served Abita beer and played awful grunge music. Claim to fame: supposedly Paul Simon liked hanging out there when he visited Louisiana. Many times I dreamed of meeting him there. And, the place was mentioned in the moview Sex, Lies, and Videotape.

I'm off to Atlanta today to attend NECC. Yay!!! The airport has wi-fi. I'll backboodle while I wait.

Haven't totally backBoodled yet, but wanted to second omni's observations about the Nats BPH. Much merriment and cameraderie, and photos are in the works!

*holding the Grover waves in reserve*

:-)

Very nice evening with astonishingly pleasant weather. I meant to post an email check-in but as I rode my bike home, I arrived to this nature-event at a neighbor's house: three injured rabbits in her yard and two in my yard. Fox? Some rabbitcide occurred earlier in the week, but I did not say antything. (Sorry RD, these bunny were born to another fate than your lucky lapins.) Sad. And hard to settle the doggies down. Nature is a beautiful but sometimes cruel mistress.

TBG arranged the fine meet-up and Son of TBG was a good sport. He may grow up to boodle somewhere. I believe he lurks.

>Nature is a beautiful but sometimes cruel mistress.

That reminds me of the time I was watching a baby bunny nibble in the yard only to see a large bird swoop down and carry it off. I was kind of shocked - I knew it happened but I'd never seen that in person before.

If I could only get them to focus on the groundhogs...

Howdy y'all. I'm glad the baseball BPH was a success. I got a lot of mowing done yesterday before the rain hit. Another day, another inch. At least it didn't rain Friday.

Cassandra, I hope your grandsons are fine and merely busy. If you do show up and that's the case, perhaps it will convince them to call their grandmother occasionally.

You remind me, Error Flynn, of a day many years ago when Himself and I watched a mother rabbit defending her babies from three or four crows. It was impressive. She made herself as large as possible and actually played offence, running at the birds and kicking them and generally acting most un-bunnylike. It was amazing.

Hey, Boodle, just got a quick second and then we gotta run down to the River House to continue grouting. Yes, had a great time last night. omni's recap of the game was correct. (It's just called "scoring," omni.) My wife took a pix of all of us wearing our rally caps in the 9th inning; I'll have to forward it to scotty tonight to add to the collection. Gotta run!

The drama of the game was lovely classic American theater behind the drama we partipated in: experimental community theater. Here is the cast:

Mo -- the infectious laugh of a jolly gal garbed in black.
MoMom -- Mo's darling mother who astonishes us with her youthfulness (Bonus points for accepting the concept of imaginary friends).
Greenwithenvy -- he is a Little Feat fan with Baltimore connections. Lots of travel stories we hope to hear eventually
BC -- maitre de for the evening, making sure that all had commestables. Such timing. Such largess.
LA Lurker -- SHE IS REAL! Perhaps the bravest boodler as she met SciTim/HisTim/StorytellerTim in LA last year at the West Coast BPH dive. RomanticTim stays on Route One, of course.
TBG -- Cruise Director left earlier as she is fighting crud. Her staging choice of cheap but good seats deserves Huzzah times three.
Son of TBG -- offers Linux consults, perhaps at a boodle-discount. He also is a theater dude, making him multi-faceted.
Annie -- brought a soccer-loving chap along who earns major boodle points for -- again -- not thinking the entire friendship basis, well, weird.
PART II on characters, momentarily.

\\If I could only get them to focus on the groundhogs...

Do groundhogs get into your car and chew on the wires like rats do?

PART TWO: Cast Continued
'Mudge and Mrs. Mudge -- Mudge studied the game carefully, making hatch marks and contemplating all the possibilities. Mrs. Mudge is a doe-eyed beauty, and again,deserves major props upon such grace among foil foolscapping.
S'Nuke -- did you know this is pronouced SNuke? As in rhymes with Luke, fluke, spook, puke (sorry!) I had been saying Ess-Nuke all along. SN squires the lovely GFofSN whose graciousness rivals Mrs. Mudge. I think it quite a tie. Both men are lucky gents, indeed.
CP Knitian -- I knitted AND did NOT poke out any eyes. I elected to NOT stand up at key moments, lest my knitting fall down through three rows. I did, however, sing along with Star-Mangled AND Take me Out.
Omni was the best multi-tasker, as his game report suggests. He chatted AND watched the game, recording key details accurately. He elected to NOT take part in the crush of humanity on the subway yet did arrive safely home. He may elect to change his boodle handle to WalkingMan. It has such truthiness!

Did I miss anyone? Let me count again, but that is what I have so far.

Well, squirrels will get under the hood of a car and become a bloody mess when the car is turned on. That happened in our driveway to my third daughter (best friend of older child). She had to have the vehicle towed. Fortunately no mechanical damage, but squirrel did not survive.

Hello, all.

No time for catching up on the Boodle at the moment, but just wanted to thank everyone for a great time last night. Nice to meet new friends, good to spend time with old ones, and yeah, we missed those of you who weren't there.

I've started reading that Cheney series...wow.

More later.

bc

>Do groundhogs get into your car and chew on the wires like rats do?

rain forest, no evidence of chewing wires yet but they have attacked the truck's power train, the Caddy's grill and the bottom rear of the 911. Claw marks on my 911! And bared a nasty pair of fangs at me.

That's when I stopped being Mr. Nice Guy.

SCC: Now if I could just learn to use the apostrophe correctly...

Morning all (is it still morning?)!

Sorry I missed the dramatic ending last night. Was there actually a ballgame going on?

Son of G and I had a great time with everyone. Yes.. the cheap seats were quite nice, especially once the sun went down.

It was wonderful having two new BPHers along, greenwithenvy and LA Lurker!

EF, sorry to hear those cute little animals did all those nasty things to your car. The rats here cause my car lights to be out all the time. They seem choose wires over baits.

With no dog in residence wild nature has come a bit closer to Chez Frostbitten. I try not to look when I see something mammalian flying 'neath an eagle.

Nature the beautiful has now barred me from parking in my garage. Two evenings this week a turtle has emerged from the forest's edge to dig in my sandy drive and lay eggs. The first batch could easily be avoided and the garage entered with a deft serpentine maneuver. The second batch means safe entry requires straddling the underground nests and risking crushing the eggs or any emerging turtlettes. I'll just park outside for a while.

If cruel nature comes in the night, by way of skunks who love to dine on turtle eggs and find the digging easy, I will be most miffed.

Baseball seems the perfect BPH sport. Flashes of excitement requiring full attention with stretches of one eyed/eared monitoring in between. I love how the excitement, or at least the potential for excitement, is foreshadowed. I mourn the loss of baseball as a shared experience one could expect most American children to absorb. Something about knowing immediately the meaning of "bottom of the ninth, two out, two on" seems an absolute necessity in the learning of useful logic, risk assessment, and teamwork.

JA's Cheney link, read last night despite an inner voice saying "it will make you sick," requires some serius frivolity as a countersleaze measure.

Is it art? I don't know, but I like it.
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=city--8217-s-new-room-with-a-view----but-is-it-art-&method=full&objectid=19259774&siteid=50061-name_page.html#story_continue

A belated good morning all. I will try not to think of the 5 time draft deferred one when they raise the veterans' flag for the grand entry at the Pow-wow today.

Just checked my voice mail and found a message from Raysmom, who called us last night at the Nats BPH. I guess I didn't hear the ringing over all the chatter!

So we had 15 people there in person, one on the phone--and many more in spirit!

TBG
I wanted to Thank you for putting that whole BPH Nats game together. I had such a great time despite the final game results.

I also wanted to Thank everyone for making me feel so welcomed.I am a shy person and yet I felt like I was hanging out with good friends.

It is great to know that everyone on the boodle are just as nice in person as they are here.

thanks everyone for making me feel welcome!

trying to get lots of work done today, but will check in again later.
looking forward to seeing the pics...i think. we are a silly bunch. :-)

Still morning here. Sounds like a great BPH. I'm listening to Little Feat while doing housework on a rainy day. Slyness, I'm trying to send the rain your way while avoiding OK and TX.

Uh oh - in addition to Edith Piaf ringtones, my Google ad is:
Meet Hungarian Women
Meet hot Hungarian women who are looking for guys. Free to register

Sigh.

Oh... forgot to mention...

Since LA Lurker is in town until Thursday, we planned a Tuesday night BPH at our regular dive... McCormick & Schmick's at 1652 K St at 5:00.

Hope you can be there!

Gardening Post -- ignore as you will; I am NOT taking names. :)

Mostlylurking -- blues in the Northwest?
Frosti -- delphies and blue shades clashing
DMD -- half of flower purchaces blue-ey?
(Did I miss any others?)
Can you tell me some of your blue flower stories? You can do this on my blog or here. I just posted an entry on the gardener grail of blue (I see some troubles in the entry, since I have having a visual-memory problem AGAIN with my computer. But it will do for the moment.
http://minxterbloom.squarespace.com/

We have Nats BPH pics!!!

http://www.monkeyview.net/id/2480/nats_bph/

Enjoy!

And let me add my thanks to everyone last night for a wonderful time. GWE, thanks for making the trek, and special thanks to assistant photographer L.A. lurker!

rain forest,

My condolences on the rats. Lights are a *good* thing. At least with rats you don't have to feel guilty about going after these absurdly-cute-yet-destructive creatures.

For the record, I just want them out of the garage. And I've told them so, in strongly-worded letters delievered by certified mail to "58b". (That's where their Wall St. Journal subscription goes, and on my credit card no less. So I've got federal charges of identity theft pending against them. But just try to get the FBI to talk to you about these things.)

The back 40 they can have. But the garage is like 2001: "Attempt no burrow here."

Tired. Will try to catch you up on Saturday's CPH--Camel Patio (or Porching) Hour--at the start of the week.

mostlylurking - if you click on the Hungarian website you will see them proudly advertising chat services with "old Hungarian women."

Old Hungarian women. Who knew?

The Nats pics look great. I watched the game and kept looking for any familiar faces, but it was not to be.

Also, reading some of these posts makes me realize that I have never really had a period in my life where I had the time, money, and freedom to hang out at some delightfully atmospheric eatery. Oh, well, perhaps in my older years.

Looking back, one of my favorite places to dine was the old "Herfy's" home of the Hefty Burger. This was a cool fast food place where they put out an impressive array of flavored sauces in squeeze bottles. (I was especially fond of the Blue Cheese.)

Given the quality of the patties, providing the strongly flavor sauces was probably a prudent business move.

CP - I regret to inform you that the Moonflowers have suffered an unfortunate accident. I strongly suspect that my neighbor may have gotten a little carried away with the weed killer, and ended up spraying through to my side of the fence. (As he is a very nice gentleman who is good to his dogs, I decided not to have him whacked.) Do you think it's too late to try again this season?

RDP -- I regret to say that likely you are too late on the moonflowers. However, we should arrange a Julyish meet up, and I can give you moonflowers to take across state lines. I have a largish pot, three infact. Two will do nicely.

Perhaps we can all meet up at a surburban big box garden center for a greenthumbing BPmoment.

Warning: at some point we will head to Niagara, to meet DR and smuggle yarn across international borders.

Moonflower post in the wings, RD, so watch for that.

RDP - If the Sopranos come back in some form, you can write that tele-play: Carmella shrieks about her slain moonflowers; Tony is finally fed up with neighbor and arranges a slow death disguised as a leaf mulch accident.

RD, I think the Hungarian site may have seen their mistake and changed "old" to "hot" - which doesn't necessarily exclude "old", I suppose. That's a pretty interesting site, and it seems entirely fitting to me that the Bizarro Boodle is in Hungary. It took me a while to figure out "Pestiside" - till I remembered that Budapest is really 2 cities - Buda and Pest. chew.hu is about food and wine. And there's an Equestrian Festival now:

"The venue of the biggest equestrian event in Budapest and the biggest Festival of Light in Hungary will be surrounded by the biggest yurt camp in Europe /about 60 yurts/. The four day event offers a special experience to those visiting the program."

Sounds like a great place for an exotic land BPH!

CP - That would be fun. Seriously, although I am a habitual no-show for these BPH events, I am always up for a lunchtime (or thereabouts) get together. It is my hope that there are others who might be interested in a BPH Nooner.

The family and I are heading off to Myrtle Beach the first week in July, but after that would be great.

(I'll put that mulcher "accident" scenario into my Secret File. Best to be prepared.)

Oh no, I clicked on the Hungarian women site and they do still refer to "old women". I suppose they mean "older" or "mature", ie you won't go to jail for hooking up with 14-year-olds. Those crazy Hungarians.

Attention Frosti: RDP is NOT SUING his neighbor for the penumbra of poison perpetrated upon the Padouk Paddock, purported to pulverize perky and pesky and pernicious plants.

mostlylurking, I guess the "not jailbait" disclaimer makes sense. The other explanation is that they are advertising the opportunity for a nice chat with a Hungarian Babushka regarding her goulash recipe.

Frosti, keep an eye on EF, as he very well may sue the fur off those bold woodchucks.

CP, I inundated your blog comments with posts about blue flowers. After walking about the yard during a respite from the rain, I noticed I also have light blue flowers on sage, and dark blue and white pansies. I used to have royal blue primroses, but they either died out or got the heave-ho during the yard redesign. Seems like the purple primroses are the ones that naturalize.

RD, starting your moonflowers now would be like simulating conditions in the Pacific NW - although I'd give yours more of a chance of flowering! I'm hoping mine will, though.

MostlyL -- love the comments and will work up one or two posts on the "blues" of blue flowers; Every gardener a Percival, seeking that cobalt grail.

Purple is lovely, isn't it. But nothing is more breathtaking, as you say, than when heaven descendsm, an incarnation of the celestial within a Genus species vessel. You and I have both happened upon the ecstacy of
Heaven Blue morning glories
Sky blue delphinium spears
Batchelor Button in sharp cyan

I will stop, before I become too theological or sacredly bawdy. Flowers will do to ya: elevate and keep you rooted.

Then there's my new clematis, Multi Blue - more of a medium, leaning-toward-purple blue. Lots of clematis listed here:
http://www.homeofclematis.net/variety.htm
The blue ones look more purple to me, but Belle of Woking and Will Barron are beautiful light blues.

My bamboo is shooting - thick stalks, most of which will have to be whacked.

Kb, your sentiments about the Golden Palace may not be so far off the mark.

Sikhs practice "langur"-- a free kitchen as part of their religion. I've attended such langurs and they serve vegetarian food-- in their case, it was on disposable plates. The sikhs whose turn it is to prepare and serve normally do wear white clothing.

If they were able to convey their religious beliefs in a commerical restaurant, props to them. The Sikh holy city is Amritsar, and the Golden Temple is one of the most famous Sikh temples in Amritsar.

You sure the restaurant is called Golden Palace, not Golden Temple?

http://www.healthyfreshfood.com/

Good evening,friends. I started reading the WashPost piece on Vice-President Dick Cheney, and did not want to finish. It made me think the media is making him some sort of icon, and for me, that is simply not the case. I knew when he became Bush's running mate that he would be running things, and it was probably put together at some secret meeting even before people voted, and may be the reason some folks voted for Bush.

There would have been an outcry about the heart attacks if he had tried to run, but with Bush on the ticket it was "doable". I don't know this person, have no idea about him, yet I still say I would not want to meet him on the street at night.

Will try again to get my grandsons, and see how it plays out. I have to be at the Center tomorrow morning, but perhaps I might have some time in the afternoon to make a getaway.

Still hot here, so hot. One can hardly breath it is so hot. Being outside just wipes you out. Good time to be in some water, although I can't swim, maybe a kid's pool, big kid at that.

I hope it's cool where you are, and if not, find a cool place and stay put. I'm not venturing outside until later in the evening.

I've decided to do a global warming experiment using two thermometers and two glass jars. I hope the kids like it. It will allow them to take down temps and use numbers as well. I believe they will get a kick out of it.

So sleepy, and I know it's the heat. Have a good rest of the weekend, folks. I should be able to do the morning thing now, will probably be so tired when I finish at the Center.

Kbert, that place you talked about sounds wonderful. And thanks Ivansmom, I will keep trying. They may be out of town, but I've tried the cell too. Wilbrod, some folks consider them the "good old days", but for me there wasn't anything good about them. Being used and abused does not have anything good in it or about it.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

>Oh, well, perhaps in my older years.

RD Padouk, do it now. Trust me on this - it's hard