A rare day without a post yesterday… that’s partly due to a big Friday night. I had a party to go to at a condo in South Main. We did an anonymous gift exchange were the point was to give a crap gift under $5. I got one of those toilet bowl cleaner cakes as my gift, which I wore around my neck the rest of the evening. About 1 I wandered back north, and at the Saucer I ran into the organizers of the New Year’s Eve party I’m attending. We closed down the Saucer, then went to Calhoun’s and closed it down as well, then we went to the Green Beetle and watched people straggle in from Raiford’s. About 4:30 I threw in the towel. Latest I’ve stayed out in a while.
As a result I didn’t get up until noon yesterday, and just wasn’t in a state of mind to post. I spent most of the afternoon feeding my Wikipedia addiction, reading about the American Mafia of the past 100 years. Wow the major families have entries on Wikipedia listing their current leadership and all their caporegimes (captains). That can’t be good for their business, considering that “no one really knows who we are” is one of their guiding principles. With the rise of the Internet, it’s a lot harder to fly under the radar, no matter what you’re doing.
Interesting fact I learned: If a Mafia member introduces you to another Mafia member, he’ll say “he’s a friend of mine,” unless you are a member as well, in which case the introduction will be “he’s a friend of ours.” “Ours” indicates that business may be openly discussed around you.
I also learned that two names commonly associated with the mob, Meyer Lansky and Ben “Bugsy” Siegel, were apparently not members, but only associates. You can only be a member if you are Italian, and Lansky and Siegel weren’t.
Late in the afternoon I wandered up to the Saucer, and was rewarded with an unusually good Fire Sale, Tennent’s. Then I went to dinner with my friends Lee and Lauren at Pearl’s Oyster House. With the holiday party season wrapped up, it was wonderful to just relax and spend some quality time with good friends. After that I went back to the Saucer, but hadn’t recovered from Friday night and decided to call it quits after only two beers.
Today it will be time for something different. After having a look at Automatic Slim’s brunch menu, I e-mailed the Sunday brunch crew and suggested a venue change to Slim’s today. Response was so enthusiastic that even people who don’t normally show up for brunch have said they’re in. I’m trying to decide whether to go with the Bananas Foster French toast or the Automatic Omelet with jerk tenderloin.
Correction to something I posted earlier… Restaurant.com has a coupon code SANTA that you can enter at checkout for 80% off restaurant gift certificates and the Dining of the Month Club. I’d previously reported that the coupon code is good through Monday the 22nd. I’ve since learned that the code cuts off at midnight tonight. So, if you want to pick some up, better do it today. It’s likely they’re release another coupon code this week, but I doubt it will be as big a discount as 80%.
That’s all for now… I’ll be at Slim’s about 11.