Paul Ryburn's Journal

I just added a new news article to the Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis website, summarizing the August 3 Safety & Traffic Task Force meeting that Mike King and I attended. In particular, a question was raised about the wording of the panhandling ordinance – if the wording is what people claim it is, it may be possible to chase the bums off almost all the streets downtown. It’s a good read – check it out by clicking here and then choosing “Latest News” from the menu.

By the way… RSDM finally has business cards. Getting them has been a comedy of errors. First we ordered them and there was a word misspelled. So we re-ordered and they shipped the cards to the wrong address. So we re-ordered again, and because it was taking so long we had no choice but to use the cards with the misspelled word. So for two weeks we’ve been running around town handing out cards saying, “Now, we know ‘positively’ is misspelled, but all the other information is correct.” Anyway, the new cards are in and they’re really nice – on the front they have the address of our website and our Safer Downtown e-mail address, and on the back they have all the Memphis Police contact numbers. Everyone who lives downtown should have one. Next time you see me around town, ask and I’ll give you one. Or ask Mike. If you own a business and would like a stack of RSDM cards to give to the public, let us know.

I’m posting from the Second Street branch office tonight. I decided to skip the Court Square concert because it’s just too damn hot outside. Glad I came here instead – it’s looking good in here tonight. It’s looking REAL good. If you know what I mean.

By the way… I am revoking branch office status from the Germantown Parkway branch office. That office’s management recently made some extremely bad decisions regarding employee retention. I was worried that those bad decisions might extend to the Second Street office as well (it would be awfully hard for me to revoke that location’s status for any reason), but from what I see tonight that does not appear to be the case.

I mentioned a new restaurant coming to downtown, The Flying Fish, in my last post. Thanks to Carmel who found the Flying Fish website. There you can check out the menus from the other locations to get an idea what they have. I see that they already have a Flying Fish in my hometown of Little Rock, located on one of my favorite streets, President Clinton Avenue. I wonder if our current president has avenues named after him. I wonder if our current president can even spell “avenue.”

There was an article in today’s Commercial Appeal about the former WDIA building on the northeast corner of Union and Main. A group of developers plans to turn it into 6,200 feet of retail on the ground floor and 10 loft apartments on the upper floors. It’s the same group who successfully developed the Cornerstone/Wang’s and the Main Street Flats on the New Main block, so they already have a track record of success. Good to see them taking on new projects, and it’s good to see new apartments (not condos, of which there are already too many) opening up downtown.

I’ve mentioned live music at Wang’s at Main and Gayoso several times in this blog. Up until recently it has been a hit-or-miss proposition – more miss than hit. However, it appears that they’ve finally got their act together. According to a poster I saw today, Jimi Jamison is doing 8 PM and 11 PM shows there Thursday through Saturday.

Memphis in May has picked Spain as their country to honor for 2007, ignoring my repeated pleas to choose the country that the hottest women in all of Europe: Romania. Maybe I’ll choose Romania as my own personal country to honor in this blog next May, and mention it in every post, kind of like I mentioned tube tops in every post during June and July.

Walking down here, I noticed an interesting sign outside Rio Loco on Union: “Happy hour daily 2-10.” That’s a nice sign. They have $5.99 jumbo margaritas (just one will knock you on your ass) and they also have specials on cervezas as well. Kinda like Chili’s having happy hour all day. Except that Rio Loco doesn’t suck like Chili’s does.

Speaking of Mexican places: Monday I came downtown for lunch, and I decided to hit Sgt. Jalapeno’s Tortilla Company on Adams. I walked up there and guess what – it’s gone. There’s no furniture left in that place. I feel sad for them – they were really good people. They just had a less-than-ideal location and happened to open within two months of two other Mexican restaurants downtown.

The Romanian waitress has a black Beer Goddess tank top on. She didn’t have a black tank top last year; she had the pink one and the lime green one. Ioana had a black tank top. I wonder if Ioana gave her the black tank top, since Ioana didn’t come back this year. I miss Ioana.

Now that I think about it, I have a black Beer Goddess tank top – it’s part of my Halloween costume. Hmm, I wonder if the Romanian went through my closet when she was over at my place? Better check when I get home and make sure it’s still there.

I’m sitting here with a couple of my guy friends, and we’re playing a game called “guess the waitresses’ bra sizes.” The one I’m looking at right now, I’m thinking, 32C. If I were sober I’d probably delete this paragraph from the post.

There are Blogger Bashes Thursday and Sunday at Young Avenue Deli. Not sure if I’ll make either or both. The Sunday one is a “probably not” since Emma is bartending at Sleep Out’s brunch – I’ll likely be too drunk to get out there. Any Memphian who writes a blog is invited. Check Serrabee’s blog for more details – she’s the queen bee who set all this up.

Battery’s almost dead so it’s time to get going. I’ll probably hit Blues City for The Dempseys’ first set, then come back to the Second Street branch office for round two.

Just got back from the FedExForum, where the City Schools had a pep rally for all their employees. Fifteen thousand people. Rally wasn’t all that exciting but it did give me an excuse to stop by the gift shop and buy a Grizzlies T-shirt. Afterward I walked through the Saucer but just didn’t feel like having lunch there (translation: the Romanian wasn’t working), so I went to my usual hangout, Sleep Out Louie’s.

I forgot to write that we invented a new game while hanging out at Sleep Out’s last Sunday: Bait-a-Bum. What we’re going to do is get a fishing pole with a really long line, attach a dollar to the hook, and go up to the rooftop of my building. We’ll lower the dollar down to about six feet above street level, and wait for a bum to notice. Just as he goes to grab it, we’ll reel it up about a foot, just out of his reach. Then we’ll raise and lower it and see how many times we can get him to jump. I suppose if we get tired of using a dollar, we could put a pint of Thunderbird on the hook instead.

In the past 24 hours I’ve received e-mails from both Carmel and the Nuh-Uh Girl about The Flying Fish, a new restaurant that is opening soon downtown. It’s a “fast casual seafood concept” and is run by the same company that runs the Saucer. It will be at 105 S. Second, a block north of the Saucer.

The Rapscallions rolled on to a first-place victory last night at trivia night at the Saucer, earning another $50 certificate to contribute to Chad’s plate party. Chad is considering putting a $6 upper limit on individual beer purchases, and I think that’s an excellent idea. There are plenty of quality beers at the Saucer that can be had for under six bucks.

T-shirt I saw recently: “SORRY – mind closed until further notice.” Hey, it’s the official T-shirt of the Republican Party!

The Court Square Concert Series is tonight from 6 to 8. This week The Tennessee Boltsmokers and Friends are playing. I’ll probably drop by, but with temps in the upper 90s I really don’t know how long I’ll last. After that I’ll probably drop by the Second Street branch office to see my waitresses, and then I’ll probably hit Blues City to catch The Dempseys.

All right, lunch is over, back to work. At least I escaped the cubicle for half the day.

Last night the Rapscallion trivia team had a big party at the Flying Saucer to spend some of the $245 in gift certificates we had won over the past seven months. Before we handed them over we took a team pic with all the certificates:

Congratulations to team member Chad, who was able to knock out his 200th beer last night and complete the quest for his plate. Of course, that means we have another party to attend in a few weeks – his plate party! He selected the Rogue Imperial Pilsner as his final beer:

And, once Chad was done with the Imperial Pilsner, Saucer management updated the leader board to reflect his accomplishment:

ATTN CHAD: Believe it or not, we didn’t make it through the entire 245 last night. As our tab approached the upper 100s it was obvious that everyone was getting very tipsy. So the group made the decision to cut it off at 195, with the other 50 to be added to your plate party tab.

People who have had conversations with me over the past 12 or so months have noticed that one topic seems to come up over and over again: Romania, Romania, Romania. And I know a lot of you have been asking each other, “What’s gotten into Paul? Why does he keep going on about Romania like it’s the greatest place on Earth?” Well, hopefully this pic of my guest at the party last night will help answer that question:

*drool*… Look at those BEAUTIFUL brown eyes. I’ve taken pics of her before (she’s the Romanian who was here last year), but this is the first one that really does her eyes justice.

After the party ended, we decided to go eat at Dawgie Style, the new hot dog restaurant on Madison between Second and Third, next door to the cigar store. They were in the process of closing but when they saw us, they opened back up. Great people, great menu. In this pic one of the owners displays a Dawgie Style T-shirt:

Dawgie Style has specialty hot dogs including Chicago style, New York style, Memphis style, chili cheddar dog, and more, as well as traditional dogs like slaw dogs and cheddar dogs. They also have sub sandwiches and wraps including turkey club, turkey wrap, Italian roast beef, trio club, and veggie wrap. Their combos are all under $5. I’m really happy to see this restaurant open, because even at an inexpensive place downtown it’s hard to get out for less than $10. And they’re open evenings and Sundays! Welcome to the neighborhood, glad you’re here.

Oh – funny thing – as we were ordering they asked, “Is one of you the guy with the blog?”

Here’s a pic of team member Ish, who singlehandedly drained a third of the tab at the Saucer with his expensive Duvels and Chimay Grand Reserves.

Ish made quite a first impression on the people at Dawgie Style by screaming “MOTHER FUCKER!” over and over again at the top of his lungs, as well as lines from random Metallica songs. He also exclaimed “I am slightly drunk!” several times.

ATTN CHAD: At your plate party you might want to consider restricting Ish’s drinking options to O’Doul’s and Abita Root Beer.

These are only a sampling of the 33 pics I took – the full photo album is available here. The festivities continued later in the evening… a visit to Raiford’s was planned for around 1 in the morning, but by that point the assortment of beer I drank and the chili dog had gotten the better of me. For me, Raiford’s will have to wait for a future week.

Great party everyone!

One of my favorite things to do these days is to type random names or phrases into Wikipedia and see what comes up.

So the other day I was listening to some MP3s, and some Led Zeppelin came on. That reminded me that I had a biography of the band that I hadn’t read in about 10 years. So I went to the closet, found it, and started reading. In 1973 they hired a publicist named Danny Goldberg who eventually became vice-president of their record label, Swan Song. He was an interesting character because he was several years younger than the members of the band (who were in their mid-20s when he was hired), and at the time he had longer hair than any of the band – not what you’d expect from a “corporate” guy. So I decided to type Danny Goldberg’s name into Wikipedia and see what he’s been up to the past 30 years.

As it turns out, he’s been up to a lot. He’s been the president or chairman/CEO of several record labels, and he managed Nirvana when they were at their peak. He was also CEO of Air America Talk Radio from February 2005 to April 2006 and remains with the company as vice chairman. I noticed he had his own site, DannyGoldberg.com, and being a big fan of people who own their own name as a domain, I clicked on it.

The most fascinating part of the site, I thought, was an interview that he did. In the interview he explains that he supports the policy goals of the Left, but that Democrats have been ineffective in wrestling power away from Republicans because they have forgotten how to talk to the common man (and woman). Democrats, he says, come off sounding like they’re only concerned with what people in Washington think. Republicans, on the other hand, learned early on to speak to the people. Reagan was “the Great Communicator.” Dubya wanted his rationale for the Iraq mess to be so simple that “even the boys in Lubbock could understand it.”

Until Democrats learn to connect with the public – particularly young people, Goldberg says, they will continue to lose elections, no matter how destructive the Republicans’ policies are. He outlines how pop culture can be used as a hook to connect with the younger generation in the interview and in several books he has written. John Kerry should have hired this guy as an adviser, because he personifies the problems Goldberg talks about. Hopefully Hillary Clinton will ask his advice in ’08.

Song currently stuck in my head: “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp” by Led Zeppelin. There will never be another drummer like John Bonham.

I just got home from a meeting of the Center City Commission’s Safety & Traffic Task Force. Very, very productive meeting and well worth taking an afternoon off work. All the major groups were there – Center City, Convention & Visitors Bureau, MPD, Ride the Ducks, Redbirds, Peabody Place Security, and many more… and, of course, Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis. I took extensive notes, and as soon as I get them typed up I’ll post them on the news section of RSDM’s site.

However, I’m so excited about one thing that I’m going to go ahead and let the cat out of the bag: The Memphis Police Downtown Entertainment District has a new commander, Major Johnny Currin. The EDU is the unit that provides extra coverage from 7 PM to 3 AM when people are out having a good time. Through RSDM I have known Johnny for a couple of months now, and let me tell you, he is ready to take action. He has been out on the streets on foot himself the past several weekends. I can’t tell you how encouraged I am about the safety situation downtown with him in charge.

I finally made it to Wine Wednesday at LoLo’s Table last night, after meaning to go for several months. Every week they select a couple of reds and a couple of whites and put them on sale for $12 a bottle, which for a restaurant is an incredibly low price. So I brought a gorgeous blonde up there and we shared a bottle of Falling Star chardonnay. Food was great too – I ordered the trout, which turned out to be the biggest serving of fish I have ever seen in my life; she had the evening’s special, which was a southwestern pasta with chicken.

Keep in mind that they also have Sangria Saturdays – pitchers of either red or white sangria for $8 when you also order food. I’ve never seen white sangria before – I’m going to have to go back sometime soon and give it a try.

ATTENTION NEIGHBORS IN MY BUILDING: Last Monday evening, the aforementioned gorgeous blonde came over and hung out at my apartment for the first time… and as soon as I mentioned the rooftop deck, the first words out of her mouth were, “We need to have a party up there.” YEAH! Haven’t we been talking about having a party on the roof for months and months? Enough talk; it’s time for action! Let’s make it happen.

I’m not going to the weekly party on the Peabody roof tonight. Sister Hazel is playing, and I avoid that place like the plague when they have a big-name band. Extra expensive and the lines are too long. Instead, I’ll be hitting the Saucer for a couple of hours to type up the meeting notes on my laptop, then I’m going to a private party for my friend Novella Smith Arnold who is running for County Commission. Hopefully it will be a victory party.

Other than a private function on Saturday afternoon, I have no plans at all for the weekend at this point. Sometimes those turn out to be the best weekends though. I will say that I plan to be at Pint Nite at the Saucer on Monday. For some reason I have a feeling Pint Nite will be looking better than it has in months… about 10 months.

Dawgie Style, the new restaurant on Madison between Second and Third, is now open. According to the Center City Commission’s Livin’ It Up newsletter, they serve hot dogs, sub sandwiches and wraps. They’re open 7 am to 11 pm Monday-Friday and 11 am to 10 pm Saturday and Sunday. Downtown residents: Please go by and give this place a try. We really need to support restaurants that have the guts to stay open into the evening hours downtown, rather than just for lunch. And they’re open Sundays too – so I have a new place to stumble for a meal after my champagne bottle at Sleep Out’s is finished. Cool.

All right. Time to pack up the laptop and go visit my waitresses.

What do you do when someone gives you a MAJOR attitude for no reason at all?

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Black Diamond about 2 in the morning, meeting a friend, who had just gotten off work, for a drink. She was sitting at a table with a few of her co-workers and four or five other people. Then she got up. “Paul, we have to run across the street to Club 152 for about 5 minutes,” she told me. “We’ll be right back.”

“Okay, I’ll be here,” I replied, and she and the other girls walked out. After about a minute, I figured, well, no point in standing when there’s a place to sit… so I took her empty seat. No sooner had my butt touched the chair when a booming voice behind me said, “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!”

I turned around and saw a nicely dressed guy in a club shirt. “What?” I asked him.

“Don’t even THINK about sitting in that seat! That’s MY girl!” he yelled, motioning toward a blonde sitting to my left. I have to admit I hadn’t even noticed the blonde, because I had been there to meet someone else.

Now, I didn’t appreciate his attitude at all, but he was sitting at a table with people I considered friends, so I figured I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. “Hey man, I didn’t realize it was your seat, take it,” I said, getting up. “And I was here to meet someone – I wasn’t trying to hit on your girl.”

“WhatEVER,” he replied. “Just go. GO!”

Now, I’m not one to cause trouble in bars but you gotta admit, I had every right to be provoked. And I realized quite a few people in Memphis, who take the “respect” thing way too seriously, would have started a fight with him. But instead I thought, why should I ruin my own evening because of this asshole? I was there to have fun with a friend, when she got back. So I decided to give him the attention he deserved, which was none at all. I walked over and sat at another table.

It reminds me of some of the best advice I ever heard – “When someone has an overly strong reaction to you, they’re saying something about themselves, not about you.” If that guy behaves that way all the time, I thought, I don’t need to create problems for him – he’s more than capable of doing that on his own.

Funny thing was, later in the evening I saw him go over and give the bartender at the Diamond a hug. And recently I saw him at Blues City watching FreeWorld, and he went over and gave the bartender there, who I’ve known for 15 years, a hug. So at least some people who I think are good people think he’s good people. Who knows. Maybe he was just having a bad night. I’m happy with the way I handled it.

As usual, I’m sitting at the Union Avenue branch office on my lunch break. This place is very well staffed today. I’ve heard from friends that the owners of The Majestic Grille would like me to name that place as a branch office as well… I haven’t been there in almost a month, which is an unusually long time for me. Their application for branch office status is under consideration, and hopefully I’ll get back there soon. Right now, though, it’s time to spend the afternoon imprisoned in a cubicle…

I want to alert my readers to a news story that ran on Action News 5 tonight. As you know, I am a huge supporter of Novella Smith Arnold, one of the most kind-hearted people I have ever known, for County Commission. Her opponent, Henri Brooks, is not only running for the Commission seat, but also for her District 92 seat as a state representative which she has held for many years. There is no law prohibiting Brooks from running for both seats, but if she wins both it could cost taxpayers up to $250,000 for a special election to fill the seat she decides to give up. As Memphis Flyer editor Jackson Baker put it, “$250,000 is a lot to spend cause somebody couldn’t make up their mind what to do.” Click here for the story, and decide for yourself whether Brooks has taxpayer interests or her own in mind.

Also, I want to mention another news story… as many of you know, I grew up in Little Rock, and as I grew up I listened to sportscaster Paul Eells call Arkansas Razorback football games for years. As fellow Little Rock native Charly puts it, “He’s that guy you knew would live forever to be the voice of Arkansas.” But he didn’t. Last night he was killed in a car crash as he drove back to Little Rock from Fayetteville, where he had been interviewing Razorback head coach Houston Nutt. Arkansas football won’t be the same without his distinctive “Touchdown, Arkansas!” call. I can promise you everyone in my home state has a tear in their eye today.

Tonight was team trivia night at the Flying Saucer, and the Rapscallions failed to add to their accumulated stash of 10 gift certificates valued at $270. We had a different trivia guy: Rather than Pete, it was John, the manager who used to do trivia at the downtown Saucer until January when he got sent out to the new East Bumblefuck location. He told us that they’ve actually had to dumb down the trivia questions out there – at the east location it has been possible to get one or two questions per round right and win, whereas downtown if you miss more than one or two questions per round you’re going to lose. Why am I not surprised?

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night: Free Sol at Court Square in the opening night of the concert series, 6 to 8. Not sure I’ll make it to this one – may have other plans, we’ll see. Regardless, at some point later in the evening I’ll probably make an appearance at the Saucer, and depending on how I feel I may catch The Dempseys at Blues City Cafe, starting at 9. The Dempseys, by the way, have just added new pics to their photo archive of themselves with President Bush and the prime minister of Japan, and pics of themselves in the movie “Walk the Line.”

That’s all for now… I bid a fond good night to my readers in Memphis and around the world.

Happy August everybody! Finally, Tube Top Month Extended is over at last, so I can go back to typing posts without having to incorporate a theme.

Got a beer recommendation for you… Avery White Rascal. It’s one of the newest beers at the Flying Saucer (the downtown one… don’t know if the East Bumblefuck location has it). My friend IQ told me about it last night, and since it was on the $2.50 Pint Nite list I decided to try one. Then I decided to try five more. It’s a Belgian-style beer, very light in color and tasty. I hope this won’t be one of the beers that the Saucer has for three weeks and then gets rid of. They always seem to do that with my favorite beers.

Early this evening I will be at the Farmers’ Market Pavilion (Front at GE Patterson) for National Night Out, a block party thrown by the Memphis Police. Check the news section of the Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis website for details. The party goes on from 4 to 7 – I will be there from the time I get off work until about 6:40, when I have to leave to make it to trivia night at the Saucer on time.

There’s a new magazine being distributed around town called Image Magazine. It’s a little magazine (about 4″ x 6″, 42 pages) that covers nightlife in Memphis. I’ve seen it at Big Foot and Blues City; not sure where else you can pick up a copy. Anyway, on page 11 they have “Hot Spots,” where they list their top 7 or 8 picks for things to do every night of the week in Memphis, and I have to admit, they did a damn good job. Just about everything I would pick is in there. Pint Nite at the Saucer on Mondays. FreeWorld at Blues City on Sundays. Rooftop party on Thursdays. Raiford’s and Wild Bill’s are listed as Friday and Saturday options. If you’re from out of town, or even if you’re from in town, this is not a bad list to get you started on things to do in Memphis. Even I learned a few things. For example, I see Dish has White Trash Night on Wednesdays. I may have to make the drive to Midtown and check that out sometime soon.

I can’t think of anything else right now… so I guess I’ll hit Publish and get ready for work.

I finally plugged my digital camera in and downloaded the most recent round of pics. Let’s see what we have here:

This is the new Saturn Sky two-seat convertible. It was on display in the showroom last week when I took my car in for service.

Another car – but this one is mounted on the side of a wall. Yes, this is a full-sized pink Cadillac. It can be seen at Blues City Cafe.

After I got done looking at the car, I ordered a half-rack of Blues City’s ribs, in my opinion the best ribs on Beale Street.

Sign advertising Sunday brunch at Sleep Out Louie’s. If you click on the image to see it in full size, you’ll see my name and the names of most of the other regulars.

Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl throwing darts at the Flying Saucer. The Nuh-Uh Girl was mad at me for not taking a picture of her in a tube top dress she had on several days before, so I figured I’d make it up by posting this pic of her.

All right… it’s Sunday. Time for me to buy a Sunday paper, write my “Deal of the Week” blog, and then head to Sleep Out’s for brunch. It’s a Must Eat, you know.

Last night I went to the South Main Trolley Art Tour, which this month had an Elvis theme. One thing I learned is that there are Elvis wines, made by Graceland Cellars. You can buy these at various wine shops around the city – visit their website to find out where.

There were also non-Elvis events. Filmmaker Craig Brewer showed a 3-minute trailer of his upcoming movie, “Black Snake Moan,” to be released in February. It was outstanding, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci. From the IMDb entry on the movie: “A God-fearing bluesman (Jackson) takes to a wild young woman (Ricci) who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, looks everywhere for love, never quite finding it.” I’m not a movie person normally, but I’ll have to go see this one.

Also, here’s an inside scoop for you: A friend of mine talked to Brewer after the trailer viewing, and told him that he should consider making a stage version, a musical, of his last movie, “Hustle & Flow.” “I’ve thought about that for a while,” Brewer reportedly said.

It was good to see my friend Carmel at Trolley Tour. Hang on, let’s post a pic of Carmel:

There ya go. That’s Carmel. Carmel reminded me that in addition to Steve Cohen and Novella Smith Arnold, there was one more candidate I had been meaning to endorse in the upcoming election – Evan Nahmias, who is running for a judgeship in the upcoming election. Can’t remember which judgeship and I don’t have my sample ballot handy – just remember to look for his name when you go vote. He’s a young guy with a lot of ideas and he seems to have a lot of compassion. I think he’d do well on the bench.

I also stopped by and saw my friends at American Apparel at the corner of Main and GE Patterson. I’d like to point out that they have a sheer jersey tube top on sale at their online store. Tube Top Month Extended is almost over, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop wearing tube tops – they’re always in season. Heck, Carmel wore a tube top to my plate party, and that was in January.

I’m pleased to announce the opening of a new branch office. As you know, I already have a branch office on Union Avenue, where there’s a guy named Louie who’s always sitting around. I also have a branch office on Second Street, where the employees have an excellent dress code, and where you can get water from 70 different water coolers, and if you don’t like coolers there are 130 varieties of bottled water, and the water tastes a little like beer. Well, next week I will be opening my third branch office… on Germantown Parkway.

“Germantown Parkway?” you ask. “But Paul, that’s in Cordova! East Bumblefuck, as you call it! Why would you open a branch out there?” Well, for one thing, the new branch has the same excellent dress code as the Second Street branch, as well as the 70 different water coolers and 130 different bottled waters. However, the reason it has been named as a branch office is because of its international flair. Starting next week, at the G-town Parkway branch you will be able to get a Belgian beer to drink, and a German platter to eat… served to you by a waitress from Romania.

Speaking of that German platter… one of the reasons I like it is, they have little cards listing the different meats and cheeses you can get on it, and on the card is a picture of a sheep. I like sheep. Not in the same way I like Romanians, mind you. Well, unless I’ve had too much to drink. But we all know I never do that.

The international flavor will probably be lost on the East Bumblefuck patrons though… 200 different beers, and I would just about guarantee you that the most popular one at that location is Bud. “Well, hail, I ain’t gonna try IPAs or porters or hefe-weizens or any of that funky shit,” is likely the attitude. “Budweiser may taste like piss-water, but gosh dern it, it’s American piss water.”

Found a very cool toy to play with… Loki, a program that integrates with Internet Explorer or Firefox. If you’re on a wireless connection, Loki will find you and tell you where you are, and it will give you dining, traffic, weather, and more information for your area. If you travel and have a laptop, this would be an especially useful program to install.

Plans for today… once I get a couple loads of laundry done, I’ll be at either the Union or Second branch office getting some work done. Sigh… I hate working on a Saturday, but I have three consulting projects I’ve been putting off. Not sure what I’ll be doing tonight. If you know of anything interesting going on, let me know.

To borrow a phrase from Philip, y’all have fun and don’t get none on ya.