Poor Man's Something...

I found this in my drafts folder. No idea where I was going with this back on 3/14. Just an empty post with the above title, which is awesome. And probably appropriate.

Friday Miscellany

A great night for the Celts and the Sox last night.

• Beckett was brilliant over seven innings, K-ing eight and giving up a single run. With the 5-1 win, the Sox won the four-game series in Detroit. Very nice start to the road trip. Four in Minnesota up next with a couple games at Camden to round out the away games next week.
  
  
  
  
• For the second game in a row at the Garden, King James appeared mortal. He put up 21, which was far better than his performance on Tuesday. Still, the Celtics' defense has been stellar, making LeBron really work to put up poor shots. The first quarter of last night the Cavs came out swinging, and James looked like he was back in the groove. But the Celtics bench came alive in the 2nd, with Cassell, Posey, Powe, and Brown energizing the team with steals, great D, a couple 3's and some intense offense. Awesome win. Now the Celts have to go to Cleveland for Game 3 on Saturday and see if they can win a playoff game on the road. By all accounts LeBron is far from out of this and can explode at any time, especially on his home court. Let's hope that the Hot 'Lanta performances do not follow the Celts to Cleveland.
  
  
  
  

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Mike-robrew: This one's for Scottexplorer. Endurance Pale Ale. Hoppy, flavorful, and refreshing, with some excellent label copy:

Perhaps the most compelling survival story of our time took place almost 100 years ago. This is a story of heroics, strength, fortitude and endurance. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Second Officer Tom Crean and their 26 man crew launched a voyage from England to become the first polar explorers to traverse Antarctica. And so started the journey known as the Endurance expedition.

Endurance Brewing Company was founded with two clear goals in mind: to bring awareness of this incredibly heroic group of men and to provide beer enthusiasts with award-winning brews that help stir the adventurous nature of the spirit within. For well over 3 years, Endurance Brewing Company has been creating a branding strategy and beer recipe that we think would earn the respect of every man of the Endurance Crew.

Our flagship ale, Endurance Pale Ale, is dedicated to Second Officer Tom Crean, who was regarded by many historians “as close to indestructible as any man that’s ever lived”. This smooth and crisp golden pale ale is rich in hops with a hint of citrus. Look for other Endurance Brewing Company beers shortly, but in the meantime, pour a tall, refreshing glass of Endurance Pale Ale, raise it high in honour of Tom Crean and the Endurance crew and enjoy one of the finest beers around.

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Speaking of Scottinfo, he recently linked to this well-done report on city comparisons based on a variety of interesting metrics. Very cool. The Hub does very well; no surprise there.

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Been reading several interesting articles over at Arts & Letters Daily as of late:

• Atheist Churches: Oxymoron? This article in New York Magazine talks about atheism and the rise of atheist churches. One of the points I liked is that atheism should stand for something rather than just being anti-God. Its very name is an inherent negation.

• Another article taking on an otherwise oxymoronic phrase: "Libertarian paternalism." The Chronicle Review piece's author meets with professors Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler and discusses their theory that good government can be paternalistic through "nudging" people to behave in ways that benefit society as a whole, while remaining as hands-off as can be expected to appeal to the libertarian camp. Pretty intriguing idea. Almost a "Why not?" approach to governance.

• An excellent MIT Technology Review piece about the possibility and probability of other life in the universe. Nick Bostrom has an entirely different view on the matter that I had never heard or thought about: he sees the lack of evidence about otherworldly life as great news for the human race. It's a longer article, but fascinating. Check it out.

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It's Friday. That's always noteworthy.

That's a new one.

To MRhé, Saturday night:

"So are you the friend who's pregnant?"

Fun with Google Analytics!

In lieu of anything more worthwhile, here's a sampling of some recent search keywords, posted without comment:

battle cobia
two grim dudes
why vote for barack obama
nelson aquino de la rosa
silverman damon
bear grylls
potentas
sam adams irish red
"a cook's tour" + bourdain
"adam ried"
"the game is real" "the wire"
"the quick six"
ballin outrageous
barack and chez
batali vs. oliver secret ingredient

Perfunctory Blogging

Not much time or motivation to blog today. Billary bummed me out on Tuesday. Week's almost over. Warming up around here. I just made the most amazing chicken stock of all time.

Rejuvenated

I'm back after a well-deserved day of rest. Blog365 has been enjoyable thus far, although tough at times. But quality and frequency of content is what my vast readership has come to expect; how can I disappoint? I don't have time for a big entry today, but I do have a few items of note:

• Had a new biz meeting on the Cape yesterday to which I drove a Zipcar, specifically a Ford Escape. First time I've used Zipcar - a pretty awesome service! (Not a huge fan of the Escape, however - the gas/brake were a bit touchy. Then again I've driven once prior in the past 14 months.)
• I thought this week's ep. of LOST was great, but I am an unabashed fanboy at this point. They could do an entire episode of Hurley going grocery shopping and I'd be riveted. Very cool consciousness time-travel, and the way they did it was pretty effective. One thing I like about the show, which my Mom actually pointed out, was that it "felt like I was watching a different show," i.e. there are so many storylines that each week can feel like an entirely different experience. Some might say this goes too far from the main plot of the show; I like the multitudinous plot lines and loose ends.
  
• Very lucky girl
• Pics of Pickin' Tuesday unleashed in the Globe by way of She Who Was Once a Blogger; also, it's a recommended $7 donation nowadays. Inflation's a bitch.
• Hellooo Beth Lauck!
• Absolutely loving reading this
• Went home last night to recover from a fairly hectic week, do laundry, and have a delicious breakfast this morning courtesy of Mom - pancakes and bacon. And I seem to have acquired several foodstuffs for my own kitchen before I headed back to the No. End.
• The most recent episode of The Wire was just incredible. I won't go into details because I know there are several readers who would kill me if I revealed spoilers, but it was one of the tightest, most emotionally-charged eps yet. This show doesn't let up. It will be bittersweet once it's over.
• Hat tip to my Mom for sending me this link. An interesting, if not entirely surprising article (I work in marketing). What is fascinating to me is not that the brain can influence our perceptions per se, but how strong this influence can be. Pretty amazing stuff. And did that $5 bottle really taste the best? Perhaps my long-standing affinity for boxed vino is no longer just a quaint idiosyncrasy of my otherwise cosmopolitan palate.
  
• Tonight I'm off to Dr. Raven & Mr. O'Connor's luxurious abode for Rock Band and some HTFO. Looking forward to it.
• I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I cannot wait for the primaries this upcoming Tuesday. Go'Bama!
• Actually I guess this was pretty sizable, relatively.
  

The Dénouement of a Weekend of Atypical Length

I had a pretty great weekend. Productive, relaxing, fun, and edifying. To wit, I:

• Filed my taxes
  
• Hung out with several A-side ladies
• Did quite a bit of reading, both entertaining and educational
• Did a major clean of my room
  
• Surfed the blogosphere, checking out the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (amazing)
• Worked on several projects of varying degrees of importance
• Watched the most recent episode of The Wire (incredible)
  
• Learned that there are things afoot
• Maintained an air of laconic mystery
• Produced a somewhat boring, self-absorbed entry for today
  

Multilingual

If we were back in the Old Country, I would wish you congratulations and prosperity for this New Year like so.

Busy

Not much time to blog today because I'm up to my eyeballs in it, but there's lots coming down the pike in the near future, including:

• First Pickin' Tuesday of the New Year tonight! Cantab Lounge, Central Square. Be there with your ukelele.
• Restaurant review - Shabu Zen.
• Pre-cooked bacon - What will they think of next?
• Beer review - Sam Adams Irish Red
• Something about an upcoming football game.

Cheers,
MRhé

Cheated by Chinese

From a recent fortune cookie:

Enjoyed the meal?
Buy one to go too!

That isn't a fortune, it's post-lunch marketing.

Proposition Bet

From last Thursday's fortune cookie:

Heads, you do it.
Tails, you go home.

Pretty cut and dry. I have two questions:

1) What is "it"?
2) Should I take my chances?

A Question

Can anyone explain to me how J.T. the Brick has a job? Anyone? Anyone?

In other news: pumpkin gnocchi, sangiovese and Hendrick's are in - way in.

Pretty Poor Friday!

In addition to, among other kick-in-the-nuts things, getting trapped in my bathroom on two separate occasions for a total of about 25 minutes due to a faulty doorknob, the Sox dropped the first game of this weekend's series to the all-but-written-off Yankees. I see this as nothing but the product of an oogly outing from Wake. Take the next two and we're back to our regularly scheduled performance, Apocalypse in Yankeeland.

54 Degrees Out

Let's hope this is a harbinger of an early spring. I'll take winters like this every year.

Addendum: I went running today for the first time in oh-so-many fat & lazy days. It was a cross between bliss and agony; a blagony of sorts. Also I'm reminded that I will never get tired of being able to run over to the USS Constitution whenever I want.

A sound mind (dubious) in a sound body? Watch this space over the next couple months to find out!

Dunndee: I also tried your 8-min. abs for the first time. I think this is an effective workout, because I a) couldn't sit up at the end and b) remained on the mat for a good ten minutes afterward.

P.S. I feel like a beer or twelve. Beebe, when are we hanging out?

Fung Wow!

I've taken the FUNG WAH?!?!?!?!?! on numerous occasions, and I appear to be on borrowed time in this game of Chinese roulette:

Um

Somebody's panties are hanging out on my staircase. They do not belong to me.

Please, remove.

-The Managment

Observations

First, a self-call: I broke the 200 barrier recently without fanfare. So here's my fanfare.

Secondly: Tremendous showings over last weekend by both The Hub and the U.S. Army, which went from the 1-point zone to 52 and 51, respectively.

Points Admin

Ok, moving forward (this goes for me and Dunndee especially):

No more points to inanimate objects or concepts with rare exception. Case in point: "Gratuitous points" received six points, which is both extremely meta and extremely ridiculous.

That's about it. That will cut out a lot of this nonsense. I just tallied up the points from two "points napkins" (which also received points) of last weekend's hijinks and it's going to take me half an hour to update the damn Scoreboard. But going through these scores was pretty funny, I'll admit.

-The Management

P.S. What is "the Shawl" and why did it receive a point?

P.P.S. Impressive work, Nichole!

Bad Blogger?

I've felt like a bit of a bad blogger this past week. I am making zero excuses, but I do have several reasons: yet another triumphant return to the Hub of a *certain* Dunndee, accompanied by the lovely Nichole. From Friday until last Tuesday I was hanging out with those two more or less every night for an extended period of time, with an extended amount of alcohol involved, generally, and the occasional hanger-on in attendance. You can check out some pics from the weekend on Nichole's Flickr gallery (yes, that's the infamous Points Napkin), as well as this ridiculous video taken at the Boston Hong Kong.

Work's also been fairly busy, with a big project needing to go out Wednesday evening - these generally involve all hands on deck, a lot of screaming (never on my part), high stress (occasionally on my part) and last-minute heroics (frequently on my part). This time around was near leisurely due to some planning and time management, and we finished early in the evening. This gave us plenty of time to have my boss and his visiting buddy take me and a coworker out for the evening: a beer at Donovan's and rather a few more at Sissy K's.

So, to sum up: 'anging out, busy at work, not much time actually spent in my apartment until the last couple evenings. Sue me.

The Funny

Dunndee and Nichole came into town Thursday night and we hung out yesterday. Dinner at l'Osteria, fantastic as always (vitello e melanzana for me), followed by taking in Bill Bellamy at the Comedy Connection. I had never been, so it was cool to check it out. It was a pretty good show for the most part. Bellamy had a few good bits, but a lot of his and the bits of the horrendous guy who opened for him were black/white humor. That stuff is so stale to me. It might have been funny ten years ago, but it seems so played out. Ok, we get it: white people are pale and goofy and every single black person grew up in the 'hood with a momma who slapped him silly. Har-dee-effing-har-har.

Things to be had tonight!