the mailbag...

(i'm going to post up here any interesting thoughts, rants, ruminations, whatever that loyal joel's pub customers send to me. email them to: jfurf@att.net)



this one's from the bartender's moms...



By the way, I got to your website. I agree - I hate cars, too. The problem is that we are completely dependent on them, but they are not always dependable. Apparently, our elected officials have always decided to listen to the car manufacturers rather than using their common sense to develop mass transit which we desparately need.

love

ya, m

the frat boy coach.

iowa state basketball coach larry eustachy was caught on the front page of the des moines register partying and drinking with college co-eds at some late night parties. oh, and he has a wife and two kids at home. back in college we always joked about college sports coaches partying with students and being the BMOC, but i never thought it was literally true.

the most hilarious quote is from the student who ratted him out to the paper after the coach got all belligerant drunk at 4:30 in the morning during a frat party.



"He was here and acted very uncoachlike," Devereaux told the newspaper. "I didn't think personally he could hang that long, being an old man."

italian american reader.

salon has a review of a collection of writing by italian american writers today. (click on "day pass" if you're not a member). here's something that never really occurred to me, but i guess might have some truth:



"Look at the top literary magazines, and by that I mean quality magazines, where pieces are turned into book deals, and later movie deals, which gives writers something they're usually desperate for -- real money that allows them to continue writing full-time. Look at their mastheads: There are very few Italian names, less than a handful, at the level of either senior editor or senior writer or above. (Not art or photo or ad sales, but in editorial.) Tonelli intimates the importance of ethnocentrism, how he was astounded, proud, inspired by seeing an Italian name in his local Philadelphia newspaper when he was a kid. But it can't be overemphasized."

freaky phillips friday.

i haven't forgotten what it was like waiting tables at Phillips -- D.C.'s seafood trough...er, buffet. you really do see the worst of people when you're serving them food and drinks. i found this rant from a long-abused waiter who complains about non-tippers....in this case, Christians.



"I would always get this table of Catholics that would run my ass off, want a dozen separate checks and would leave me this folded up piece of paper that looked like a twenty. On the inside of the paper it said "Why are you disappointed that this isn't money? All the riches of heaven await you if you take Jesus as your savior." As a lapsed Christian I have taken Jesus as my savior, but little pieces of paper that aren't actual money don't pay my %#**ing rent."

play the joker....

anyone else bored of CNN and fox news bragging that the u.s. nabbed the queen of diamonds or jack of spades? luckily someone came up with their own deck of cards bearing the likenesses of a different shady regime.

the people's politician.

i'd vote for this guy.

liberal media tricksters...

every time i turn on the the radio, the constipated angry-white-male bill o'reilly is on. this hemmorhoid wins his arguments by cutting off the mics of people he disagrees with. when your demogoguery can't compete with genuine ideas, just brow-beat them til they shut up.

gay gay republicans.

i really do think sen. rick santorum, of PA, is flaming gay behind closed doors. you know the ones who complain loudest about gays are usually the ones caught in the men's bathroom on the weekend.






iraq...we hardly knew ye.

i give the iraq story about another week before its off the front page and out of the american psyche completely. anyone remember that afghanistan country that we invaded last year? well the US hasn't done squat to "instill democracy" there. instead we left their president (a Dubya crony) as a sitting duck. now we're going to give up on nation-building in iraq. the US didn't even bother sending troops to protect the country's national museum. can you imagine if we were invaded and they allowed looters to steal the declaration of independence and the liberty bell?




now the US is pissy that kofi annan suggested they actually spend some time establishing order and protecting people in the country "we" just conquered. remimd me again what the reason for this war was? oh yeah, there's an election in 2004 and if the democrats were wise, they'd cast their hanging chad for gen. wesley clark. i'm still wavering between whether clark or sen. john edwards would be more electable.




beer of the day: check out brooklyn brewery's black chocoloate stout. this brewing company makes a lot of good beers, but their stout is just so so so good.

the joel's pub map of the united states:

i thought i'd hit you with my own rundown of the various u.s. states. look out delaware.



rhode island: kind of a scrubbier little brother of massachusetts. white people fill all of the lowest paying jobs here: including journalism. also, you're never just "white" or "hispanic", etc. you're always known by your ethnicity: especially if you're italian, irish, portuguese, columbian or cape verdean.



pennsylvania: i stil consider this my home state. there's no accent, and it's big as hell, lots of fly-over territory. second-most catholic state (after rhode island, btw). lots of great beers are brewed there, too. you can't mess with Yuengling. oh and they have the most die-hard sports fans in TWO cities. (beat that, florida.)



delawhere?: my most-hated state. texas may be a disgrace to the republic, but delaware is just evil. if you don't believe me, read this article from last year. not only is it a boring place, but they basically leech off the semi-good people of pennsylvania, new york and new jersey.



maryland: almost my home state. spent way too much time partying there during college. i can still tell you the best place to get chicken fried steak at 3 in the morning.



florida: home of the floridiots. maybe the most un-natural place humans have ever settled in. maybe some mysterious swamp gases have gone to their brains. gotta love the occasional stores of floridiots trying to take home alligators as pets and getting their damned arms bitten off. also the home states of Miss Kristen, a fine fine blogger.

topic of the day.

i fucking hate cars. i wish i didn't need one. its like a giant smoke-spewing baby constantly in need of money, space and attention. cars are also killing our cities. if you don't believe me, read this NY Times article about a "congestion tax" in London. i for one am all for the government declaring war on our automobiles. one little factoid brought up in the story: the brooklyn bridge was actually MORE EFFICIENT at getting people across the river before cars began driving across it, back when the main transit into manhattan was by trolley.



beer pick of the day:

this is the first recommendation that i've made since the pub opened Friday. there will be more to come, i promise.....

I saw this beer sitting at the bottom of the shelf at my local liquor store over the weekend. the bottles looked dusty and the labels had a very "old man beer" kind of vibe, but i had to try Liebotschaner Cream Ale. I was extremely impressed. very high quality ingredients in this hard-to-find Cream Ale, which is a nice pale, warm weather beer. this one is brewed by Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, PA. It's cheap as hell, too, so you have no friggin excuse drinking that pissy budweiser or coors light.

Sorry about the appearance. my memory of html is fuzzy, so you might see some changes to the pub's interior over the next few days.



here's something I stumbled upon last night while researching something for work. apparently drug dealers in Rhode Island are still required to pay taxes on their product.

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