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THIS JUST IN:
Jersey Boy K. G. fails to note new New Jersey Film Blog! Has his head been turned, or is he sulking in a dark room? All the Vitos down the shore are chinwagging to beat the band in hot pursuit of the mystery!
(Please note content of this blog post in no way affiliated with or approved by Illuminated Donkey Amalgamated. L'il Kay-Gee Holdings Inc., or the person, estate, or family of Kenneth Goldstein, the proprietor of this website. Thank you.) posted by Ken at 8:31 PM
August 24, 2004
I guess this means that I'm on end-of-Summer break. See you in the Hamptons, suckers! posted by Ken at 12:00 AM
August 17, 2004
Dammit, what's up with this lame new Blogger header? It's completely blocking my donkey! Make it go away! posted by Ken at 5:00 PM
Finally: An Official Explanation as to Why I've Always Been Broke! Sure, there's the heavy gambling, eating out almost every meal, and my collection of Fabrege eggs, but Forbes Magazine's list of America's Ten Most Overpriced Cities ("places with the highest cost of living, least affordable housing, and most modest job and income growth") makes me wonder how I manage to have any money at all.
To sum up: I am currently living in #10, spend just about all of my free time in #9, spent four years living in #1, and grew up in #5. In fact, other than a bit more than a year in lovely Plainfield, I have never lived anywhere other than a listed damned-expensive city.
So somebody buy me a beer. posted by Ken at 6:00 PM
August 14, 2004
Even More Jersey! Went with the Official Donk Brother & Sister to see the highly enjoyable Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, which definitely is up there with the Kevin Smith oeuvre on a list of great Jersey flicks of the last few decades. I saw it in the "New Brunswick multiplex" where my brother works and which is named (though not pictured) in the flick.
Plenty of Jersey action -- Hoboken, the Pulaski Skyway, New Brunswick, Freehold, Princeton -- all of which was much appreciated by the hometown crowd. Unlike back in 1995 when the crowd I saw Mallrats with didn't care one little bit when the mile-away, now-departed U.S. #1 Flea Market was shown, and it ain't like that place was in a ton of movies. Seriously, they were acting like they lived in midtown Manhattan and the Chrysler Building was onscreen. Yawn city.
Anyway, my only Jersey-related faults with HAKGTWC was the severe understating of the difficulty in finding parking in Hoboken, plus the completely insane representation of Cherry Hill as some sort of late-night hotspot. And these were more than made up for by the Neil Patrick Harris appearance and a fine Wilson Phillips sing-along.
On a semi-unrelated note, upon leaving the theater my brother had a worker cut the side panel off of a 35-pound container of "Creamy Liquid Frying Shortening." Why did I want this? The Nutrition Facts label, which lets us know that box of CLFS contains 1136 one-tablespoon servings, each bursting with 14 grams of fat, for a possible one-label record 15,904 grams of fat, a label that makes the Hungry Man XXL Breakfast look like a lettuce leaf topped with wheatgerm. But it is kosher. posted by Ken at 12:00 AM
August 12, 2004
Open Announcement to the Annoying-as-Hell 14-Year-Old Sitting a Few Seats Down from Gerard and Me at Today's Mets Game. Anybody still wearing a freaking Mo Vaughn jersey-tee to Shea has no right to tell anybody that he sucks, especiallyhard-working Supersub Joe McEwing right before he gets the game-winning hit. Go kiss a girl, as a certain baseball fan would say. posted by Ken at 9:15 PM
We Interrupt This Broadcast! It's been a busy week here at Donk HQ. The big doings have been the two job interviews, leaving me in that nail-biting limbo period that lasts from the time you go on the interview until you start stalking the HR Director's kids. P-Frank and I took a little trip up to Richie-Richville, AKA Connecticut, where Mike Wolf is living the hospital high life, mixing it up with lovely Eastern European nurses. And there's the Mets games and improv practices and other stuff.
At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is. And so my truth is that I am a gay American.
[...] I am also here today because, shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affair with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony. It was wrong. It was foolish. It was inexcusable. [...] Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign.
Jeff Jarvis is right; it was a remarkable speech. I've gotten a few calls and e-mails from non-NJers basically wanting to know what the hell was wrong with us. He has to retire just because he's gay? Aren't we a progressive state?
Of course, the reasons for his resignation have more to do with the "circumstances surrounding the affair" than the affair itself. The "Breaking News" weblog on NJ.com reports that the affair was with "Golan Cipel, an Israeli poet who worked briefly for the governor as a homeland security adviser despite having no security experience." The hiring of Cipel for the $100,000 job was especially controversial, and Cipel was soon shifted to a less-prominent post (the vague "counselor to the governor") after it was learned that McGreevey had exaggerated his credentials. This story obviously makes a lot more sense after today's revelations, though it's still a measure of McGreevey's poor political instincts that the high-paying gift job he gave his lover was in perhaps the highest-profile area of his administration.
According to several McGreevey administration sources, the situation came to a head recently when Cipel demanded millions of dollars, threatening a sexual harassment lawsuit if the money wasn't paid. This appears to have been the triggering event that led to today's announcement and resignation. And while only a complete political cynic (say, my dad), would deny that this was a difficult day for McGreevey, it doesn't take too much imagination to see it as at least a better-case scenario.
McGreevey's term very possibly was heading towards a premature ending one way or another. And while none of those ways could be completely positive, at least as of now he may be remembered as a noble and representative figure, or even a victim of prejudice. One rest-stop visitor was quoted as saying, "It's a shame. He brought a lot of passion to the governor's office, but the fact is that it's not accepted in today's society, and he's paying the consequences." I'm pretty sure that the "it's" in that sentence isn't referring to giving your lover an undeserved job, or encouraging bribes, or associating with hooker-hiring blackmailers. And, of course, we'll never know if his homosexuality would have been accepting without any of the accompanying "consequences." That might have been the biggest loss of the day.
Though his hand was forced, this may have been McGreevey's only chance to leave office on anything approaching positive terms. Heck, 20 years from now people might remember him being forced out of office for his sexual preferences, breaking ground for future gay major political leaders. He might end up as a kind of folk hero, with all the negative facts lost and forgotten along the way. So while it's true that what McGreevey said and did today was, as Jeff Jarvis wrote, remarkable and painfully personal. It was also many other things, most nearly not as brave. posted by Ken at 9:00 PM
Today I parked my car under a tree that was partially (though admittedly, not completely) obscuring the parking sign listing the street-cleaning/no-parking times. So when I returned to my car, not only was it covered in large splotches of bird crap, but I had a decent-sized parking ticket on my windshield.
Seems to me like that should really be an either/or proposition: piles of bird crap or a parking ticket. Either would have been punishment enough. posted by Ken at 8:45 PM
August 9, 2004
One down, one to go.
It went...reasonably okay. Not wonderfully. Now I wait. posted by Ken at 6:00 PM
My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.
You know, I've never though of Modest Mouse as a particularly romantic band, but I swear, folks at their Hammerstein Ballroom show tonight were hooking up and making out left and right. And good for them, I say!
Great, great show, by the way.
Oh, and as a side note, the Gawker to-do suggestions for Sunday were to go to the Singapore ChiliCrab Festival in Brooklyn and then to the Modest Mouse show...and that's exactly what I did do today! Am I eligible for some sort of prize? posted by Ken at 12:00 AM
August 6, 2004
And Now the Weekend. Heading off now to meet up with FotD Keith and see this guy perform, and then I assume there will be food and drinks and other fancy stuff with this fancy gal. Later this weekend I might head off to this thing before I go see these guys, and between all of that I'll need to prepare for my interviews on Monday and Tuesday.
Pre-Weekend Tidbit #3. Introducing "And...Done!", featuring articles from the many magazines and newspapers I peruse and the exact moment when I had to stop reading. Today: a book review by Les Simpson in this week's Time Out New York:
Colors Insulting to Nature
by Cintra Wilson
Cintra Wilson sliced and diced our country's obsession with celebrity in an essay collection, A Massive Swelling (2000). Her debut novel, Colors Insulting to Nature, once again shows off her gift for wordplay while hammering home the thesis that Hollywood fame is grotesque, and the pursuit of its shallow rewards pathetic and wrong.
Our hero is mixed up Liza Normal...And...Done! posted by Ken at 12:10 PM
Pre-Weekend Tidbit #2. [Passed along by The Duck.] Somehow Gourmet Magazine managed to get David Foster Wallace to write one of those sprawlingtravelogues that he no longer writes for Harper's, this time sending him to the Maine Lobster Festival. That's the good news. The bad news (for Gourmet, at least)? Wallace spends about one-third of the article insulting the festival and devotes the remaining two-thirds to "a physiological and philosophical meditation on the bioethics of lobster boiling," obviously a subject that Gourmet generally doesn't spend a lot of time on.
To their credit, the magazine went ahead and published his article, "Consider the Lobster" in their August issue, though it's not available on the Gourmet website (but you can find a bunch of new ways to use celery). Read it in your local B&N; over a cup of coffee, or hell, actually spend the $3.99 for the damn thing. posted by Ken at 12:05 PM
A Toronto reporter was asking [Cleveland Indians DH] Travis Hafner about how he got the nickname Pronk. Hafner explained that it meant half project, half donkey.
Seeing how Hafner is hitting .324 with 21 homers and 86 RBI, the reporter said, "Shouldn't you drop the project part?"
Hafner thought for a minute and said, "But then I'd just be Donk."
I don't see anything wrong with that, Trav, but close enough. Thanks to increasingly-gloating-Indian-fan Scott for passing this along. posted by Ken at 12:00 PM
August 4, 2004
Thanks, Mike, that illuminating donkey looks pretty nifty. posted by Ken at 12:01 AM
Oooh, I Love the Legitimate Theater. A certain mystery blogger was generous enough to bring me along to a preview performance of Dracula, the Musical. While protocol states I shouldn't pass critical judgment on a preview performance, it might be okay to say that by far the most entertaining part came midway through the second act, when one of the actors was attempting to make his entrance. Unfortunately for him, the door was either stuck or had been accidentally locked, so after spending about 15 seconds rattling the doorknob, he eventually decided to just walk around the doorframe; the audience was, of course, thrilled, especially when the rest of the actors later exited the scene the same way.
The rest of the show was obviously a bit of an anticlimax. posted by Ken at 12:00 AM
August 3, 2004
Damn You, Storm Hen! Damn You to Hell! Spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at Monmouth Park with Little C-Za and the just-back-from-the-UK Jessica. It was a fine day at a lovely little track, a day only slightly marred by the fact that I didn't cash once, not even one teensy little place bet to give me a momentary feeling of winnerness.
But it was so close to being different.
After betting and losing on four or five races, checking out the horses on the walking track, and enjoying plenty of beer and ice cream, I found myself with only $3 left on my voucher from my original $20. It would obviously be all or nothing on the 8th race, and Jessica and I both had a good feeling about Storm Hen, the #7 horse that...well...had a pretty cool name. I figured it was time for a big play, so I decided to go for a big-money exacta (picking the first two finishers in order), pairing Storm Hen with the #4, Flame Song. Ideally I would play both 7/4 and 4/7, but with only $3 on the voucher that wasn't really an option. So it was all on the 7/4, which would pay about $120 if it came in, meaning plenty more beer and ice cream for all.
We headed down to the track just in time for the race. Storm Hen started slow, but picked up the pace about halfway through, gaining ground as the three of us screamed, "Go Storm Hen, you magnificent bastard!" Heading into the homestretch it was Storm Hen on the outside, quickly catching up to the leader...Flame Song! And nobody else was even close! Yes! All Storm Hen had to do was to keep gaining ground and that little ticket of mine would be worth its weight in gold! GO STORM HEN! GO STORM HEN!!! GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Say what you want about the multitalented and all-around swell guy Mr. Tris McCall, but you better not say anything about his (and my) beloved Jersey City! And that goes double for you, Fancypants New Yorker writers! Stay on your own side of the Hudson: the bridges and tunnels are closed to your kind.
Your friend and mine Mr. Mike Wolf is going under the gas for another damned "procedure" today, so how's about you head on over and leave him some nice words to read when he wakes up? Although, to be honest, if I were Mike I might be more concerned about the fact that he's apparently living in an apartment below a humpback whale.
Speaking of my state of unemploymentness, guess what I did today? You'll never guess...give up? I went on an actual interview! That's right: wore a suit and brought my portfolio and a hard copy of my resume and everything! It wasn't for a permanent position or anything, but it would be four or so months of actual non-faxing-and-filing-and-other-soulsucking-duties-for-my dad employment in my field with that always-elusive "opportunities for advancement" to look forward to. Plus there's that little matter of the next rent check to consider. This bohemian lifestyle has grown rather tired.
If I do get one of these jobs, I owe some people some damn drinks, I can tell you that. posted by Ken at 12:03 AM
Politics? Yeah, sure, what the heck? I had planned to do some heavy DNC-blogging last week, but I ended up being busy pretty much every night and was in my most-not-feeling-like-the-blogging mood since DeWitt Wallace and I founded The Donk back in 1922. I did listen to Kerry's acceptance speech on the radio, so while I unfortunately missed him sweating like a hemophiliac referee at a porcupine fight (to paraphrase Elrod the Albino), I did catch both the most-proudly-told horrible joke I have ever heard (get it: the West Wing!) and his seven Vietnam references, which helped me retain my undecided state of being.
But getting back to the politicking: as anybody who's spent more than 20 minutes with me can attest to, I am incredibly and annoyingly skilled in the art of the convoluted sports analogy. No matter what the topic or event, I am able to bring it down to the level of "the common man" (basically my friend Keith) by succinctly comparing it to, say, the 1990-91 Cleveland Cavaliers.
So when bigshot blogger Mickey Kaus suggested that John Kerry employ a Moneyball strategy in his campaign...well, here was finally a debate I can contribute to. To put it simply, Kaus was suggesting that rather than try and "present himself as a dynamic leader who is more appealing than Bush," Kerry instead draw as little attention to himself as possible, employing a patient strategy not unlike his self-professed favorite ballplayer Eddie "The Walking Man" Yost. Yost was a hitter of average speed and power, but whose ability to draw walks (six times leading the league) put him regularly among the league leaders in runs scored.
It seems to make sense, but as I saw it, there was one fairly large problem with this strategy. As I put it in my letter to Mr. Kaus:
Not to get all sabermetrical on you, but the biggest snipe against Beane's 'Moneyball' strategy is that while it may help a team rack up regular season wins against weaker teams whose pitchers lack control (for some reason Howard Dean comes to mind here), it has little success come postseason against opponents who make fewer mistakes, as evidenced by the A's utter lack of playoff series victories. In other words, while it may win division championships (or primary/nomination victories), it doesn't bring home the title.
You see what unemployment leaves you time for? posted by Ken at 12:02 AM
So I spent three nights rereading the first 15 collections in order to be fully immersed and in the right frame of mind for the conclusion. So I'm reading the final book, getting towards the end, the tension in the story is starting to build, and then...it just ends. Or to be more specific, it goes from Page 214 (out of 240) right into the middle of the Author's Note. Or to be even more specific: A FREAKING PRINTING ERROR LEFT OUT THE LAST 25 PAGES OF THE FREAKING BOOK!
I mean, I called the store and I'll be able to trade it in for a good copy, but damn this is annoying! posted by Ken at 12:01 AM
Ken Goldstein, Reporting for Duty or The End of the Royal Wheeee! Okay...let's get back to work. posted by Ken at 12:00 AM
Working with my Dad in his office this week. I have no other offers and it is a little extra money, but it does kinda insta-revert me back to when I was ten and I'd be working with him on some project like opening up the pool, and I'd screw up on purpose just so he could get the yelling-at-me over with and I could go back inside and continue reading Casper.
The new Hall of Mammals at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.
Lowlights:
The fire alarm in our hotel that went off at six in the morning, sending us all out into the street in our pajamas.
Getting stuck in rain-induced traffic in three different states on our way home.
Tonight's Improv Class
Highlight: A classmate's performance as the Purchasing Manager for Solo Party Cups, specifically her way of always wheeling around a pony keg wherever she went.
Lowlight: When I initiated a scene by grabbing my partner and throwing him to the ground in order to stay hidden from the police, yet actually injuring him, bringing the class to a grinding halt.
The Trip Home from Class
Highlight: Waiting to buy a pretzel while the vendor drew a map of Africa/Europe in order to show another customer the location of his home country of Morocco, and me actually knowing where it was without the map (though I think it was only because of an episode of Absolutely Fabulous).
Lowlight: Subsequently missing the Journal Square PATH train, almost certainly because I was showing off that I knew where Morocco was.
I just performed a small task and then wrote it down on my to-do list just so I would be able to immediately cross it off and feel that momentary tinge of satisfaction.
Who says there was no Edwards bounce? While much of the political discussion since Kerry picked Edwards as his running mate (at least depending on which paper you read) has been about the "small" or even non-existent bounce for the campaign, at least one New Jersey poll has shown a rather sizable rise in Kerry's popularity.
Yes, that's right, in the all-important Spanish Tavern Patron's Poll, Kerry has picked up over six points since last Tuesday and now leads Bush 52.4% to 47.6%. The Spanish Tavern is located in Mountainside on Route 22, about 20 miles away from Manhattan, and has been posting the results of its poll on its sign for at least a few weeks. (For what it's worth, the place was supposedly "a big Limbaugh advertiser.") Bush had been maintaining a steady four-to-six-point lead over Kerry for much of this time, but over the last couple of days Kerry has shot ahead.
Now, I'm not really sure about the methodology, and it's entirely possible that some kind of gathering of Kerry supporters took place there over the weekend, but if this is, as I suspect, a cumulative poll, this would indicate a huge shift of late. Unfortunately (for many reasons), the assignment I had which took me down Rt. 22 has ended, but I'll try to get Gerard (my friend who got me the job and who is still working there) to keep me updated). posted by Ken at 6:00 PM
July 12, 2004
Why bother writing when others have done it first and probably better?
Click here (be sure to scroll down for the world's only known shot of me dancing), or maybe here, here, or perhaps even here for a report on Friday night's PFMBABB. A good time was had by most, and if anybody can get Siberia to bring back the Maker's Mark, certain people would be quite appreciative.
Yesterday I spent ten freaking hours as an Official Team Photographer in NYC's own Extreme Scavenger Hunt, brought to you by the same folks from the Black Hearts Party. And that wasn't anywhere near the time put in by fellow "Exit 9" team member, whose minute-by-minute diary of the event begins at nine in the morning and doesn't finish until 2:13 the following a.m. Some choice phrases from Brian's report include "the better to eat you with," "two team member simultaneously biting into the same Big Mac in the cereal aisle of a supermarket," "Don't drop the camera in the toilet," "exposing her boobs to the world," "Team member nude wrapped in plastic," and "giggling like a school girl." Hopefully there will be some choice posted photos when another team member (not the one with the exposed boobs) makes her report.
Thoroughly enjoyed Anchorman this afternoon with my sister, though we did leave the theater a little perplexed as to why no less than three damned hilarious bits from the ad were cut from the movie. I've seen that happen before, but never that many. Anyway, if you think you might like the movie, you definitely will, though it ain't no Old School, unfortunately. As an added bonus, the Unfashionably Late Jesse (who was also at the PFMBABB but unfortunately not the Extreme Scavenger Hunt which would have tied everything up in a neat little package) directed me to this hours-of-hilarity transcript from an Anchorman online press conference panel thingie.
But the real drama after the movie, at my favorite Indian restaurant in my neighborhood, when the waiter refused to wrap up my sister's leftover chicken tikka masala since it had been moved from the serving dish to her plate (my leftovers were still in the tray, and were thus packed up quickly with no argument). They actually brought her plate back to the table to tell us she couldn't have the leftovers, and we eventually had to tell them to bring us a takeout container and turn their backs while we did the packing ourselves.
Seriously, are we crazy? Has anybody had this happen to them before, or can even think of a reason why this would be the case? Now my sister only wants to eat at the place with the waterfall in the window...
Some Call It Chilltown. Looking through my referral logs I was pretty psyched to find that I had been linked by NJ.com, and then somewhat less psyched to realize that this had apparently happened a last weekend and I had missed it. But non-psychedness turned back to psychedness when I started reading the rest of Lori Key's Jersey City View, her notes on the town I call home. Lori delves deeper into my admonishments to drunk late-might PATH-riders, tries in vain to buy a 27-cent ice-cream cone in my local McDonald's, and some other stuff, of course. The nj.com deal is one of, like, seven blogs Lori has, including a very entertaining one about her publishing career. If that doesn't excite you, she also apparently takes pictures of local fires.
Speaking of Kerry...dammit, these were all either sold out or pulled by the time I got into New York today. Truest usage of the word "exclusive" I've seen in a newspaper ever... posted by Ken at 11:00 PM
I listened to the Kerry speech this morning on my way to work, and while I was pretty excited that he did the right thing and picked Edwards, didn't it seem a little odd to anybody else that Edwards wasn't there for the announcement? I mean, did he have a prior engagement or something where he just couldn't make it, like maybe a dentist's appointment, or perhaps he needed to catch up on his laundry before the heavy campaigning? It just seemed a little weird to me, plus it meant that I had to listen to Kerry speak for about 15 minutes straight, which is way too long. He has this thing where he seems to emphasize the first syllable in every word, which becomes a bit jarring, though I suppose I'll have to get used to it over the next four months.
Oh, and just in case he's planning to use the line again, technically you can't "rebuild new alliances." posted by Ken at 6:05 PM
Hey, guess what I did today?! Today I performed services in an office setting in exchange for the promise of a future payment of money. How about them apples?!
Seriously, during the middle of the day, while rushing to finish one project and trying to get a few minutes of somebody's time to help me with a different one, I suddenly felt this huge, satisfied glow that was all like "Wow, I am actually accomplishing something today that is being recognized by other people, and they're going to pay me for it, and be happy to do so!" That damn dad-instilled work ethic of mine was, after four-and-a-half guilty months, finally being put to some good use.
Now to just find somebody else who wants me to work for them after this little project is finished. posted by Ken at 6:00 PM
July 5, 2004
Thanks, Gerard! A big public thanks to Friend of the Donk Gerard, who helped me garner my first regular employment since I was laid off way the hell back in February. Yep, for an unspecified number of days (until the project is completed) I will actually be waking up early and commuting to an office, where I will be performing a task for compensation during a 9-5 workday. I almost feel like I'm a part of a society or something. posted by Ken at 12:01 AM
This Is the Goddamn Bestest Country in the Whole Goddamn World! Sure, you hear everybody say that, or at least you do if you're like me and spend a lot of time hanging around the VFW Hall (always your best bet for dirt-cheap top-shelf alcohol and drunken brawls), but where's the proof, the incontrovertible evidence? Well, folks, this weekend I set out with a few choice companions to finally prove this once and for all.
Saturday was spent with the aforenotmentioned mystery blogger, who bravely overcame what was apparently a huge hangover to meet me in Newark, where I picked her up and began our trek westward. Ah, Pennsylvania, birthplace of freedom, home of Philadelphia's Liberty Hall which we weren't going anywhere near. After riding Route 78's white line for a couple of hours, stopping only to pick up some vital meats and cheeses, we headed on over to scenic Kutztown for their legendary Pennsylvania German Festival for some Pennsylvania Dutch Folklife & Fun. Which we had, in spades, though unfortunately not so much beer which we were really hankering for as the sun beat down and which if we had thought about for more than a few seconds we would have realized that an Amishfest might not be the best place to get hammered. Or pick up women; those people have no sense of humor about that kind of thing.
Anyway, we ate way too much food and were completely regretful about missing out on the all-you-can-eat banquet in the back, and somewhat less regretful about missing out on the frightening ox roast, featuring a half-ton ox on a huge freaking spit. The place was filled with fantastic craftsmanship and gifts, including this "Lady Liberty" pendant, and we were feeling the all-American love as we got back in my car, cranked up the AC, and continued heading west towards Hershey.
In Hershey we ate some chocolate.
Pulling out my trusty road atlas we figured that the logical next stop would be Gettysburg. In a nice coincidence, it was the 141st anniversary of the third and final day of the battle, the day of Pickett's charge, and the day I figured that thousands of angry ghosts would be roaming the battlefields of their demise.
Well, it turns out that my traveling companion had a certain baseless phobia regarding the undead, and not only didn't she want to check out most of the cemetery, but she had absolutely no interest in hanging around the battle areas after dark or going on one of the many Haunted Gettysburg tours that were doing brisk business. Partypooping aside we still had a fine time doing a little touring and walking through the reenactor-packed town. And at dinner we had Yuengling for $2.25 a pint!
Somehow after that we made it back to Jersey, and somehow after all that I managed to wake up this morning and make my way into New York City (passing on the way to the PATH train the Stanley Theater, holding a convention of what might actually trump those Amish gals as the least pickuppable folks in America: deaf Jehovah's Witnesses). And fortunately I did, for my sister had used her International Federation of Competitive Eating connections to hook me up with quite the perk: guest-area access to today's pretty-good-but-not-notably-different-than-the-other-three-times-I've-seen-him Lyle Lovett concert in Battery Park. Now, sure, it was a free concert anyway, but unlike some people I didn't have to worry about hours-long lines or uncomfortable seating, plus I was able to chow down on piles of free food, helping me continue my plan to eat far, far too much this weekend.
And then I finished up the weekend with -- what else? -- fireworks. Okay, I was tired and ended up watching them on TV with the sound down because NBC was broadcasting them with the worst musical accompaniment ever, but still: Yay! posted by Ken at 11:50 PM
