No More BINGO, Bitches!

Oh, my knickers!


http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-bingobust.artjan09,0,4106251.story

Thanks my astute and mysterious "anonymous" for this. Damn, I am a lawyer and am deeply ashamed that I had NO CLUE as to this. Ashamed.

The law says, "No bingo game or series of bingo games shall be promoted, operated or played unless the same is sponsored and conducted exclusively by a charitable, civic, educational, fraternal, veterans' or religious organization, volunteer fire department or grange."

The Cool Moose had hosted bingo for years with no problems, Skehan said, so the Half Door staff decided to reintroduce the game.

Damn.


What kind of craziness is this? I mean, Jesus, it's BINGO and we're not playing for money.

But the Courant, which I make fun of far more than they deserve, had this editorial:

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-bingo.artjan10,0,3102484.story

Isn't it absurd, though, to bar an activity that has caused no trouble and serves to unite strangers in laughter? Surely this isn't the sort of prohibition legislators had in mind when they enacted this silly law.

I completely agree. This is an absurd over-reaction and a use of an antiquated law. OMG! THEY'RE PLAYING BINGO! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!


Jesus.

So I'm adding a new label as of tonight, "Injustice."

List of contacts for those who want this law to change:


Department of Special Revenue:
http://www.ct.gov/dosr/site/default.asp


Governor Jodi Rell:

http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/site/default.asp

It's Bingo, Bitches!

My winning card!

LOL, I'm famous, sort of.

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/nightlife/hc-bingo.artjan07,0,622478.story

Instead, it's the carefree atmosphere that keeps the clientele coming back for more. Regulars know the bartenders by first name and laugh at the bingo-caller's bad jokes. Groups of friends huddle over the numbered slips of paper in booths with worn, wooden tabletops. And when somebody yells "Bingo!" the ones who haven't won toss their cards in the air in a flurry of good-hearted catcalls and "boos."

"It's just our twist on it," said bingo caller and DJ Tony Carreras. "It's not as high-stakes, and it's a lot more fun."

I am actually in this article, but I am unnamed! Dammit!

And yes, this is how I spend my Thursday nights......

(sorry about the weirdness of not being able to link directly to the Courant. Blog is doing some weirdness...)

AYEE!!!! WTF, Advocate? I Thought We Were Friends!

Seriously. This is the stuff of nightmares.

I appreciate the Hartford Advocate. I love it, in fact. But note to Advocate, PLEASE in the future do not add to all the Nightmare Fuel I already have running around in my head. You are not helping. It's on the cover for Chrissakes.

Damn, I still have not purged this from my memory the effin rabbit from the Twilight Zone Movie. Jesus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaWWImBFMCM


(9 minutes and 40 seconds in is where the devil bunny appears.)

The Humps, the Humps, the Lovely Tavern Lumps

So this weekend was the Nook Farm Harvest Festival. As many of you all know, Nook Farm used to be the name of this immediate neighborhood. Anyway, we started out the day by, of course, going down to the Half Door to watch a game (Peter) and struggle with the massively difficult Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle (me).

So like I think I've said, tomorrow is the Beer and Game paired dinner. (Squee!!!!) Dr. Pete and I noticed that not only was the bar closed tomorrow for the event, but for several days thereafter. For the ever frightening description of "renovations."

Come to find out, they are getting rid of their lovely barroom lump (pictured above, with glasses on it). Sigh. Legend has it that the lump started as the tiniest crack, and proceeded to grow, imperceptibly, into the small hill pictured. You actually can rest a glass on it, but it is not recommended that anyone over a certain amount of alcohol consumption do so.

[Legend Type Singing]
Many a good drink has gone down that way
O'er the lump in the bar when the drunken men sway
[/LTS]

Hey, and there's one of our bartenders! Isn't he attractive?

So then it was off to the Nook Farm thing, which was mostly over by that time (we missed the roving Mark Twain impersonator, damn), but caught these lovely ponies on tape. So, as a reward, PONIES! And yes, apparently all I can say is "ponies."

More Cows!!!

For extra cows from the parade, see below.

Coming next post, my outrage over one of our Hidden Gems being closed due to landlord greediness. This is the best place in Hartford for Mac and Cheese. It is going to suck if it closes.

Enjoy the pretty cows!

Cows on Parade

So the Cow Parade has come to West Hartford.

http://westhartford.cowparade.com/


I remember the cows back many years ago in NYC, and I was obsessed with them, then. I know a lot of communities have variations on the cows - ears of corn, ponies...but there is something about the cow which is beautiful, unassuming, and a bit of an open palate. PLUS, SOOOOO many opportunities for puns.

Dad was visiting and we went to W. H'ford to check out the cow parade, and we took photos of our favorites.

Apparently, I can only publish so many photos on one post, so I'll publish the rest in the next one!

Cows ARE awesome.

A Connecticut Transplant in King Arthur's Court

Oh, it's here! It's here!

*Claps hands like a little girl*


http://ctfaire.com/connecticut_renaissance_festival/index.php

Belly dancing! Free games! Knights! Falconry!!! Such a mind-blowing and time-bending event that they can actually manage to advertise over 40 hours of entertainment a day. I didn't even know that was quantumally (new word!) possible.

The only thing that makes me sad is that I have no Ren Faire duds. No bodices, no skirts. Dr. Pete has a monk costume, so he's cool - not that it won't take some amazing kind of pleading and begging to get him to wear it. Though the sweet temptation of giant turkey legs might work.

I'm looking on the site, and the wedding packages aren't bad at all. Considering how much weddings cost these days, even the Royalty Package, at $3,500 is pretty affordable for the entire kit & kaboodle. That's for 40 people, they even throw a feast for your arse.

So onto other events around the area....I must MUST go to this:

http://www.hauntedgraveyard.com/

(Warning: sound effects on the site...they are cool but don't want to get you in trouble at work)

Hah, the gallery kicks ass:

http://www.hauntedgraveyard.com/gallery.aspx


If you were wanting something a little less scary (and that is certainly subjective), you could go to West Hartford and check out this year's Cow Parade:

http://www.thisisct.net/cows.html

I don't know if you have ever had the cows come to your home town, but they are kind of cool and distracting, in a "this isn't what the town normally looks like" sort of way.

So Peter's father was in town this weekend for a convention, and Saturday night we *finally* made it out to Carbone's, which is supposedly the best restaurant in Hartford.

http://www.carbonesct.com/home.htm

I have to say, there is probably not much about Carbone's that I could say that has not been said, and hundreds of award-bestowers agree with me that the food at Carbone's in probably the best. I'm not an enormous fan of Italian (oh, but I'll eat it), and the menu was somewhat limiting for vegetarians, but my cheese ravioli was light and fresh-tasting, with a sauce of chunky plum-tomato. I didn't try Dr. Pete's or FIL's veal (veal!), but considering they both disappeared, I'll have to imagine they were great.

I'd probably go back on a day other than Saturday, or a little later on Saturday, as the place was packed when we got there and the staff seemed a little rushed. However, the crowd thinned about half-way through the meal, so we got a better chance to talk to several staff members about the wine, etc. This is in way meant to imply we were ignored at all for the first half of the meal.

I would be somewhat snarky at my FIL's need to ask how much the specials cost, but he reads this blog, so I can't. Sorry dad! But it DID spark an interesting discussion - the nicer a restaurant is, the less likely it is that the prices of the specials will be noted. I just generally look at the price of something similar on the menu, take 20% of the price and add it on. I.E. if something similar to the special is on the menu for 40 dollars, you can guess the special is going to be about $48. Dr. Pete and I both think it's a little rude to ask the prices of specials, but FIL disagrees. I'd be interested in hearing anyone else's opinion on asking the prices of specials, as I agree that people could go either way on this.

Gin O' Meter: I didn't have a G&T, so I cannot rate in that way, but I had a kick ass Pomegranate Martini. It was VERY good.

OK, kids, until next time, wherein I list a number of Hartford's Hidden Gems. Take care!

My Fall TV Reviews! (Part One)

Listen up, donkeys!!!

OK, I know this isn't strictly about Hartford, but I do have teevee in Hartford, and so I figure I can fit it in under some sort of ridiculous premise like that. There's a chill in the air, the leaves are starting to change, Christmas displays have gone up in department stores...all of these things mean that the Fall viewing schedule in upon us. Ahhh, bliss. Not that I'm not still crying in my Gin & Tonic over Lost not returning until effin February, mind you. (How many times did I use "not" in that sentence - three? Does that mean it's still a negative or a positive? Bah, nevermind.)

America's Next Top Model (CW)

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/americas-next-top-model

Oh, the bitch is back. This is oddly the one show I cannot get Dr. Pete to watch, which is weird because it has, you know, models (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) in it. But he hates Tyra, whom he calls a psychopath and who am I to question because he's like trained to know that stuff. So the new season started last night, and I have to admit I am still a little bitter about Jaslene's win over Natasha from last cycle. I feel vindicated because Jaslene's My Life as a Covergirl ads are, well, awful. I can't believe they gave Danielle such grief over her accent when Jaslene needs subtitles. Look, I'm fine with accents in general, but I'd appreciate some consistency. Who am I kidding, this is ANTM.

What one needs to understand to watch ANTM is that it is NOT a modeling competition, but a competitive reality show that just happens to involve modeling. And lots of Tyra wigs. Last night started off with the 20 (30?) initial models going on a cruise ship to compete to make the first cut. Let me say right here that I think that the entire cycle should have been done on a cruise ship. If it's legal to have monkey knife fights in international waters, it should be legal to chuck the bitches who get cut overboard. I'm just sayin, CW, you might want to look into it.


The familiar cast of characters is back: Mr. Jay (gradually morphing into an alien), "Noted Fashion Photographer Nigel Barker, Twiggy ( I love her), Ms. J Alexander (drag queen extraordinaire) and of course Miss Thang Tyra. Tyra introduced herself to the girls by doing a lounge act song and dance number while wearing a costume that looked like the bastard child of a Cher costume mated to the Navy guy from the Village People. Anyway, the models are cute this cycle, which is a relief, and I'm actually pleased about the inclusion of a normal-sized wannabe, though there is NO place in the modeling world for a size 6-8 girl. Best of luck to her, at any rate.

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, US Version (Fox)

http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/


OK, I love the UK version of this show, and last night premiered the US version. Of course, Fox had to go and Foxify a perfectly good product, but who am I kidding, I would watch Ramsay reading/yelling from a dictionary. But, all that said and done, it wasn't too bad! The first episode took us to "Peter's" a family-owned Italian joint on Long Island. I swear, if Peter the Guido didn't exist, he'd need to be invented. (The loudmouth, bedazzled creep is probably being offered his own reality show by Fox as we speak.) Peter's insistence on spending boatloads of cash on himself left the restaurant in a state of disrepair, constantly hounded by "bill collectors." (yeah, right, they're from the electric company, suuuure). To make matters worse, he is only the manager. His delightful if beleaguered sister (Tina) actually owns the place, and is at risk of losing her home if the sorry state isn't improved. Watch the video on the website to get a great look at Peter.

I love how Ramsay has a singular talent to cut through the bullsh*t.

Even though it's not as good as the original, I'll keep watching.

Beauty and the Geek (CW)

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/beauty-and-the-geek

Awww. I love this show. For a competition program, it's actually quite sweet, a formula that was almost wrecked by last season's pure-evil Cici (cat hiss). The focus is on personal growth, and I always surprise myself by how affecting this show can be. The contests are always directly relatable to the focus of the episode, and are rarely, if ever, humiliating. While both the Beauties and the Geeks are the subject of gentle ribbing, they are never the butt of the joke.

The casting seems really promising this year, and I have read interviews with the host who claims they really went out of their way to find a cast of people who genuinely wanted to improve themselves; who were in it as much for the experience as for the game. In an age where competitive-reality programming seems more interested in having contestants who are hated (better ratings) than cared-for by the viewer, the attitude is refreshing.

The cast this year also includes Nicole, the first female Geek. Unfortunately, she was introduced at the very end of the episode, so I can't really say anything about her. I also like the expansion of what makes a Geek to include people who don't seem fantastically geeky other than severe social awkwardness. (Well, that and they went to MIT, duh.) The Beauties, on the other hand (with one exception but I will withhold judgment) seem genuinely sweet if clueless (actual quote: The sun and the moon are the same thing, right?).

Obviously, I have a sweet spot for this show.