Monday, Novermber 28, 2005

"'ALLO MATEY, OY! and WHOOOOOOOO!"

Yesterday was an interesting day of sorts. I went to the bar with the mindset that it would be a pretty slow afternoon. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is a traditionally slow one because most of the regulars are traveling back to NYC from wherever the hell they originate from. For the most part, that makes for a quiet afternoon. However, in this case, while the day itself was quieter than normal, it was actually busier than I thought it would be. The afternoon was peppered with plenty of tourists, in town for the shopping frenzy that Thanksgiving brings, or for the Macy's parade (or both). Many of them had gotten word from their hotel concierge (I love saying that word: C-O-N-C-I-E-R-G-E) that Third and Long was a good place to watch the games. So we got a lot of drop-ins from that.

There were a lot of people from England and Ireland, loaded up with shopping bags making brief stops for a quick breather and a pint of Guinness or a Shandy (a pint of beer, topped off with 7-up, an interesting concoction)..

As far as regulars go, there was a light turnout from the weekly contingent. AFRIKA BAMBATTA and T-BILL took their regular places at the bar, while the PEANUT GALLERY sat nearby in their usual place by the window. The banter between the two groups were hilarious, as usual; especially when the WASHINGTON REDSKINS pulled their usual choke job and everyone in the bar began taunting AFRIKA. I swear, it's becoming routine to see this taking place each week. Another interesting highlight was the high-pressure Sunday NEW YORK TIMES crossword puzzle contest between T-BILL and a female member of the PEANUT GALLERY. Scintillating stuff.

I also got a visit from one of our former customers who used to live in the neighborhood; she recently moved away but stopped by to tell me that she got engaged!
It's always nice to see one of your customers get engaged. Good for her as she was one of my favorites. He's a lucky guy.

MR. LOW-KEY was also an early arrival to the bar, dressed in JETS gear. He has season tickets to the games, so I asked him if he'd planned on going to what amounted to a meaningless game on Sunday night. He was torn at the time; it was going to be a cold night; the stadium would be half-filled, at best. It seemed like he was going to blow it off.... then he got a phone call with an offer that he couldn't refuse: a tailgate party with lobster tails on the menu. Next thing you know, a couple of hours later, he's back at the bar, dressed in layers and ready for the tailgate. He was soon picked up by a couple of his tailgating partners and off they went. Needless to say, by the middle of the third quarter of the night game, they were all back at the bar, drinking and swapping stories. At one point, there was a group of Russian tourists sitting at the end of the bar. An older couple and their two adult sons. Very nicely dressed, chatting amongst themselves and drinking hi-brow drinks. MR. LOW KEY and his posse gets into some conversation related to professional wrestling and RIC FLAIR. Someone within the group begins to imitate RIC FLAIR's signature chant: "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!". They did it a couple of more times, and then out of nowhere: "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!". The old Russian guy chanted the same thing back to MR. LOW KEY and his posse. Next thing you know, the whole freakin' bar is chanting "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Talk about bizarre....

They say today is CYBER MONDAY, the big holiday shopping day for online shoppers... Make sure you check out the great sales, look for free shipping deals, get all of your goodies and think about your loved ones (ahem, ahem)....

TONITE: DOLLAR DRAFT MADNESS ($1 mugs of BUD/BUD LIGHT and DOS EQUIS). Also an unofficial PITTSBURGH STEELERS pre-game RALLY, led by NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. BLACK and GOLD face paint, clothing, underwear, Terrible Towels are strongly encouraged as they cheer their team on to (hopefully) victory against the INDIANAPOLIS COLTS.
Should be an interesting time.



NUFF SAID