KICKING OFF THE LONG HOLIDAY WEEKEND

Wednesday night was the "official" start of the long Thanksgiving Weekend and for most areas, it's typically one of the busiest bar nights of the year.  With individuals and families traveling back home to where they grew up, it's a great time for a reunion with the people you grew up with.  The only place where that isn't quite the case, however, is in Manhattan.   Why is that so?  Because, Manhattan is generally known as an island of transplants.  Practically everyone is from somewhere else.  So in our case, the night before Thanksgiving is usually filled with tourists who are in for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade or shopping tours.  So while other bars in the outer boroughs are packed to the rafters with neighborhood regulars, what we get varies from year to year.  Some years we find ourselves busy that night, while other years the bars in our neighborhood is as quiet as a church mouse.

This year's edition of Thanksgiving Eve festivities turned out to be a good night, with a nice mix of tourists and locals looking to kill some time while the LIRR train snafu fixed itself (there were no trains going into or leaving Penn Station due to signal problems).  The jukebox cranked out a nice mix of tunes (for once), and everyone was in a pretty good mood, which was also nice to see.  It was also great to see some of the bar employees (both current & former) stop by for some festive cheer.

All in all, it was a pleasant way to kick off the holiday weekend.

Now it's BLACK FRIDAY, the much-ballyhooed busiest shopping day of the year.  Not sure why it's called BLACK FRIDAY, but I've been caught up in the shopping mashup of BLACK FRIDAY in the past and gotten my share of black and blue marks.   So maybe it's because of that.  In any case, the shoppers are out in full force today, taking advantage of those "mega sales";  God bless 'em, because anyone willing to endure the chaos of the long lines and drama deserves any sales break they can get.

That being said, we're back up and running after the Thanksgiving Day break, ready to calm the nerves of the Black Friday shoppers.  We are also looking forward to a big sports weekend, with Rivalry Week in football (led by Ohio State vs Michigan & ND vs USC),  Cornell vs Michigan hockey in "The Frozen Apple" Classic on Saturday night and of course, the NFL on Sunday!  Should make for a fun-filled weekend!

AND FINALLY: If you haven't had the opportunity yet, take a moment to read a beautiful and touching article in Time Magazine about a soldier finding love while battling through major physical hardships due to the Afghanistan War.  The soldier in question is the brother-in-law of one of our regulars (who's also featured in the article).  Give it a read HERE:


Cheers!