Anniversary Celebration Cut Short, Beer Flows Sparely

S and I cut short our weekend in NYC--I got sick--and we came back Sunday morning.

We stayed right over the High Line, near the western terminal of the L subway line.

We did manage to visit a couple of places for the first time: Jimmy's No. 43 (Sausage Week and Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter) and St. Dymphna's (Happy Hour: Czechvar!).

We saw the comedy God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza which was pretty good. It's a story about two couples meeting to iron out a fight between two of their kids. Rum, a cell phone, and flying tulips all play parts as truths are exposed and their relationships unravel and ultimately coalesce again due to a new perspective brought about by a hamster. S saw shades of Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf in it. Jimmy Smits, Annie Potts, Christine Lahti and Ken Stott starred.

Nude Beer. Girls. Beer. All the Time!

Thank you God!

Hang on while I turn down the shameless attention grab knob.

Mr. MyBeerBuzz got me to imagining the subject of Nude Beer and if you haven't seen this before, what we have here is probably the finest example of attention-grabbing, motivational beer marketing this world has ever seen--right up there with the best from Olgivy and Mather. I know it got my attention when I was a young pup back in the day.

This is another of my beer collectibles: A gift from my Dad.

Unfortunately, it doesn't fit under the mattress, so I need to take great pains to hide it from my Mom.

This four-pack contains four bottles of Nude Beer. From the Golden Beverage Company based out of good `ol Wilkes-Barre PA. Each bottle has a label (there were over 50 different labels used for the brand), each adorned with a beautiful, big-haired, fully-clothed, babe.

Each a period `80s homage to Charlie's Angels if you will.

The girl's clothing became optional as the intent was to get beer drinkers so enamored of the girls, that they'd buy the beer and giddily scratch away the exclusive scratch off label and repeat as necessary until all of the girls were exposed. Think of the notches in bar rails across NEPA!

These are original, bottles haven't been opened, the girls haven't undressed yet.

The packaging has seen better days but you would too if you'd been drug out of hiding to be shown off constantly for the last 30 years or so.

Boy would I like to talk to the guy who dreamed this up.

Coming soon: Nude Beer Burlesque Show!

March of the Penguins

And they will march just as they have done for centuries, ever since the emperor penguin decided to stay, to live and love in the harshest place on Earth: Tazio's bar!



No actual penguins were harmed during the making of this farce.

The Tactical Nuclear Penguin Has Targeted My House!

It didn't sense my presence and is retargeting to the W-B P.O.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I sincerely hope this year brings you, your families and loved ones, much success, joy, happiness and good health.

Creatures: Imagined and Real

Diesel rhinoceroses charge overhead as I pass under them.

Deer crossings in the snow, purposefully, in the direction of breakfast.

Humans doing the same for their breakfast of news.

Young trees with branches uplifted, long, snow-covered faces yearning for Heaven.

Old pine trees, sagging, small pine tree children abound. Lives fulfilled.

But not all! Some shaggy around the ears, still young at heart and healthy, reaching upward.

The occasional crazy-old guy, his synaptic branches, sparkling and still growing like crystals, turning all which-way, yearning for knowledge and reflecting a voracious mind no doubt.

Along Blue Ridge Trail, I see a dromedary in deep repose, snow-covered, next to the 10th green.

Lake Blytheburn is a frozen skate, blending right into the surface of the lake.

Another person: sweeping his walk, his broom a horse's tail scattering snowflakes like so many flys.

Happy New Year! I yell as I pass. Same to you! He yells back with a smile.