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To Whom Are You Drinking Right Now?


starfish

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[posting a little late] To Don Rockwell, for creating and nurturing this community that has made such a difference to so many of us.

I second your post Elizabeth. DR is the 2nd place I visit each morning.

Thanks so very much Don. You mean more to us than you will ever know.

Not to sound cloying, but posts like this really do make my day, my week, and while I don't want to say "my life," they do make a big, big difference in my life. Sometimes, I just want to fold up shop and let it all go; but after reading things like this, I realize that I'm held hostage forever. :wacko::lol:

Thank you and I really mean that.

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So I was reading Etta James's obit in today's NYT, and they mentioned that Johnny Otis had died this past Tuesday, which I hadn't heard. Damn, two giants of R&B gone in one week. I had the privilege and pleasure to see The Johnny Otis Show, as his touring organization was usually called, at the old Paul's Mall on Boylston Street in Boston, probably in 1973. Johnny Otis was really something in his own right, but he also nurtured a lot of other talent, such as Etta James, Esther Phillips, and his own son Shuggie. He's probably best remembered for "Willie and the Hand Jive" and "Harlem Nocturne", but here is "Low Down Dirty Dog Blues", with a nifty photo-montage. I think that's Shuggie Otis's wailing solo guitar. Here's to you, Johnny.

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I'm posting a lot in here but hey, it's been that kind of week...

To the staff and owners of my favorite bar in Charlottesville, St. Maarten's Cafe, which closed down abruptly today.

I spent way more time there than is probably healthy - back before cell phones were ubiquitous, our group of friends would call your house first, then Maarten's, looking for you. It had no windows and before smoking was banned it could get hellaciously smoky in there. But on Friday nights, mug holders got half price burgers, we'd knock back a bunch of beers, then go to my house where the guys would play Halo four player deathmatches and the women would go watch rom-coms.

Tuesdays for a long time was $2 pitcher night (Natty Lite), and if you could make it through the night to the end, you often didn't have to pay because early leavers left too much money.

Wednesdays were wings night - they had seven or eight flavors, and when they first came up with the honey habanero they put WAY too much habanero in them.

The best tables were 6 and 16 - front right and rear left corner. 6 was fun because it was right next to the door and was easy to overflow to surrounding tables; 16 was right next to the restrooms and up a little higher.

Every year they had a Christmas party that was a real honor to get invited - pretty much, you had to be an employee or a mug holder, and mugs were difficult to get (you had to be vetted by the entire staff).

Getting a mug was A Big Deal. Mine is in my kitchen.

It will be utilized all week (for nostalgia's sake, I'd need Guinness then Michelob Light) and I need a big ole burger.

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You beat me to it :( . This is yet another death that affected me more than I would have thought.

As a slight bonus, when the news drove me to iTunes to download a few Monkees songs I never got around to downloading, I got prompted to buy Quinn the Eskimo by Manfred Mann, which I hadn't thought about in ages. I used to love that song. Then I also decided to d/l a iive version of MM's rendition of Blinded by the Light, so I'm feeling oddly kind of cheered up.

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Right now I'm tipping a glass for my incredible colleagues who somehow are able to manage an extraordinary amount of crap from superiors who should treat them better, while simultaneously managing to make them look good AND at the same time manage to save the lives of people in crisis. I'm constantly humbled by the folks I work with. They are amazing.

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