HopsGuy

Not sure if this belongs, but I heard it on Lithium last week.

You buy, I sell. That's what makes a market. I don't hate PCU, I'm just saying it wasn't that great. If we're talking genres, I prefer Revenge of the Nerds & Real Genius over PCU. But you'd expect that... I was an Engineering major. Good call by others on Unforgiven & No Way Out. Good roles for Hackman.

He still does the voice-overs for Oppenheimer Funds, too. The PCU thesis was that you could go a continuous 24 hours on basic cable television and never be without either a Hackman or Caine movie. The clincher was "A Bridge Too Far" which had both (among many, many others). Wow, Jeremy Piven, Jon Favreau, David Spade and George Clinton... surprised it isn't a bigger cult classic. Then I remember... it wasn't that great. Hackman is in a few movies that I can catch at any time and be hooked: Crimson Tide, The Firm, & Runaway Jury. Trivia: He and Dustin Hoffman were roommates way back in the day, but Runaway Jury was the first time they had ever had a scene together on screen. Oh, and don't forget Hoosiers.

As soon as it ended, I texted all of my buddies declaring it would be 1:10. One guy came back saying that he heard that some Saudi horse would be brought in. All I could think of was that guy that Commodus brought in to beat Maximus ("It's been arranged.") Pffffffttttt. Whatever. I might buy some UPS calls as a derivative play.

I didn't want to jinx it, but I was there for the Bandit's first championship. It was an 11-10 overtime win over the Philadelphia Wings in the old Spectrum in 1991. We'll sell you the seat, but you'll only need the edge. Congrats everyone. Sorry Lana.

Location! I agree with the assertions that Albertson's is horrible. Winn Dixie would do better if their customer service improved, but there's zero chance of that happening. I just moved to Charlotte and there is a Harris Teeter walking distance for me (Location!). They remind me of Wegman's in many ways but price and customer service are off a bit. They have great selection and the place is spotless. The CS is only lacking in that there aren't ever enough lines open. They have the self-serve checkout, but I usually have beer/wine so that does me no good. The prices are high, but they have the cards so that you can get the specials. Apparently Wegman's has decided to stop at Virginia, much to my dismay. They'd tear this place up if Danny would make the move. I LOVED Publix in FL. They had everything I needed and the folks working there were great. One lady in the bakery always took care of me. She made kimmelweck rolls for me a couple of times. I really miss buying pizza dough. I guess I'll have to buy a bread-maker.

One year, before I had any disposable income ('95?), I was in one of the beer gardens and ran into a friend. He asked where I was staying and I said that I didn't have a room so I would probably head back to Olean for the night. He said, "You can crash with us. I got the last room in Ellicottville." He wasn't kidding. It was the conference room at the Ellicottville Inn. I slept under a table. We rented chalets for the next few years. He ended up having his wedding at Holiday Valley. Good times, man. Good times.

I heard the term "Tina Fey Hot" the other day on the "Mike & Mike in the Morning Show". They had Golic in a wing eating contest. The "expert" said that while the wings "aren't super hot, but more like Tina Fey Hot." Greenberg deadpanned, "Tina Fey Hot?" The guy said, "Yeah. You know how Tina Fey didn't first strike you as hot, but more like cute? Then as time goes on, you start to realized that she's actually pretty hot. These wings are like that. They get hotter as you go along. They're sneaky hot." Greeny then went on to tell a story about meeting TF and saying how this whole concept is absolutely true as he was struck by how hot she was. So there you go. Tina Fey is chicken wing hot. Quad Erat Demonstratum

I managed to get this photo of him over the weekend.

Word.

Enjoy some wine tonight. Oh wait, you do that every night. It wouldn't be special. Hmmm... get out some photo albums (remember those?) and put on some vinyl (remember those?). Suggestion: The highest ranked non-soundtrack (Saturday Night Fever #1, Grease #2) for 1978 was Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours". Congrats!

You know a couple of others: "Stupify" "Down with the Sickness" (used in an ad for the US Army a few years ago) Knowing you like I do (not really well, but enough to make a guess), I'm going to say, "No Pooj, you won't like them." I'm going to hedge that bet and say you'll enjoy the show. That's another guess, but how bad a time can you have in VIPs at a rock concert? Really?!? How bad? Have fun.

If I go back to 1987 it's 21, right? NHL Edmonton ('87 '88 '90) Pittsburgh ('91 '92) New Jersey ('95 '00) Detroit ('97 '98 '02) Colorado ('96 '01) NBA Los Angeles Lakers ('87 '88 '00 '01 '02) Detroit ('89 '90 '04) Chicago ('91 '92 '93 '96 '97 '98) Houston ('94 '95) San Antonio ('99 '03 '05 '07) MLB Minnesota ('87 '91) Toronto ('92 '93) New York Yankees ('96 '98 '99 '00) Florida ('97 '03) Boston ('04 '07) NFL Washington ('87 '91) San Francisco ('88 '89 '94) New York Giants ('90 '07) Dallas ('92 '93 '95) Denver ('97 '98) New England ('01 '03 '04) The sticking point for me is that the Montreal Expos / Washington Nationals get a pass. They were supposed to be contracted with the Twins. MLB bought the team, stuck HOFer Frank Robinson in there, and then moved them to DC. They have Zimmerman, but let the Mets take some of their young talent (Ryan Church & Brian Schneider) for Lastings Milledge. It's like everyone says it's okay they're losing as if they're a new expansion team. Now they've got a brand new, publicly funded home to stink up? WTF? Q: From whom did MLB buy the team? A: Art collector, Jeffrey Loria current owner of the Florida Marlins (payroll = $14M). Q: Who sold the Marlins to Loria? A: Hedge Fund manager, John Henry current owner of the Boston Red Sox (payroll = >$150M). I have no idea what any of that means, but it's interesting.

Seinfeld once talked about how great it would be if we had directors for our everyday lives: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You look pregnant. Are you?" Cut! Cut! Cut! Let's try that again. Try to focus people! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Common GBID! You're supposed to hit the bar AFTER the gym.

Some of my friends have invested in what has been described to me as a company that does general contracting for large scale infrastructure jobs in developing areas. A few years ago they went to Dubai and Bangalore. I'm pretty sure they're still waiting on ROI.

Not in starring roles: Floyd (Brad Pitt) - "True Romance" Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) - "Caddyshack" Jonsey (Courtney B. Vance) - "The Hunt for Red October" Marty (Natalie Portman) - "Beautiful Girls" Hey these don't all have to be dudes, do they? Dignam (Mark Walberg) - "The Departed" Special mention: Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel) - "Pulp Fiction"

A few weeks ago, a friend threw a bachelor party down here for one of his college buddies from Orlando. We had a few at the Elbo Room, then headed over to Hard Rock. I ended up going my own way, but those guys hit Scarlett's. I think if you stick to Scarlett's or Tootsie's you'll be fine. I was at Cheetah III about a month ago and thought it was terrible. BTW, my friend got home around 8 AM and his wife was furious. And because of that, he wasn't allowed to go to Vegas with us last week. Consider yourself warned. One of the best bachelor parties I attended in South FL was at Rachel's. The food was on the level of Morton's (and the girls weren't bad either ) , but then you're talking about a hike up to WPB.

Homer Simpson: Mmmmmmmm..... starchy. Happy happy.

Boy did we hit it hard. Thursday night at Moonbar at the Palms (where we were staying). Late night at the craps table (won ~$650). Friday over to my buddy's condo for a happy hour. Some of you might remember my blog story about him having a stroke in Vegas 2 years ago. During his recovery he bought a place so we'd have somewhere to party. Hit up Prive at Planet Hollywood. We had a VIP hookup which was nice. Some guy about the size of Bruce Smith was our personal security guard, so we had unfettered access to the VIP restroom (and when you're 37 and drink like I do, that's a plus). Lil' Jon was the DJ (WHAT!?! OKAAAAYYYYY!!!!) I'm not much of a club guy, but that was pretty fun. Met some girls from Portland, OR. They didn't know Lana, but one of them gave me a PG-rated lap dance. That was pretty fun. Saturday we had a cabana at the pool at the Palms. Steve Levy (ESPN) was right next to us with some hottie. Saturday night we skipped the clubs and just went to Shadow Bar at Caesar's. Spent just about the entire night texting an off-duty cocktail waitress which lead us back to Rain at The Palms. (This part of the story is intentionally left blank; what happens in Vegas....). Sunday we just chilled at my buddy's condo, watched hoops, then had dinner at Joe's in the Forums. I never made it back to the tables after Thursday, and broke even on the games I bet (curse you Stephen Curry!). Here's one Buffalo related story: on Friday I was rocking my old-school Sabres t-shirt. I was walking through the Palms lobby and two of the "Girls Next Door" were walking in with a camera crew rolling and a group of gawkers. I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared. I slid a bit to the side when one of the camera crew guys spots my t-shirt and comes running over "Dude! Great shirt!!!" He pulls out his phone to show me that his wallpaper is the same old logo. Fist bump, then he says, "Sorry man, gotta get back to work." The whole thing happened in about 4 seconds as the group strolled by. Then again, I was still half in-the-bag from the night before. They tell me it was some sort of bachelorette party, so I'll have to try to Tivo to see if there's some dazed bald dude in the background. My buddy said it best, "We know how to have fun." [/LAMP]

About 10 years ago I was at Doral for the Ryder Open. I was directly behind Jack Nicklaus when his tee shot leaked right and missed the fairway. He looked right at me (hand to God) and said, "S#!t!!!". I turned around to see if it was someone else, but there was no one behind me. He was simply upset with himself. So that's my 'Jack' story. Wow, two days, two name-dropping posts. I'm on a roll.

I'm gonna decompress for a couple of weeks. My friends are throwing me a going-away party at the Hollywood (FL) Hard Rock, so I got that going for me (which is nice). I'm moving to Charlotte NC in a few weeks to start a business with a life-long buddy. That is, if I survive Vegas.

After 9 years at the same company, today is my last day. I've basically fulfilled all of my responsibilities for the day, so now I'm just cruisin'. I'm heading out to Vegas this evening for a 4 day celebratory binge. We're staying at The Palms, but I'm sure I'll be all over town. It could get ugly. Wish me luck.

Spung from cages On Highway 9 Chrome wheels, Fuel injectors Steppin' out over the line Whoooaaaa! Baby we were born to clung!

He's a customer of my firm. All of the guys in my group have spoken to him at one point or another. Lots of "Goonies" fans in my office. I'm always threatening to ask about his wife (Diane Lane), but I would never really do that. He hasn't called in quite some time. I guess he's busy with all these projects.

I've spoken to Josh Brolin a few times. He's a pretty decent guy from my perspective. I hope he pulls it off.