HopsGuy

Since we're on the subject of "Entourage", just what was Aquaman (Vince) going to do about that tsunami?

I wanted to revive this thread. The dog days of summer have left me with lots of idle time. Here are the sites I visit that haven't yet been mentioned: Anything Charles Krauthammer writes. Blogs Freakonomics Blog Mark Cuban's Blog Jeff Matthews' Blog I, Cringley Henry Blodget's Blog Forums Elite Trader Customer's Suck There's some pretty funny stuff here. I also try to check on anything Paul Shirley or Chuck Klosterman have written lately for ESPN.com. Most of this stuff is bubblegum for the brain, but worth sharing nonetheless.

The Elbo Room is still there. The lease expires next year and the wrecking ball will probably soon follow, but there' still some life left in that joint.

I'm a little surprised by that. I've had good wings in many places. I've had bad ones, too. I'm a bit of a wing snob, but I'm also of the mind that wings just aren't that hard to make. I once had great wings in Seattle. The Philly Cheesesteak, however, is altogether a different animal. The thing that makes it great is the bread. Philly, for some reason, has great bread. (I think I miss the soft pretzels the most.) Duplicating the bread at altitude in SLC seems like quite a challenge. If they've done it, kudos.

There you go: documented proof of the existence of the Force. Right there in Orlando. Hmmm... Orlando... Magic Kingdom... the Force.

I guess I'm slipping. I'll be ordering some games soon, Fez. Do you accept PayPal?

Last year they had "On Demand" for the weekend games starting Tuesday. It wasn't much. They would show the scoring drives, turnovers and other big plays back-to-back and the whole thing would take about 10 minutes. It wasn't great, but you could wallow in a few nice plays while waiting for the ax to drop on TD & MM.

No, I'm not s#!tting you. There's more Pandas than we thought.

I'll 2nd your Hard Rock Vegas and Nikki Beach. Those are great if you're into clubs. I'm more of a "bar" guy: The Best Elbo Room - Ft. Lauderdale, FL Dirty Frank's - Philadelphia, PA Don's Friendly Tavern - Olean, NY The Best of the Rest Coleman's - Syracuse, NY Blondie's - NYC Buffalo Blues - Pittsburgh, PA Kevin Barry's - Savannah, GA The Blue Anchor - Delray Beach, FL Woody's - Islamorada, FL The Drais - Barbary Coast, Las Vegas, NV Jimmy White's - New Orleans, LA Hi-Top's - Chicago, IL Gone but not forgotten The Complete Angler - Bimini, Bahamas Of course, there are many others.

Esmeralda: What is your name? Butch: Butch. Esmeralda: What does it mean? Butch: I'm American, honey. Our names don't mean sh#t.

Link

Castro's cigar fell out of his mouth and Kelso (not that Kelso) yelled "BUUUURRRRRNNNNN!!!!!"

I moved to South FL in 1999. There were already 9 guys here from my hometown. Since then, 5 have moved away. 3 have moved to raise kids someplace other than Florida (NJ, AZ, & NC). That seems to be the trend. One left for Cleveland. Read that last sentence again. The other guy is now in St. Louis. Another guy is getting engaged and he'll probably move to Denver. If I stay, I'll probably have to learn Spanish.

I was watching closely, and I saw immediately that the problem with both Phil and Monty was in their grips. You see, their grips were way too tight. Also it's because they were gripping their throats, rather than the club.

I wonder if it applied to the Browns when GE Smith's band plays a cover. They played Sweet Jane when I was there a few years ago. Does Lou Reed see any of that? I'm going to have to do some research. Sounds like your thesis on the NFL not wanting a pedophile to profit from their business is correct. This is the type of stuff that interests me. Like the SAG rules that determine how much a featured extra makes vs. someone that has a few lines.

How does all this work? Does the NFL have to provide a list to ASCAP or RIAA of the songs played at the stadium, then the league or team is presented with a bill? Does anyone here have first-hand knowledge of this? In MLB, most guys have a personal song played when they come up to bat. Seems like if there was some sort of payment to the artist, the system could be ripe for corruption (if the money was big enough, which it probably isn't).

Turns out that that even the illegals agree with me.

It has to do with the fact that 16 is the worst number to have. You have to hit against a 10, and you have a 61.5% chance of busting. They're giving you a chance to change it for twice your original bet. The 8 you already have against the 10 will reduce the house advantage back to the range of basic strategy (~52%). It's a cheap price to pay to chuck that 16.

The quality of the Trop wasn't that bad. It's just that smell, y'know? I had to throw some stuff out. The next year I was there, I met some friends that stayed at the San Remo (which is now Hooters). We played $5 blackjack all night at the Trop, but I kept fearing the smell. I hope for your sake, they got rid of it. I'm sure you'll have a great time anyway.

We were walking by around 4 in the afternoon. We reserved a table for $400. When the placed opened at 10 PM, there mobs of people around. We bribed a bouncer $400 to get us through, then bought bottles of liquor for our table. Then next morning, I asked what I owed. "Hops, give Scotty $400. We'll get breakfast then go win it back." And we did.

I stayed at the Trop on my first visit to Vegas, 3 years ago. I had the same attitude as you: "Who cares where I lay my head. I'm not picky." I'll never make that mistake again. The whole place smells like BO. I never saw the pool, so I can't comment on that. On my two other trips I've stayed at Excalibur and Caesar's. I give both of those thumbs up. I was there in March. Here's my advice: Check out Wynn. The place is amazing. Thursday latenight (>3AM), hit the Drais in the basement of the Barbary Coast, trust me We hit Pure one night (club at Caesar's). The view from the rooftop bar is worth the $400/man you'll drop. The Pussycat Dolls are fun to look at, too. I blogged about it. My friend had a stroke, so the experience was tempered by that. I need to update the blog. My buddy has made a 90% recovery and he should be 100% in 6 months or so. Good luck, and always split aces and 8s. Double down on 11. Stay away from the craps tables at Caesar's. I took all the money they're going to yield this year.

Okay KRC, I'll give you Jim's. I was confining my argument to the 9th & Passyunk area. Jim's cheese is superior to both Pat's & Geno's. Is that clam shack still there? Joe - they're both hell holes, but that's really part of the ambiance, right? Nobody ever confused Nick Tahou's with Tavern on the Green, did they? The funny thing is that you'd be hard pressed to find anything resembling the King's English spoken in South Philly. Make mine a "Cheesesteak wit!"

I think everyone is missing the entire point. Pat's is better than Geno's!

He wrote about his "luck" in his blog a few years back.

Here's a pretty funny blog about what it might be like to ummmm... be with Ann. Edit: NSFW!