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Turkey time!
Ah, Thanksgiving week means the holiday season is upon us once more. Kicked it off on Friday with our TG office luncheon.
We had Turkey of course.
And a ham…
…fruit salad and all the traditional side dishes.
We celebrated the November birthdays…
I presented an award…
…and then we chowed down!
On Thursday we will be having our annual Thanksgiving feast and dart tourney at Dolce Vita. If you expats are looking for a place to celebrate the holiday, come on out an join us in Itaewon.
What’s worse than being mocked by SNL?
Saturday Night Live skewers the President’s recent visit to China. See it here, it is funny as hell.
More worrisome has got to be being compared unfavorably to Sarah Palin by the Queen of Liberals, Maureen Dowd. An excerpt:
Barack Obama, who once had his own electric book tour testing the waters for a campaign, could learn a thing or three from Palin. On Friday, for the first time, his Gallup poll approval rating dropped below 50 percent, and he’s losing the independents who helped get him elected.
Like Reagan, Obama is a detached loner with a strong, savvy wife. But unlike Reagan, he doesn’t have the acting skills to project concern about what’s happening to people.
Obama showed a flair for the theatrical during his campaign, and a talent for narrative in his memoir, but he has yet to translate those skills to governing.
If we could see a Reduced Shakespeare summary of Obama’s presidency so far, it would read:
Dither, dither, speech. Foreign trip, bow, reassure. Seminar, summit. Shoot a jump shot with the guys, throw out the first pitch in mom jeans. Compromise, concede, close the deal. Dither, dither, water down, news conference.
Yikes.
Great minds think alike
So, Obama’s approval rating is at 49% according to Gallup.
Now that’s change I can believe in!
Yoja of the week
It’s finally Friday! Today is special because we are having our staff Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, I made a fruit salad. Although y’all won’t get to share in the turkey, I hope you will enjoy this week’s yoja–Korean actress Jun Ji Hyun:
She was declared one of the “Nine Hottest Women in Korea” on LiveJournal. Go check it out and see if I chose the right one. Think of it as a Thanksgiving feast for the eyes.
Speaking of The One
He was visiting Yongsan Garrison briefly today. He didn’t drop in to see me and I didn’t go watch the limo drive by. Hell, if he wants to know what I think, he’s always welcome here at LTG.
That’s gonna leave a mark…
Lindsey Graham takes Eric Holder to school.
I’m not a big fan of Graham, but he was a military Judge Advocate, and in fact still is in the Reserves. He knows what he’s talking about.
You know, when The One promised change, I didn’t expect we’d be seeing show trials in our courts. But since Obama has decreed that KSM is guilty and that even if the jury acquits, he won’t go free, I’m not sure how it can be called anything other than a show trial.
Meantime, we give Bin Laden and his followers an international forum to spew their hate plus a treasure trove of intelligence.
Good plan guys.
Snakebit
The Rubbies suffered a disappointing defeat in the second round of the playoffs at the hands of XOX at Friends bar last night.
The fates were against us as we had to play the match with a “ghost”, forfeiting the legs our unavailable fourth player would have played. A match can still be won in that situation if everything goes right. Sadly, my 0-6 performance doomed whatever hope we held for a miracle outcome.
So ends the season. League play won’t resume until sometime in January.
A disappointing finish to a disappointing season for me.
Bad Romance
I am occasionally reminded what an old fogey I really am. Hmm, I guess just using a word like fogey pretty much proves that point, doesn’t it? But no, I was speaking musically here.
The impetus for this reflection on being aged was my listening to two new (?) songs this weekend. I guess new may be relative, but bear in mind my musical tastes are nearly as old as my softball jerseys.
So anyway, my buddy Craig in Canada sent a link to a song in the comments in response to my cosmetic surgery for vagina’s post. Give it a listen.
Craig, I stand corrected. I guess some guys do call it that. “what do I really want in a girl? me.” Classic.
I also came across a music video at the Althouse blog that was somewhat reminiscent of my MTV watching days in the big hair 80s. For the production values alone, this video is worth the watch.
Bad romance indeed. Well, I’m not about to criticize today’s modern music. That would make me sound like an old geezer or something…
Manila Bar
Ok, time for an addition to the “dart bars of Itaewon” series. Next up, Manila Bar.
Manila is in the second alley on the right walking up from Hamilton Hotel towards the Itaewon arch. It is upstairs from Nana Bar.
Alright, let’s be honest about it. I have a lot of affection for this bar. Owners Jovie and Teddy always make sure their customers have a good time. But, it is really unfair to call this a dart bar. This photo was taken on a Saturday night, and they take down the board on weekends to facilitate a DJ/videoke/karaoke thing. Which is nice by the way.
There is a second board behind the picture to the right, although I have never seen it in play. The phantom board pictured above plays ok, but the oche is real close to the bar so it can at times be tight.
Now, this is the nice thing the bar offers. A great place to sing if that is your thing, and Teddy is an excellent musician. He will occasionally accompany you on the piano while you do a videoke song, and he also does some lounge singing, whic is quite pleasant.
This is the bar looking back from the dart board. If it looks small, well, consider it cozy. One of the smaller “legitmate” bars I’ve visited in Itaewon. Doesn’t take much to fill it up, but again, a full bar is a fun bar, right?
Like I said, it is somewhat unfair to compare Manila Bar to some of the other dart venues in town. Although the sport a team or two in the lower divisions, this really isn’t a real darts bar. Fine for chucking a few with friends on a weeknight, but if you are a serious darter this is probably not where you go to play. Great for good times otherwise though. A “D” rating for darts.
In search of the perfect vagina
No kidding, I couldn’t make up stuff like this.
Stuff I need
This:
And this:
Yoja of the week
Judging from the hits I’m getting through Google searches, lots of folks seem to enjoy looking at photos Korean women. I’m certainly happy to do my part here at LTG. So, without further adieu, this week’s Yoja:
All I can tell you is the name of the model is “Honey Lee”, or at least that is name on the photo. Found her at a blog called Bluemystery’s Weblog in a post hocking a book on how to date Korean women.
Time for me to skate off to work…
Blast from the past…
Literally. I Googled my name to see what was up with me lately and found a link to the sports page of the Prescott Courier, dated August 2, 1979. And it reminded me of this long forgotten event over 30 years ago:
John McCrarey belted a two-run homer to give National Association of Letter Carriers their first lead, and Randy Cox tripled and scored the winning run on Steve Huddleston’s sacrafice as NALC beat Yavapai Title, 10-6 in slow pitch county tournament action.
Heh. I was not by any means a power hitter, my forte was screaming liners down the right field line, often good for doubles and the occasional triple. Still, in the day I was quite a fanatic about the game.
Yes I was a mailman and the local union president in Prescott, Arizona back then. So of course the NALC sponsored our team. I think I still have my jersey packed away somewhere back in the states.
So, thanks Google for the unexpected and pleasant memory from days gone by.
Geez, I’m such an old-timer.
The world is a better place…
…without you in it. Here’s hoping there is a special place in hell for the bastard John Allen Muhammad.
Yeah, I was living in the DC Metro area during this pricks reign of terror. Two of his victims were shot within a couple miles of my house in Stafford.
It sucks to be looking over your shoulder while pumping gas, trust me. I look forward to the day when the Fort Hood shooter meets a similar fate.
These guys that kill in the name of Allah are such cowardly pussies. They ain’t got the balls to face an armed man in combat. So they seek out innocents as victims. If I were Muslim I’d be pissed to have my religion hijacked by these wimps.
I’m sure we will soon see millions of adherents of the “religion of peace” marching in the streets carrying banners “reading not in my name!”.
Yep, any day now.
A grateful nation remembers
It is on this day that Americans remember with pride and gratitude all who have given of themselves in defense of our great nation as members of the armed forces.
On Veterans Day, and all days, we salute, honor and thank you for your service.
I coulda been a star!
It was sorta like Lana Turner getting discovered at a drug store soda fountain at Hollywood and Vine. Except I was having a brew at Goldfish in Itaewon as I am wont to do when killing time. As mentioned before, this is a “open air” bar that is ideal for people watching. I hadn’t considered that some of the lookees might be looking back.
Anyway, my solitude was interrupted when a 30ish Korean woman came in off the street and politely inquired in near perfect English if she might bother me with a question. Well, I was fully expecting that she was going to do the “do you know Jesus” thing, but being nice to a fault I responded “sure”. She thanked me and said she would only take a minute of my time. I nodded and then she layed it on me–would you like to appear in a commercial?
I was momentarily taken aback because it seemed out of the blue. But my instinctive reaction was to say no, and so I told her “no”. She asked me to reconsider and said the photo shoot would only take one day. I again responded “no thank you, just not interested”. She thanked me again for my time and left.
Hmmm. I don’t know why I said no without really thinking about it. But upon reflection, I knew it was the right call. There was no mention of money, but I’m doing all right in that regard anyway. I guess I just didn’t see why they would want a fat old white guy in their commercial unless it was for the purpose of mocking me. After all, I’ve not seen many waeguks portrayed favorably in Korean media. And it likely would have been in violation of my visa status as well.
So, opportunity knocked and I said get the hell outta here.
More or less.
I got the H1N1 virus
inoculation today, so I should be good to go.
What?
A Rubbie night
Rubbies were victorious against our rivals from Bless U Pub, Cake Mix, tonight 19-15. It was a sweet victory indeed!
I am on a real high because FINALLY I played some decent darts, contributing a 9-3 showing to our effort. It’s been a long time coming. Next week we have the Korean team XOX at Friends Bar.
We can beat ’em. Stay tuned.
Playoffs
Tonight the Rubbies take on the Cake Mix boys at Bless U Pub in a first round playoff match.
We split our two games this season and we’re going to go all out for victory.
Details of the match tomorrow (or tonight is I’m still sober).