I’m a little late writing about this, but remember: I’m old, and my time needed to recover from a bout of vigorous frivolity keeps getting longer and longer. 

It was a lot of fun hosting the baby shower for Powerliberals Robin and Steve last Thursday night.  The shower was held at the 331 Club in conjunction with the usual Drinking Liberally festivities, and I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty that it went pretty well, despite– or maybe because of the copious  amounts of Butt Paste amongst the many lovely gifts. 

I had promised a maximum of 3 “Stupid Shower Games” complete with “Wacky Prizes” for the winners, but initially had a difficult time finding prizes with sufficient wackiness.  Then I noticed a particular item on the expectant parents’ list of needed and desired baby supplies :  

Butt Paste!  What is it?  Well, besides being the hip, happening diaper rash ointment/skin protectant du jour,  the name “Butt Paste” itself, especially in combination with an actual physical product with that name,  that is actually for sale and can be purchased practically anywhere,  has a high level of inherent wackiness, therefore making this  wonder item both a shower present AND a wacky prize, doing double duty as it were.   Excuse me, I mean ‘doody’.  In  baby shower discussions the word ‘duty’ must ALWAYS be replaced with the prescribed, hilarious kiddie term ‘doody’.  It’s some kind of law, I think.

The women in attendance had all been to more than enough baby showers to know the routine by heart, but I was a bit surprised at how many of the guys came up to me afterwards to say “Thanks for doing this. You know, I’ve never been to a baby shower before.”

Oh my poor dears, what you’ve missed! 

There are  lots of online resources for planning baby showers, including the most important part of any baby shower:  the games.   After going through pages after pages of game ideas, I ultimately settled on 3 games that were not only stupid, and baby shower classics,  but also hopefully would lend themselves to being played successfully by a (cosmopolitan, argumentative, and somewhere between tipsy and hammered) Drinking Liberally crowd,  in a bar.   The results? =   hi-larious baby shower hijinx!  

If you thought those 3 games were stupid, folks –  trust me, I could have chosen some that are much, MUCH stupider. 

The wacky prizes ended up being three “weekend-getaway” gift packages:

(and many thanks to EB and prize-winner Mrs. EB for posting an illustrative photo)
 
First we had the Dick Cheney Weekender, complete with a Halliburton coffee mug,  assorted fun S&M  accessories- cum- office supplies,  butt paste,  stain removers and bandaids.  

Next was the Bill O’Reilly Weekender, including a high-end super premium loofah,  assorted fun S&M  accessories- cum- office supplies,  butt paste,  stain removers and bandaids.

Finally there was the Katherine Kersten Weekender, with everything you need to have a great weekend the KK way:  a game of Bible Bingo,  assorted fun S&M  accessories- cum- office supplies,  butt paste,  stain removers and bandaids.

Congrats to all of the lucky winners!

Most of all, I add my voice to Robin and Steve’s to say a big Thank You to everyone for bringing your good wishes and good cheer in celebration of the impending Powerliberal parenthood. 

  
And next time I think I might include a hangover remedy along with the other party favors.

 

~

 

Posted: October 16th, 2007 under Gift Ideas, I only drink Liberally, Local characters.
Comments: 1

UPDATE 03/23/2007:  My sources tell me that $200 was raised last night for Marine Air Control Squadron 2.  Good on you, DLers!

~~~   

At the 331 Club this week, Drinking Liberally joins with the Hastings VFW Post 1210 Auxiliary to raise funds for Marine Air Control Squadron 2 in Iraq. That’s TONIGHT from 6 to 9PM!

~~~

Posted: March 22nd, 2007 under General, I only drink Liberally, Iraq, Military.
Comments: 3

It took me two– count’em –TWO hours yesterday to traverse the 20+/- miles from Tildebunkport to Nordeast for the weekly DL festivities. Gaaah. Then once I finally got there the 331 Club seemed even more crowded than usual: the rain kept everyone inside, and it was the farewell (for the season) performance of club fave raves the Tin Star Sisters, plus there had been a rumor that Keith Ellison would be visiting the DLers (as it turned out he had to cancel), so all in all it was a jolly but claustrophobic phone booth stuffing atmosphere which in combination with the accompanying noise and heat produced –voila! — an excruciating headache.

Thankfully there were mitigating circumstances that enabled me to stay until past 8:30 …

As publisher William M Gaines was wont to say in the masthead at MAD magazine, the Usual Gang of Idiots was there, plus veterans of DL at Lyle’s Tor and Eric and Missus Eric (Sorry, I forgot your real name. Don’t hold it against me; please come back anyway!) not to mention Moses’ better half, the lovely and talented Michelle. Dread Pirate Flynt and his Rose were noticeably absent, but then, that forgettable little event their daughter’s wedding is only about two weeks away now, and that may have had something to do with it.

Met and talked awhile with author and business software developer whizkid Joel Turnipseed –and yeah, if that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because we’ve read his stuff at Salon or in the Strib or Granta or Rain Taxi, or have read his 2003 Gulf War memoir Baghdad Express. Joel, you managed to raise the DL bar for articulate conversation up a notch, which is not easy to do with the UGOI, many of whom are almost completely literate. If you can stand it, please come on back, and often!

~~~~~

Browsing through a back issue of Rain Taxi (to read Joel’s review of fellow Gulf war vet Brian Turner’s book of war poetry Here, Bullet) I stumbled happily upon a review written by John Toren, author of Mountain Upside Down (google it) and publisher of the eclectic e-zine Macaroni, which I am also happy to see is still going strong after, what –15 years?

John Toren is an old friend from the long ago, halcyon days of The Bookmen, Inc., the only warehouse in the history of the Twin Cities where the manager of the loading dock also published world-class monographs on subjects ranging from art to architecture to literary criticism, and where, on every Ides of March the employees re-enacted (with cardboard daggers) the assassination scene from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar — all on the then-minimum wage of $2.65 an hour!

The Bookmen warehouse was not that long ago converted into some pretty hoity-toity digs and renamed the Bookmen Lofts. I wonder if any of us who used to work at the Bookmen could afford to live there now?

~~~~~

(Click on the image to go to the current issue of Macaroni)

Posted: September 22nd, 2006 under Books, General, I only drink Liberally.
Comments: 1

Had the opportunity yesterday to watch a taping of our favorite ad-vivisection TV show Mental Engineering, which as you may know is hosted by our favorite DL irregular John Forde.

(Go here – scroll down — for a really crappy photo of John taken at the 331 Club during Kosapalooza in May. It’s really not any more crappy than the other photos I took that day, using the World’s Cheapest Digital Camera –$19.95 at Target!)

Among the panelists on the show, which will be airing sometime during the upcoming new season of ME — check the site for scheduling — was Brad Friedman, well-known blogger and go-to expert on the Diebold voting machine hijinks in recent elections.

UPDATE: Ooh! Brad gives us a mention today!

I was lucky enough to chat with Brad for a little while. Among many topics discussed, I got an update on the Truth About Ann Coulter documentary which is being made by Brad Blog guest commentator Dan Borchers. Borchers had hoped to have the documentary finished in time for the 06-06-06 release of Ann’s latest hatefest “Godless” , but it’s not quite done yet. Soon, tho.

I’m really looking forward to seeing it, especially because Borchers linked to one of my “Tild Newsstand” magazine covers from last fall and then contacted me asking if he could use the Comeuppance Magazine graphic in the documentary. Of course I said “Heck yeah!”

That one’s worth a revisit:

Posted: August 6th, 2006 under Blogistan, I only drink Liberally, Mental Engineering.
Comments: 1

A few nights ago at the entrance to the vast, deserted, crumbling blog that was once Norwegianity…

SECURITY GUARD: No ma’am. I don’t see “itinerant band of Norwegian lutefisk wranglers” anywhere on my Approved Visitors list.

SECURITY GUARD: Oh yes, ma’am. Very sure. I don’t see anything about a “lady bloggers night” either. Are you sure Mr. G gave you permission
to stay here?

SECURITY GUARD: I ask because unfortunately we’ve had to tighten up security quite a bit lately. There have been… incidents.

SECURITY GUARD: Yes. Incidents. Somebody’s gotten in several times and vandalized the property while Mr. G has been away.

SECURITY GUARD: Yes. For example, according to the latest damage estimate, several very valuable music files containing hundreds of hours of Lithuanian broken-beat Mantovani have been completely destroyed.

SECURITY GUARD: There’s also a large stain on the rug in the den. It looks like somebody spilled an entire bottle of Rhubarb wine in there.

SECURITY GUARD: As if that wasn’t bad enough, someone was apparently eating Cheetos in the library and didn’t wash their hands before rifling through the priceless goatse collection.

Security Guard: Yes. Mr. G is quite upset.

SECURITY GUARD: Certainly.

SECURITY GUARD: Yes, well. Look, I’m sorry but you’re all going to have to leave now.

 

Welcome back, stupid Wege.

~~~ 

UPDATE:  Well, that was certainly an ugly little fiasco. I should have just gone with my original idea; I went digging in my old back pages and found something suitable for the occasion:

  

 

Posted: July 25th, 2006 under Blogistan, General, General, I only drink Liberally, Scandinaviattitude.
Comments: 5

Over at the Power Liberal, Smartie is blogging like KvM today.   He’s clocked 9 posts so far.  Hang on for every breathless detail!

What do bloggers get in lieu of hazard pay when they go so far above and beyond?    

…Smartie, on Thursday I’m buying you a beer.  And the OTC analgesic pain reliever of your choice. 

 

       

 

Posted: July 25th, 2006 under Blogistan, General, General, I only drink Liberally, Minnesota politics, Politics, Republicans.
Comments: 1

Okay, Soren — here at last is the long-promised rhubarb wine post!

Cutting directly to the chase [no passing Go, no collecting $200] … I liked it. A lot. Much to my surprise. I was expecting a sweet, cough-syrupy abomination like the elderberry “wine” — and I use the term extremely loosely — my folks brought back from an excursion to the Amana Colonies in Iowa years and years ago. But no! True to the character of rhubarb, this was tart, crisp and surprisingly dry.

I had heard the comment that it didn’t seem to taste much like rhubarb– or, that it didn’t taste like much of anything, but I detected a slight and very pleasant rhubarb flavor.  So there.

Here and now, in the doddering postmenopausal twilight of my years, if I’m going to drink something alcoholic and other than beer, and in an amount large enough to trigger a hot flash — the threshold seems to be 4 oz. of beer, or 3 oz. of any other type of liquor — I prefer very dry, fino sherries like Tio Pepe or Harvey’s Dune or manzanillas like Hidalgo La Gitana. For those who know me, do I need to add that they’re all from Spain? El duh.

I liked this rhubarb wine so much, I drank enough to turn my inner thermostat up to about 500 degrees. That means that if it were wintertime I could just stand in the basement radiating heat, and keep my entire house warm for 24 hours. And there’s still half a bottle left!

Anyway, to me it tastes very similar to a light dry fino; perfect with a little nibble or two, like a handful of pistachios [you know -- tapas.] This pleasant little rhubarb charmer is made by Forestedge Winery, which is located in Laporte MN, a teeming suburb of Bemidji.

REW has already issued her endorsement of Forestedge’s Black Currant wine [she didn't like the Rhubarb as much as I did] so now there’s at least two DL regulars who might be in favor of a Drinking Liberally excursion to Bemidji at some future date.

Would that be Drinking Bemidjilly?

Thanks again to ILC. I’m sold!

Posted: July 14th, 2006 under Being Female, Chez Tild, General, I only drink Liberally, the Tild Test Kitchen.
Comments: 3

Alarming developments, post-Bell announcement:

Don’t mention the comet. I did once but I think I got away with it.

UPDATE: Behold version 2. (It’s gotta be an improvement. I did version 1 on my lunch hour in about 3 minutes, using nothing but MS Paint. Yeesh.)

Posted: July 12th, 2006 under General, I only drink Liberally, Minnesota politics, Politics, Religion.
Comments: 1

This was a fun weekend. Will wonders never cease?

I took Friday off and spent the entire day wandering from one delight to another, and just really enjoying the absence of deadlines and quotas and goals and imperatives. Ahh. Peace –it’s wonderful.

First was a gabby long breakfast catching up with a dear old friend ; then an hour spent nosing around in the reference stacks at the Chan library; then to the EP mall to catch a bargain matinee of The Devil Wears Prada

[Meryl Streep plays the hands-down most scarifying, scenery-shredding , monstrous boss in movie history; what they used to call a "Boss Lady" in movies from the 40s and 50s; a part usually played by Joan Crawford or Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck. *sigh* I could watch La Streep for days.]

What really made me bust out in guffaws, tho, was the trailer for Running With Scissors, coming out this fall, and starring imo two of the most criminally underrated actors of all time: Alec Baldwin and Annette Bening. I think I’ve definitely gotta see this one as soon as it comes out.

After the movie I realized that I had two coupons for stuff at my local B & N. One for a free drink from the cafe and the other for an additional 15 % off one item, so there went another hour…

Finally, the day was bookended with another long gabfest/dinner with dear friends.

[Not only dear but also tolerant. While they discuss substantive issues of the socio-economic-political world, they smile benignly and nod at me as I lamely prattle on about how cool those "picture tube" thingies are in Paintshop Pro and now if only I could figure out how to use them....

Now that's tolerance, for which I am very grateful.]

After dinner at Erté we walked across the street to talk a while longer at our usual Thursday evening DL destination, the 331 Club. When the Crazy Uke, one of our favorite denizens of the wingnut fever swamp and FOL [Friend Of Lileks] made his usual appearance as he does every evening, we were sitting outside exactly where we’d been the night before for Drinking Liberally. We tried to convince him that we’d never left. Heh.

Gotta get to work. More to come, including: the sophisticated European ambience of — Minnehaha Park?

UPDATE: I don’t remember what happened Saturday. Alas! Another day lost forever to the unforgiving void! Ehh, so what.

I do remember that we spent Sunday afternoon at Minnehaha Park. It was Norway Day, altho I don’t know how anybody could have easily figured that out, considering the anemic little stage program and the paltry crop of merchants selling  swords and hauberks and shields and leather leggings and woodcarvings of tomtes riding on pigs and denim vests decorated with rosemauling and Lutefisk Chef aprons — you know, the usual.

We tried the Sea Salt Eatery, and agreed it was several jumps above the kind of place you’d expect to find operating in a Minneapolis Park Board refectory. The cajun shrimp po’boy sammiches SYTU* and I had were really good, but SETU’s** squid steak sandwich was even better. Definitely worth a return visit.

Maybe it was because of the World Cup final game showing on the mini-jumbotron TV in the refectory to a big crowd of mostly Italy fans, or maybe it was because of the corgis and daschhunds sitting calmly at their people’s feet under the bistro tables outside the Sea Salt — a common sight both inside and outside many European cafes, but pretty rarely seen in Minneapolis.

I don’t know why it was, but yesterday Minnehaha Park had a distinctive Modern Euro atmosphere that I’ve never noticed before. Gone, or mostly gone, was the geriatric white belt and golf pants set that has populated Norway Days and Svenskarnas Dags since the dawn of time. The doddering unfashionable oldsters have been replaced by large numbers of buff, tanned, over-60s bicyclists wearing Pearl Izumi and Under Armour. The place looked like the Senior Circuit of the Tour de France. When did that happen?

There was nary a feed cap nor a JC Penney polyester pantset to be seen in the entire park. Just crowds of elegant grandparents in batik strolling with their adorable grandbabies in organic cotton by Hanna Anderson.

Uhh, gee — can anyone tell I just saw a movie about the fashion industry?

*Surly Younger Teenaged Unit

**Surly Elder Teenaged Unit

Posted: July 10th, 2006 under Blogistan, Cinema, General, General, I only drink Liberally.
Comments: none