Double Tall Iced Mocha, Lite on the Chocolate

Some things worth checking out:

This Saturday The Twilight Exit will be serving brunch at 11 am. I hope they are going to make this a regular thing for the weekends.

The Greenlake Ultimate Frisbee game might be picking back up this Saturday at 2 if enough people are interested. If you have any desire to go, email me and I will put you in contact with the organizer.

The Earshot Jazz Festival is in full swing and wraps up Nov. 6. Last year I saw the The Robert Glasper Trio twice (yes the man is that good) w/Jason. I missed his shows this year being out of town and all. But there is still over a week of good jazz shows left to see.

The On The Double Dutch Jumping Jackolantern Halloween Bash is this Sunday Oct. 30th 3-4pm at the Miller Community Center. Featuring world champion rope jumper, former Cirque Du Soleil artist and coach Rene Bibaud, as well as Divine Miss H hula hoop extraordinaire. Its an all ages kid friendly event with participation encouraged, so all you breeders get out of the house this Sunday.

Scott H. Biram plays The Sunset Tavern with Hater Saturday November 12th. I posted a brief review last year when I saw Scott and Hank Williams the 3rd. Scott kicks ass and is yet another great musician from the whole Austin phenomenom that has been going on for a while now.

Oh yeah, and Halloween this weekend.

KRAMER: I miss home, and I don’t even know how to get there.

JERRY: What’s around you?

KRAMER: I’m lookin’ at Ray’s Pizza. You know where that is?

JERRY: Is it Famous Ray’s?

KRAMER: No. It’s Original Ray’s.

JERRY: Famous Original Ray’s?

KRAMER: It’s just Original, Jerry!

Ray’s Pizza, Ray’s Famous Pizza, Ray’s Original Famous Pizza. You will find plenty of Pizzerias in New York matching any of these name combinations. It was not until a recent visit that I learned that almost all varieties of “Ray’s” are independently owned and operated. Even one’s with matching names are not necessarily affiliated.

What is the story behind the Ray name? Well after some digging it appears that a Travel Channel documentary “Pizza Wars: New York vs. Chicago” attempts to answer this question. It claims that Ray’s was started by one Ralph Como of Little Italy in 1929. This is around the time Pizza fist hit New York, whoever gets credit for the first Ray’s gets credit for the first person to bring pizza to New York and probably the US. Shortly after Ray’s and variations on the name started appearing on every block in Manhattan. According to a count from the phone book, there are currently 47 Ray’s in the Manhattan area, most of them bearing no affiliation to any other.

I have found a few other stories here and there that claim the first Ray’s was opened by a Ray Lombardi who also owned a restaurant in Little Italy called… Lombardi’s.

My guess is the original Ray is buried with Jimmy Hoffa in the end zone at Giant’s Stadium.

“i was sitting in mcsorley’s. outside it was New York and beautifully snowing.” E. E. Cummings started a poem with this line in 1925.

McSorley’s opened at East 7th st. in the East Village in 1854. If it was not for modern day clothing of the patrons, I could have easily forgotten what year it was. The only amenity this historical alehouse has is a burning wood stove which has probably been there since it opened. The interior is all wood, sawdust covers the floors, newspaper articles and pictures dating back to 1910 cover the walls.
No music, no television, just people and beer. Up until 1970 there were no Women in the bar either. McSorley’s was considered a gentleman’s haven until a Supreme Court ruling required them to change the policy.

Ordering beer at McSorley’s is quite simple, “light” or “dark”. I ordered 4 beers and headed over to the table. As I arrived at the table I realized we had 5 people not 4. I headed back over to the bar where there will still 4 mugs beer sitting idle. The Bartender informed me the 4 were mine. “I only ordered four”, “Thats why I gave you eight!”. Confused I did what any sane person would do and took them back to the table, where upon arrival I learned that a single beer consisted of a pint split between two of the small mugs.

If you are in the neighborhood, I highly recommend stopping in for a beer where Abe Lincoln, Woody Guthrie, E. E. Cummings and many more have before you.

Few pictures I took there

The urinals at McSorley’s

Flickr: McSorley’s tagged pictures

An etching of McSorley’s

As you may know, I am going to Lebowski Fest next week. As it happens October is National Lebowski Awareness Month.

From the Lebowski Fest mailing list:

October is National Lebowski Awareness Month. You can celebrate by grooming your marmot and observing the following important dates:

October 12th - Lebowski Fest Turns 3 Years Old!

It was three years ago that the Baptist-run bowling alley was rented out in the seediest part of Louisville, Kentucky and welcomed the “1st Annual Big Lebowski What-Have-You Fest” or “Lebowski Fest” if you’re into the whole brevity thing. We highly recommend the video tour of our humble beginnings at the Fellowship Lanes. Who knew there were so many Achievers out there?

October 18th - Special Edition DVD Released

At long last, the Special Edition DVD is being released. It will be available in widescreen format or as the Achiever Gift Set complete with bowling ball shammy, postcards with photos by Jeff Bridges, coasters and what-have-you. We will be giving away tons of DVDs including the gift set both nights in New York. All 20 costume finalists will be given a DVD at the main event so get those costumes ready!

October 21st and 22nd - Lebowski Fest New York!

Our second bite of the Big Apple is shaping up to be ridiculously delicious. The Opening Ceremonies at The Knitting Factory will feature New York’s own Metal Air Supply tribute band - Hair Supply, returning champion super-group Bling Kong and Corn Mo with the Corn Mo Band! This will be followed by a midnight screening of the movie and DVD giveaways with Jeff “The Dude” Dowd. The other two floors will be rocked by Herbal Nation, Less, Bebek, Harris and Tied For Last. Hopefully we’ll have some surprise visitors like before. Doors are at 8 pm. Check out the full schedule here. The main event will be at the double-decker Cozy Bowl and all contest winners will get a copy of the Achiever Gift Set!

So you have multiple computers on your desk. Maybe a windows box, a linux box and a mac. Having multiple keyboards and mice sucks, having a KVM switch is a pain in the ass too.

When I worked at Alteon (formerly Flight Safety Boeing) I had a pretty elaborate setup where I had three monitors on my desk. One on a FreeBSD box, one on a Windows box, and one on a Solaris box. I was able to use one keyboard and mouse to transparently jump from computer to computer when I moved my mouse of the edge of one screen.

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