Merlin's Blog

It’s been many years.  most of us have less hair. Some have no hair. And I am not just talking about our heads.  I even got married and am expecting a kid.  Scary.  But the blog is back.  The demand for this blog over the past few years has been overwhelming.  I was down in Florida for Passover-as an aside, for those who don’t know, Passover is the celebration of the Jew’s becoming free from under the Egyptian yoke of slavery. Or as I like to think of it, a cabal run by the kosher food industry to extort money from us Jews by raising the prices even more on kosher for Passover food. Why does aluminum foil have a certification for kosher Passover.  Who has aluminum as part of their diet? I digress.  I was in Florida walking down Collins avenue, or during Passover holiday more commonly known as the Jerusalem of the U.S., wearing a cubs shirt.  Someone screams out HEY RUBINATOR IS THIS THE YEAR? Is this the year? Of course this is the year? As the saying goes are you ready for Hillary? Are you ready for the cubs? Yes I am.  Today was beginning of the kris Bryant era.  Now he didn’t look like Tuffy Rhodes in his first 4 at bats.  Actually he looked more like Jeff Blauser.  He had no clue at the plate.  And according to merlin bill james serlin if the cubs have to play a one game playoff game to get into the postseason he would have a full year of service time.  BRILLIANT, they couldn’t wait one more day or even another two weeks until he figures out the strike zone.  He wasn’t even trying to work a walk in any of his at bats.  I guess as the number four hitter he is going to be more Sammy Sosa then ted Williams or Stan Musial or Babe Ruth or anyone good.  At least Joe Maddon got ejected when the Sam Holebrook the home plate umpire who has a whole in his vision spectrum didn’t call strike three on padres lead off hitter Meyers who proceeded to hit a monster 3 run home run on a meatball pitch by schlitter. Schlitter looks like merlin if he coated his head and face in chia Pet coating for the omer.  For those not knowledgeable about the Omer.  Another Jewish tradition that forces us to be unhygienic, dirty and uncomfortable.  Ah but at least we are the chosen people.  Bottom line cubs lost and kris Bryant went 0 for 4.

On a more humorous topic.  My family is in florida and we have made a rent a car reservation a months in advance from Hertz.  Hertz knew how to take the reservation but they didn’t know how to keep the reservation.  And as we know holding the reservation is the most important part.  2 and ½ hours later waiting at the rent a car place for a car we dropped deuce at the front door and left. 

We showed them who was in charge.  

Atara made me clean out my old t-shirt collection at the bottom of the closet, not necessarily throw it out, but at least to move it to another place. Now, bear in mind, these aren't my good tshirts (u2 concerts, addison, 'Grills, Grills, Grills') but rather the tshirts I solely wear when working out (I'm huge!) or going to sleep, etc. Some of these are quite old (the oldest being 'Cub fan, Bart man') so I felt the need to blog about them.

Here they are:
Fiji Bitter Beer (2000)
black arrested development tshirt (rap band, not tv show, circa 1993)
Beer Chang (2002)
Cub Fan, Bart Man (1990)
Brewers mbna (blue)
stella beer - egypt (2000)
cubs mbna t shirt
crimsonangels.com
cubs blue mbna tshirt
damon is my homeboy
live green go yellow
orange polo palm trees
bulls mbna tshirt
u2 pop tour (1997)
cubs mbna
ken's diner
ibm eservices
spring fling 1994
bulls 1996 champs
nfl mbna tshirt
hey dejavu 1996
michelangelo sistine chapel
we got wood (1998)
1997 bulls champs
icja senior retreat 1992 (lots of holes, but still going)
athletesfoot.com
staten island yankees mbna
latin american bowling league
rem monster tour 1995
mt sinai employee blood donor
appleton foxes (c. 1991)
timberland beige
wrigley field bar - sturgix, sd 1991
beck (lt blue)
warwick fiji 2000
spring fling
blackwash - new zealand 2000
chargers 1995 afc champs
mickey no name cubs cafe puerto vallarta
saratoga 2005
brewers white mbna
penn hebrew tshirt
penn princeton weekend columbia bookstore 2002
krusty the clown
i stuffed it at natie's bachelor party 12/2/95
fusebox.com
North General Hospital
Penn Relays 100th

I'm not really sure what this proves, or why I needed to catalogue it, but I think it's a testament to something. Not sure what, really. But it seemed blogworthy.

I guess we learned a few things:

1. you can't give up on some tshirts because of the memories
2. you can't turn down a free tshirt
3. when we try to buy a house, we won't be able to because my credit rating is shot from all the free crappy tshirts from mbna - 8 by my count
4. Why do I have 50 workout crappy tshirts, when I probably won't work out 50 times this year

And if the Chargers were going to fire Marty, they should have done it a month ago. Idiots!

At least Cubs pitchers and catchers report tomorrow.

i don't really have much to say, as I haven't updated this in 6 months, but I just wanted to be the first person on the internet to coin the phrase "Curse of Grady Sizemore" after the Indians choked away the season after Sizemore lost the ball in the sun on the penultimate Sunday of the season, leading to 6 Indians losses in 7 games, and missing the playoffs.

Go Red Sox! Shana Tova!

So the blog seems to be coming back into shape. If anybody else is interested in making a regular contribution to the blog, let me know.

There are quite a few Mubin stories that have yet to make the light of day in a international setting such as this one, and I hope that this could be the venue for such publications. The night in Phuket and the two (2!) stories about dating women who were already engaged are just some stories we hope will be brought into public knowledge in the coming weeks and months.

By the way: Mubin=Rubinator. Mubin was a contestant on some college quiz game show in India that Mubin and I watched in Arusha, Tanzania one night before our not-so-successful climbing of Kiliminjaro. I believe he was a student at BITS-Pilani, they got their asses kicked by the other school (IBS Ahmadabad?)

I am very upset the Million Dollar Baby won for Best Oscar and Director, especially, because the movie sucked. Without spoiling it for those who haven't seen the movie yet, I think that if you are going to make a seemingly real-life account of boxing and various medical topics, Eastwood as director should have been able to keep to realism. There were many holes in the plot in both of those angles, and as such I don't think deserved any of those awards (except for perhaps Morgan Freeman's Best Supporting Actor). Especially when Scorcese still hasn't won yet.

I will try to update the map on the bottom of the page to not only reflect the recent trip to South America, but also the trip to Eastern Europe last May (I wonder if Susan's blog of that event is still active?)

We went to the Penn-Columbia basketball game Saturday night to see Penn win another Ivy championship, and the 'Raw Elements' dance troupe during halftime was a real riot. Funny stuff.

Until later...

After hearing a lot of comments over the past few weeks, I've decided to bring back the blog. There will have to be some rules, as the prior blog sort of fell apart in a sea of stupid posts and inciteful comments. There will be some bad posts regarding celebrity sightings and Chicago- and Cubs- centric things, but you, the readers will have to deal with that. Mubin will be posting his enthralling stories as well, but under his name so people won't confuse me with him. He has a classic from this weekend.

I saw Stanley Tucci 2 weeks ago. I was exiting Alibaba and he was on the corner of 85th and Amesterdam - not sure where he was going.

The best celebrity sighting of the past 12 months was an encounter with LL Cool J at the SF airport after a weekend in San Francisco for some Cubs games. Saw Maddux's 300th win there, which was pretty cool. LL is a great guy.

Top 3 Kosher Restaurants in Buenos Aires:
1) Al Galope - best steak in town, great grill place. Tremendously cheap.
2) Mama Jacinta
3) McDonalds - though one day I went there the didn't have beef - had to have the McPollo sandwich.

Will see how the blog works over the next week or 2 to see how far we take it.

I've been thinking about disbanding the blog recently - obviously, we haven't been posting much recently, and readership has gone down significantly (and with it, ad sales). Joanna's brush with Kim Catrall hasn't created much buzz (I guess people really don't like celebrity sightings). But after last night's story, which several people have already called 'blog-worthy' (though not quite 'spongeworthy') I felt the need to share with you all.

A little background. I'm a huge Cubs fan, Mubin's a huge Cubs fan. Who is the bigger Cub fan is up for debate, and not for right now. (Basically, he claims he is a bigger one for going to hundreds of games, most of them for vending purposes. While he has gone to more games, I philosophically refused to vend - despite my father's wishes - he vended in the 60's and was photographed in Sports Illustrated in 1967 during an article about the Cubs selling a pretzel - I refused to vend because it would take away my enjoyment of the game). Regardless, we're also big baseball fans, and our friend and blog-mate D has recently expressed an interest in Cubs baseball. Now D hasn't had any baseball knowledge to speak of - he left a gathering of Cubs fans during last year's game 6 in the 7th inning, and holds as much of the blame for the Cubs' collapse as Steve Bartman nad Alex Gonzalez - but his interest has made us proud. It's like taking a date to a baseball game and showing off your expertise. So Mubin and I decide to take D, and his fiancee, DJ, to a Yanks game.

Now, the Angels are in town and they're a good matchup so we agreed to go this week. Dan (a huge baseball fan as well) and Wendy were also interested but didn't come. Now D, thru work, had to go to Philly yesterday, and said he'd be at the stadium by 8. The game starts at 7. So I proposed to do it another night - like tonight (though it's pouring rain right now), but D and DJ said they wanted to do it yesterday. While I said it wouldn't be great if we're teaching them nuances of baseball and they arrive in the 5th, they insisted, and since it was a pleasant looking night and I was able to get tix from Avi, who has season seats, we agreed.

It was raining at 6 - it looked like it would be off and on - so Mubin and I held tight at our respective locations (me at Avi and Jennae's, Mubin at Grand Central, having drinks) to meet up at the Bat at Yankee Stadium (where Finn stood up Vito on last weeks Soprano's) until the rain ended, which it did at 7. So I got on the B form the West Side, Mubin the 4 and we went North. D and DJ were also making the journey on the $ form the East Side. I get to 161st St at 730 - a bit late, but certainly the 1st inning - the subway stops, and the door doesn't open. Then we continue to 167th St. Why? An incident at the 161st St station - it's closed to everybody. So I have to walk from 167th and Grand Concourse- a good 15 minute walk (which I do with random Penn alumni Vince and Ariella, also on my train.) Mubin has to get off at 170th and walk - so I have to wiat for him a good 20 minutes. I keep calling Mubin's cell phone to tell himto meet me in Center Field and not the bat - because it would be closer for both of us and our seats - but he doesn't answer - the vibrator's not working (a common problem for Mubin - just kidding). Finally Mubin and I meet at the bat at 815 - top of the 4th (Angels 3-2).

So now we have to meet D and DJ. They call - they're getting off at 145th and walking, so they'll meet us in the seats. We tell them where we are located, and actually leave an extra ticket with Hector at the Famiglia stand for them to pick up - because Mubin had an extra from a friend. So as we head into the stadium, we tell D about the ticket we left for him, and that he would only need to purchase one to get in - we told him to offer 10 bucks to a scalper for a ticket, as it was a rainy nite and the game start 90 minutes ago - a buyer's market (unlike Wrigley this year). As we head into the game, it starts pouring, and another rain delay occurs.

So we're waiting on D and DJ in Avi's great seats, which are fortunately under the upper deck, so we're protected from rain. And we wait, Mubin wants a hot dog, so I tell him to call D and ask him to pick one up (as the kosher hot dog stand is right by the Bat, where they'd enter). D says he'll get it later, as "he has a lot of stuff to drop off". Uh-oh. They don't allow bags in Yankee Stadium. So we figure the wait is that they'd have to drop off their backpacks at Stan's, a bar across the street where you can leave bags.

Finally, after a half hour or so, watching a rain delay, Mubin getting his hot dog and knish and Coors Light (total - 17 dollars) and me talking to an elderly couple from Tampa making the trip to Yankee Stadium and Cooperstown for their 40th anniversary (I recommended Wrigley), D calls. "Can I get to you guys from the bleachers?" The answer, obviously, was no. So D and DJ decide to stay in the bleachers! We watch 2 outs, and the rain starts again. The whole purpose of this whole exercise was to experience the game with D (and DJ), and they blow us off by sitting in the bleachers. So what do we do? We leave - we wanted to get back and watch the Cubs - Dodgers game, starting at 10.

Back at my place, we get the voice mail from D. "If you guys haven't left yet, can we have your tickets?" Ugh. And the Cubs played possibly their worst game of the season (or at least 2nd worse - after the Opening Day shellacking to the Pirates, which Mubin attended), and Kerry gets injured - hurting his arm, no less. Other than game 6 or 7 agains the Marlin's last year, probably my worst baseball experience ever. Needless to say, no baseball games with D or DJ for a long, long time.

As long as I'm writing, just want to give a shout out to Velvel for mentioning an attendance at "The Roof is On Fiddler", a comedic "Fiddler on the Roof" that I saw a few years ago at a comedy club. Excellent. And Jay may lose his priveleges to post on this sight after the Queen's Day debacle, which almost shut us down. I'm thinking about it.

Well that was cathartic. Feel free to add, D, if you so dare.

So here's a real blog story. My boyfriend (Adam) and I went to the premiere of the musical Assassins a few weeks back. As usual, I arrive on time, pick up the tickets and decide to wait by the red carpet and celebrity gawk. Adam calls me and asks where I am, to which I say "I'm standing right next to Kim Catral (Samantha on Sex and The City for those of you who live under a rock) you can't miss me." Sure enough he sees me. But does he come over and kiss me to say hi? No! He grabs my hand and takes me over to Kim and introduces himself and then me. Now,what am I supposed to say. You really think she wants to be stopped in the theatre lobby to meet us. Anyway, I'm mortified as he tells her how much I enjoy the show. Thankfully, her assistant pulled her away before Adam mentions that he sat next to her at last year's MTV video awards show. Cause you know, she'd obviously remember that. I drag Adam, picking his jaw up off the carpet to our seats. The show ( which
wasn'tthat good by the way) is at Studio 54. And if you've ever been there
you know they seat 4 people around a very small cocktail table. So we
sit and look at our program and see Nathan Lane, Tim Burton and some
other minor celebs around. Then an usher shows this woman to her seat
at our table. I'm thinking gee she looks familiar. Then it dawns on
me, it's Kim's assistant. A huge smile breaks over Adam's face...this
can't be happening! Sure enough Kim comes over and sits down at our
table. She looks at us and says "It's you two again." Adam springs up
to his feet and offers to buy everyone drinks. Did he offer me a drink
before they arrived? No. But hey anything for Kim right? When he's
back with our drinks, the director of theatre comes over to thank Adam
for his help in buying Studio 54. Adam interrupts Julia (the director)to say "Julia let me introduce you to my very old friend Kim Catral and this is my girlfriend Joanna" Thanks. So Julia tells Kim to very nice to Adam cause he bought Studio 54 for the theatre company. Well, Kim'seyes just light up! "You bought the theatre for them that's so generous of you", she leaned in and cooed. Back off blondie, Adam didn't buy anything. Adam goes on to explain that he was the budget director for the city of New York and he convinced the city to give the theatre company the money to buy Studio 54. Well, needless to say that was the last we heard from her that night. She dropped him like a hot
rock. I should mention she looked absolutely fabulous, better than on TV