Nose for News

We had an interesting discussion in my Poli Sci class the other day about what most people use as their source for news. Everyone in the class had to say if they watched news on TV, listened to it on the radio, read the newspaper, etc. Interesting point number 1: one of my classmates said that he only cares about news that can help him and stated, and I quote, "Janet Jackson's breasts won't help me in the long run." Now that's a good quote. Interesting point number 2: several students said that when they read the paper, they head for the police blotter. I am not alone in this world. Speaking of the blotter, yesterday's had an entry (I'm not completely clear on the details, for some reason the H-N website doesn't have Monday's blotter up) involving a man harassing area residents by making snow angels.

What's new lately? I'm really wondering when this Sapphire club deal is opening, I thought it was supposed to be this month. I'm always excited about new Joliet establishments. We're right in the middle of the winter blahs and it's about time for something new and exciting. Speaking of new, but more disturbing than exciting, I saw someone dressed up as a life size teddy bear on Jefferson today who was advertising for Josie O'Kain's. It looked like something out of the Shining and yes, I screamed.

Speaking of something not new, but always exciting, Samy's on Thursday was surprisingly quite crowded despite the snow. I caught up with Angie, who had a disturbing encounter with someone I've forgotten to mention up until now on Whiskey Tango: Suggestive Shot Girl. The SSG is a Samy's employee who is usually scantily clad and travels the environs of Samy's dancing on and with bar patrons as she sells shots. The shots are often poured into patrons' mouths or given in other unorthodox ways. Luckily, the SSG has never danced up on me, but Courtney and Nancy have been unwitting victims of her cavorting. Angie's experience with the SSG unfolded when a friend wanted to buy her a shot of tequila, and petitioned SSG to make the purchase. Somehow the tequila shot situation became a body shot situation, as Angie was required to lick the salt off SSG's chest (she apparently faked this and did not make contact), take the shot, and then take the lime out of SSG's mouth. Situations like this are why in the rare occurrence that I do a shot, I go up to the bar.

In other news, talks continued with the Canadian golfer and friends for the dodgeball party, but no conclusions were reached. I may have to do some research. I'm somewhat disturbed at current trends in dance music; two popular songs at Samy's are the "This Is How It Feels to F**k on Cocaine" song (note: if conditions on the dance floor during that song are any indication, "How It Feels" involves being bumped into a lot and getting beer spilled on you) and the "Face Down, Ass Up, That's the Way We Like to F**k" song. Though whoever created the Cocaine song was very kind to try to give listeners who have no interested in having sex while on cocaine a musical approximation of the experience, both of the songs, much like the 2002 favorite "My Neck, My Back" song, are what I call "Time to Stop Dancing and Take a Lap" Songs.

Friday night Courtney and I went to see "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" at Ghetto 8. I loved this movie. Yes, I do like a lot of crappy movies, but this was really cute. Also entertaining was the surprise appearance, in the (sadly) non-speaking role of grocery bagger, of Average Joe 2: Hawaii's David Daskal. After David made his appearance, Courtney and I (along with some random high schoolers down the role) could not contain our laughter for the rest of the film and subsequently got shushed by fellow cinemagoers. All David Daskal cameos aside, I really liked this movie, it was cute and not only was the guy who played Tad Hamilton hot, Topher Grace looked surprisingly hot without his hair in "That '70's Style." Rating: 3 stars, fine family fun.

Saturday I headed to Chicago with Shannon and Joe for the Young Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago 's Pub Crawl. After a big lunch/dinner at my favorite restaurant in the whole world, the Flat Top Grill, we headed to the first pub, Jack Sullivan's, to get our drink on. Shannon and I were a little amazed as we appeared to have entered Clone World: the majority of the girls on the pub crawl had long brown hair, wool coats, and tops from Express, Banana Republic and/or Gap. Shannon kept a running Claddagh Ring Count going throughout the night and I'm sure it ended up in double digits. The Pub Crawl encompassed 4 bars (it was supposed to be 5, but one of them had too many people due to a wedding so we doubled our time at another bars) in 8 hours and offered unlimited domestic beer and wine, so you can imagine we were pretty wiped out by the end of it. Highlights included riding on a school bus for the first time in a long time (and getting to go out the emergency exit!!!) and a brush with celebrity. At the last bar of the night, Durkin's, I saw a guy that looked really familiar. I couldn't place where I knew him and I had seen him around Joliet. Eventually I went up to him and asked if he was from Joliet. He said that he was from Oak Park. The buzzer in my head went off: the guy was from High School Reunion, the reality show about kids from Oak Park-River Forest High School reuniting in Hawaii. Probably not a lot of you recall this show, but my family and I were big fans because the class was my cousin's graduating class and some of his friends were on the show, including the guy I met at Durkin's. It was pretty crazy. In other reality star news, Wendy informed me that Andrew Firestone was at the Auto Show on Sunday, but unfortunately I did not see him. Also, Clay Aiken was apparently visiting McDonald's corporate offices today. He may very well be scarier than Grimace.

On Sunday we ate lunch and went to the Auto Show, which was a new experience for me. I was quite entertained by the Airbrushed T-shirt stand that had classics like "Cutie Wit' Da Booty." I had a great time, though knowing now that I could have met Andrew Firestone takes it down a notch. Other than that, not much else is new. Adios!