CB’s House of Porn and Pancakes

So tonight I went to the Cards vs Brewers game, starting for the Cards was Suppan, who I believe will evolve into a good pitcher, but right now is pretty much a coin toss when he pitches, though you have to hand it to him, he can dig himself a hole and get out of it somehow……..

Pre-Game I went to my other home away from home, Syberg’s. Had my standard feast of the Cajun Chicken Philly and a couple of Bud Selects, I was ready for the game. Kamal met me there, we headed to the game to meet Art (who was at Paddy O’s) and Eric (who was at Jack Patrick’s and said he was going to drink enough so he wouldn’t feel the cold or his feet).

We get into the game, take our seats, the weather is nice, a couple infront of us catches my eye, the girl is wearing a vail on her visor. I’m thinking, what the f’, is this a bachelorette party??? Turns out they were married on the field before the game, I just have to say THAT IS AWESOME! Comments of course flew, “Thanks for having us to your reception”, etc. I threw out “I left your wedding gift at the gift table by the entrance……”

Suppan pitches a good game through the fourth, it seemed to me like the 3rd inning went on for a fortnight. Fifth inning starts and so does the rain……. Son of a……… We of course don’t have umbrellas, course according to the weathermen, it wasn’t suppose to rain that night, course what do they know, they only have lots of education, trianing and millions of dollars worth of equipment that could probably plot which car a bird is going to dive bomb but not where the water filled clouds are going to go…….. But I digress………. The Cards were up by 2, Suppan was one out away from making the game official incase it got rained out and he took for ever to get that last out…….

The game was never halted but it was by far the longest game I’ve ever sat through……. We stayed until the end, we saw Izzy pull a rib and get taken out of the game and Flores finish out the game.

Other highlights:

- Bob Ucher flipped the count down sign from 71 to 70

- After several beers we came to the conclusion that Reggie Sanders is the new Ray Lankford, the only way he gets on base is by being beaned……. The drunk guys next to us were chanting Reggie K Sanders……..

- When a Brewer got hurt, the guy next to me screamed “He pulled his uterus!” I followed up with “He just sprained his Labia.” Yeah we are immature, but damnit, it’s much more fun this way!!

So Saturday night I went to the monthly dinner club. Go ahead and post your mocking comments, but I’m sure for everything you can come up with, I’ll have a response…….. Plus it’s really the only time I get to hang with my married friends. And I did make the appetizer from scratch……….. The girls were in one room, the guys are in the TV room, the host, surfing the TV stations runs across the movie The Girl Next Door. Incase you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a romantic comedy about a boy with a future and a girl with a past and oh yeah, it revolves around porn because she’s a porn star! It was entertaining but I do have to say the porn convention they went to in the movie is not close to the real thing in Vegas, eeerrr so I’ve heard, I’ve never been……..

After dinner I headed to Amy and Andrew’s for Andrew’s birthday. (on a sidenote, he’s a year older than me, HA! - just incase he’s reading this) It was a fun party, laid back, lots of booze, it was good catching up with everyone. Amy felt it necessary to fill my glass up with a new drink eventhough I was only half way through the current drink…….. It happens…….. That night we redefined the common adjectives that describe a person’s condition while drinking and strived to reach certain levels, plus created a completely new group…….. (you’d think the older we get the more responsible we would be, not so much….) I naturally was the last to leave. Got several calls on the way home to meet up with people, I declined because I was beat, it was a long day, lots of booze and most were going to the Cheshire, if you know me, that’s not a place I frequent….

Slept in Sunday, watched the Cards game and took it easy. It was a good weekend all around!

So my Friday was a very welcome arrival, it had been a long week of meetings, spreadsheets and more meetings. I was glad the weekend was here. I had called around to see what everyone was doing, blast no one was really going out. Then I get the call…… My buddy Amit calls me and tells me that he is going to Brennan’s (my home away from home) with a group of people. So I wander up there, hang out downstairs with everyone. A cocktail later we head to the old Auto Parts Row to a Fashion Show that is held in a cool space that reminded me of something you’d see in Soho or a Rave back in the day. Needles was spinning on the all to familiar looking Red Bull DJ Booth. Great show, very nice models for the most part and some interesting outfits…… (especially the Peacock…….) After the show, we debated about heading to ten-14 for another fashion show (I’m not pretencious, I just love scantly clad women parading up and down the runway……) but we figure by the time we get there, the show would be over and near closing time……. We decide to go to Pepper Lounge for “a drink.” Several drinks later we realize it’s about 2am and we are all getting tired…….. We head out and are hungry. Can’t go to Syberg’s, Tom isn’t working tonight, we end up at Taco Bell. We bypassed the Hampton location and opted for the one on Delmar. We roll up, greeted with the usual “Welcome to Taco Bell” and we expected to hear a listing of what they were out of……… but they weren’t out of anything. Four soft tacos later I go to bed and wake up a few hours later to go to the Rams Draft Party at Rams Park. All in all good times! I went home to get some sleep before that evening………

So I ran across this news article from my friends at Newsmax.com, the Left Coast Report, A Political Look at Hollywood (Story was originally printed through CNSNews.com). It always makes me chuckle when millionaires in Hollywood or really any walk of life try to preach to the rest of us as “ugly Americans that consume to much.” What made me laugh was this article focused on MTV’s new eco-friendly series, Trippin’ that involves movie star Cameron Diaz and her friends “rough it” in some developing countries and they praise the people for “being in touch with Mother Nature.” The article does a nice job showing both sides, one quote really jumped out at me:

“A critic of the environmental movement condemned the new MTV series.

“There’s something perverse and immoral when multi-millionaire Hollywood celebrities head off on junkets in the jungle - and then preach to us lesser mortals about the joys of the simple life, and how we should protect the Earth, conserve energy, prevent global warming, and help the poorest people on our planet continue “enjoying” their poverty, malnutrition and premature death,” said Paul Dreissen, author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power/Black Death told Cybercast News Service.”

I’m all for helping out the environment (as long as it doesn’t hurt industry to much, come on, I may be moderate but I lean to the right….. ), but these people live in huge mansions, drive luxury cars and jet set where ever they want……. How is a week/month “roughing it” make it their right to preach to the rest of us…… The article does a great job about pointing out the bigger issues, devastating poverty, high infant mortality rate and short life span…. Really those issues should take the for front than “Respect Mother Earth”. You can never stamp out poverty, but you can improve their quality of life……..

Check out the article:

Celebs, MTV Ignore Death, Poverty on MTV Enviro Series

By Marc Morano

CNSNews.com — A new MTV series features Hollywood celebrities praising the developing world’s primitive lifestyles as earth-friendly — despite those poor nations’ high infant mortality rates and short life expectancies.

The eco-tourism show, called “Trippin’,” premiered on March 28 and was heavily promoted in the runup to Earth Day. The show encourages environmental awareness and lauds traditional tribal lifestyles, which lack running water, electricity and other basic infrastructure.

The MTV series features actress Cameron Diaz and a rotating crew of “her close, personal friends [who] think globally and act globally.” They tour developing nations, incuding Nepal, Bhutan, Tanzania, Honduras and visit remote villages in Chile.

Actress Drew Barrymore, who reportedly earns $15 million a film, told MTV viewers in one episode that after spending time in a primitive, electricity-free Chilean village, “I aspire to be like them more.”

Barrymore, apparently enthralled by the lack of a modern sanitary facilities, gleefully bragged, “I took a poo in the woods hunched over like an animal. It was awesome.”

The 32-year-old Diaz, who earns a reported $20-million a movie, boasted that the cow-dung slathered walls of a Nepalese village hut were “beautiful” and “inspiring,” and she called the primitive practice of “pounding mud” with sticks to construct a building foundation “the coolest thing.”

Diaz also criticized the lifestyles of many Americans after visiting an indigenous village in Chile. “It’s kinda gotten out of hand how much convenience we think we need,” she said.

Despite the celebrities’ praise for the primitive life, “Trippin’” shows them flying on multiple airplanes and chartering at least two helicopters and one boat to reach remote locations over the course of the first four episodes.

The series also showed the celebrities being chauffeured to the airport in a full-size Chevy SUV — despite several on-screen, anti-SUV factoids noting how environmentally unfriendly SUVs are.

Diaz, who starred in “Charlie’s Angel’s” and “There’s Something About Mary,” travels the world “in the name of the Mother Earth” with a host of different celebrities including Barrymore, actresses Eva Mendez and Jessica Alba, rapper Redman, and rocker Kid Rock.

Environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council also are featured in the series, to provide commentary and analysis on environmental issues.

The first four episodes of the MTV series made scant mention of the difficult economic and social conditions of the countries visited. Bhutan, a country that received particular praise from Diaz for its environmental policies, has one of the highest infant mortality rates (103 infant deaths per 1,000 live births) and lowest life expectancies (54 years) in the world.

By comparison, the United States, which Diaz described as having too much “convenience,” has an infant mortality rate of only 6.6 per 1000 and an average life expectancy of more than 77 years.

Located between China and India in the Himalayan Mountains, Bhutan was profiled on the second episode of “Trippin’.” Diaz described it as the “only country in the world where forest cover is increasing.”

According to CIA estimates, Bhutan has one of the world’s smallest and least developed economies, with the country’s 2-million people surviving mostly on the crops they grow themselves.

“My favorite thing about Bhutan is they measure their country’s wealth, not based on dollar amount but on gross national happiness,” Diaz said.

Diaz was happy to learn that 72 percent of the country is still covered in forest. “That is so awesome. I like Bhutan,” Diaz said, noting that the country has “maintained a careful balance of Old World tradition and modern convenience.”

“Life moves at a different pace here in Bhutan,” she said. “The fusion of religion, tradition and a genuine respect for the environment give the whole country a peaceful balance.”

Actress Eva Mendez, who accompanied Diaz to Nepal and Bhutan, was inspired by the natural beauty of her surroundings: “Nature is so much fun,” she said.

‘Poo in the woods’

Throughout their travels, the celebrities revel in the fact that they are in the middle of “nowhere,” without running water, electricity, television, radio and the Internet.

When Barrymore (star of “E.T.” and “Charlie’s Angel’s,” to name a few of her films) bragged about defecating in the forest, Diaz responded she would like to have the same experience.

“I am so jealous right now, I am going — I am going to the woods tomorrow,” Diaz said. A clearly satisfied Barrymore laughed, repeating, “It was awesome.”

Diaz lauded the Nepalese villagers’ practice of slathering cow dung as a form of wall plaster used to coat the walls: “Nothing goes to waste. It is beautiful. It is inspiring,” she said. “It is incredible to see how in tune these people are with the environment; they are completely self-sufficient, Diaz added.

Daily routines of the local citizenry are featured on the series, including pounding mud with large sticks for hours — for the foundation of a new monastery in Bhutan.

“I am going to go pound some mud, baby! Mmm,” Diaz said to the cameras. “It was the coolest thing to be a part of,” she added.

As video of mud-pounding filled the TV screen, Diaz explained, “They (Nepalese villagers) continue to live in harmony with the world around them. It’s a way of living very different than what we are used to. It seems to work.”

But MTV viewers were not informed that Nepal has an infant mortality rate of nearly 69 deaths per 1,000 live births, about ten times the infant death rate in the U.S. Nor did they hear that life expectancy in Nepal is 59 years.

‘They teach me so much’

Bhutan was praised by Diaz because she claimed the residents voluntarily rejected electricity in order to save the “endangered black neck crane.”

“These people have decided that keeping the cranes in their valley is more important than having the convenience of electricity,” Diaz noted.

“It is admirable that they would give up that convenience, because if they were to build power lines here, the birds would lose their habitat here and disappear from the landscape of Bhutan, ending centuries of tradition,” she added.

Diaz was less enthusiastic about the modern American lifestyle: “It’s kinda gotten out of hand how much convenience we think we need,” Diaz said after visiting an indigenous Chilean village in the fourth episode.

Barrymore praised the Chileans living in a remote, electricity-free village as “people who are walking the walk and doing it [environmentalism]; they teach me so much.”

The Hollywood celebrities also took time out from sight-seeing to express concern about proposed development projects in the countries they were visiting. Projects ranging from a proposed highway in the Chilean forest to a proposed aluminum smelter were criticized because of their perceived negative environmental and societal impact.

Diaz offered an alternative to the proposed aluminum factory: “Each of us can make a difference. If everyone recycled the aluminum cans they used, there would be no need for new smelters,” Diaz told viewers.

“So stop being a f—ng (bleeped by MTV) pig and recycle your aluminum cans,” she added with a laugh.

Diaz also explained her opposition to the proposed highway: “They are going to replace something that is truly unique with something that is everywhere.”

‘Perverse and immoral’

A critic of the environmental movement condemned the new MTV series.

“There’s something perverse and immoral when multi-millionaire Hollywood celebrities head off on junkets in the jungle - and then preach to us lesser mortals about the joys of the simple life, and how we should protect the Earth, conserve energy, prevent global warming, and help the poorest people on our planet continue “enjoying” their poverty, malnutrition and premature death,” said Paul Dreissen, author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power/Black Death told Cybercast News Service.

“Life in these developing countries is still nasty, brutish and short. And that there is a reason our parents and grandparents worked so hard to create modern homes and hospitals and technologies, so they could leave behind the unsafe water, dung fires, pollution, rotted teeth, infant mortality and life expectancies half or ours,” said Driessen.

“This entire MTV series totally glosses over the hardships and premature death that is right before their eyes. Even mentioning these facts would obviously get in the way of their ideological message, and their determination to turn [MTV viewers] into little ventriloquist’s dummies for the sustainable development movement,” Driessen explained.

‘Love our planet all the time’

After her visit to Chile, Barrymore expressed guilt about not always adhering to earth-friendly practices.

“Like I leave the light on all the time in my house because I want to feel safe. I am so spoiled, I am — I am going to start conserving,” Barrymore insisted.

“It is just overwhelming how important it is to like, love our planet all the time and not take advantage of it,” Barrymore concluded.

In an effort to explain the celebrities’ use of pollution-generating planes and SUVs to get from one remote location to another, “Trippin’” features a program note at the end of each show, stating: “To reduce global warming, “Trippin’” offset all of the energy used to make this show by supporting renewable energy products.” According to the environmental publication Grist Magazine, the MTV series “purchased carbon credits to offset pollution,” which was generated as part of producing the series.

An MTV spokeswoman declined to provide a representative of “Trippin’” to comment on this article. Diaz’s publicist e-mailed Cybercast News Service, writing, “Sorry, she (Diaz) is not available at this time.” Barrymore’s publicist said the actress was also unavailable.

“Trippin’” airs Monday nights at 10:30 Eastern time.

So I get this pic from George and he simply asked “Anything wrong with this picture?” My question is Whatever happened to just throwing your arm around an injured player and carrying him off the field????? I really hope there isn’t any pics of the locker room examination, click on the Nomar’s TLC link to see what we are talking about………. GO CARDS!

Nomar’s TLC

So the bookie’s favorite all the way through was just elected Pope. Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany accepted the nomination and took the name Benedict XVI. Hopefully he can continue on JP II’s programs while still reforming the Church. Only time will tell

So it appears my brethern on the Emerald Isle are placing bets on who will be the next Pope…… So far the leaders are the Italian born Cardinal who is now in South America (rumors were they wanted an Italian descent Pope or one from South America, this covers both) and a Nigerian Cardinal. I thought it was interesting and I find the whole choosing an new Pope an interesting process deeply rooted in centuries of traditions……. JP II was elected in under 24 hrs, this time, it may take a little longer, you have to make sure you cover the spread…..

Here’s the story if you are interested…….

Betting on the Pope

If you want to see the current odds:

Betting Line on the next Pope

PS - Before you ask, no I didn’t place a bet, but if I were a betting man, I’d put $50 on the Italian in South America, they have had a Pope from Africa, but never from South America were Catholicism has really taken off (ok, so I may have helped with handicapping the odds…..)

So my weekend kicked off on Friday. I was planning on going to the Night of the Rising Stars at the Pageant. Incase you aren’t familiar with the event, it’s a charitable event, all the proceeds goes to hospitals that provide hardware for kids with MS, so in short, it’s all for the kids! The ticket price included four drink tickets, so really it wasn’t a bad deal all the way around and again, it was all for the kids……… Before the show I met a couple of friends at my home away from home, Brennan’s. I thought we’d only get wine by the glass, but ended up ordering a bottle and we polished it off and headed to the show. Upon entering the event, I was given 4 drink tickets, I was like “Sweeeeeeeet! 4 free drinks and free food!” But thanks to my favorite red headed gal, I got as many tickets as I needed for the evening…… After the event, we were all in various states of intoxication, we decide let’s go to Courtesy Diner! I offered Uncle Bill’s (24 hr Pancake House on Kingshighway) as a worthy alternative, but Courtesy won out. We get to Courtesy, I was elected to select music from the Juke Box, not knowing exactly what to do, I recruit another, slightly more toxicated person to help out. I fed the dollar in and she blurted out numbers of songs, I just kept typing them in until the machine didn’t let me do that anymore……. We take our seats, looking at the menu, the one thing that jumps out at me is SLINGER. I was thinking, “that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner all rolled into one! SOLD!” Me ordering the Slinger, spurred a few drunken calls from people at the table, I may have called a person or two also…….. After Courtesy, I called it a night.

I had all sorts of grand ideas of things I wanted to do, I accomplished none of them…… I did though take my dog to Forest Park and met some of my buddies over there. It was a great day and lots of lovely ladies were all over the park. The only thing that freaked me out was seeing an all women’s flage football game. Normally I’m a big fan of girls running around trying to touch each other, but these girls were BUFF! I mean a lot of them dwarfed me in size…….. I got home, watched a little of the cards game, slept and had to get ready for Trivia Night with the married folks…… Trivia Night was a blast, we took second to last, but made full use of the beer! Some odd questions were; What is the full mailing address for Laclede Gas Billing? What is Fredrick Roofing’s phone number? I was able to contribute to a bunch of questions, so I carried my weight…… After Trivia Night went back to my buddy’s place for a bit, we all hung out and I called it a night around midnight, I was pretty sore from walking about 6+ miles in the park……

Sunday is my Saturday, ran a bunch of errands, watching the Cards game and getting ready to celebrate some more family birthdays tonight. I swear anymore bdays in April and I’m going to go broke……

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20050412/ap_on_re_us/killing_wild_cats

I guess Wisc will have a lot more tennis rackets made……

Round II of the Birthday Weekend Extravaganza started off with my covering my bright red sunburned skin with Aloe…… After I got the pain of the sunburn under control, I headed to Syberg’s for a quick bloody mary and to take the shuttle to the Cards game. The game was not good, Suppan looked good for a bit and then pretty much got abused like a terminally ill boy in the company of Michael Jackson. (yeah I said it, what?) A kosher hot dog and a few beers (which the food took us an inning and a half to get, you’d think a line of only 4 people deep would move a lot quicker) later I find myself back at Syberg’s for a little bit. Headed home to get ready for the Seven Deadly Sins party in a few hours. Incase you aren’t familiar with the Seven Deadly Sins, they are; Gluttonly, Sloth, Anger Greed, Lust, Envy and Pride. My goal that night was to incorporate all Seven Deadly Sins into one night. I was successful! We started off the evening at Red Moon for dinner. This was to take care of Gluttony and Sloth. Gluttony was taken care of when most of us ordered the Prime Rib dinner special (which was odd for a French/Asian themed place, but hey, I wasn’t complaining!) The prime rib I got I swear to God was half of the cow, this thing was massive! I ate 3/4 of it and then surrendered….. it was damn good, plus it didn’t help that we ordered all sorts of appetizers beforehand…… After dinner we headed over to Fairmount Race Track to bet on the ponies and to knock out a few more sins…. We were able to knock out Anger, Greed, Envy and Lust. Here’s how they broke down:

Anger: When the 7 horse in the 4th race was highly touted, we all bet him and the ambulance damn near beat the horse…….

Greed: The pursuit of money through gambling, just winning once wasn’t enough

Envy: Kyle was winning some big races and his ship came in when he hit a bit exacta bet!

Lust: Suzy white pants, need I say anymore…….

The highlight of the evening was before the 7th race got underway, we were standing outside watching the horses being led by, I had many bets that race, almost all my bets have the #1 horse involved…… Well we were waiting for the horses to get into the gate, we hear a comotion and the #1 horse is running the wrong way on the track, minus the jockey…… Son of a…… #1 gets scratched and the race is delayed for some time as the handlers try to catch the horse…… So I got back to the window, change up my bets and proceed to get worked over that race…… I sit out the 8th race and bet the 9th and 10th race. Won some money. I think I lost $10 the whole night. Tom all night had been egging Art on to “bet the wheel”, the final race, Art and Tom combine their money and do the bet. Essentially they pick a winner and it doesn’t matter who comes in 2nd or 3rd, as long as your horse wins you win some money. It’s a cool bet and they hit it. The problem was the winning horse’s odds were even money, the 2nd and 3rd horse had decent odds. They made some money and that was a good way to end the night. Most of us were wiped out and called it a night. It was definately a great way to ring in a new decade!