Fooood alright?- Frank Alexander

Over the years, I've lived in many places, and tried many foods. I'm sure whatever podunk town you are from, you think you have the best whatever known to man. Well let me tell ya something Mean Gene: It is a proven fact that New York has the best food. And to clarify, New York does not mean upstate, empire, western, whatever those hick towns are. It also doesn't mean Manhattan. Nope. For real "New York" goodness, you either have to go to Brooklyn or North Jersey.

So you won't tell anyone?- Monique Junot 

What, that you're a Dodgers fan?- Lane Meyer

Back in October, I tried watching the Devils/Isles game at a local sports bar. Since this is Connecticut, nobody cares about hockey, so there is no place with the Center Ice package. Stop with the Whale... I've already covered that load of crap here... this is just a side story from that evening. I figured since I had ventured out of my hotel room, I might as well enjoy some adult beverages.  I was talking to a stewardess from Detroit, and although she was a Wings fan, a hockey fan is better than nothing.

There's two things I hate: credit card companies, and the New York Rangers. They are like the anti chocolate and peanut butter. Why not put two things that suck together? I went to the Capitol One Card Lab, and that is exactly what I did.

I'll have to wait to see if it gets through their review process. In the mean time, I got these:

"Go dust off your boots, and your winged horn salute, Grow back your mullet and leather and chains, in the name of Ronnie James... SHOW ME THE ROCK"- Knuckle Sandwich

One day I had some free time in Binghampton, NY. So I headed up to Cortland: The Childhood Home of Ronnie James Dio. They named a street after him, Dio Way. Of course it isn't the main drag, just a crappy one block street next to a truck terminal.

"flush your XM down the toilet, buy a Sirius and then f### your mother!" - Li'l Jimmy Norton

I've been a loyal subscriber to XM Satellite Radio since the week before Opie and Anthony made their XM debut. Yup... I paid the extra $2/month when it was a premium channel. I figured I'd listen to O+A, but besides that, seriously, why pay for music radio? Within 10minutes of having my Roady2 hooked up and tuned to Fungus53, I knew that I would never be able to listen to terrestrial radio again.

The great thing about satrad was the ability to have “niche stations”. Instead of one country station, you could have five, tailored to different specific styles and tastes. Same with Rock, Jazz, Blues, R+B, Hip-Hop... which Hank Williams do you like? They can all be found on XM. You want to hear DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince? We'll, they are on one channel, and NWA is on another... UNCENSORED. I told anyone that would listen how great satellite radio, and specifically XM radio was. Sure there were differences in programming, hoo-hoo, but XM always had far superior equipment.

When I upgraded to the 1^st gen portable MyFi, instead of canceling my Roady2, I would lend it out to friends to get them hooked on satrad. “Oh... you miss Ron and Fez from the 'NEW days? They're on XM from noon-to-three. " check 'em out. "yep.. they've got NHL now... and MLB" This was the greatest company with the greatest content. Hell, listeners of The Virus were encouraged to send cock pics to the executive VP of Programming... AND HE WOULD RESPOND. Guys like Lee Abrams and E-Lo... they knew a thing or two about GOOD radio.

XM hadn't made any money yet, but they had gotten good OEM deals with the auto industry. They had a good stable of exclusive personalities, and exclusive content. They had great equipment, like the 2^nd gen portable Inno, or the time shifting SkiFy. If you had direct TV, you could even get XM content in your house without having to deal with additional hardware. Plus there was Fungus53... the best damned radio station ever. Sometimes things wouldn't go the listener's way: XMLM, Homeless Charlie, having The Virus pulled from DirectTV... but with a little bit of noise, everything worked out. After all, we weren't passive listeners, we were ACTIVE PAYING CUSTOMERS.

And then there was the Merger.

I'm Home. And by home I mean Hartford. Holy crap did I have a weird weekend. I didn't spend much time in actual Chicago, but I saw enough to know I need to get back there. Originally I was going to take Amtrak, and get hammered for 18hours in the bar car. Just before I bought my ticket, the airlines dropped their prices, so I ended up taking a plane. I was a little nervous about flying on the day before Thanksgiving, but the flight was early enough that I guess I beat the rush. On a quick layover in Detroit, I saw an odd book display. On one side, it was Artie Lang, on the other side it was Dennis Leary. So I got Artie on one side, Dennis on the other, and who's in the middle saying "what do you want from me?". Would've been nice if it was Li'l Jimmy Norton, but nope. The book in the middle was called TED. I guess he is some rich guy who owns "Ted's Cable News Emporium"

It was weird seeing my buddy... we go years without talking, and next thing you know,  he's picking me up at Midway, and we start talking like we hang out everyday. Until I make a special request. I ask if we can go up to the north side, because... umm... I need a ummm.... a cupcake. I attempt to explain myself, but he stops me and says, "you just got to Chicago. The only thing you want to do is get a cupcake... there must be a very good reason, so I'll trust you".  Of course there is a good reason. It's Molly's Cupcakes, home of the wold famous "Ron Bennington Has His Own Cupcake" cupcake. So we get there, I confidently walk to the counter and say, "I would like two 'Ron Bennington Has His Own Cupcake' cupcakes". I was promptly asked If I was a fan of Ron and Fez, to which I replied "NOON TO THREE!". Let me tell you something brother, I know my way around the dessert cart, and this was probably one of the best things I've ever had. Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, Chocolate... 

“Rich Vos Sucks”, everybody

The real reason I went to Cooperstown while working upstate, was to visit the Ommegang Brewery. I’m not really big on the Belgian Ales, and I don’t think I had ever tried Ommegang, but every beer snob thread on Fark.com is dominated by people posting “Ommegang FTW” If a beer wins the Fark Beer Snob Seal of Approval, it must be decent.

"To my dozens and dozens of fans..."- Mick Foley

Well, got some info from Gamecenter... the hi-res feed is about 1.2G per game, and I'm assuming the others are about .6G and .9G each.

Alright, since the hotel I'm currently in has really crappy WiFi and my Verizon Wireless only gives me 5G for the month, I'll just go to a bar. After all, I'm right outside of Hartford, and everybody is always so quick to point out how great Hartford is for hockey.