GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD CHEER...

...dogs love Christmas too...we've all heard that line many times but who really believed it...well our crack team of reporters has been investigating and we can now provide proof positive not only that it's true, but also the reason why our canine friends like the season of merriment...

...dreaming of a honkey Christmas....Faux News (Fox) blond bimbo anchor Megyn ("Megyn"-her own spelling) Kelly has set the record straight by assuring her audience that both Santa and Jesus are lily white...just sayin'...when challenged on such an irrelevant and myopic statement, Faux News doubled down by trotting out Bill ("O'Really?") O'Reilly, another open-minded Irish-American (NOT!), to rescue the poor little damsel Megyn...Faux never got around to explaining the supposed relevance of all this but their repeated claims of Jesus' alleged Nordic properties served to emphasize just how relevant skin color really is to people like Kelly and O'Reilly and their band of un-merry morons...but what can we expect from a person named Kelly who doesn't even know how to spell her own "Christian" name and names her newborn "Thatcher"...as they say, you can't make this stuff up...

"and I'm of North African descent - 

that's why Jesus looks just like me"

...fa-la-la-la-la la-la la-la...but away with those stooges...'tis the season to be jolly whether you're green or red, so in the true spirit I will share my favorite poem for this time of year...A Christmas Childhood was penned by Patrick Kavanagh, one of Ireland's greatest poets, and shows that even he was not the curmudgeon he is often portrayed as...herewith some of my favorite lines...

     One side of the potato-pits was white with frost -
     How wonderful that was, how wonderful!
     And when we put our ears to the paling-post
     The music that came out was magical.
     *   *   *
     My father played the melodion
     Outside at our gate:
     There were stars in the morning east
     And they danced to his music.
     *   *   *
     Outside in the cow-house my mother
     Made the music of milking;
     The light of her stable-lamp was a star
     And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.

     A water-hen screeched in the bog;
     Mass-going feet
     Crunched the wafer-thin ice on the pot-holes,

     Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel.

     *   *   *
     I nicked six nicks on the door-post
     With my penknife's big blade -

     There was a little one for cutting tobacco.

     And I was six Christmases of age.

...I tried to play the melodion but....this week your dear editor (not to be confused with Dear Leader) was kindly invited to give a presentation to an Irish literature reading group...the host invited me to bring along my melodion (Irish accordion) for entertainment...which turned out to be a humbling occasion reminding me how flawed and precarious we all are...as most of you know, I've been playing about 10 years now and have progressed to a point where I can play a number of tunes pretty decently...so I carefully chose my playing list, practiced ahead, carefully pulled out my instrument, explained the back story of my tunes, and started playing...and started playing again...and started playing again...and again...and again...and stumbled on and...in a word, I was horrible...so I have come up with a new and better use for my accordion....

...and finally the Brew of the Month... is Port City Brewing Company's "Tidings"...a very nicey-spicey ale just right for the holidays...but beware - this one carries a 7.8% alcohol content...

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND MERRY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!!

- the Brewmeister -

                        

DOGS RULE AND OTHER TAILS OF FOOLISHNESS

..."just the facts"...with the help of our Boston correspondent Kelly, Sammy the Shih Tzu was declared innocent of all charges on Nov. 1 by DC Superior Court Judge Wright...increasingly irritated by the Plaintiff's hedging, hawing, equivocating and flat-out lying as he dragged out the trial to a whole day, the Judge provided a cryptic history lesson to Plaintiff by recalling the old TV show Dragnet, where Sgt. Joe Friday would instruct witnesses to state "just the facts, ma'am, just the facts"...the highlight in a day of many highlights and lowlights was when the Plaintiff repeatedly asked Kelly "how do you give a dog a pill in a cheeseball"...to which she patiently deadpanned that you wrap the pill up in a ball of cheese and give it to him and - surprise! - the dog eats it...after many minutes of this nonsense, the Judge cut it off with the comment "I think I know how you give a dog a cheeseball"... or as the old joke goes, wrap the pill in cheese and toss it in the air...or go to
http://video.about.com/vetmedicine/How-to-Give-a-Dog-a-Pill.htm ...so ludicrous were the Plaintiff's questions to your editor that most of them ended with the Judge turning to me and saying "Don't answer that" or "You don't have to answer that"...in the end, the exasperated Judge summed up that the trial should have taken one hour at most but had lasted all afternoon, and ruled that rabies shots were completely unnecessary since Sammy was obviously vaccinated at all times...Sammy is now considering counter-suing for defamation of character...

                Sammy's Revenge

...Hizdizonner...What is it about North American Mayors?...we've had Kwame "(show-me-the-money") Brown thrown in jail in Detroit, Bob ("Filthy") Filner thrown out of office in San Diego, and now comes Rob ("the taxpayer") Ford in Toronto...we could go on about how he explained smoking crack by saying he was in "a drunken stupor" (oh, that explains it)...or how he knocked over a gray-haired councilwoman during a public meeting, or how he denied pressuring a female staff member for oral sex by saying that he got it at home, but we really think one picture of this guy says more than we ever could about how fit he is to run a major city...

 

...Say it ain't so, Joe...Vice President Joe Biden was so excited that Marty Walsh won the Boston mayoral primary that he rang him up to offer congratulations...trouble was, it was the wrong Marty Walsh...it seems that the name is legion in the Boston area...we hope the Veep eventually got the right guy...
...the Royal "we" - that explains everything...Sen. Rand Paul (Liar-KY), having been exposed of plaigerizing others' work at least three times, including in a book he published, has responded like - well, like a plaigerizing hypocrite...instead of "manning up", Paul is blaming his staff...“What we are going to do from here forward, if it will make people leave me the hell alone, is we’re going to do them like college papers,” he said...in case his attempt to shift blame from himself wasn't clear, he added that “we’ve never intended to deceive people, and we’ve made mistakes"...reminds me of what Tonto said when the Lone Ranger told him we're surrounded..."what you mean we, white man?"...      
...Oops!...expressing European outrage at the US Soviet-model spying network, Le Monde pitched up a rare English language headline saying "No You Can't", a caustic turn on President Obama's campaign slogan of "Yes We Can"...no word on whether the Paris newspaper is considering a retraction since it has now been revealed that the European governments, including specifically the Froggies, were in total cahoots with the US in gathering information on its own citizens...hey, what can we say, we Americans learned this stuff from you guys...

   

      US to Germany: "Hello Angela, how's your phone service?"

  ...it ogles the mind...in a shocking development, Faux News has reported that men actually "ogle" women's bodies...in a study that probably took all of two seconds due to the ready availability of willing and eager subjects, Dr. Sarah Gervals of the University of Nebraska fitted men with an eye-tracking system which measured how many milliseconds their eyes remained on a certain feature...milliseconds!???...incredibly, Dr. Sarah found that men look at women's bodies more than their faces, and in particular, "women with bigger breasts, narrower waists, and bigger hips prompted longer looks"...in a related development it is also reported than men's IQs drop more than 50 points while looking at women...

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/10/29/science-confirms-men-ogle-women/  (note from the site address that this ranks as "science" to Faux News)...

...if you ask me, they got off cheap...just read in the Irish Independent that a pub in Dublin charged some sucker $9.50 (€7.15) for a pint of beer...if one considers Coors to be a beer (it isn't)...the pub in question was the classic uber-touristy Oliver St. John Gogarty in Temple Bar...so there you have 1) the ultimate clueless American (who else would order a Coors?) 2) go into a faux pub 3) named after an upper crust Anglo 3) in the least-Irish part of Ireland and 4) order panther pis manufactured in Colorado...I say they didn't charge enough - there should have been an "idiot's surcharge"...

 

Eejit's Delight

...which brings us to our brew of the month...Old Jubilation Ale gets my nod for the upcoming holiday season...from Avery Brewery in Colorado, it has a fresh, clear taste, lighter than most ales, very crisp, with a nice finish...

 

...speaking of which - I think I'm finished, and it's time for a couple of REAL beers in a REAL pub that doesn't charge an Anglo's ransom...

 

- the Brewmeister -
 

 

 

ITS NOT RAINING, BUT IT SURE IS CATS AND DOGS

...the doorknob principle, solved!...dog owners have long lived in terror that doggie scientists would someday crack "the doorknob principle" and thereby liberate house-confined pooches everywhere...on the other hand, no one - not even cat lovers - ever worried that stupid cats had any hope of solving the mystery of the doorknob...now, in truly terrifying footage, it has been discovered that a fiendish feline has figured out how to release itself and its canine companion from cruel kitchen captivity...WARNING: this video contains shocking images that some may find extremely disturbing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-24622710....

...the "wrong dog" is outed...meanwhile, in the continuing case of our phantom rabid canine, it has been presented to the Court that Sammy may not be "the wrong dog" after all...in a hearing this morning before Judge Wingo, the neighborhood nutcase suing your editor stated he didn't know which of my dogs(!) bit him but it could have been Sammy the Shih Tzu...after angrily ripping the eejit Plaintiff for completely changing his story and using "vitriolic" language against yours truly, and misleading the court, and lying about another matter, the Judge had no choice but to let the case go to trial next week since there was a fact in dispute, i.e., which dog!!!...but not before blasting the defendant again when he sarcastically said that he didn't ask the dog for his name...whereupon the Judge fairly unloaded on him because "you're in no position to be sarcastic to the court when you've submitted a pleading which is beyond uncivil" and then changed your story completely...you can be sure I will provide an update on this "dog" of a case...

 

...Halloween awaits...so with those scary stories, we can't wait to see what kind of cats venture forth on Halloween night...

 

...it's a hard job but somebody has to do it...the editor and chief correspondent of Pete's Brew have just returned from an exhausting field trip to sample the brews of Spain's Costa del Sol...first up on Day 1 was Ambar, a bottled beer served by our hosts the O'Callaghan's...for a snob who normally disdains bottled beers I am happy to report that this particular brew was so delicious that I was compelled to re-taste it on Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 during our week-long stay...next up was Cruz Campo on Day 2 (not to be confused with Sen. Ted (No) Cruz (Control) (Demagogue-TX))...CC was merely OK - perfectly suitable for mid-afternoon tapas but nothing to write home about so I'll stop writing about it...on Day 3 we got to sample Alhambra Especial and it was especialle indeed, a delightfully refreshing, full-bodied lager that required 2 pints to fully appreciate...next up was San Miguel on Day 4...this is also a fine Spanish lager, more body and better than Cruz Campo but not on the level of Alhambra...Day 5 demanded that we try Estella (or something like that - things were getting blurry by 1 PM!) at O'Callaghan's Pub which was outstanding and made all the better as we were treated like royalty at this charming wee Irish pub in the middle of Sambillas...but the best was held for last, a delicious beer called Jarra Rambia at a to-die-for tapas restaurant called Cruz Blanco, where we lolled away a sun-drenched afternoon on the patio while the gracious owner brought all kinds of delightful goodies to savor...

 

 

 

 

 

...update...a few words about the photos above...the first one is of the cliffside restaurant where we enjoyed a tapas lunch in Ronda, a lively mountain "white village" (or pueblo blanco)...the second picture shows street musicians in Ronda who were very happy to have their picture taken...the next two pictures are of Cadiz, the city on Spain's Atlantic Coast from which Columbus embarked on his voyage to the Americas...showing a typical sidewalk café scene and the old cathedral with its Moorish-inspired design...Cadiz is a fascinating ancient city that seamlessly mixes the old with the new...the fifth picture was taken from our friends Kevin and Jill's lovely patio overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and lastly is another tapas bar where we whiled away another lazy afternoon...
...and...we have received 2 more photos from our correspondents Sharon and Jill demonstrating just how difficult the Spanish beer tour was...the first is in O'Callaghan's Pub, the wee Irish Pub mentioned above, with Robert, the proprietor...the second picture is me with my new friend who is clearly lost on the wrong continent but is also clearly a fellow afficiando of fine brews...

 

...Duh and Duh-er...on our final flight leg back from Boston to DC I was stopped by a burly TSA agent at the airport who remarked that my driver's license had expired...ha ha, no way, I told him, thinking he was kidding...those boys don't kid!...he fairly glared at me as he pointed out that it had indeed expired last month, sending me frantically digging thru my carry-on to produce my passport...not sufficiently awakened by this encounter, three days later I was again stopped trying to enter the indie/punk/alt 9:30 Club in DC by an alert security guard who said my license was no good...the good guard let me in after asking me 1) if I was a cop, and 2) if I was from the Liquor Authority (honest - at least I didn't flub the answer and say yes!)...our niece Jennifer agreed that The Waterboys were terrific...and this story has a satisfying ending...when I presented my license renewal application to the DC Department of Motor Vehicles yesterday, the nice woman looked at it and said "you listed your hair color as grey/brown, which is it - you have to pick one"...so I did what anyone would in that situation and asked her, and of course she said: "BROWN"!...and I said "YES!!...you made my day you sweet thing!...

 

...so I know you're all awaiting my pick for the beer of the month...and the winner is Sam Adams Harvest Ale...for one who is not a fan of Sam Adams, I have to say it is de-lish-us!!...

  - the Brewmeister -

BATS IN THE BELFRY, ON THE FIELD, AND IN THE COURTHOUSE

 

...Baseball batboy lives up to his name...an Atlanta Braves batboy took his job literally during a game against the Phillies on August 14...with 2 outs and no one on base in the second inning, the batboy ran onto the field to rescue an actual bat - the flying type, that is... http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?topic_id=47149410&content_id=29715217...let's hope the ballboys don't try to emulate the batboy's sense of double-duty...

...Irish eyes are not smiling...Ireland has given the thumbs down to global giant Daigeo's too-slick-by-half promotion of "Arthur's Day" to sell more Guinness...ginned up (I couldn't resist) four years ago to "celebrate" the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness' establishment of the St. James Gate Brewery, the promo campaign has become a yearly prod for people to overindulge...cute the first time but no so humorous as an annual slog...a government health minister has slammed the ad as a phony "pseudo-national holiday" to encourage overindulgence at a time when the country is trying to curb its alcohol consumption...still we have to admit the black stuff is pretty tasty...

My favorite Guinness Girl

...No (cruz) control...Texas' demagogue Senator Ted (out-of-control) Cruz spent 21 hours promoting himself to an empty Senate Chamber this week...Tyrant Ted, whose fascist supporters have been touting for a Presidential run, talked endlessly about himself, his family, himself, his favorite foods, himself, his childhood, and himself....the performance was so brazen that his fellow Republicans have rounded on him...according to Politico, Sen. John (is this a great name or what!) Boozman (R-Ark) "lit into" Cruz, telling him he hasn't been bullied since schooldays and he won't be bullied now...others have lashed out at Cruz' trashing of fellow Republicans and for creating a nasty backlash...meanwhile, your Brew is just wondering where all the "Birthers" are concerning Canadian-born Cruz' Presidential aspirations...their silence is deafening...

...this case is a (non-existent) dog...last month we reported that a Judge in Ireland had adjourned a case because a dog was the main witness...now its deja vu all over again in Washington...your dog-loving editor has been sued by our neighborhood nutcase alleging that our dog bit him...but the Plaintiff told the Judge last week that "Sammy is the wrong dog" and that he was actually bitten by another dog - a rabid beast - owned by Murph and me...so our secret is out about "Igor the Terrible" our crazed canine that we keep chained in the basement, feed raw human flesh once a week, and let out on his own at night to terrorize our neighbors...shaking her head at the craziness of the story, the Judge adjourned the case for a month to give the Plaintiff time to prove that we own two dogs...shhh...don't tell anyone about Igor until this is over...

"It's the wrong dog, Grommit!"

...Irish eyes are smiling...new Irish Ambassador learned first-hand about the passion of Irish Americans this week when she spoke at the annual Robert Emmet Commemoration in Washington...Ambassador Anne Anderson, who took up her duties at the beginning of September, offered her vision for enhanced American-Irish relations and strategies for economic ties, and securing the peace in the North of Ireland, at the event sponsored by the Irish American Unity Conference on September 22...after the official program ended, the Ambassador engaged in some good-natured banter with the crowd, including my cousin Moira who could hardly contain her excitement...

Moira to Ambassador: "Guess what I've got behind my ear."

...Pete's featured brew...we close with a new feature that we are excited to add to the blog...my featured brew of the month...this month I am especially high (so to speak) on Blue Moon Belgium style beer...a wonderful, lively brew that is not overly hoppy and not at all bitter and is, like, so totally delicious...in fact, Blue Moon is so good that I spotted it on tap in a pub in Howth, Co. Dublin on my last visit...those Irish know good American beers when they see them...try one and enjoy!!

 

Cheers,



  - the Brewmeister -

...Death of a Naturalist...We are greatly saddened to learn today of the death of Seamus Heaney, the pre-eminent Irish poet and Nobel Laureate for Literature...Seamus is widely considered the greatest Irish poet since Yeats, but just as important he was also a great human being and was a singular force for reconciliation in the North of Ireland...he stood for the best in all of us, and all sides of the conflict in that still-troubled land respected him hugely...I was fortunate enough to attend a State dinner in Belfast City Hall in 2007 that was one of the first major civic events after the two sides had agreed on a government...to my utter amazement the crowd consisted of all the grand poo-bahs on all sides - Orangemen, Unionist politicians, Nationalist politicians, former IRA activists -- all having a virtual love-in...and at the center of it all was Seamus Heaney, the star of the night whom everyone tried to claim as their own...I was also fortunate to meet him at the same time, and he graciously posed with his wife Marie while I took their picture with Jon Stallworthy and Edna Longley...

For any of you who have not yet discovered Seamus Heaney's poetry, do yourself a favor and "dip in" to it...for those who are familiar with his work, go back and refresh your memory on what a superb talent he was......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Heaney;  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/seamus-heaney.. 
 

...this case really is a dog...on a lighter note from Ireland, the Mayo Advertiser reports that a court hearing on a drunk driving case has been suspended because the main witness is a dog...Judge Mary Devins adjourned the case noting that "this is the first case a dog is the main witness"...the pooch had awakened its owner by barking at the sound of a car crash near her house, but no one else could testify that the drunk in the car had actually been driving it...
 

...anything you can do I can do too, or, no fool like an old fool...closer to home, San Diego Democratic Mayor Bob ("Filthy") Filner showed again that Democrats can be and are just as disgusting as their Republican counterparts...Filthy Bob has finally resigned after eighteen (18!) women came forward that he made ungentlemanly moves toward them at work...this 70-year old creep's favorite target was his female chief assistant whom he badgered to come to work without panties...Mayor Filthy had refused to resign for weeks but finally came to his senses, leaving Anthony ("That Is So My") Weiner as the Dem's top contender for Pervert of the Year...but then again it's only August and Congress will be back in session soon...

...and hold the Mayo...while I was in County Mayo, Ireland, the past several weeks, the Mayo Irish football team (it’s a crazy cross between soccer and football, with dribbling, gouging and knee-capping also allowed) won the semifinal for the All-Ireland Championship...leaving just one game to go for the coveted “Sam Maguire" Trophy (affectionately known as “Sam”) ...it would be hard to overstate just how big a deal this is for County Mayo...Mayo has not lifted Sam  since 1951...now, local legend has it that since the 1951 team’s convoy passed a funeral on the way home, a curmudgeonly priest visited the full fury of the Lord on them by cursing the team until all its’ members were dead...and of course two of those lads from long ago are still alive – presumably with 24-hour bodyguards...so no one in Mayo is betting on their team, but  the whole County is now decked out in green and red, the Mayo team colors...here are some shots I took of the locals...

 

 

 ...and of course Mayo has its own fight song which is ubiquitous on the airwaves these days...with such complicated and catchy lyrics as these how could this year's team not be destined by the gods to carry Sam back to Mayo...well there are may ways actually but for now its...

Oh Sam Maguire
My heat's on fire
You know where you've got to go
You've been out on the run
Since 1951
This time you're coming home to Mayo.

...how could I possibly top that?...anyways, Labor Day weekend is upon us so without further ado or boo-hoo, delay or sa-shay...we sign off in time to draw a cold one before the sun goes down in America...

…deja view all over again…It is with delight that we report that Anthony (“That is my”) Weiner has “inserted” himself, so to speak, back into the raunchy headlines…shortly after announcing his candidacy for mayor of New York, new images of Anthony’s privates surfaced… Weiner has been exchanging sexting messages with not-so-sweet young things constantly since his last apology in 2011…his latest correspondent is the aptly named Sydney (“I love”)  Leathers who revealed that Mad Anthony called himself “Carlos Danger” in their sexts…

 

…in response to calls for him to resign his candidacy, Weiner Campaign folks have demonstrated their class by demonizing everyone from Bill and Hillary Clinton to a young former intern….by comparing their boy to Bill Clinton, Weiner’s PR team has infuriated Hillary, who was the political mentor to Weiner’s clueless wife Huma (“Who’m I”) Abedin…The NY Times reported that Hillary’s chief advisor Philippe I. Reines (“them in”) was “enraged” and said he would “reach through this phone” and “pull out” Weiner’s throat…this culminated in a private “woodshedding” of Abedin by Reines in a Washington restaurant last week… Mr. Reines advised Ms. Abedin against participating in Mr. Weiner’s newest campaign video, which was being filmed at the couple’s Park Avenue South apartment, itself owned by a longtime Clinton donor…Reines and Ms. Abedin “agreed” that she should leave her home to avoid even appearing in the background of any scene in the video …meanwhile President Clinton told CNN “We are a hundred miles from that race”…
…but even this mess did not stop Weiner’s campaign from stepping up its desperate attack posture…his classy campaign spokeswoman Barbara (“Hatchet Woman”) Morgan publicly described a former campaign intern as a “f***ing slutbag”, a “f***ing twat”, and a “little c**t”…now tell us how you really feel, Barb…nice words for a fellow woman…

…from the sublime to the ridiculous…in important religious news, The Guardian reports that the Vatican is offering "indulgences" to followers of Pope Francis' tweets…the faithful have been informed that the indulgences reduce the time Catholics will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins…the Church has come a long way since John Tetzel...

 

…reefer madness…on a more serious note, a panhandler in Time Square with an “I Need Money for Weed” sign has been arrested for stabbing a rival holding an “I Need Beer” sign -- with a pen…witnesses said the two principled beggars began brawling around 10:15 P.M. on 42nd St. near 7th Ave. just as dozens of Broadway shows were letting out…“beer” guy’s injuries were said to be minor…New York’s finest grilled an office colleague of the two at the scene:

                                         New York's finest quiz "Predator and Alien."

According to the NY Daily News, others who share the same workspace as the dueling duo, inlcuding Buzz Lightyear, Mario, Luigi, Hello Kitty and an assortment of Elmos and Cookie Monsters, seemed puzzled to hear about the violence:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/weed-guy-stabs-beer-guy-times-square-article-1.1379660#ixzz2XSI3gQBS

… Say what?...Republicans continued to show their new-found sensitivity toward women when their Senate leader, Mitch (“Our most important job is to make sure Obama doesn’t serve a second term”) McConnell (Loser-Kentucky) told a conservative conference that the 2016 Democratic field was ‘a rerun of The Golden Girls’, continuing a GOP story line that Hillary Clinton will be old and decrepit by the time she runs….in related news, McConnell and the Republicans offered no comment on their colleague Peter King’s age when he announced his intention to run…King is 3 years older than Clinton…apparently “Golden Boys” doesn’t have the same cache…

…But McConnell only placed second in the Republican Humiliate Women Sweepstakes…we cannot begin to adequately describe the tweet sent out by a Republican County ChairMan about Republican(!) primary candidate Erika Harold, who just happens to be a) a woman, b) Aftican American, c) a Harvard Law graduate, and 4) a Miss America…so we’ll let this Neandrethal speak for himself (and his party):

“…the love child of the D.N.C. will be back in Shitcago by May of 2014 working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires…miss queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS…These pimps want something they can’t get….”

…so if we understand correctly, Miss Harold is a “love child”, a “street walker”, a “miss queen”, and is controlled by “pimps”….hmmm….couldn’t have anything to do with her skin color, or gender, right?....Naaahhhhh!

http://republicannewswatch.com/wp/?p=12708

    Erika Harold-some street walker!


…some guys just find it hard to retire…demonstrating that his life-long work ethic has not waned even while his trial for 19 murders occupies his days, Whitey Bulger has apparently added another notch to his proverbial pistol…a victim of Whitey’s extortion schemes and potential witness against him in the trial has been found dead and dumped beside a road outside Boston…Stephen Rakes had been scheduled to testify that Bulger and members of his Winter Hill Gang forced him at gunpoint to sell his liquor store to Bulger…but it seems that Whitey wanted to be remembered in the same company as the gunslinger Texas Red that Mary Robbins sang about: “and the notches on his pistol numbered one and nineteen more”…note to Whitey: Texas Red was gunned down by his next target, the new sheriff in town…

…Southern manners…in a strategy straight out of Richard Nixon’s playbook, Virginia Guvnah Robert (“Sleaze”) McDonnell has finally apologized – well, sort of – for getting caught…The Washington Post reported that the governor and First Lady Maureen McDonnell had promoted Star’s Dietary Supplement around the time that Star owner Johnnie Williams picked up the $15,000 catering tab at June 2011 wedding of one of their daughters, a $15,000 Bergdorf Goodman shopping spree for the first lady and a $6,500 Rolex for the governor…Williams also provided the McDonnells with a $70,000 “loan” to a real estate corporation owned by the governor and his sister; along with $50,000 to the lovely Maureen and $10,000 to another McDonnell daughter before her wedding this year…the quid pro quo for these gifts was for Maureen and Robert to actively promote a drug for Alzeimers peddled by their benefactor…nothing like preying on old folks and their desperate families to shore up the family’s coffers…the Rolex gift was particularly touching – Maureen spotted Williams’ Rolex  and told him she’d love one for the Gov…how romantic…Maureen and her lovely daughters also regularly swiped taxpayer funded food and utensils from state banquets and receptions…Virginia – the state that just keeps on giving…

Richard Millhouse Nixon, Nov. 17, 1973:

“I am not a crook.”

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh163n1lJ4M
 

Robert F. McDonnell, July 23, 2913:

I am not a crook (but my wife is).

…and finally this from our intrepid correspondent “Slick” Mick from Hampshire…Scott Enstminger, a lifelong fan of the Cleveland Browns (motto: “Rebuilding since 1964”) passed away without ever losing hope that his dreadful hometown team would give him something to appreciate…so his obituary requested that six players serve as his pallbearers “so the Browns can let him down one last time”…Scott didn’t quite get his last wish, but the Browns have presented the family with a team jersey with Scott’s name on it…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358744/Browns-fans-obituary-Scott-Entsminger-requests-players-act-pall-bearers.html

…did someone say it’s Friday afternoon…I had no idea…darn…that means it must be time for a frosty…

- the Brewmeister -