<p>
Hey! Overseas. What kind of place IS this Plato’s bar?</p>
<p>Remember it is virtual!</p>
<p>Best drink? Hmmm. A tough call. For the bar experience (except the check part) Paris is hard to beat. Cafe de Flore; low lights, waiter in uniform, the ritual of it all. Only I’d opt for a jeentoneek. One of the best drinks I can remember was going there with a friend when I had just moved back to paris and was so ecited to be there. We had manhattans. </p>
<p>A rival experience, perhaps, is the kitch americana of Trader Vic’s or Providence RI’s own “Lukes Luau Hut.” Pu Pu platter, massive mai tai served in a goldfish bowl, anyone? </p>
<p>“Saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s… and his hair was perfect!”</p>
<p>SB Mom–Werewolves of London. I love that song. It’s great. I miss Warren Zevon. A huge talent.</p>
<p>“Send lawyers, guns and money,
Dad, get me out of this hyeah.” </p>
<p>Words all CCers should fear hearing.</p>
<p>Since we’re talking virtual here, let me share with my wife back in Annandale what used to be our real weekly bottle of champagne.</p>
<p>The Jin Mao Tower - Grand Hyatt. Bar is on the 50-somethingth floor. And inside it’s like all Grand Hyatts, inasmuch as there is no ceiling for another 20 floors, just the concentric balconies of the hallways of hotel rooms looking out over the bar.</p>
<p>Sitting there with colleagues, jet-lagged beyond endurance, sprawled in an armchair. Drinking red wine. Three young Chinese musicians are playing jazz. Piano, saxophone, bass. One of the guys asks for “Moon River”. Melody on the sax. </p>
<p>Smoke rising all 30 floors above us.</p>
<p>One of those moments where your life is briefly transformed just because. Or maybe permanently but that can be difficult to know.</p>
<p>I like the rules at Plato’s Bar… </p>
<p>Before you go in:
NO athletic shoes,
NO men in shorts,
NO men in army uniforms…
NO mercy.
NO compromises.
…and most importantly,
If you don’t like it, just split.</p>
<p>Being such an altogether intellectual, if sleezy set, I thought this was too good to pass up though I’m sure some of you have already seen this. Am not sure of the source
Subject: Newspapers and People </p>
<ol>
<li>The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country. </li>
<li>The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.</li>
<li>The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are
very good at crossword puzzles.</li>
<li>USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.</li>
<li>The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country – if they could find the time – and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.</li>
<li>The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.</li>
<li>The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.</li>
<li>The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.</li>
<li>The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball
scores.</li>
<li>The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country … or that
anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided, of course, that they are not Republicans</li>
<li>The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.</li>
<li>None of these is read by the guy who is running the country into the ground.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>The San Jose Mercury is read by the people who built the stuff anyone who wants to really run the country has to use.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> The international Herald-Tribune is read by those who are running away from the country.</li>
</ol>
<p>I’ve been busy and so am late to the drink question. We were camping on the Costa del Sol in July! (What were we thinking? Well, we went to Spain for the running of the bulls in Pamplona.) It was hot hot hot. We had been living in Europe for 3 years and didn’t own a television. As we were baking I expressed a desire for air-conditioning, an ice cold drink and a little tv I could understand. We went to the little bar/cafe near the campground. It wasn’t exactly air-conditioned but it was a whole lot cooler than outside. As we sat down we noticed a tv in the corner showing “Blue Hawaii.” Yep, it was Elvis, in English! And before we could decide what we wanted she brought us a pitcher of Sangria, with lots of fruit and ICE. Best drink I ever had!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Is the association intentional? ;)</p>
<p>In re-reading much of this entertaining thread, I have concluded that we are a (decidedly and delightfully) group of aging ADD’ers with a remarkable way with words… – unless, of course, we chalk the drifty loquaciousness up to all the drinking…</p>
<p>bACK TO bEST DRINk: Never really had a best drink/best bar…but I would say the sleeziest Bar that should have been in a movie was the Bamboo Room in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Dark, mysterious, and icy cold until the door opened with a swish of humid, hot air as another disreputable customer staggered in from a bar down the street. This happened every five minutes or so so one couldn’t tell if they were getting a headache from a hangover or from sinus!</p>
<p>Blue Moon – good stuff</p>
<p>Have a fifth on the fourth, or is it a brewski for youski…?</p>
<p>Say, there - who are you calling an aging ADDer?? - er, what was your name again?</p>
<p>The best drink I ever had wasn’t even in a bar and it was local.
My d was working late and both of the Ds were away at camp- I took the opportunity to go to an outdoor cinema underneath the Aurora bridge in the Adobe parking lot in Fremont. ( Pulp Fiction was playing)
although I did bring warm clothes and a mat to sit on- I didn’t bring anything else ( but what else did I need? I don’t usually eat at movies)
Anyway a very friendly group sat next to me with a cooler and not only shared their sesame chicken wings but their extra blankets and some very delicous gin and tonics.
It was great- it reinforced my idea to go out more by myself- you really meet a lot more people than when you are with a group.</p>
<p>Can’t let this thread die…</p>
<p>I am counting down the days- July 5th my 15 yr old goes to camp for 10! days!
yes I will miss her- but we both need this time :)</p>
<p>I want to go out and do something really immature that I could never do when I am supposed to be a responsible mother.
drinking till I get a buzz only means one drink so that doesn’t take long- I cant stand smoke- and my husband doesn’t have his motorcycle anymore.
I suppose we could go “neck” but comfort is a priority, so what do others do when they just can’t stand being respectable for one more minute?</p>
<p>ek4, rent a convertible and in your neck of the woods, secluded necking spots shouldn’t be too hard to find. Leave a note for your S.O. that says: “Grab a sleeping bag for two and a pic-a-nic basket,Yogi. Mr. Ranger is nowhere around.” Then pick him up in your rented red convertible, wearing sunglasses and one of those theatrical scarves. Hey, we might not can live the high life everyday, but we can rent it from time to time.</p>
<p>so what do others do when they just can’t stand being respectable for one more minute?</p>
<p>What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they’re blue?
The shepard who is ailing, the milkmaid who is glum
The cobbler who is wailing from nailing his thumb
When they’re beset and besieged
The folk not noblessly obliged
However do they manage to shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do…we do not?
–Camelot</p>
<p>Put on Weezer’s Hash Pipe and turn it waaay up. Works for me.</p>