Last Friday night I found myself sitting at the bar at Sloppys around 8. To my right a couple of stools sat one of the Gate City's most infamous barflies, none other than the Moose himself. I hadn't run into Moose in a couple of months, which is a good thing, believe me. He promptly reported to me that he'd been in the bar since 1 in the afternoon. Which meant that he was trashed. And when Moose is semi-sober, he has the uncanny ability to annoy even the friendliest of folks. But drunk, Moose gets insufferably tedious. He was chatting with some Mexican who frequents the joint from time to time. A kid named Eddie, I believe. Eddie is a huge Duke fan. It's amazing how many Mexicans pull for the Plumlee brothers around town, but that's neither here nor there. Last Friday, instead of Moose & Mexican Eddie running their mouths in completely ignorant fashion about the Duke/Carolina rivalry, talk instead turned to auto racing. Evidently a big NASCAR race was about to go down and Moose and Mexican Eddie had some strong opinions about one of the drivers. That particular driver being someone I've mentioned before on this blog - Dan Patrick's daughter, Danica. In short, they despise Ms Patrick for some reason. Moose and Mexican Eddie were going back and forth about how many laps into the race before Ms Patrick would wreck and be shipped to the garage area to cry. After a few minutes of misogynistic silliness, Mexican Eddie went so far as to predict that Ms Patrick would wreck on the very first lap of the race in Daytona. I don't know anything about NASCAR, other than Clint Bowyer is my favorite French driver of course, but that seemed like a bet worth taking. And Moose tried to take Mexican Eddie up on this bet. In fact, several drunk barflies at Sloppys were eager to cash in on Mexican Eddie's ridiculous offer. What happened at that point is perfectly predictable in Sloppys. After minutes on end of running his mouth predicting Ms Patrick would shit the bed and wreck on the 1st lap, and having 3 or 4 guys take him up on his offer, Mexican Eddie backed off. His excuse was priceless, "I no wanna takes you guys money." Something along those lines (I have a terrible time understanding a word Mexican Eddie ever utters). Eventually, Moose and Mexican Eddie tired of their stale NASCAR talk. I was relieved about that. But in no time at all, talk turned between the 2 of them to another line of nonsense - how much they hate the NHL. I couldn't take much more of it, paid my pitifully low $6 tab and left. It should be noted that not only did Ms Patrick not wreck on the 1st lap of the race, she finished 8th. Next time I see Mexican Eddie, I will remind him of this endlessly. Mexican misogynists, they suck. As for my man Bowyer, I'm not sure how he fared. I'll ask Brandon the next time I run into the kid.
I mentioned above that Mexican Eddie is a big fan of the Plumlee brothers and Duke hoops in general. We're only 2 days away from the magic month of March. And that means college hoops will take center stage once again in offices all over the country, as folks throw in 10 or 20 bucks, fill out a bracket or 2, and pray that Duke doesn't get bounced in the 1st round again to Lehigh. Me? I've been watching college hoops every day since mid-November, as always. I've put a few bets down here and there to pass the time. Anyway, I haven't written too much about college hoops over the past few months on this blog. But that will change now that March is rolling around once again, like clockwork every 12 months (the damn calender, it's an amazing deal). Back in early November, I was looking into the future bets you can make on a given team to win the NCAA Title. One super long shot caught my eye - the St Louis Billikens. At that time the Billkens were 350:1 shots. I told Brandon one Sunday during hard hitting NFL action, that a $5 wager on them would be a potentially amazing investment (it would have paid $1750 if my math is right, and it is occasionally). I checked the futures odds again yesterday, and St Louis is down to 60:1 now. I'm not saying the Billikens will win the thing. Hell, I'm not even saying they'll get out of the first round. But if you watched the way the they manhandled Butler last week in the 2nd half at Hinkle Fieldhouse, you can see why they are a very dangerous and intriguing darkhorse. They play tough as nails defense, rebound the ball, and don't turn it over. Other teams off the radar that I've been following very closely are Air Force, UCLA, Iowa, & the Akron Zips. Iowa & Air Force may not make the real tourney, but watch out for them in the NIT or CBI or the College Insider. I love the College Insider tourney - no one follows it and it's a potential goldmine for betters. As far as the big name teams, it's a real toss-up trying to pick favorites to make the Final 4. I take it round by round myself. So, I could care less who makes the Final 4. Although it's always nice when Duke doesn't make it. Obviously...
Later last Friday, after getting the hell out of Sloppys, I went to a joint near downtown called Westerwood. Many of the regulars from the now defunct Wing Joint were there. It was a pleasant time. They have the best jukebox in Greensboro, hands down. At some point, my man Goosie came in the place. He promptly bought a round of shots and that's a good thing. So, I'm standing there and Goose is rambling on about something or other. And I noticed that his hairline seemed to be receding, seemingly before my very eyes right there at the bar. I said to Goose, "Uhm Mickey, you know that within a few years you'll be as bald as Mr Clean or Dave White." Goose didn't take to kindly to my opinion on this matter. I wasn't trying to hurt the kid's feelings or anything. I'm telling you, he's gonna go bald by the time he's 30. I said to him, "I'm just preparing you for it, as a friend." He responded, "Fuck you, asshole." We then went out front of the joint to smoke. The rest of the night all poor Goose could think about was his impending male pattern baldness. I don't feel the slightest bit bad about telling Goose he's going Telly Savalas on us. Someone had to. And since I'm so nice and caring that way, it was me.
I saw where Catwoman won an Oscar the other day (although I don't think she won for that silly Dark Knight Is Risen movie). As any reasonable movie watcher could tell you, this Catwoman should have won years ago for Rachel Getting Married. Her victory was long overdue. Congratulations to you, Anne.
Situation no win
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