shut up and vote

standard time greetings to all,

hooba here at the beginning of the dark ages. the extra hour of sleep for one night would gladly be traded for daylight past 5 o'clock here in mediterranea for the next few months or so. here's hoping you all made it through halloween, all saints day, and dias de las muertos unscathed. being catholic hooba's question is that if some saints have their own day why wouldn't we call this one "the rest of the saints day"? might be time to give the pope a jingle for some clarification or in his case pontification. weigh in should you have the answer or know the pope's phone number. hooba really wants to drive the pope mobile so if any of you can make that happen hooba buys dinner.

now for the meat of this missive. after almost two years of declarations, primaries, campaigns, conventions, more campaigning, mudslinging, scrutiny, debates, red state/blue state, and the usual political nonsense, the election is finally upon us and not a moment too soon. hooba would like nothing better than to see this process streamlined into a 3-6 month courtship of the american voters. do we really need another 18 months of what amounts to spring training for politics. let's cut to the chase kids and join the 21st century along with almost every other country in the free world. all these ads clogging the airwaves are reducing this process to whoever has the most money and is willing to spend it tying up valuable tv time that eliminates our favorite commercials. in the good ol days prior to all this we saw viagra being pitched along with hair color, swiffers, cold remedies and all the other crap we really need to function as a democratic society. just think normalcy returns wednesday unless you're counting on the winner to fix the economy, end the war, provide universal health care, or to give us hope that the future really is better. that said hooba would encourage everyone to just shut up and vote or quit your bitching on tuesday. hooba would suggest that like many of you who are small business owners do we really think it's going to be any different anytime soon? hooba will continue his loyalties to the JAYHAWKS and remind you all that "national champs" is still part of the equation until daylight savings time returns. oh by the way we kicked k-states ass on the gridiron yesterday because of what they do to cows.

many of you have indulged hooba with tales of your trips to vegas and various local casinos and occasionally embellished your winnings by zeros or decimal points. hooba is not a big advocate of gambling unless of course it's with someone else's money or you know a sure bet when you see one. halloween night hooba was having a discourse with a customer, who shall remain nameless, about a certain crackpot who presents himself as a spokesperson for the downtrodden and oppressed. seems that indiana jones was convinced that this person was an elected member of the congress/senate. hooba begged to differ and was willing to leave it at that until something was mentioned about a wager of some kind. as most of you know hooba will tell you when he's right and frequently more than you want to hear it. in this case hooba KNEW he was right and was ready for a friendly wager to prove a point. a gentlemen's bet wasn't in order in this instance and for the first time ever hooba decided to "bet the farm" which in this case would be the mortgage on the crib just down the road. ballpark wager @ 180-200k. hooba ain't exactly got that kind of scratch laying around but since he knew he was right it really didn't matter. the bet was made with witnesses who shall also remain nameless. this same computer on which i type at this moment provided the answer and lo and behold young hooba was correct. under ordinary circumstances hooba would be willing to renegotiate post affirmation but the mere fact that the house payment had been eliminated in a few short minutes of gambling he was prepared to take a personal check for a deposit and the rest in cash on monday. oh but wait, it seems a technicality of no small significance had been overlooked. there was no handshake involved so that nullified the bet. imagine hooba's chagrin when he realized that his house was still owned by the bank. let that be a lesson to you would be gamblers. hooba ain't much on handshakes but he will continue to kiss babies.

we'll bid our friend kate wood adieu for the winter next sunday night with a little get together here at the restaurant. many of you ask about kate and what she's up to so that would be a fine opportunity to drop by and wish her well as she heads off to colorado for the winter. we'll have libations and maybe some alabama round, pocket burgers, and nutty buddies for your dining pleasure and then again we might be cranky and tell you to eat pretzels and like it. let's make her want to come back because what would the neighborhood be without her smiling face? i'll remind you all that RIB NIGHT will continue on saturday's until further notice as it seems we may have another product from the hillbilly smoker that is quite tasty. the reviews have been favorable and should they not be we'll encourage you to go elsewhere, like there's anywhere else serving real smoked bbq. THIS WILL BE THE LAST WEEK TO ENTER YOUR ORIGINAL SONG TITLES for hooba's country cd contest. hooba shouldn't give you lollygaggers more time but it seems his sister and her knitting crew would like to get in on the action. hooba has gleaned 10 songs from those entered to this point and will add a few more of the best for you all to vote on next week. don't say you weren't warned.

many of you send thanks every week for the update and hooba thanks you all for the kind words. now and then someone dares to ask to be removed so hooba will say that removed is forever. thanks to all of you who dropped by these past few days including--marty and becky from the dalles just to have lunch at a cool place, kevin and jan who continue to support this venture, mary beth and stephen for their first trip to our little slice of mediterranea, marchal, doris, karen and the clan for enjoying the ribs etc., sue and gary again for the thank you note, our friend dave grove who's off to mexico for the winter, and bev and bernie because they get it even if bernie thinks we're closing early. thanks to all of you for your continued support and positive feedback. we ain't going anywhere unless hooba wins the lottery. this weeks music trivia is--there was two of everything and one of me and when the rains came tumblin' down i held my breath and stood my ground--you know the drill. no googling that's cheating. until next week hooba says vote early and often. see ya around like a donut.


hooba chad's hanging cousin


this weeks dinner winner is lloyd fink cause he's a good golfer