There's no place like home - unless it's not your home.

I am in New York for the weekend, looking after my father who is still recuperating from surgery. I flew up on Southwest Airlines, on a completely uneventful flight, despite their recent troubles. I sat in the back as my boarding number was B-12, a fine vitamin, but a crappy number for seating on Southwest. A couple of rapid rewards drink coupons and I was good to go.

Upon arriving in New York (well actually, Islip), I got my bag and went over to the rental car counter. The delay in getting my car proved fortuitous. This is what I drove away in . . .
I arrived at my father's new place (it occurred to me that this was the first time I was returning to Long Island since last June. It should be an interesting weekend. I'm sure to have more to report at the end of the weekend. My sister arrives on Sunday afternoon to take over. It is her first time back in New York in more than two years. I have to admit - it's a little weird.

But in any case, I have a few things that I wanted to pass along to you in case you are looking for some diversions this weekend. (But of course, don't forget the Passion of the Lord on Sunday - make sure the coffee is extrey strong that morning.)

• First of all, for those who are keeping track, the contest over at March Drunken Madness is in full swing. We have eight contestants (including yours truly) in the running. Voting will be available until Tuesday night at midnight (EDT). Go have a look and vote for your favorite.
• I have told you people of my devotion to kottke.org. As it turns out, Jason has been posting his stream of consciousness for ten years now. If you haven't bookmarked the site, or put it into your reader, or gotten the RSS feed, do so. You'll like what you get. And, as it turns out, you can be cool like me. Evidently the British paper, the Guardian Observer posted a list of the 50 most "powerful" blogs and kottke.org is number 4. As yet, Order from Chaos is not on the list. But Waiter Rant, which was the blog that NJM turned me on to and got me started down the rabbit hole of the blogging world is on the list at number 44. How many of the ones you read are on the list?
  
• Trusting my life to Southwest this weekend might lead one to question one's mortality. Mrs. Brave Astronaut and I have had several discussions about what we get to take with us into the afterlife. I am not so keen on the idea of having anything "harvested" from me after I've shrugged off this mortal coil. She usually responds with, "well, you'll be dead and I'll get to decide." But even if I don't agree to organ donation, here's an idea I can get behind. There is no reason for any of my ideas to be buried with me. Maybe that novel will finally get published.
• The Riverdale Garden, a restaurant in the Bronx (NY) has a problem. In order to save itself, it is prevailing upon its regular customers to pony up $5000 per couple for a year's worth of dinners. They are hoping to get fifty couples, which would net them $250,000, to secure a long-term lease and do some improvements to the restaurant
• Speaking of the Bronx, here's a few baseball-related nuggets.
• Billy Crystal, a lifelong fan of the Yankees (he produced and directed 61*) turned 60 today. To commemorate the event, Crystal was given a tryout and a one-day contract with the Yankees. Unfortunately for him, he struck out swinging. But I'm pretty sure he didn't care.
• This will be the last season for the House that Ruth Built. Yankee Stadium will face off against the wrecking ball at the end of this season. Before that happens there is a good chance that this could happen. I am all about whatever the NHL needs to do. How much would I want to be there for that? Then again, I really want to be here for this final event, too. But that's not going to happen, unless we win Powerball tomorrow night.
  

• If you are feeling a little frisky on this Palm Sunday weekend, the folks over at Gridskipper Washington DC have done the work for all of us heathens. You may have heard (or read) the Vatican has redefined those really bad sins (see also: seven deadly sins). Given that the big guy himself (no, not that big guy, the Pope) is coming to town, Gridskipper has created a map to let everyone know where they can go in DC to commit those new sins the Vatican would like us not to commit. But then we could just head down to Nationals Park and get some absolution.
• And finally, if you have plans to attend Nationals Park this season (as Southern Gentleman and I will do on Opening Night on March 30), click over to the Washington Nationals website and vote for your favorite songs to be played at opportune times during the game. This news first came to me from the site devoted to getting Teddy a win in the president's race. (If you're not sure what that meant, it's OK)
  

Well that should keep you all busy for the weekend. I have a post ready to go for Sunday, a recipe ready for Monday, and then it will be time to sit down for a minute with Number 10, also known as John Tyler.

March Drunken Madness - The Rules

We are slowly approaching March Madness, which means that it must be time to get the March Drunken Madness Contest underway. If you have expressed to me your desire to be a part of it, you have likely received an invitation to become an author to a blog created strictly for this purpose. It looks like we will have enough to start at the "Sweet 16" or else there was some talk of Amy and I getting a first round bye, which may still happen. We'll be like superdelegates.

While the rules are still a little in flux, here is how it is shaping up.

• Pick your best drinking story. It may be a personal experience or something you witnessed, but not something you heard from your cousin's best friend's sister's boyfriend about this time they went to 31 Flavors in 1986.
• Keep it under 1,000 words.
• Use as many hyperlinks as you want, but do not embed photos/videos in the narrative.
• Contestants will be randomly seeded by Amy and Brave Astronaut.
  
• Post it to the blog and send an email to either Amy or Brave Astronaut, who will then create a poll on the side of the blog for your competition.
• Tell everybody you know to go to the blog and vote for you. Repeatedly.
• If you make it to the Championship Round, you will have the option of going with the story that got you there, or substituting a new one.
  

If you want in, there is still time. Based on the responses I got, we are at sixteen (provided the 6th Floor Blog comes up with six stories). Alternatively, we could post all the stories on the new blog and have one big poll. Thoughts?

A Toast! to Selection Sunday

Selection Sunday will take place on Sunday March 9. But we need a little more time to iron out the rules for our version of March Madness - March Drunken Madness. In this post, I referred to two drunk stories from yours truly and a blogging friend, Amy in Ohio. I challenged my readers to contribute their best drinking stories and we would have our own little bracket challenge to see who has the best story.

Comments trickled in and it would seem that we have the following competitors:

• the aforementioned Amy in Ohio
• Brave Astronaut (that's me)
• despite her note that "how drunk could you be if you remember the story," I'm pulling Stitch Bitch in.
• C in DC offers boring stories, but there has to be a Cinderella story in every tournament.
• The 6th Floor Blog will play the part of the Big East in the tournament, as we will give them the option of sending six stories for consideration.
• NJM is trolling through her drunken depths to find a winner. She will guest blog through this portal.
• I recently heard a good story from OSG, so I'm snagging him for an entry.
• C in DC, NJM, and I have all decided that the bearded one, Kim, must have several good stories, so we hope he will play along.
• If he can stop fighting with anonymous commentators, will ADR offer a story?
• If he can stop shoveling snow for a moment, will Archivalist offer up an anecdote?
• Certainly Special K and HAH must have a memory they are trying to keep quiet, but would love to share with all of us? They can even have two entries.
• Hey, the name of her blog is "Stories to Tell." Surely one of them must involve alcohol.
  

If we get all of the above to play, that's eighteen of us. Am I missing anyone? If you would like to get in on the fun, let me know. If I have drafted you for this and you want out, please let me know that as well.

We could use Order from Chaos as the central location for the stories. I think I could manage to get a poll feature that would allow people to vote for the stories. I propose the first round of stories be posted on Sunday March 9, with voting to take place through Friday March 14. Second round stories would go up on Sunday March 16 and voting through Friday March 21. If we get our numbers right, final four stories would be posted on Sunday March 23 and voting for those stories to go through Wednesday March 26. The Championship round would post on Friday March 28 and voting would cease on on Monday March 31 (I'll even suspend Recipe Monday for it!)

I will come up with a good prize for the winner and a plan on getting it to the "Lord (or Lady) of the Drunks." Questions? Comments? Moans of Despair? Cries of Anguish? Let me know in the comments.

Pickled, Plowed, In the Bag, 3 Sheets to the Wind, etc.

What's your favorite drunk story? My blog friend Amy over on her blog related a story (by her own admission, "one of my top five OU [Ohio University] drinking stories") involving Everclear. I responded with my own story about an unfortunate encounter with some '151' that I neglected to blow out before drinking.

She came back with her own comment back on my blog:

What I came here to do was make a comment somewhere about an idea for a theme week. Picture it — A whole week of entries counting down our top college drinking stories.

On second thought, maybe not. First of all, I could probably file a month's worth of posts on this topic alone. I mean, I thought of three more just while I was typing the previous paragraph: Circle K elections 1995; Teeter-Totter Marathon 1993; and Halloween 1992.

Secondly, it might give off the wrong impression.

Thoughts?

So my blogging friends out there? Are we game for a drunken circle of blogging? We could pick a date, have one person "start" and then link to the next person for their story, who links to the next, etc. We could do our own version of "March Madness" and the best story wins a prize. Non-bloggers are welcome to play as well, but we would have to identify one of the participating blogs as the central location for commenter stories.

I know how wild and crazy some of you fine folks out there on the intertubes can be. Who's in? RSVP in the comments if you are interested and we'll make a plan for Drunken March Madness.