FINAL FOUR!

Soooo our Koordinator has done his normal fabulous job of getting all the scenarios out there. Deeply, deeply troubling scenarios.

Michigan State v. Villanova: Kirby Ott? Monosyllabic last name? Can anyone named Kirby be trusted? Isn’t that a vacuum cleaner?

Villanova Beating Michigan State: Wantonbecker? Four words.... I don’t think so. Mike Johnson is also in the money here. Mike is very excited to finally see Rollie Massimino and Judd Heathcote face off.

Michigan State beating North Carolina: John Winstoroer? For God sakes he is a Democratic. Almost a commie... forget that, he IS a commie.

NC beating Michigan State: Our current leader, Kenny Lurkins (aka Daniel Power) aka creepy and creepier wins.

Connecticut beating Villanova: Wantonbecker again? Like a nightmare with legs he keeps showing up...like a nasty rash....like... well you get the idea.

Villanova Beats U-Conn....once again unlikely and once again that sore...wantonbecker.

U-Conn beats NC : This matchup is the likely match up. Number one seeds and a lot of power. Kenny from Southpark wins again.

North carolina beating U-Conn....Kenny again.

Creepy Kenny and that awful wantonbecker with six of the winning scenarios but creepy Kenny has the best of it with that NC/UConn matchup looking like the likely one. UConn with those two monsters inside changing everything and NC just looked like they are all playing the best basketball of their lives.
In any case. I should be a party.

Stupid people have never done stupider things then this.

We Hate U-Conn!

As Johnny Cash said so well....”Sunday Morning Coming Down”. The snow is lightly on the ground and it is almost April and the weather is as cold a Tiger fan’s heart. Still what a great season. The Tigers out performed all expectations and gave us an awesome season along with a Big Twelve Championship and a Great 8 berth. I was not sure Anderson was the right coach, thinking of him as a poor man’s Nolan Richardson but I was... happily very wrong. I do not think we are going to see any of the seniors pounding around the NBA but who knows. They are over achievers.

Villanova gave us a game for the ages against Pitt and they one it with the dreaded Tyus Edney buzzer beating drive from coast to coast. Watching it happen and this time cheering for the winning team was pretty sweet. By the end of today the final scenarios will become clear. Lurkins/Powers is THE LEADER and it appears that if North carolina plays to form but we are left to ask what kind of winner pics Tyler Hansbrough (who if he had any soul at all would have been a Missouri Tiger) and has to play the KUBE under an assumed name. Wantonbecker continues to pend his diminishing hopes on the Wildcats Cinderella story. Jonathan Curtis, Brent Dolen (who is from Lou-vull) along with professional shark Mike Johnson all are waiting to pounce if Louisville gets it done.

Jake Winegrad with Oklahoma and John Winstroer are waiting to pounce with Oklahoma, Michigan State wins. The race to the bottom has already been won by the evil scheming of Brad Koenmean but others begin charging down as their winners disappear out of the final four. Upsets are really what it is all about and this writer will be cheering for the Sooners and the Spartans as the games tip today. We will see the scenarios tomorrow or perhaps even by the end of the day and then all possibilities will be clarified by our dynamic and talented KUBE Koordinator.

GO SPARTANS!

MIZ....Z...OH....oooooooooh....

Sooooo.... it is Saturday night. Mizzou went down bravely and as I type Villanova is currently stomping Pitt but we have to assume that Pitt comes back and fights the good fight. The important thing is that I have a new computer to type on. Now I need Villanova to win the tournament so that I can pay for it. Unless you want to make donations.

The Missouri game was a good one and they played well. Could not hit the threes but ultimately those two big monsters that U-Conn had inside were too much forcing our Tigers to adjust every trip into the paint. It was hard fought. Becker The Wrecker thought he had a shot with Mizzou winning it all but alas he goes the way of the Memphis and UCLA fans and slinks quietly... into the darkness.

Kukla has not yet updated because they are still playing but Dave Leavitt (who?) is tied for 32nd and is the highest ranking guy now with U-Conn winning it all. It could be one of the greatest moves in KUBE history. Go Dave... whoever you are. Kukla will be posting tomorrow all the final four possibilities. As Pitt pulls to within 2 of Villanova...wantonbecker is seeing his sad little life pass in front of his eyes. de Juan Blair for Pitt looks like he is 30 at least.

If North Carolina falls tomorrow it is going to be lonely at the top and we could be seeing Sherre Flavin charging up with Oklahoma as her pick to win it all. We are well beyond the “anything can happen” stage but we are now solidly within the “anyone can with this thing”... that is if they are still in it.
The best commercials of the tournament:

1. Any E-Trade commercial with that kid
2. The Bud Light commercial where the guy get ejected from the meeting.. and the building.

Worst commercial...Ozzie Osbourne... he depresses me.

Why do all the players have so much ink? Can we assume that they also have lower back tattoos?
John Winstroer...that is right, handsome Uncle John still also has an excellent shot sitting at 37 if the MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS win it all. Go....go Johnny go.

Button up and button down kids. We got more basketball to go. But until we meet again. GO Villanova!

The Calm Before....Da Storm

So as I sit at my desk in KUBE World Headkwarters at 6:00 A.M. Wednesday (the KUBE never sleeps… think unblinking eye of Mordor) I have to reflect on where we are before the maelstrom of tomorrow contests sweeps us away once again with adrenaline. Tomorrow our beloved Missouri Tigers do battle against the poser tigers of Memphis who evidently have not lost a game since the 15th century B.C. KUBE took a break yesterday and you saw what happened to the markets. We will focus again on leading the country out of recession and on to economic glory with the KUBE stimulus package.

The KUBE itself is, as always a great contest, a morality play, and a lot of fun all rolled up into one stupid little package, for your pleasure. First, the long shot award:

Some Long Shot Stats for the Komments

20 entries had Arizona advancing to the SWEET 16
Theses people included - our current leader Winland, Derek2, Jon Becker's Pork Barrel entry (even a blind pig finds a corn cob once in a while), all 3 of Ryan Dierberg's picks (the Ivy League Education Strikes Again).

Missing from the list is Brad Koeneman, who attempted to subrogate the system by creating a bracket designed to "win" this prestigious award - but alas, he failed and only had 9 correct picks in the ENTIRE bracket with W. Ky over MS State in the finals - no winnings for those trying to cheat the system. Indeed the KUBE hates schemers and gamers of the system. Brad likely is the kind of person who thought credit default swaps were a good idea and would like to work with the KUBE to “repackage”, “securitize” and “monetize” our income stream.

But our winner is:

Thy Terrell Owens - currently in 209th place (out of 223) - this appears to be a legitimate entry as he has 12 of 16 teams in the Sweet round and all of his elite 8 are still alive with Louisville winning it all. AZ was his only high seeded team advancing. We have since discovered that Thy Terrell Owens in one Jim Barry, playing the KUBE all the way from Burlingame CA and evidently is related to the KUBE from some sad misadventure his daughter had with my deeply troubled nephew Greg Gates. Congrats Jim.

Hard to predict who is going to win under the presently available scenarios. Clearly the wisdom of the crowd calls for NC and Louisville and the KUBE top 20 is littered with those entries. If Villanova goes all the way, I look pretty good since it looks like I am the only one who picked them to go all the way (BRILLIANT!). Derek Winland though brilliant and currently number one is a dead man walking with his (what can only be called) ballsy pick of UCLA to go all the way so we will be saying goodbye to him as leader shortly. Watch for Bob Heine with Syracuse and Shayo Mowen with Memphis and God Bless him there is my brother with his heart in his hands trying to make a run with Missouri going all the way. MIZ… indeed.

Enjoy your brackets, enjoy the games and remember you are one of us. Do something profoundly stupid today and celebrate all that is the KUBE!

MIZZOU-RAH!: KUBE KOMMENTS LATE SUNDAY EDITION

Marquette has pulled within 1... now 3 with 7:56 to play. Obviously we hate them like poison. Obviously Jesuits are never to be trusted but nothing good has happened at that school since Hank Raymonds left. Sorry Majeris. The Mizzou game is too hard to watch so lets talk a little about a topic we have not visited before... first families of the Kube.

We got a lot of great family traditions in the KUBE and not just your random poorly bred Kuklas and Beckers and their ilk. We have Mowens, Curtises, Shapiros, Kowerts, Flavins, Omearas, Winstroers, Pupillos, Hessels, Webers, Buemers, the list goes ion and on...but certainly these are some of the first families of KUBE and build the great, GREAT tradition that is this bracket. I thing we have KUBE Kompetitors from Spain (Gegel), Columbus Ohio (King), San Fransisco (Bellefeuille) So Cal (Reed) Louisville (Dolen) and probably even further afield then this humble scribe knows... but you can let me know at any time where YOU filed your brackets from a wantonbecker@mac.com.

KOMMENTS!

ANGRIEST BALD DWARF IN DIVISION I




Mizzou barely hung on AND covered the spread so while wnatonbecker picked Marquette in his brackets and lost his 15 minutes of KUBE fame, Missouri by winning by 4 instead of 3 shoved 110 dollars into my pocket. MIZ! Indeed. So we have Derek Winland in first place. Derek is always....always competitive in the KUBE.. and is proving once again...formidable but with the UCLA tragedy is destined for death in the KUBE. It is different this year... the final winners are spread out a lot. I am sure the Koordinator will do some review but six different teams listed as winners in the current top ten. How about Ryan Dierberg tied with himself at 110. It takes a Wharton Business School education to get that done. Shayo Mowen is well positioned with a Syracuse win and that whole pack of North Carolina people. Bob Heine (married to Kukla’s boss) is also well situated with the Memphis pick. Should be fun.

We are hoping to have some insight from the celebrated Miami of Ohio columnist Dan Kukla. Dan is not fairing so well in this years KUBE but I am sure he has good reasons why.

It does not appear we have a lot of pet traffic this year and I guess Don will be announcing a long shot winner soon so keep your eyes peeled.

SUNDAY EVENING KUBE:

Soooo... I sit here on Sunday afternoon, exhausted from three days in vegas with my son...hookers...drugs... you all know the story. Watching my Tigers fighting a hard battle with Marquette as Marquette trys to come back in the 2nd half. They are trying to run with the Tigers which seems... like a mistake. This Tiger team could fall at any moment but they are playing with a lot of heart. This game looks like playground ball at this moment but it is fun to watch. I do not know how the Tigers will do if they find a team that can make them play a 1/2 court game but... this is fun.

Kukla will be posting the standings after two rounds and Wantonbecker’s day in the sun will likely be over because he picked Marquette to beat Missouri in a contrarian effort. Stupid. Instead of focusing on the leaders it is time to look at the bottom and see.... the land of the losers. I am looking down from WAY UP HERE and who do see?

I did not know that Kukla new Terrell Owens but with aq blistering 131 points...perhaps he shouldnt. Bugt also down there...sadly...Mark Shapiro? At one point the Shapiro family dominated the KUBE. Of course it was primarily his wife and dog who were making the picks but Mark...really? Besides a Woods, and an Alsop we have my future relative Mulvahill. How far did he thing Butler was going to go? And Blue Horseshoe, another great fallen and Brad Koenmenan....23%?
Marquete just pulled to within 7.

If Don has not been clear about this.... we need everyone to pay! Next year he is going to have a feature on here where the people who have not paid are in red and listed as deadbeat losers who will need to be killed. Think of it as tough love.
More Later Perhaps as Marquette pulls to within 5. And they are on the line. “Houston...we have a problem”....and a ballgame. I love March!

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
--Charles Dickens

3 Poin t Game. Later.

KUBE SATURDAY EDITION

BLAKE GETS BODY SLAMMED!


So KUBE senior management and the next generation made it through the first and 1/2 of the second round and are now back in the Lou or back at their insititutions of “higher” learning. Sure their were some awkeard moments (notably involving a trampoline, ans albino midget and the Bally Hotel & Casino’s sprinkler system but fortunately the high powered KUBE legal team was able to convince the authorities that the whole thing was just a “misunderstanding”.

Bally’s Sports Book was the typical madness and when the first game tipped off I wish all of you could have been there with a few hundred, dirty hungover men along with a handful of sad, depressed and long suffering wives and girlfriends and a few over worked waitresses bring bevys of bloody mary’s and beers. When CBS starts the first live feed there is a general clapping of appreciation but when the first game tips.... there is a roar. March Joy has arrived again.

I would also like to point out that in the last two weeks, with the advent of this years KUBE the DOW JONES has rallied as the KUBE has once again brought hope back to the American people. 230 KUBISTS have entered this in a tour de force of confidence in America, God, College Basketball and the economy. It is a proud moment indeed. We are going to wait until tomorrow night to any serious review of the current stats but as of Friday Night we had Adam Reed of the deeply troubled Reed family (who also needs to send his check in ASAP to KUBE Headkwarters) is currently ahead followed by Chris (Huggy) Behr, Wantonbecker...Uleashed and.... wait for it.... wait for it.... BECKER THE WRECKER! Obviously it would be a dark, DAAAARRRK day in KUBE history to have the Wrecker win or even, indeed come in, in the money so lets just pray it does not happen.
More tomorrow. Don’t fear the KUBE.

KUBE KOUNTDOWN 2009!

Soooo... the KUBE Board Of Directors and some of their progeny will be tasking the difficult duty... once again... of flying out to Vegas... FIRST CLASS... on the KUBE tab (thanks to all of you) in order to make sure nothing untowards goes on in the NCAA this year. If AIG had this type of oversight we might not have seen credit default swaps. Remember we need you all to get in this year... along with your sad...pathetic friends... and your family memers. Everyone must play the KUBE! It is... important.
If anyone needs us we will be in The Paris Hilton Suite at the top of The Palm. Evidently we will be partying with super models and hedge fund managers. Should be a hoot. Needless to say we are offerinng pithy analisys and withering criticism of everyone who plays, along with
their pets, loved ones and children. Lets start today bringing you the first of the KUBE Kontestant Profiles:
Team Kukla... so oten has taken our money but there is one extended member of the family named Phoenix. Phoenix is pictured here with something that might be:

1. Poop on a plastic base
2. Some of marital aid
3. A dog grooming toy
4. Some type of mouthguard to keep the dog from grinding it’s teeth.

By the glazed , somewhat befuddled look on the dog we can only assume that BJ came home for the weekend, played poker with his friends in the basement and fired up the hookah... or that they spent the whole weak putting funny hats on the dog and filming it with their phone for You Tube. In any case... the dog is clearly depressed and likely a Cal State Northridge fan.
We will be watching Phoenix picks VERY carefully in this years tournament. Phoenix attached a note to the entry expressing hopes to win so that it can purchase more of... whatever it is holding in it’s mouth in this picture.

We might need to modify the motto to “Stupid People And Stupid Animals Doing Stupid Things”. Thoughts?

MAJERUS! BRACKETOLOGY! KUKLA! MADNESS!

ONE GOOD LOOKING MAN!





Sooooo... we have so little time until the first tip off on Thursday morning. KUBE spent Monday night with Rick Majerus at the MAC giving us the best of bracketology. Majerus (big sexy) looked like he had enjoyed some excellent pasta, several large porterhouse steaks and perhaps a small brown bear.... in other words he has dropped a few pounds. He gave us a lot of insight regarding the tournament before telling us all that his sister who would pick teams based on the color of their jerseys and how fat their coach was (shoe liked fat coaches) would do much better then him. Still very interesting and according to him....KU had better watch out in the first round.

Now to matters at hand. As was briefly mentioned earlier people who are related to, and or work with one Donald T. Kukla have been suspiciously successful in the KUBE tournament. Needless to say Don has final control over all scoring and would never do anything to harm the sanctity of the tournament but.... this year Don has already decided that his daughter boyfriend is going to win the KUBE. While normally this might be similar to Babe Ruth pointing where he was going to hit his next home run, in this case it is more akin to Bernie Maddoff predicting your return on investment in 2010 (slightly over the market average).

I do not know if this insidious, pay to play, earmarked, old school Chicago ward politics way of winning the KUBE can be stopped... but I know that we have to try. The best way to hurt Kukla’s evil machinations of the numbers is to have so many entries that no one, not even the Cray supercomputers disguised as human being who work for him, can do the math. In that regard we need YOU and all the people of the loyal KUBE nation to get busy and enter early, often, and STOP THE MADNESS of Kukla domination of the KUBE. He is like Heath Ledger as the Joker and HE MUST BE STOPPED!.

I am counting on you.... the KUBE Nation. Demand transparency from your Kukla. Write your congressman, write his mother (Pat Kukla) and demand full and fair computation of scores. Demand that no one who works with him or is related to him (including his evil cat Ozzie) are allowed any of our prize money. I might have to go as far as providing you his mothers address so that you can all contact her and stop this madness. Even more important it seems like perhaps someone related to that poor, genetically in ferior gene pooled Becker...should be allowed at least, like a third place.... something.... an honorable mention.

I am officially proclaiming 2009....my year. I am making my picks and have a great deal of confidence in the Robert Morris team this year. You heard it here first. Now lets get our entries in! Time is wasting and when a Becker related person wins this year, well, to quote the great Norm Stewart:

“If you see a turtle sitting on a fence post you can bet he didn’t get there by himself”.

KUBE 2009 Economic Recovery Edition

KUBE LORE: Know Your KUBE History!






110th Annual KUBE NCAA Tournament! When Doctor James Naismith nailed the peach baskets to the wall in Springfield Massachusetts he called Don Kukla’s great grandfather in Poland and Becker’s great grandfather in Germany and told them of the new game he invented... they began to bet on it.

They were dark times. The industrial revolution had not gotten going yet and we hadn’t had any quality World Wars to juice the economies. But Great Grandpa Kukla and Great Grandpa Becker new... they knew that the people needed hope and that is was not going to come from Emperor Stanislus of Poland or Chancellor Bismarck. They knew it would have to come from them.
So for the benefit of the masses they began the KUBE NCAA Tournament and their children have now been running it for the last 110 years. Here is to you Don and Mike! In a few years they will be passing management of the tournament over to their first born sons and the tradition will go on.

But this year the country needs the old masters. No, the country will not rely on Barack Obama... the country will not rely on STIMULUS! The COUNTRY IS GOING TO LOOK TO YOU, ME and KUBE to rescue the rescue our economy and give us HOPE. YES WE KAN! In a recession beating special we are going to keep prices at 2008 and indeed 2002 and levels in order to encourage entrants early and often.

THE PLAN!

Kukla, Becker and their eldest sons will either... pay the money out as they have in years past... or take it to Vegas and bet the pot on black 13 at 36-1. COME ON! It cannot be that much worse a plan that any other one out there.

There is also a possibility of live feeds from Vegas this year and following your Kube Kommissioners by blog, podcast and twitter. The mind boggles.

Tomorrow this columnist will have attended Rick Majerus “Bracketology” so that we will have some more..Insight We will also tomorrow be looking into the recent suspicious history of KUBE winnings going to people named Kukla, people in Kukla’s family and people on Kukla’s team. What the hell does “team” mean in this context? Anyway, more tomorrow. Tell your friends that KUBE is bringing the economy back along with bringing back sexy. Have them get all the details at www.kubeklassik.com. See you Monday night with more but I think 300 entrants would be a nice number this year. GET TO WORK!

Diner Review Mac and Cheese

“I deny a problem with my attitude,
Cause I will work for food”
-Dramarama / Work For Food


Dramarama was a classic 90’s band and the album “Hi-Fi Sci-Fi” is worth tracking down even though no longer in current issue. On a more important and perhaps slightly more relevant note, I have a thing for comfort food. Hash Browns, Meat Loaf, Chicken Fried Steak, Hash Browns, Iced Tea, Bacon, Spaghetti, Tater Tots, Hamburgers, Hash Browns, Tamales, Roast Beef with brown gravy... Hash Browns... you know. Anyway, along with my recent failures in breaking bread I have recently been embarking on an effort to develop a signature Macaroni and Cheese. My reasons for doing so are many but may have a lot to do with career dissatisfaction, the dramatic and depressing decline of the economy, global warming and the lack strong left handed relief in the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals. All of that having been said I give you my Macaroni recipe with love and respect.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 pound of bacon
1/4 lb. gouda
1/4 Black Diamond Sharp Cheddar
2 Eggs
4 cloves of garlic
One large white onion
I Tablespoon Vegetable oil
16 oz package of macaroni
9 tablespoons butter
8-oz velveeta
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. Cook bacon until crisp.
2. Eat two strips after cooking because bacon is good for the soul. Put bacon in food processor with onion and garlic. Make it into a puree depending on whether anyone in your family has any onion or texture issues. You can make it into a paste but it is strictly a matter of how chunky you want it
3. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain well and return to cooking pot. I believe all macaroni pasta is the same.
4. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 8 tablespoons butter; stir into the macaroni.
5. In a large bowl, combine the gouda cheese and Black Diamond Cheddar cheeses, bacon, onion, garlic mixture and mix well.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

7. Add the half and half, 1 1/2 cups of cheese mixture, cubed processed cheese food, and eggs to macaroni; mix together and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a lightly greased 15” black cast iron skillet. If you do not have a large, black cast iron skillet... ask yourself why not. Admonish yourself for living an empty, meaningless and directional life and then get off your ass and go buy one... NOW!

8. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese mixture and 1 tablespoon of butter which you will also need to melt..

9. Take a water class and fill it to about two inches with Panko Bread Crumbs. It is important to use Panko. Add a 1/2 teaspoon of paprika and three table spoons of shaved parmesan (Kraft is fine but you can get as fancy as you want with it).
Cover top with panko bread-crumbs and some parmesan the splash of paprika. This is the best part.

10. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until hot and bubbling around the edges; serve.

11. Stick large spoon in the middle of it and let it cool for about 5 minutes prior to serving.

12. Prepare for macaroni and cheese accolades.

This got me hi props from people charitably inclined towards me (family member including my mother). The only way I might improve it after this was to just puree the garlic and onion and then roughly crumble the bacon and put it on top with the bread crumbs, panko and paprika and parmesan. This is what I recommend.

Eat well. Comfort food is excellent in a declining economy. We ate it with bar-b-q chicken, garlic bread and a salad. Have your daughter do the chicken.

OBAMA Where Art Thou?

Sooooo...it is March and we are about to begin March Madness and two months into Barack Obama’s America. If I listen to the news (which i have stopped doing) I know I would hear that Barack has not fixed the banking system and has not restored confidence. If I listen to Fox he is running us down the road to socialism, running up a huge bill we cannot pay and that Rush Limbaugh wishes he would fail (like that was even worth talking about?). If I listen to the liberal talking heads we are doing just what we need to and Republicans need to stop being so obstructionist.

That is all one load of bullshit. I am beginning a disappointment with our new president but only beginning and he has plenty of time to bring me back home. Am I disappointed for any of the reasons cited by the Republican opposition? Yes, two of them. One is that he has not curtailed pork and earmarks at all in this new budget and two, he has not curtailed lobbying as the way to get things done in Washington.

It is depressing for me. I feel right now like I am looking at the other side of the Bush coin, and it is the same coin. There is nothing transformative about what is happening is Washington other then we are having the other side of an ideological, we are right, they wrong, mentality which I had incorrectly ascribed to the nasty, hateful Bushies. Now I am seeing the same thing but from the opposite side. It is making me sick. Not because the policies are so wrong. I have no idea whether the policies are wrong or not. It is the attitude of exclusion. It is the business as usual. It makes me sick.

Obama still has a chance to be transformative. He can call us out to a higher standard, a higher purpose. Our Judeo-Christian (and perhaps even Muslim but I do not know enough about the faith to even comment) heritage has an awesome history of higher values. Somehow in my life, we lost our way. We confuse success with money and things. Our grandparents and to some extent our parents main goal was to improve the life of the children so they could have a “better” life. We have become concerned (like a publicly traded company sacrificing the future and making high stakes bets) with immediate gratification and having more and better then everyone else. he can call on us all as individuals to be brave, show compassion, pick up our brothers and do more for others rather then our recent culture of getting everything I want...NOW!

The Republicans cannot lead us there. They are bankrupt of ideas and take no responsibility for our current predicament being the natural result of Gordon Gecko “greed is good” capitalism. Capitalism is awesome. It has a tremendous power to transform economies and people in a good way. But when we glorify nothing but dollars at the expense of long range sustainability and the value of the people we employ, capitalism becomes the snake that eats itself. The current Beatification of Ronald Reagan is the best example of the parties myopic view of the past and it’s very limited “get me and my friends more money now” view of the future. The greed heads with continue to partner with the pro life groups so that there can be no middle ground on anything.

I do not know what our President is waiting for. He needs to make a formal request to the Republicans that their leadership step down. He needs to use his authority to force the Pelosi/Reed/Barney Frank contingent to also step down. They are to agenda-ized and politicized to be part of any serious change. These people on the left are just as guilty, now that they in power as the Republicans used to be. There is no compromise for the group. They must have everything that is abhorrent to the right and damn the consequences and they are wrong, wrong, wrong.

America is the greatest country on the earth. If we are lead by admirable people we will continue for the next generation in that role. If we are divided, hateful, small minded and unwilling to every acknowledge that there might be good people with good idea on the other side of the aisle we are well and truly screwed.. So stand up Mr. President. Call your own party to account first. Hack the pork. Save your social agenda for 2011. Get rid of your own small minded leaders and then call the Republicans to account on the other side. Then and only then can you come to the people, come to me and lead us on to a greatness that might embarrass Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation”.

We are tired of government making us afraid and expecting nothing from us but the worst. We are tired of government being corrupt, bought and sold and rife with special interests (business and social interests) which most of us in the middle are sick of hearing about. We are ready. Get off your ass and lead us. It was not the far left that you rode into office.

Diner Review: Main Street Diner

Sooooo....St. Charles, St. Peters, O’Fallon, Wentzville, Troy... these are all just places on a map west of town but as I was growing up I thought of them as country. As an adult I have found these locales disappointing. In the last ten years with our credit bubble inspired building boom now most of these towns look like... gasp... suburbs. Suburbs even used to have a personality but now they all look the same, Starbucks, Bread Co, Bob Evans, Best Buy, Walmart, Target and on and on it goes... like a cancer. Unfortunately a lot of fine restaurants and diners have gone out of business. It is always nice when you find a place that is not processed and shipped in from a 1000 miles away to be cooked “fresh” for you.

This place puts on one fine breakfast. I am not out in the vicinity a lot but as you head west on highway 70 you eventually pass through that part of the wasteland that is St. Charles and arrive at the Cave Springs Mall exit to the highway. What a weird thing.... a mall. The key is to not go to the left and cross back over the highway but to take a right and quick left which sends you into Old Town St. Peters. Such venerable establishments at Elmo’s Olde Town Bar are there as well as the subject of our piece today.

The building itself is pretty new and that sucks a little. It also has only a small high counter with stools more similar to bar stools then the short round stools that God intended to be in diners. It has a nice hard wood floor which gives it a homey feel but also adds to a rather loud echo that permeates the place making it a noisy place for a quiet morning with a paper or a private meeting with a client. Still the ambience is pleasant, the people do not stare at you too suspiciously and the service is very nice. The people are a mix of some suburban housewives and some builders and construction people and perhaps a few bored home builders. They do not build new homes out here anymore.

Excellent iced tea. Perfect hash browns, light brown crust on a shredded cake. Very tactilely pleasing to my rather delicate palate. The cream gravy is top notch, good consistency without making the move to wallpaper paste and the right amount of sausage. The sausage itself has a little bit of sage for just the right spice. It is really almost exactly what you could want. Examining other people’s plates I saw evidence of eggs cooked to order and well (lovingly) prepared bacon. The service as I said is very nice. The right combination of attentive and respectful of your privacy. The waitresses themselves were not of the “rode hard and put up wet” aged variety that you see in some places. The food was not cooked in plain site which is somewhat of a concern but we will forgive them that.

The menu is home-style cooking complete with Rib-eye steak breakfasts and meat loaf for lunch. I will need to stop by for lunch sometime. The bathrooms are a minor draw back on a cold morning. If I have have the time I often like to enjoy a brief constitutional after breakfast. The bathrooms are in a corner with two outer walls and sometimes, as an older gentlemen it can be harder to gain the appropriate amount of relaxation, even with the help of a sports section, to get the job done. Be warned.
Over all I really like the place and will be a regular on my tours of duty with the broke people of St. Charles and O’Fallon. I am saying it in 8.9 Slingers on the 10 scale.