The Raelians Want You to Go Topless

This week we had the question, “What cult of nutjobs claimed to have created a human clone in 2002?” Strangely, almost no teams got this except at the Black Sheep, where most teams got it. The answer was the Raelians. Here is an article about that cloned baby, appropriately named Eve.

The Raelians eventually hope to develop adult clones into which humans could transfer their brains, Rael said. “Cloning a baby is just the first step. For me, it’s not so important,” he said. “It’s a good step, but my ultimate goal is to give humanity eternal life through cloning.”

So these people are obviously bat$hit crazy, but they’re not all bad. One of their big causes is topless rights for women. According to a website they operate called GoTopless.org,

“As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right. Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests.”

We couldn’t agree more. They are holding a National Go-Topless Day on August 21st to support the cause. A number of cities are participating, including New York, DC, and Chicago. But thus far, no Philly. I think somebody needs to pick up the torch here. I would do it myself, but something tells me the wife would hit me over the head with a frying pan. So if you’re out there, and you believe in freedom, contact the Raelians immediately.

Week One Scores and Our First Physical Challenge

Here are the scores after week 1 of the JGTSI2. A bit of a scoring change this season. I am taking your highest finish as your point total for a certain week*. Of course there are still 7 weeks plus a wild card week left, so there is still plenty of time to get your team in the mix. I wouldn’t worry too much about a low finish or missing Week 1. Not only can you score points by playing this week, I have also kicked off the Facebook Physical Challenge, and one team is going to win a $100 prize for scoring the most physical challenge points. There are up to 10 points to be given away this week so you could put yourself high on the leader board for just a few minutes of work. Look Up Look Down won the first two physical challenge prizes, but Brown Betty took the top prize in the spring.

For more info on the JGTSI2, and why it’s important that you help us defeat Denver, click here.

So if you play once, finish 3rd, then play again and finish 1st, I will just take your first place finish.

Drew Lazor’s Questions About Food and Drink

In case you missed it last week at the Black Sheep, Drew Lazor of the City Paper (interviewed here) wrote his own quiz about food and drink. Pretty damn good questions. Here they are. Answers are after the jump.

  1. What are the three ingredients in a Manhattan?
  2. In 1988’s “Coming to America,” what is the name of the signature sandwich at the McDonald’s clone McDowell’s?
  3. What is the term for meat from an adult sheep?
  4. Hamentashen, a triangular filled pastry, is traditionally eaten in honor of what Jewish holiday?
  5. Which of the 50 states is the only one to grow coffee plants commercially?
  6. Star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel are together known as what?
  7. What literary giant has a drink named after him that consists of white rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice, maraschino liqueur, and sugar?
  8. Which current Philadelphia chef, who runs Zahav, was recently honored with the 2011 “Best Chef Mid-Atlantic” award from the James Beard Foundation?
  9. What writer and TV personality is still considered the chef at large at the New York brasserie Les Halles?
  10. In 1987’s “Adventures in Babysitting,” what food item does a temporarily blind Brenda attempt to buy with a personal check in the bus station?

Bonus: Which pasta variety’s Italian name translates to “little ear” ?

Continue reading “Drew Lazor’s Questions About Food and Drink” →

Beer Week on Philly Sports History


A special week dedicated to booze and baseball this week on Philly Sports History. Here are a few highlights.

Part 3 of my interview with author Bruce Kuklick, where he talks about why the A’s could never get a beer license at Shibe Park.

How Schmidt’s Beer helped Harry Kalas become the Phillies announcer.

How getting league officials drunk earned the 1871 Philadelphia A’s a pennant.

Remembering that strange night at Wrigley two years ago when Shane got beer dumped on him.

5 Quick Questions with Tonight’s Guest Host Felicia D’Ambrosio

We had a great time with last night’s guest hosts Suzy Woods and Drew lazor. Suzy handled the notoriously tough Vous crowd like a champ, and the round Drew wrote about food was damn good (I’ll post it a little later.)

Tonight, we welcome Felicia D’Ambrosio. She is managing editor at Grid Philly, writes for the City Paper, and is partnering with Michael Solomonov, among others, to open the highly anticipated Federal Doughnuts this summer. Here she talks about her best night of bartending, the most underrated bar in the city, and teaches us something we didn’t know about beer.

JGT: You took the bartender to food writer path. Give us one of your favorite bartending memories.

FELICIA: One of my best bartending nights was when the Phillies won the World Series.  I had been tending bar for much of the playoffs at the Belgian Cafe, and a huge groups of regulars had coalesced around the one TV.  When the end of the last game seemed imminent, and our victory close at hand, I began closing checks as fast as possible ’cause I knew everyone was going to go berserk.  They did indeed, and Chef Evan popped open tons of cheap champagne and we sprayed the crowd and screamed ourselves stupid.  Kisses all around. Then I rode my bike home through the debris of the Broad Street mayhem. Best night ever.

JGT: You know a lot about beer, having both written extensively about it and served it. Tell us something about beer we don’t know.

FELICIA: There’s much debate about how beer came about in the first place, as it was almost certainly an accident. There’s “wet grain” theory, and my favorite, “magic stick” theory.  As in, prehistoric people would stir the pot of grain gruel with the magic stick, which was inoculated with yeasts, and would start the conversion from porridge into sweet intoxicant. Dr. Ernie Schuyler of the Academy of Natural Sciences has some great research on the topic.

JGT: What’s the most underrated bar in the city?

FELICIA: Jose Pistolas is awesome, especially the upstairs. It’s sort of an employee lounge for the Monk’s crew (Joe Gunn is one of ours from back in the day) — great bartenders, huge beer selection, and shots of Jameson big enough to kill you.

JGT: What’s your prediction for the “Next Big Thing” on the Philadelphia bar and dining scene?

FELICIA: I’m still waiting for ramen, but the Royal Izakaya should be open soon, so we’ll see if that spawns imitators. Since I’m opening a fried chicken-and-donuts place with CookNSolo and the Bodhi Coffee guys, I’ll say gourmet donuts and fried chicken.

JGT: Ok, same question I closed with on Lazor. It’s 8 p.m. You’re being executed at midnight (needless to say, for a crime you didn’t commit). What’s your last meal?

FELICIA: My mom-mom’s manicotti and my great-grandmother’s Thanksgiving stuffing. A magnum of vintage Dom and a bottle of Cantillon Fou’ Foune. A giant pile of strawberries in season with DiBruno Bros. burrata and the best olive oil money can buy. The lobster custard served in an egg from Talula’s Table, then some king crab legs and butter. I’ll finish off with more from my mom-mom: her cream puffs, then some of Mr. Martino’s chocolate pudding. This is exactly how I plan to die, anyway.

Here’s another great interview with Felicia on Grub Street a couple of years ago.

Meet Drew Lazor, Who Guest Hosted a Round Wednesday at Black Sheep

We’ve got a couple of guest hosts at quizzo tonight. One of them most of you already know. The Beerlass, aka the Lovely Ginger, will host our opening round at the Rendezvous tonight. Beer Lass is well known in beer circles for repping for Sly Fox, for hosting the IPA girls beer club, and for running her Beerlass blog. Of course, she has also helped me at several Quizzo Bowls.

The other one is not as well known in quizzo circles, but is quite well known in food circles. Drew is the Food and Web editor at the City Paper and creator and editor of the popular Philly food blog Meal Ticket. Drew was so fired up he asked if he could write his own round. I said “Sure.” He’ll host that round tonight at Black Sheep.

I asked Drew a few questions about himself, the best and worst of the local food and drink scene, and what he’d request for his last meal:

1. When did you first become interested in writing about food?

Have definitely always been into food, but mostly the egregious overeating of it until I was assigned the “Feeding Frenzy” restaurant column as a college intern at City Paper. Kinda went from there with it and eventually became the food editor. Now when people ask me what I do I tell them I write articles about cheeseburgers.

2. What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

A few years ago Georges Perrier called me at work and yelled at me for a solid 15-20 minutes because he was upset about a (very positive!) review Trey Popp wrote of Le Bec-Fin, right after it had rejiggered its approach to become more casual. I was so flattered! Seriously. I’m pretty sure he didn’t care who it was who answered the phone, he simply unloaded on my ass because I picked up, but still, I’ll never forget that. GP tore me apart! As far as writing goes I enjoyed writing a long piece about pizza in Philly last summer.

3. Give us three of your favorite restaurants in Philly and a quick reason why.

This is always difficult but I’ll try. Mémé because it’s an honest place and it has bone marrow and fried chicken. Nan Zhou because I like to watch the dudes stretch noodles and slap them on the counter. Bistrot La Minette because it feels like France and I’ve never even been there.

4. What’s the coolest thing about the Philly food scene right now?

All the street food that’s been popping off! All the trucks are great of course but then you’ve got a lot of up-and-coming operations that are outdoor/stationary, like the carts setting up at Garden Variety at 2nd/Poplar. And then the Vendy Awards are happening in July here too. I think it’s cool that it’s growing so quickly.

4b) What’s the lamest thing about the Philly food scene right now?

I’ve been whining about this for years. There is no late-night pho. WHY IS THERE NO LATE-NIGHT PHO PLACE? PLEASE SOMEONE OPEN THIS.

5. You’re being executed at midnight. The warden takes your order at 8 p.m. What are you ordering?

My mom’s lumpia (Filipino egg rolls), my dad’s Yorkshire pudding, my girlfriend’s guacamole, sizzling mussels from Mémé, beef and tripe in chili oil from Han Dynasty, a crab pie from Matthew’s in Baltimore, Arista roast pork sandwich from Paesano’s, Kelly’s burger from Grace Tavern and the entire suckling pig situation from Amada, washed down with a Yards Philly Pale Ale, a Ballast Point Sculpin, a Penicillin from The Franklin and anything with bourbon in it from Southwark. Then Sour Patch Watermelons. And a Twix. With water. Whole lotta water.

Thanks Drew. We’ll see ya tonight!