Photo courtesy of The Times Union.

Ham and Eggs (sunny side up), hash browns and dry wheat toast with a large iced coffee… For almost fifteen years this has been my order at my favorite breakfast spot, Miss Albany Diner. I won’t waste time talking about how awesome the food was or how much I enjoyed being there because you already know. For many Albany residents- and some outside of Albany, M.A.D. has been the go to place for all things breakfast.

Jane Brown- the current owner, matriarch and familiar face of Miss Albany Diner decided to enter into a well deserved retirement years ago, but was unable to find a buyer for the building. After careful consideration and discussions with my partners Jimmy and Demetra Vann, we decided to make an offer which Mrs. Brown (recent widow of Cliff Brown who was also an owner) accepted. It is kind of a bittersweet win-win situation, since it is the building that is being sold, not the business. So while we are happy to acquire our neighbor to the left and allow her to move forward with her plans, the diner itself is no more.

Mrs. Brown and her son Bill, are legally keeping the name “Miss Albany Diner” as well as their recipes, and they maintain the right to open another diner in another location, as well as having the right to sell the name Miss Albany Diner and it’s recipes to an interested party at another location. As new owners of the property, we legally can not continue to operate the space as Miss Albany Diner or use their menu items. I’m only noting that because it is important to us that it is clear that we are not “closing down Miss Albany Diner”. They sold us the property, and we are not legally allowed to re-open Miss Albany Diner in that space.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Jane and Bill Brown, for giving us the opportunity to care for a building that is considered by many to be one of the most iconic buildings in the capital region. I know the Browns hold the diner very dear to their hearts, and I promise we will respect the history, the memory, and the integrity of Miss Albany Diner.

I bet your newsfeed is a flurry of pink with a million protests over Susan G. Komen pulling funding from Planned Parenthood.  Mine sure is.

I posted a link to a petition on a friend’s status in case any women or boob-loving men wanted to take fifteen seconds and sign it, too.  I figured, “Hey, it’s a quick and easy way for any of us to lend support to representatives who can make a difference in these causes.”

Let me make the resulting comment dialogue brief:

“Politics, politics, you disagree with me, I disagree with you, politics, politics, the wording of this petition is extremist, abortion is evil, conspiracy theories, here’s a vague Wikipedia link, they’re profiting from dead babies, where’s the money coming from, breast cancer is a profit-making scam, evil organization, etc., etc., etc.”

As an aside, every negative commenter was male, which, given the outraged comments from male readers, I will make a point to mention, I thought was weird because I figured women would be the ones doing the protesting. No bigotry or offense meant, gentlemen, sorry for offending you, and rest assured, your comments have left me feeling like I’m a failure as a human being for not realizing this sentence made me appear to be male-bashing, especially when paired with the following paragraph. I am an equal genital supporter.

My reasoning behind the posting was the availability of breast exams offered by the organization I would go to for my own exam.  If tables are turned, the testicles of the men leaving the comments are their own business, and they can get them felt up by any licensed doctor they want, whether or not I agree with the other procedures the office conducts.

As for the petition I signed, I’ve rarely found moderate organizations getting petitions off the ground and making a difference.  If you know of one, post the link; I’ll sign it.

At the very least, the advantage to all this hoopla is that in the past 24 hours PP has received more from individuals than from Komen.  And to finish my italicized updates, NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg made a hugely generous donation, which I Tweeted about last night. Boobs, ftw.

What you think...what you say.

Originally posted on TheBerry.com.  Do you know who the artist is?  Tell me in the comments.

It worked fine when I went to bed I know this because I was watching porn, but this morning it won’t turn on.

Is my computer dead? Do I need a one? Will the porn I was watching pop up on the screen when the genius fixes it?? Oh dear.

Anyway, I can’t post until I resolve this because I’m writing this on my phone and the App is very limited.

Damn you, Frank.

And no, I don’t watch porn and drink milk at the same time. That would be weird. The midget bukkake film I watched was weird enough.

A friend of mine showed me this photo today and I found it so beautiful I had to share.

Stage of Verdi’s Opera “A Masked Ball” at the Bregenz Festival ‘Opera on the Lake’ in Austria.

Dan, Emily, JC, Lauren.

JC, local bar tending goddess, was on the recent Weezer Cruise.  She sent us this photo from the cruise, and had this to say:

This is Emily and Laura. They approached us somewhere on the Gulf Of mexico and asked us if we worked at Bombers in Albany,NY. Turns out the ladies were from Long Island and had graduated from SUNY Albany and had been frequent visitors to Bombers. Emily expressed her love of BBQ Tofu Fries and how being on Friday Puppy would be a dream come true. Hope we can make that happen for her! Bombers has made me a celebrity even in international waters!

Thank you for sending that to us, JC!  and thanks for reading the blog, Emily and Lauren!

I have never taken Acid – The thought of sitting terrified on the middle of my bed with skulls and two headed animals coming out of my wall paper and taunting me with Disney Songs is not really on the top of my list of my activities for the weekend.  I have friends who have taken it and talk of this mind bending experience which either has people rolling around in laughter with what they saw, though more often leaves most people confused and scared of what is going on.

Now it appears there is a whole new twist to the whole acid taking experience.

These adverts are now appearing on Phone Boxes and Bus Stops throughout the UK, and it appears that there is a whole messier effect of experimenting with acid.

Poo Flinging is never cool.  I can’t think of any social situation where pulling your underwear down and copying the fecal behaviour of a baboon is considered acceptable. I mean, you are hardly going to get yourself laid at a party if you are dressed up in your favourite heels and beautiful dress, had your hair pinned up and your face looking beautifully made up, and then at 2 in the morning decide to show everyone your party trick! Clearly you are going to loose friends.

This advert has left me with so confused. I am not in the slightest bit interested in taking this drug, but i just wonder how effective this advert would be in putting people off experimenting. It seems so off the wall that I would imagine most people are laughing about it or even wondering how mind bending this stuff actually can be.

Either way, the next time I head to a party and see someone taking their trousers off or slip out of their dress, instead of laughing thinking that they are so drunk they are getting naked ready to jump into the pool or streak down the road, now I am going to run for my life away from the human poo fling er!

It is a brilliant advert, but slightly concerning that poo flinging is such a problem that public money has to be spent in the UK warning people about the effects!!

Is this just a UK issue, or is drug induced poo flinging a global phenomena?

When we were kids, my family tried to get out for Friday Fish Fries as much as possible. One of our preferred destinations was Granddaddy’s, an unassuming, neighbor hood strip mall joint that had great food and conservative prices.  This Friday tradition was an economical way to get a good meal and get the crew together to talk about the week.  One of the problems I’ve always had when I get a meal is that I refuse to order the same thing as anyone else at the table.  Because of this I rarely ordered a Fish Fry, and went with an item called The Bleu Spaniard.  The name conjures some sexy (or creepy) Mediterranean delicacy, but it’s really just an open faced Blue Cheese Burger on rye.

Regardless of what it isn’t, it’s totally delicious. A perfectly rare burger on an over sized piece of toasted rye bread covered in bacon, blue cheese dressing and sliced, raw onion.  It’s because of this sandwich that I love blue cheese in the first place.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had one in a while…mainly because of my wife’s spirited aversion to all things raw onion and blue cheese (or Moldy Cheese as she calls it…she’s very literal.  Sometimes she calls me White Mr. Thinks He’s So Great…).  But tonight, I’m making a Bleu Spaniard.  I’m extra excited because I am making homemade Blue Cheese dressing again, and it’s the best I’ve ever tasted (maybe I am White Mr. Thinks He’s So Great).Here’s the recipe:

Blue Cheese Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 to 1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup crème fraîche

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon minced chives

1 teaspoon minced fl at-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon minced mint

1 cup crumbled blue cheese (I use a  imported Gorgonzola but you can obviously use whatever kind is your favorite)

Kosher salt

Put the mayonnaise in a large bowl. Whisk in  buttermilk and all the

remaining ingredients. The dressing can be used now or refrigerated.

Before serving, lift up a spoonful of dressing and pour it back into the

bowl—it should run freely. If it is too thick, add additional buttermilk

as necessary. Refrigerate in a covered container for up to 1 week (the

herbs may darken after 1 day).

MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

I had a troubling “Things Overheard on the Street” experience yesterday.

Two girls who might have been old enough to be college freshmen were walking in front of me, deep in conversation about a guy the girl on the left had met at a party the night before.  As they gossiped, the Girl Overheard on the left said to her friend, “I only gave him head, to be on the safe side.”

Having grown up at the tail end of the AIDS crisis, I was utterly floored.  I was also forced to realize that courtesy of Abstinence Education (“Just Don’t Do It”) forcing the eviction of Sex Education (“Let’s Give You Facts and Let You Decide For Yourself”) from high schools, there are droves of girls and guys entering college territory who truly believe that unprotected oral sex is safer than intercourse.

Here’s the thing.

If you met a guy in the club, you wouldn’t hand him your social security number or email password. That seems foolish and risky in a very obvious way. Yet, somehow it’s okay to allow him to put his penis in your mouth without any protection?  You’ve just given that stranger total control over your health, and, in the case of AIDS or HIV, possibly control over your life.  

To those Girls Overheard on the street, I am begging you to be safe and smart.  People regularly contract communicable diseases without even having sex, and if you wouldn’t pick up a dirty spoon off the sidewalk and put it into your mouth, well…

I think we know where I’m going here.

Let’s say our imaginary friend Todd got a tattoo done on the cheap by a buddy.  His buddy didn’t properly sanitize his tools, and Todd unknowingly contracted Hepatitis B, which is 100x more contagious than HIV, and shuts down your liver, which you need for drinking.  Todd had a vaccine from back in nursery school, which lapsed around the time he hit sophomore year of college.

Flash forward, and you, my dear Girls, have just met Todd at a party. He has no idea he has an STD because, as far as he’s concerned, he hasn’t engaged in any risky sexual behaviors. If you gifted Todd with a blowjob…well, let’s just say that at least the jaundice from your shiny new case of Hep B is cheaper than spray tanning.

I don’t care what Abstinence Education says…a dirty virginity isn’t doing anyone any good.  And guys?  If you’re the next guy our Girl Overheard “just gives head” to (or you’re sweet on Todd and want to take care of that yourself), you’re just as susceptible and can get it, too.  STDs are color-blind, gender-neutral, and would simply love to come home with you.

Love whomever you want, just love yourself enough to take precautions.  Practically every bar in Albany has free or cheap condoms.  USE THEM.  Unprotected oral sex with a stranger is not safe, and while love can keep you warm at night, love cannot keep your vital organs functioning if you pick up an incurable virus, infection, or disease.

If (like most of us) you’ve ever spent an evening in a real-life Texts From Last Night situation, one of the best ways to make sure you’re safe is to go to a clinic to get tested.  Need info on where to spend an awkward hour avoiding the gaze of other uncomfortable strangers?  The Albany Department of Health offers a free clinic and is a great place to start.

It’s time for all of us to put on our grown-up panties and take the control of our bodies out of the hands of strangers, and into the qualified hands of strangers who are doctors.  Get tested.

As everyone knows by now, it is Monday morning which means its time to win a prize. This week we are giving away a $50 gift card to Graney’s Bar and Grill on New Scotland Ave. For those who don’t know, this is a classic place to sit back and enjoy an evening. With a $50 card, you’ll be having a great night!

What we’ll do is give this awesome prize to the 29th commenter on this post. A little bit of humor in the posts won’t help your chances of winning but it can’t hurt! Good Luck!