My use of sports slang may be a bump in the road, or the ski hill, so I don’t sound like a country bumpkin when describing the successes of athletes from across the river.

– Based on my experience at the sports bar, I need to climb the hill as far as my use of trendy Winter Olympic terms. I remember when a mogul was a music executive, not a bump on the hill like that star skier from Afton would land on. And I was told the other night while viewing at the bar, that the right skating term is a “triple axle,” not a “triple lutz.” (Maybe that last characterization describes me). And worst of all to me, a “Latvian speed machine” sounds more like a drug than a luge. To which I must refer to a friend I encountered at Buffalo Wild Wings, who is like a walking encyclopedia of such terminology, having invoked the phrase “150 hours” to describe his watching of the chilly games, or playing like-minded action games, I wasn’t quite sure which. The friend that he was with, Grace, said that she is the antithesis of this, and both of us agreed in any case that we suck at video games, losing at even something as basic as the Old School version of Pong! And if it was up to us to save the universe via Space Invaders, the universe would be toast.
– It’s been all over the news about Afton’s Jessie Diggins essentially digging for gold and carrying the flag at the closing ceremony of the Winter Games. But this in itself is not Game Over. A member of US womens’ hockey team that also won gold is from Andover. But as I jokingly told my bartender friend Matt, the squad actually continued winning medals, surprisingly, led by the Andover player, Over And Over And Over. Matt responded that I should consider doing stand-up comedy. Or provoking collective groans.
– Also concerning the Olympics, word around the sports bar was that the only woman Donald Trump wouldn’t screw, especially if they are an immigrant or celebrity, would be a Russian weightlifter. Just kidding.
– On the other end of things, my old friend Bree was prominent a few years back with Caryn Models out of, you betcha, Minneapolis, which just had a super online offer to make: “The Super Bowl will be here in 11 days! If you need any influencers, models, actors, or hosts be sure to contact us!” In a separate ad, they said they need actual security guards to pose in photos as, essentially, themselves. Along those lines, Time magazine just did a survey, of both men and women, of what is the perfect female body, listing parts of it that belong to various actresses. Of the two groups categorized by gender, the women, not the men, picked a composite who looked just like Bree, because of the thinness of “her” lower body. Its surprising that this was the womens’ pick, as you would expect such a focus on thinness to come from the guys.
– A frosty-looking couple came in from the cold quite late to Dick’s during a recent snowstorm. I asked, “it looks like you’ve been out in this extreme weather?” For about five minutes, the man replied, making me wonder just exactly where they were coming from. The woman also had sparkles that were much like snowflakes on her forehead. Just what that was about also made me wonder. The “bitter” conditions also evoked another response: A number of us had a spirited and in some cases slightly angry debate about what, concerning the idea that the city had posted notice of a snow emergency for parking on its streets, constituted a legal notice of that situation. Is social media enough to meet the posting standard? That didn’t deter the last call numbers, which more than quadrupaled the number of people in the bar.
– A Dick’s regular is spreading her love of trivia around, in large part hitting what might be the next big thing, (and this could be a trivia question itself), through her experiences with DJTrivia at two different venues, Dick’s on Monday nights and also at Bo’s ‘N Mine in River Falls, where she has also trekked with staff members of the aforementioned bar to play. Plus, there is a third local venue, The Village Inn in North Hudson, that is offering DJTrivia, making it a gaming trifecta. There are twenty weeks of what might be thought of as a regular season, with the games going on once a week, followed by an end of year tournament worth $1,000. As the say, you don’t have to be a genius to play but it might help. What won’t help are computers and cell phones and social media devices of all types, as you are not allowed to have them during play. That would kind of be like receiving radio messages inside a quarterback’s football helmet, (oh, yeah, that’s now allowed).
– I was asked, do you know this guy? The woman posing the question said she had met met him at the truck stop and he paid her $100 to be his date for the night, just hang out and listen to music. They appeared to have hit it off and both were wearing Harley Davidson shirts. They waited a bit to get started on their date, however, as they didn’t make it out on the town until well after midnight. Right at last call, however, you could see the two counting out bills to finalize their transaction.
– A journalism student Molly, splitting her time between writing for regional magazines and bartending, in of all places Utah, was home for a funeral. Gee, her work sounds a lot like my kind of schedule.

(Yes Virginia, there is life after Fat Tuesday. Only it may not be New Orleans themed. Now to the movies, as the dark subject inside in Notes From The Beat strays from music, as it is about Black Panther, (and not the past revolutionary group), and not Steel Panther).

Fat Tuesday may have tanked as far as attendance, as is typical in recent years, but don’t use that F word when it comes to treating someone on the day that follows, that being Valentine’s Day.
Or maybe you don’t have a worry about it at all.
A bartender I know, although quite popular with the ladies, said on Tuesday night that even though he’s not that terribly young, he has never been in the midst of a serious relationship when V-Day rolls around. So, again, no worries. Even though there was a tin of chocolates setting on the bar counter (small in size), that ended up being shared with the only two patrons sitting on the other side (both men). Limited attendance was the norm all around town.

Which brings me to the sign outside Season’s Tavern that said optimistically, Love Is In The Air. That replaces the message that was posted for a few days prior, Six More Weeks Of Fun, referring to the groundhog that was challenged to see his shadow a couple of days beforehand. He may have been as challenged with that as all those guys trying to figure out the perfect gift.
Fail at that and you could be left out in the cold. With the way the temps had been — fittingly warming up for Valentine’s Day, and not being so “frigid” — there was a sign posted on the second door to Stone Tap that said because of often sub-zero temperatures, patrons should only use the main door, exactly 25 feet to the south. The place was indeed trying to warm things up by offering a smokin’ hot V-Day menu. For other last-minute of the last-minute gift ideas, see this web site’s Picks of the Week department.
For someone in need of no such help, my friend Mackenzie, there was this to offer near bar time at Pudge’s once V-Day was only a few minutes old. We both wear hugging on our sleeves, and we talked for several minutes about the different kids of hugs and what they mean. The manner in which hands are used in conjunction with someone’s back is everything.

And then there was that Root For The Vikings poster that was still up at Buffalo Wild Wings, referring to their special offer on shared appetizers when Minnesota gets three or more quarterback sacks. Uhm the football season is over, and would be even if the Vikes had made it to the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl weekend promised much and — depending who you talked to — delivered, although the process continues on, locally and nationally.
Sports bar TV junkies can continue their fix in coming days with the also-much-televised Winter Olympic Games, but what’s listed in the next paragraphs is how the local Big Game experience, and overflow, was fulfilled:
– In the end, the victor was not the usual-finish Pats, or the Pates as a friend Out East, with that accent, seemed to have said after the game.
– It was very late on a Thursday, days after the Big Game, and there still were Super Bowl workers hanging around. A group of them in construction were at Pudge’s ordering Wisconsin-ish drinks.

– Did any of the servers I know see a $100 tip? I asked this after the fact. “Now that would be news,” one said, although with a wink of an eye, indicated he’d gotten near that mark.
– The chef du jour for the Super Bowl has a lookalike, although a bit younger, in North Hudson. So Andrew Zimmern had his face continued to be splashed all over the place well after the game itself ended. That was even more so than my neighbor, who is well known himself for being a former Pepper Fest king and having a man cave to die for. Chances are that one watched the other. And Zimmern would fit in well as a Minnesota name if you’d just add two more letters near the end.
– This was the best trash talk cut against the Patriots, overheard in Minneapolis and repeated at Dick’s Bar later: “You had Benjamin Franklin and have been back sliding since!”
– While local servers said the visiting patrons were well behaved, there were exceptions, emulating the testosterone-fueled rant of the Eagles’ center in Thursday’s victory parade in Philly. While at the microphone, he was definitely at the center of things. As were a group of three downtown newcomers on Saturday night, dressed like they were attempting to be preppy, but not quite able to pull it off. They like many others appeared to think that simply sporting a North Face sweatshirt would make them fit in. However, their look was more like Duke University meets St. Elmo’s Fire. After bugging me to find out my political views, and I knew well enough to keep quiet, the shortest of them called me a socialist, then picked up a bar stool as if he was going to hit me with it. That was my ticket to exit, stage left. When I dropped back in to the venue later in the week, the incident was well talked about, and I found out the guy had been kicked out just a few seconds later.
– Some venues were actually closed for the day, and Kozy Korner in North Hudson gave it a new twist, shutting down at 4 p.m. to have their company Christmas party. At least that kept them busy watching the pregame shows. Other places just stood pat with their offerings, or just served their regular snacks. It was the day before the Super Bowl and staffers at the Agave Kitchen still weren’t certain if they would be serving their standard complimentary hot dogs that have been a game day staple. It did look, however, like that dog decision would eventually be a do. The afternoon of the Super Bowl, the downtown was hopping, with lots of people in small groups entering and exiting the venues I write about.
– Near the end of the whole situation, I needed to go, late, to a bank from the nearer portions of the Enemy State to cash a check. I noticed that there was a mock $1 million bill sitting behind their counter. The clerk entered longer than usual information on my records and seemed to be referring to what was writtem on that $1 million bill! As this ended up taking longer and longer, lapsing into several minutes, I was wondering about both whether the check was good and also, if there was some karma between the fact that the bill was for one million, and that the number of people from out-of-town was one million. After all, everything was resolved, unlike the crazy celebrations in Philly.
– I signed up to rent out a room with one of those Super Bowl hosting companies, but they appeared to have bitten off more than they could chew as far as volume of potential clients, as except for initial conversations in mid-January, they for days on end they would not answer their phones, pick up on the other end, or return voice mail messages. I never did get a person on the line or my room actually listed. So in the long run this poor ink-stained wretch was out a few thousand dollars in potential revenue.
– Along with those hosting lines, we needed plenty of boxes to throw things into, then shift them around into the basement, so I enlisted the help of some bartenders I know and asked if they could throw several of these containers my way after stocking boxes of liquor. I simply said, “hey buddy, can I get a few boxes,” without elaborating. A few days later, at The Village Inn, the bartender asked me as an aside, “hey, how did your Super Bowl hosting go?” Was it that obvious that’s what they were for?
– Out-of-towners especially might not know the full implications of negotiating the monuments-to-themselves that occur when you get the Department of Transportation involved in road construction, and this enormity has been shown in particular with the massive Wisconsin side infastructure that went along with the Stillwater bridge project. Some from other states didn’t know quite what to do with the current love of the DOT, that being roundabouts. In particular, a guy who looked the part of the average farmer, with the farmer T-shirt, drove his truck, with Nebraska plates, to the front of the first roundabout you get when traveling north on Hwy. 35 toward Houlton. There were no other cars in sight, but rather than simply merging, he pulled to an almost complete stop when coming to the turn lane at the entry of the concrete circle. Then on this day of sub-zero temperatures, a bit further down the road, there were drivers coming out of the car wash with plates from Texas to North Carolina. Don’t they know that the water from the wash will quickly move to ice on their vehicle?
– At Buffalo Wild Wings locations, including that in Hudson, local control of publicity efforts was taken over by their sponsored brands for food and soda, meaning they would do no such thing themselves, a manager said. So no ad for them other than this at HudsonWiNightlife.
– Late last year I ran into someone while waiting in a lobby in Hudson who said she had a friend who was in charge of an effort to build a few more motels in The Cities just for the Super Bowl. And as far as the international airport, it had traffic totals that were easily the largest on record on Sunday night/Monday.