The summer party season is fast waning, but that for fall is fast getting going:
— The Village Inn in North Hudson sponsored informal birthday parties for not one but, count ’em, four people on a recent Saturday evening. One of the most noteworthy beneficiaries is an aspiring model who also works at a village store and said she has had offers from Glamour, Fitness and yes even Playboy. On her big birthday night, she started out with a hip off-the-shoulder sweater with white slash, then changed into that infamous little black dress with high heeled boots, and lastly slipped on some comfortable flats for shoes. (That’s a standard standby because as she said, primping and preening before the camera for a more-than-eight-hour-day is hard work). And her party attire is much more a fave of hers than what she wears for retail work. But as some of the Village People might have asked most recently, where was the paparazzi?
— On that same night, there were people in a birthday party entourage getting toasted at Dick’s Bar and Grill, and their more-sober leader was wearing what looked like a Burger King crown over his baseball hat. The prior weekend, such a party had a makeshift photo booth cut out of a big cardboard box that was getting a lot of use, plus a pyramid of empty cans fashioned like that of the infamous good-for-you-food pecking order we learned of as kids, with cards and small gifts inserted. The birthday girl who was giving such stuff away said she had just turned 40, but looked a lot younger, hence fewer cans that were needed for the balancing act. And awhile before that, mostly empty plastic cups had been stacked in such a pyramid — and the letters on them used to spell out ADD with lots of extra Ds and then used for party bowling. Why “mostly” empty? In case you spaced out where you’d put your drink and needed a “spare.”
— That birthday theme continued at Dick’s when a megaphone was used to shout out birthday greetings, and its size and shape was much like that in a prominent recent photo of another even bigger kind of horn, that being the one that’s been blown for years at Viking games by its mascot.
— And lastly on this topic, I cite the large herd of bachlorettes at their own party you wore T-shirts saying “bride’s last ride.” Why do I say “herd?” The shirts were sporting a big logo of a stallion.
— And hold your horses. It may not have been the Ice Bowl, but Kozy Korner in North Hudson celebrated an outdoor Packer-Viking party when the teams faced off on what initially looked to be a very cool fall evening. All that was asked — like was done during such matchups for years across town at the Mallalieu Inn — is that you bring a potluck dish to pass, which entitled you to a free drink. In this latest case, would that entree be a “hot dish?”
— Speaking of hot dishes, one of just a handful of people out the other night was a Brazilian supermodel. OK, yes, she is from Brazil and has that accent and does have modeling cred, but not as many shoots as some. However, she does appear to be somewhat of a jet-setter, knowing musicians and pro athletes from near and far. One of them is musician Drake, who like the bartender who was yucking it up is from Canada, and some others are from the pro soccer team in the Twin Cities, and others who are prominent in their sport nationally. But this newbie does need to bone up on American culture. She didn’t quite get why the Incredible Hulk spoof on late night TV featured the big guy having green skin.
— Which brings us to more fun with geography, along the lines of you came all the way here to do what? Drivers in three recent local collisions hail from, drum roll please, (1) Lawrenceville, Georgia and Dearborne Heights, Mich., (2) Ephrata, Wash. and Edgewood, Md., and (3) Gothenburg, Neb. and Portland, not Oregon but Texas.
— With the prominence of the recent Bacon Bash in River Falls, this Buzztime trivia answer at Buffalo Wild Wings becomes more poignant: Players were asked to rank four regional favorite foods that are a bit unusual, and one was Kansas City chocolate bacon pizza. Much to our chagrin, it only drew 19 percent of the vote. You know that down in RF, with its special place in bacon lovers hearts, it would have done much better. And possibly at B-Dubs itself, as a new sauce for wings.
— And more on the travails of traveling on The Hill late at night. I pulled up to the intersection at Eleventh Street and Coulee Road in front of Taco John’s shortly before 1 a.m., and sat at a red light for four minutes waiting for a green. During that time only two other cars passed by. Enough to make me check if I was in the wrong lane and didn’t pull up to any pressure plate that might have been there. Nope, that didn’t work either.
— A fish story for your consideration. One of the main managers on The Hill has just one thing in mind after putting in her massive overtime and getting a rare day off: Hit her favorite fishing hole in the backwaters of the St. Croix (she’s not saying exactly where). There can be people who get their first if you’re not up at the brink of dawn, but they usually tow away if you hang around long enough. You also must be watchful of the sunken islands, and if you do, could have happen to you what took place with her child recently, getting a monster so big it broke an extra-firm fishing line. And all this was under the watchful eye of a great big buck on the shoreline. And why the need to escape the work environment for a bit? One of her colleagues put on one of those watch-type things that track steps taken, while pulling a busier than usual close-to-double, and ended up with nearly ten miles walked (or ran).
— A bartender friend again referenced something that’s been on a lot of people’s lips, the apparent purchase of Ellie’s on Main by the people who own the Smilin’ Moose. The walls at Ellie’s these days have been stripped bare of all their usual drink special flyers, all the way down to the wood, like they were in a transition mode. Toward that end, Ellie’s on Sunday night held a “Last Call” farewell party, marking the close of nine years in business with music by Garret and cake (the dessert not the band). They said it this way, “thanks for the memories,” to a crowd of largely on-again, off-again regulars that virtually filled the place early on. In subsequent days, the place was largely gutted.
— A friend named Bill, who always has a story to tell, shared this one about his 45th anniversary from local high school. There had been a photo taken way back when of he and another guy, Edwardo — who went on to move away and became a prominent business person — and a mutual lady friend. The two guys met up again at the reunion and Edwardo fessed up that he’d been carrying a torch for that woman all this years! Bill told him that she still lives in the Stillwater area, and that he would try to broker another reunion, that between those two.