Things getting super intense this weekend, because of late-smokin’ Hot Air and four facets to celebrate the Big Game

While the trend seems to be most people watching “The Big Game,” as it is now referred to for legal reasons, at house parties, there is at least one noteable exception. At the newly opened Next Stop bar in Houlton, there is a trifecta and more of super offerings. You get to designate your team of choice, and every time their score changes, get a free jello shot. In addition, patrons can guess the score at the end of each quarter, and the one who comes closest gets a free T-shirt. There are happy hour prices all through the game, which is becoming a theme at Next Stop, and another special is four domestic beers for $10 in a bucket, and in a new twist to an old game, you get to keep the bucket! There is pot luck food, to boot.
While most people are, again, watching the big game at house parties, one local sports bar in celebrating in-house. At Kozy Korner in North Hudson, they are closing at 4 p.m. Sunday for their company Christmas party. And the return to deep freeze we’ve had in past days shouldn’t mean that attendance (if only workers) is as effected by ranging temperatures throughout the day as was the recent outdoor bean bag tournament.
The Big Game is not the only game in town. Local bars said they were filled to capacity because of the Hot Air Affair being all this weekend, and things were just crazy, so much that workers cut first were known to stay after for a drink (or two …). This was to the point where venues were shouting last call in advance of usual because there were so many people to be prodded to vacate the premises. But that wasn’t the only super-late-night twist. DJ Ben Michaels at Dick’s Bar and Grill announced that there was an unofficial after-hours party that was to be found elsewhere by going in the back way and announcing the password “Midget.” (Gotta love that super partying choice of wording). Kinda like Tom Cruise in that really out-there “password” flick with Nicole Kidman, who by the way has a look-alike in the Hudson bar scene. Among those people who did head to the door at Dick’s in a timely fashion, were the music duo Ella and Wade, in a rare off-the-stage presence downtown after their gig at Mallory’s.
Anyway, if you were not out Friday night, there is more of the same to be had tonight, that being Saturday, as we do it all over again with the ballooning pilots and their entourage.