Have you ever wondered: What Does Your Drink Say About You? If I ever hear my drink talking about me, I'm going to obliterate it so fast… The link in this article to "Ten Drinks Men Should Never Order" doesn't work, go here instead. The link to "Ten Things Your Bartender Won't Tell You" is still good. And a commenter there links to Top Ten Myths About Bartenders, which includes

"Myth 3: You can out-drink the bartender.
"A more wrong statement has never been uttered; you can't, so don't even try. But, if you're buying, I'll certainly entertain the challenge. I don't care how much you think you can drink—any bartender anytime, anywhere can put you under the table, period."

Words to remember.

But then, some bartenders may take a different approach:

Strict Wildness

Music so poignant it wakes the dead,
We passion poets eke it from wine, not bread;
From wonder, not logic; heart, not head,—
But need clear heads to mix your heady brew.
We kitsch it if we swig it too.
Inspired insanity won't do.
Nor thin-lipped sane respectability.
Rigor lone is rigor mortis.
Rigor-plus-wild is the right-bank tortoise
That beats the chic hare of Rive Gaucherie.
Are poems magic? Sure. Till magic
Believes itself. Then it's bunk.
Art, being bartender, is never drunk.

           — Peter Viereck

Zack Kazoo got his picture on the front page of the Washington Times! He was present at Nationals Stadium for the mass.

It seems we have been mentioned by tokezohime at OceanCity.com's music blog. Thanks, tokezohime!

Fire at Dough Roller at S. Division St!
Not the one at 3rd St. The Baltimore Sun has the story, and the Dagsboro Volunteer Fire Department have a lot of pictures.

Bud, the Old Marshal, seen in New Year's deshabille below, has written another book! It's a novel this time, based on his World War II experiences in Japan. To read more about it and order a copy, click this link: We Were Kings.

The Serious Eats website has a couple of seasonally appropriate entries, on the history of pint glasses: For St. Patrick's Day, A Proper Pint; and on a recipe for a Guinness float: Irish Ice Cream Soda. And here's lovely looking sandwich made with Jameson's whiskey! We'll have three.

The Season of St. Patrick is here again. Malone is back from Florida. Someone in Pennsylvania saw a robin last week. And a couple of changes have been made to Malone and the lads' perfomance schedule, so check it out.

Some of you "Waltzing with Bears" fans might enjoy this YouTube clip of Mister Bennett with his other band, from last summer on Block Island. That's Uncle Walter on the far right, with the fiddle and the grin.

Just about time to start thinking about Valentine's Day! So it's really time for New Year Bud to come off the front page and take up residence here. You can see him in his greater glory at Talk Board message # 131, if you go there and click his little pic. Go on, he likes it!

March dates are still in flux, so keep checking that page if you think you might be able to make it to one of them.

2007

The Summer '08 Shenanigans dates are up on the the Schedule page. Mark those calendars!

Update November 18: If you are an early calendar marker who has already marked a calendar, time to go check and mark again, since August dates have changed to July ones, in the twinkling of an eye. Remarkable, how that happens.

Another Summer, another Sunfest.
And it was Malone's turn to be interviewed by Jared Morris on a sunny Saturday morning on the deck.

It was good luck that Dr. Bill was walking by and took these pictures. Thanks, Dr. Bill!

Here's a little trio action, with Betsy on the fiddle. In performance Friday and Saturday nights, Betsy joined Malone and the lads on Tommy Makem's "The Rambles of Spring."

This might be the Kesh Jig. A beautiful day for radio; I'd do that again. Gosh, all these pictures, you'd think we could have gotten one of Wayne Cannon when he wasn't walking away from the camera, but that's what he's doing down below there, and that's it.

Back at the beach for Labor Day.
Weather is beautiful. A good day for … radio on the deck!

The talk of Delmarva.
Here's Jared Morris of WGMD, 92.7 FM, interviewing a gentleman whose name I didn't catch, about the upcoming coin show at the Convention Center. Malone and Mr. Bennett did something similar with Ron Letterman a couple of years ago. Our show had music!

Something else to do with beer, from the Washington Post:

And for Dessert, Suds on a Stick
If the Good Humor man had moonlighted as a bartender, he might have invented the Hopsicle.
But he didn't, and so credit goes to Frank Morales, executive chef at Rustico Restaurant and Bar in Alexandria. Rustico stocks about 280 brands of beer, and since taking over the kitchen in February, Morales has been happily incorporating them into his cuisine.
A mental lapse -- he left a bottle of beer in the freezer for three hours and it froze rock-hard -- led him to experiment with beer on a stick.

More at the link.

Green in more ways than one
A recent study found that the average Irishman walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Irishmen drink, on average, 22 gallons of beer or stout per annum. That means, on average, that an Irishman gets about 41 miles per gallon. Kind of makes you proud to be an Irishman…

Zack Kazoo, of the Kazoo Family Players, has a weblog! And he updates it oftener than some. It's called Full of Birds, and it's all about those Orioles.

We're really short on 4th of July pictures, so if you have any good ones, send 'em.

At the beach!

Ocean City, July 7, 2007. 7/7/07, looks like a lucky number. 70 years from now, we'll get one even more intense, but that's for pretty loose values of "we." So what's happening in the land of the sand and the crab? Mr. Bennett has discovered that his camera is not so good for taking pictures of fireworks. Brightly-colored streaks is all I get. Abstract art of the aleatory variey, maybe; not fireworks. The boardwalk fireworks show was postponed from the Fourth to the fifth because of high winds. Reports from around the country indicate that OC's weather was mild compared to what some had. But what about the band and all? We brought back an old song, "Panama Red," for no better reason than that we could. We still have not learned "The Scotsman." Fran showed up with beach towels printed to look like kilts, but even that attempt at magic didn't bring the song into our repertoire, or repertory as we say in English.

Dr. Kazoo joined us on bass, harmonica and kazoo for Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and had Zack and Olivia with him for the latter. That TV show of his is getting to be quite the big deal. If you have not looked at "The Math Dude" since its first mention here, go take another look. We saw lots of familiar faces out front: the McGraths and Kellihers, the Kanes, Lorraine and Bob, Bob Conner, Pat MacNamara, among others. The Burt Brothers showed up with a company of wives and kids. The kids looked like angels who had let their halos down, with those big glowing rings around their necks. The Powers clan from Pottsville was in for Tuesday night. Megan has grown so I barely recognized her! Captain John and Flight Engineer Mark, the pilots from Walnut Bottom, flew in for Friday. Erin Keating, the President of the Tony Nuzzo Fan Club, stoppped by. The Doo-Wop Cop hit the high notes on "Unchained Melody." Dr. Bill intoduced a new song, new for him anyway, "I Can't Help Falling In Love with You." All this and one more night to go!

Book plug, for Flag Day
So how many knew that Bud, the Old Marshal of Frontiertown, has books that you can buy? Hands? Grimmy? Anyone? He is so modest about these, that some who might be happy to know about them do not.

Quit being so shy, Bud: let the people know that your books are available right here! Bud has done much more in his life than getting shot at Frontiertown, and half-shot at Shenanigans. And making a lot of Photoshop jokes. If you are at all interested in WW II history, or the experience of surviving cancer, take a look at Bud's books. You'll see why we feel so honored when he puts on the "Baby Happy New Year" outfit for our little website.

Memorial Day.
Holiday observance over on the Talk Board, as usual. But now it's time to start thinking about heading for the beach, and no sooner than, comes this bit of news from Ocean City: Trimper's Rides, down by the inlet, may be closing soon as a result of tax increases. Or as the Washington Post has it, An Ocean City Icon Faces Turn in Economic Tide. This is the park with the roller coaster, not the one with the iconic giant Ferris wheel. But where the roller coaster goes, who knows what may follow?

Here are a few more stories. From the Dispatch: OC Landmark Could Be Scaled Down In Near Future; Trimper's Woes Raise Assessment Questions;OC To Send Letter To State Over Trimper's Fate. From the Daily Times: Rising taxes could force Trimper sale; Boardwalk without Trimper's?; and one more from the Post that mentions some new things to look for this year, A Fashionable Return to the Days of Old. That last headline doesn't sound right. "Return to days of old" would mean fifty-cent beer, $5 a dozen crabs, and not enough air conditioning but you could smoke anywhere. I'll go! Oh yeah, no Internet in days of old. No wonder I don't know how to get there.

A discussion is going on here.

Now that it's starting to warm up a little, in the middle of May, let's take a moment to reflect on the way that drinking is done in the South … way down South … in Antarctica. The interviewer for this article from Modern Drunkard Magazine asks one of the eternal questions, and the answer rings true enough:

MDM: Do you possess the secret of an especially effective hangover cure?
FSR: Though it takes time to work, I have always found suffering to be a sure remedy.

Happy Day After St. Patrick's Day

First robin sighting. This bird may be too early for that worm, the one they talk about.

Happy St Patrick's Day 2007!
"If you plant your peas by St. Patrick's Day, they will be ready by Fourth of July." Peas in Connecticut might be a little late this year. Here's a shot taken a few minutes ago just a few miles from Gerry's house.
For comparison purposes, another shot captured from the Boardwalk webcam just a few minutes later.
Am I the only one, or does anyone else see an optical illusion in this picture, that makes it look like the boardwalk, which we know is flat, actually has a shape like a crowned roadway, like this: /\ ?

Doctor Kazoo is — The Math Dude
Our own Dr. Kazoo has a TV show! Two, actually. Let him tell it in his own words:

When I retired from being a regular classroom teacher, I continued to be the co-host of the Thursday edition of Homework Hotline Live! on Montgomery County Public School's Instructional TV (Montgomery Comcast Channel 33 4:30-6, 8-9:30). But with my "relaxed" work schedule, I've had the opportunity to work on another project for Instructional TV called The Math Dude. This is a series of 5 minute segments which focus on individual objectives of Algebra 1 in a unique style. The Math Dude will be broadcast on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights on Comcast 33 at 6pm, following Hotline. The shows will parallel the MCPS Algebra curriculum, but there is certainly value for pre-Algebra students or those who want to brush up on their Algebra skills, and hopefully they'll be entertaining for all. Those of you who are former students of mine may recognize some of the old classroom stories, but now brought to life in this high tech production. If you don't live in Montgomery County or don't get cable, you can view the episodes any time on the web at www.mcpsmathdude.org.

It's pretty good fun if you like exponents and matrices, or have forgotten what the mean means. Median and mode coming soon? And the observant Kazoo Family Players fan might catch a glimpse of Olivia or Zack. Hurray, hurray for Doctor K!

UPDATE: The Washington Post has a story now, March 1, with a picture.

How do you find us?
Last year, about this time, near the end of January that would be, the most interesting search string was "chasing dandelion fluff as it floats on the wind." This January, we have "how do you say we love you in slovak" and "drunk new year's party pictures." Is it a trend?

Mr. Bennett says:
Something I've wondered about, though not very intensely, is addressed in this article: Do Woodpeckers Get Headaches? If Not, Why Not? Here's the original, Ig Nobel Prize-winning article by Dr. Ivan Schwab. Which seems to address injury more than suffering. So I'm still wondering.

Happy new year to all!
The schedule has some new dates on it for the new year.

And the Old Marshal has put on the Baby New Year outfit once more for our front page. Thanks Bud!



Oh, look! He's escaped from the front page and turned up here! Nice to see you, little fellow.

Click here for

last year's news

Paul Averill Hotchkiss, 1941-2005.

Gerry Malone's letter to friends on learning of Hutch's death.

Sendoff at Sunfest. Farewell, old friend.

Obituary from the Danbury News-Times.

Memorial brick on the Boardwalk.

We're grieved to note the death, on December 5, 2004, of Linda Conner, formerly of Ocean City, late of Berlin, Md. She was a long-time friend and fan. She and her family have been familiar faces around Ocean City and Shenanigan's for many years. In honor of her memory, we have added a page to this website with some of her poems. We'll miss her.

Links too good to archive:

Nancy Millionie's insightful comments on the Oceancity.com message board. UNPAID AD: Nancy and Rick own a condo up by 23rd St. that they rent by the week. Seriously Parrot-headed decor.

Tim Antosy's Shenanigans page, with pictures!

Mr Bennett's pal Peter the painter, also known as Peter Lanouette, has a nifty site with lots of paintings on display. Mr. Bennett owns a few; you can, too!

Trimper's live webcam down by the inlet in Ocean City.

Another friend, Hector Owen, has a weblog. He might post something, someday.

Mr. Bennett, who wonders how long he can go on writing about himself in the third person, has recently done a few shows of the blues variety with Ragtime Jack Radcliffe, who is selling a new edition of the record he made with John Kerry on bass -- yes, John Kerry the candidate -- and appears on Mondays at the Griswold Inn in Essex, Connecticut, with the Jovial Crew, singing sea shanties and nautical ballads. And then there's the new CD version of the wonderful old Reprobates album. Jim's guitar classes start in September at the List Academy of Music and Art in Newport, RI.

UPDATE May 2005: No more Jovial Crew; guitar classes drawing to a close for the year.

If you have news, links, or anything else you think ought to be on this page, feel free to send them to . If I don't lose it, I might use it. Pictures to gmalonealone (at) yahoo (dot) com, or bennettje (at) gmail (dot) com.