Day 3 Stats: friends, neighbors, and other assorted annoying bores

Day 4 location: Big Fish Bistro 3535 US Route 1, Princeton Market Fair, Princeton, NJ (609) 919-1179 Pro tip: Drink heavily. In addition, make sure to do a shot with Scugi tonight, as it’s his 45th birthday. This exquisite strip-mall-based establishment in the heart of NJ’s traffic nightmare has been popular for decades with enraged Christmas shoppers, IT guys from Europe on business trips, and men who pee on the floor in the bathroom. It features stool races (not sure what kind), bacteria-damaged beer, she-male meet-and-greets, and a lot of men who pee on the floor in the bathroom. If you are having problems sleeping, a CD of their bathroom music “Dolphins Sleeping Underwater” is available from your bartender for a nominal fee. Day 3 Stats Tiger's Tale.

Over the river and through the woods, to Tiger’s Tale we go….. After a brief layover in Charlotte, the second leg of the flight from my home to the Tiger’s Tale was uneventful. Fortunately I had chosen to take the plane, as Gman’s attempts to get to the Tiger’s Tale by automobile met with failure due to excessive traffic on Routes 206 and Princeton Pike due to the Princeton TDDOC Day 3 gay pride Christmas parade. Gman was tempted to stop and cheer on the parade, but then decided to head home to take care of important MBA stuff, which will be essential in his future career plans to become the CEO of the TDDOC. Upon informing Julian and Andrew that they would not be making the TDDOC tonight, they both immediately broke down and cried…….out tears of joy that they didn’t have to go sit in a loud bar with boring old people forced to eat chicken fingers for the umpteenth night in a row.

I must admit that I had a moment….ok several moments…. of wavering….considering attending the PA TDDOC. Their location was Miller’s Ale House in Langhorne, a place very aptly named as their 30+ beers on tap include Miller Lite, Miller High Life, and Miller Genuine Draft. But then, I heard on the TDDOC channel on XM radio about a rumor that Gman would not be in attendance and hence a lucrative opportunity to gain a point on him might be available. Tiger’s Tale is calling.
The Eastmans show up after a refreshing ride with absolutely no traffic to find a mysterious figure lurking in the parking lot. Someone says “is that Tamps”? I say “No, that person leans too far forward when walking. Tamps is much more upright.” We then take two more steps and find that it is indeed Tamps. Tamps apologized for his sub-optimal posture and assured us that it was not as good as had been theorized. Please take notice of Tamps’ posture this evening, and offer him any corrective advice that you might have.

Inside the place is packed at the bar, with Scugi, Reese, and Shawn strewn across the center of the bar. As always, Scugi regales the ladies with tales of his Samsung Galaxy S3, and wowing them with pictures of cars, celebrities, famous architecture, and more than likely, himself naked. Well maybe not that last one, as I hear no shrieks or applause. Let’s catch up quickly from Scugi’s point of reference: Scugi first in, one seat at the back of the bar, he is so hidden Reese cannot find him when she walks in. The bar has emptied out a little and Reese knows the ideal seat(s) and takes one. Scugi quickly picks up his mug and phone and sits down. We have some quality time as Shawn does not arrive till around 6:30pm. The conversation goes towards the Lakers and Spike Lee and we soon find out she is a huge Laker fan. Scugi takes out the Galaxy to show her pics of the Laker gym in Princeton and she takes one look at the phone and yells what kind of phone is that, 5 mins later she tosses the iphone of hers and says she is stopping at Best Buy on the way home. More small talk and it was pretty much decided that Kobe is the best Laker ever with Magic close behind. Shawn knew all the Laker stats/championships/ players, etc

Bar seats open up the opposite side of the bar, so the group splits, with only secure texting and handsigns as means of communication. Reese is sent a text demanding identification of the shot of the day. She grabs the bartender Jerry by the throat and demands that he come up with something interesting. He succeeds! Oatmeal cookie shots are delivered. I totally forget what was in them, but they were spectacular. Then another bartender tells us how great the flaming apple pie shots are, and serves up two to Reese and Eman, without them even being ordered. Comp shots??? Nice! Something mixed with something else, then Yukon Jack on top, lighted on fire, with a sprinkle of cinnamon or something else that shoots up in the sky. It was a tasty shot, but not as good as the oatmeal cookie. Sophia shrieks “oh my god, did you drink it while it was on fire??”. We didn’t, but I’m sure something will be shooting out of somewhere else tomorrow morning as a result of this shot.

For no reason, Ska suddenly shouts out “I love this place. I wish the TDDOC was here every night!”. Well, he claims there was a reason.

Trent has to write an English paper tonight, and it is due tomorrow. The theme is some kind of Christmas story. He has no creative ideas. Then a light bulb goes on over his head as he decides to tell the TDDOC story in the paper, with “drinking” being replaced by “having a nice meal”. He creates a charming heartwarming tale, so clearly he strayed far from the truth. At the risk of plagiarism, though, he did utilize the phrase “friends, neighbors, and other assorted annoying bores” directly from the TDDOC bylaws.

Food was excellent overall, but insider’s tip: Don’t get the fish tacos. Eman and Trent learned the hard way. They’re not as good as when Pods used to make them when he worked there in the late 70s. Perhaps they have lost the recipe for that special polish fish taco sauce.

Rose shows, and it appears that she is going to run the board again after being totally absent in 2011. She’s like one of those athletes that seems only to do well in even-numbered years.

Notable events: Mosso's run (43 consecutive nights) is over, Scugi is poised tonight to tie and go ahead on Thursday. No confirmation yet that Mosso turned up in a bodybag in an abandoned field near Scugi’s house.

Notable phrases: From Rose to Scugi, "it's so big"

No repeat shot of the night tally:
 Day 3: oatmeal cookie and flaming apple pie
 Day 2: blackberry brandy
 Day 1: Fireball cinnamon whiskey

On the third day of Xmas my true love sent to me:
 1) Three flaming apple pies
 2) Three TDDOCers in attendance
 3) Three hours in traffic on 206
 4) Three shots for Reese

Two vampire bartenders And an old man yelling 'get off my damn lawn"


Totals through Day 3
  Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
  Rho Slocum's Tiger's Tale
  Stats by Eman Stats by Reese Stats by Eman Total
1 Alba x 1
2 Andrew (Gman) x x 2
3 Andrew (Woo!-boy) x 1
4 Arounkone x 1
5 Art Neufeld x 1
6 Billy Bob x 1
7 Bobo x 1
8 Celeste x 1
9 Cheryl Cohen x 1
10 Chris Straka (The Scarf) x 1
11 Dana (Lisa E. coworker) x 1
12 Dave (Celeste BF) x 1
13 Donna (Julie N. friend) x 1
14 Donny Walker x 1
15 Eman x x x 3
16 Frank Kimchick x 1
17 Gman x x 2
18 Goettle x 1
19 Janelle Young x 1
20 Jay Wahl x 1
21 Jenna Walker x 1
22 Joan (Rebecca friend) x 1
23 Julian x x 2
24 Julie Nuefeld x 1
25 Katherine x 1
26 Laura (biker chick) x 1
27 Lisa Eman x x x 3
28 Lisa Walker x 1
29 Lin (Rebecca friend) x 1
30 Mandala Brown x 1
31 Mertz x 1
32 Mosso x 1
33 Norine (Lisa E. coworker) x 1
34 Pat Worth x 1
35 Rebecca x 1
36 Pods x x 2
37 Reese x x x 3
38 Rich (Laura BF) x 1
39 Rita x 1
40 Rose x x x 3
41 Sandor x 1
42 Scugi x x x 3
43 Sharon Ang (Crazian) x 1
44 Shawn (Reese friend) x x 2
45 Ska x x x 3
46 Sophia x x x 3
47 Su x x 2
48 Tamp x x x 3
49 The Mechanic x 1
50 Trent Eman x x x 3
51 Val (Rebecca friend) x 1
52 Will T x 1
53 Yo x x 2
  People Attended 51 17 10 78