Carl Spackler

Lots of good recs above. Not sure how much time you're looking to spend in LA proper. Also, will you be traveling solo or will you have kids with you, etc.? Definitely stop in Santa Barbara. The Funk Zone is fun. Lark Restaurant. Topa Topa and Lama Dog breweries. Hit the pier if the weather is nice. The Santa Barbara County courthouse is actually a cool place to visit -- go up in the tower to get a great view of the area if the weather is nice. Brophy Bros. on the water is solid for seafood. We love Cold Spring Tavern up in the mountains above SB. It's a nice, twisty mountain drive to get up to it. In SB County wine country, I typically avoid Solvang simply because it tends to attract more tourists than other nearby places. The kitsch factor is strong in Solvang. However, Solvang might be worth a stop if you have kids with you or want a Danish village vibe, and there are lots of shopping, tasting rooms, candy stores, restaurants, etc. Instead, the wife and I typically hit Los Olivos (more laid back and a ton of tasting rooms) or Los Alamos farther up the 101. The wife and I love Los Alamos, but it's definitely a lot sleepier than either Solvang or Los Olivos. Los Alamos has some good restaurants -- Bell's (classic French bistro for lunch or dinner); Pico (good for dinner), Bob's Well Bread (breakfast -- tends to get busy), Full of LIfe Flatbread (good wood-fired pizzas for dinner), and Plenty on Bell (breakfast or lunch). Babi's Beer Emporium has some interesting beers and an outdoor area where you can sit and watch the world go by. There are some decent wine tasting rooms as well -- Bedford, Lo-Fi, A Tribute to Grace, and Lumen (inside Pico restaurant) are all respectable but not transcendent. Los Olivos has more tasting rooms than you can shake a stick at plus an outpost of Figueroa Mountain brewery. Places we like to hit in Los Olivos include: Panino (curry chicken salad sandwich FTW) Fig Mountain -- beers Brewer-Clifton -- great pinots and syrahs (right next to Fig Mountain) Carhartt -- yes, it's related to the apparel company; yes, the wines are good Evan's Ranch and Dragonette Cellars -- more wine tasting Nella -- dinner Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe -- dinner Other places worth stopping in SB County: S.Y. Kitchen (Santa Ynez) Hitching Post 2 (Buellton -- steaks, chops, etc._ Far Western Tavern (Orcutt -- Santa Maria-style BBQ, which is basically grilling over red oak) El Capitan State Beach (check out the tide pools, get your beach on -- just watch out for the tar) Easy hike to Nojoqui Falls (should be plenty of water in it with all the rain/snow we've been having) If you're into wind surfing and a cool, windy small county road drive out to the ocean, head out to Jalama Beach County Park. If the store is open, the burgers are pretty good. Lots of wind and waves. Lots of surfers and kite-surfers. But it's pretty far off the beaten path.

Yep. Didn't follow Clemenza's instructions.

100% agree with you so long as we include the one word I added to your post.

You seem a tad peeved. I'm not sure why. Like I said, you're doing this thread the right way by expressing an unpopular opinion, and I even threw some rep your way for doing so.

You are. But not because I disagree with your opinion.

That quote is typically attributed to Lennon, and it's been debunked as having never been said by him. I don't think I've ever seen that quote attributed to Macca. I have read that Ringo did get upset with Paul during the White Album sessions when McCartney was critical of his drumming on a particular track, but in general McCartney has praised Ringo's drumming on several occasions over the years as being "rock solid" and exactly what the Beatles needed. That said, I agree with you that Ringo was nowhere near the best musician in the Beatles. That honor goes to McCartney, and it isn't a close call.

You also are doing this thread correctly. You're absolutely wrong, but I love the fact that you don't let that stop you. Pos rep to you.

Fine -- amend my statement to say post-1978 Schlitz. The Schlitz I've had is piss. (And I frankly doubt that Schlitz brewed at any time could truly be called "fantastic," but, hey, different strokes for different folks.) You don't recall the ad because it didn't see the light of day until fairly recently. The family of the guy who engineered a lot of SD's music, Roger Nichols, found it in his archives just last year. The ad never got aired. https://www.stereogum.com/2231031/another-lost-steely-dan-track-has-been-unearthed-and-its-a-schlitz-beer-jingle/news/

Necro-bump simply because I happened across a Schlitz beer jingle from the early 1970's that the Steely Dan boys did for the money. Between SD extolling the virtues of shitty beer in their inimitable way and the Mad Men-style marketing, it's fascinating.

Friend of mine owns Missoula Wine Merchants. They sell beer, too. That's all I got.

Got it when you were a kid, eh?

Kentucky Owl Confiscated for $60 -- yay or nay? (From what I'm reading online, it seems like $60 is about what it's really worth to most folks.)

Gotta love science experiments in pursuit of good whiskey.

Aggy runs out of time yet again

What a corrupt call

Sampson is a fucking moron for calling that last TO & not having his players foul.

Samford got screwed

Yep . . . unless they were underage (e.g., 16 y/o) at the time, which is possible -- I've read many accounts of kids who enlisted back in the 1920's and 30's who were under the age of 18. They'd just fib when asked how old they were, and so many people didn't have access to birth records at the time that the military didn't really check closely. But even in that scenario they would be in their late nineties at least. That's why I was somewhat surprised that there are more than 20 people who were apparently military survivors of the attack. That's quite a few folks in their late nineties or over 100 who were on the scene at the time. Bless every single one of 'em.

Iowa Snake has hit their first 8 shots (but did miss a FT).

Understood. But the "couple dozen" figure I mentioned comprised people who, according to the article, were known by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which requires that members were military as of 12/7/41 and were on station or within 3 miles of Oahu at the time of the attack, so I assumed that figure referred only to military survivors of the attack. No doubt there are many others, including civilians (such as your friend's mother), who were present at the time attack and are still living.

Although he wasn't on the Arizona, I thought this topic would be a good place to post this article about one of the last remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, who just passed away at the age of 102. I was somewhat surprised that there are apparently still a couple dozen Pearl Harbor survivors with us -- they've all got to be at least 100 or very close to it. Much respect to all of them for their service, and of course the 2,400 or so who did not survive the attack. https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-few-remaining-pearl-harbor-101006368.html

A desk calendar -- how quaint. I see you got entered on the 7th. Congrats on the sex. Those peanut butter patties are my #1. Out here they call 'em Tagalongs. You failed by only getting one box of them.

The original is really good, but I think the Clash probably surpassed it. The urgency is compelling.

Hell, no. Used Cars is hilarious. And remember: Fifty bucks never killed anybody.