Globex Corporation Newsletter

My niece had her third child on Tuesday of this week.

I was playing music when the first one was born. TSA referred to him as "the tragically named Julian." Little did we know that he'd have the most normal name of his siblings. He turned 3 a couple of months ago and I'm sure he's going to be a great big brother.

Nearly two years ago, Julian got a little brother. His name? Aaries. Like Aries, the Greek god of war, but with an extra 'a' at the beginning to assure that he's alphabetically first so that he'll be called on first for everything.

Aaries is a little trouble maker, a guy who's into everything. I find this endlessly endearing, but I don't have to spend a whole lot of time with him. Aaries will be 2 years old on his great uncle's birthday.

Now we have Taurin Felix. I have to be careful here, as I misspelled Aaries name for the better part of a year before anyone bothered to correct me.

So we have a Julian with the addition of an Aaries (not Aries) and a Taurin (not Toran). Apparently there's no accounting for tradition in the younger wing of my family.

Then again, my nephew and his wife had a baby his past spring. The name they chose? Gerardo David Jr. Gerardo goes back a number of generations in his father's family. We call him DJ which is going to confuse teachers (especially substitutes) for years to come.

A hearty Globex Corporation Newsletter welcome to Taurin Felix. Enjoy life with your brothers Julian Marquis and Aaries Roddick, your cousin Gerardo David and all of the family that you have in your lives.

BOJ

...is NOT suggesting we change the spelling of Julian's name to something like "Jooleean"...

I've watched a lot of football. I'm a Denver Broncos fan, but more importantly, I love the game. I love seeing the game played to its highest level by anyone. I count players from many teams as my favorites including a running back who played for both the hated Raiders and Chiefs.

Being a Broncos fan, it may sound like sacrilege when I say that my favorite quarterback of all time, to watch play anyway, is not John Elway, it's Brett Favre.

Elway is the best QB I've ever seen (that includes Joe Montana and Dan Marino). He had a confidence on the field that I doubt if we'll ever see again. Elway was a tactician, a gifted physical specimen who simply got things done on the football field. He treated the game like it was life or death. It was all business on the field for Elway, his job, and he was the best of all time at his job.

Favre reminds me of a young John Elway. He reminded me of a young John Elway tonight, Favre in his 17th NFL season. He approaches the game with the youthful exuberance of a 22 year old rookie. He plays the game. Plays the game.

There are two important elements here, Favre is playing, and it's a game. Maybe part of the reason he can still approach it this way at 38 is that he has a Super Bowl Ring. Maybe, but I doubt it. Favre just seems like that guy who would be playing this game on a sandlot at 38 because he loves playing football. There is a joy to Favre on the football field, a joy that I have never seen out of a top flight NFL QB.

Favre's past two years were difficult for me to watch, not because he wasn't playing well, not because the Green Bay Packers weren't contending, but because Brett Favre didn't look like he was having fun. I didn't want him to play this year, I didn't want to remember him playing joyless football.

Things turned around for Favre and the Packers this year. The youth movement in Green Bay has paid off, the Packers are once again an elite team in the NFL, even with tonight's loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

A banged up Packers team took the Cowboys deep at home. One of those injured was Brett Favre who left the game in the second quarter with an elbow injury. It was Favre's backup, Aaron Rodgers, who kept the game close, who brought the team back, who nearly pulled off the upset. Rodgers played great, Favre-like in his approach to the game.

I have no idea how badly Favre is hurt, my guess is that he will start the Packers next game, just as he started the Packer's previous 249 regular season games. And he'll have fun playing. It also seems that the Packers are in good hands with Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers sure looked ready to take over this team tonight.

Brett Favre is my favorite QB of all time to watch play the game. Brett Favre seems to be having fun in his chosen profession this year after a couple of tough years. And let me make this clear, Brett Favre has earned the right to stop playing football whenever he wants to stop playing football.

If I had my way, though, Brett Favre would hang 'em up at the end of this season. The 2007 edition of Brett Favre is one I want to remember. I don't know what the 2008 model will look like. If Favre should continue to play after this year, I wish him the best.

...unless he's playing the Broncos in the Super Bowl again...

BOJ

A place I spent a lot of time at. A sticker for Chuck's adorns my guitar case. The Shorehouse and Egg Haven, also mentioned, were other favorites.

And yes, "The Weasel" is a fine hangover cure...

From The Long Beach Press-Telegram:

LONG BEACH - Chuck's Coffee Shop in Belmont Shore boasts two slogans.

"Home of the Weasel" is one.

"Locally world famous" is the other.

Both phrases, painted in red outside, hint at why Chuck Tinkler's pie-shaped diner has been in the breakfast and lunch business at 4120 E. Ocean Blvd. since 1964.

The Weasel - scrambled eggs with chili on top - is the most popular menu item. In the diner's early days, a trucker asked for eggs with something extra to take the bite out of a hangover.

Chuck added chili. The trucker said the dish looked like a weasel he had seen on a haul to Montana. None of the guys around the counter had seen a weasel, and they all cracked up. The name stuck.

The Weasel has been curing hangovers ever since.

The second line came from a sailor who had won a small regatta.

"We're locally world famous now," he said.

"I stole that phrase," says Chuck.

With permission. Chuck may serve the Weasel, but he isn't one.

That may explain why some of his employees have stayed more than 20 years in an industry where workers turn over as fast as the tables.

"The employees are all the best," Chuck says of his crew of 11. "I can't run this place without all of my staff. They're wonderful. They treat me the best. I treat them the best."

Employees say the tips are generous, and Chuck pays bonuses. And you can't beat the location facing the Belmont Plaza Pool, the bike path and volleyball courts.

"He's a good boss, my hero," says Ricky Uriarte, who began washing dishes 22 years ago and worked his way up to assistant manager. "It's a good place to work. We're always working. We usually never stop."

That's because crowds pile into the 49 seats inside and a smattering of tables outside during daily business hours, 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Lines of patrons waiting for a Whistling Pig (two hot dogs in a burger bun with bacon and cheese) or a Jimmy the Greek (an omelette with chopped ham, black olives, onions and Swiss) form on the weekends.

Kellie Mountain of Seal Beach came to Chuck's so often with her parents, Sheri and Gary Butterbaugh of Long Beach, that Chuck hired her as a waitress.

"He keeps us on our toes," Mountain says. "He's a very fair boss and very generous."

She has served food in other places, but finds Chuck's clientele tops.

"The customers are awesome," she says. "They're loyal. They're so friendly. It's almost like an extended family."

Indeed. Mountain's parents were eating there on a recent weekday.

"I like the cooking because it's homemade to me," says Sheri Butterbaugh, who favors the chicken chef salad. "The location is great, being by the beach."

Longshoreman Gary Butterbaugh, who likes the breakfast pork chops, stops in before going to the docks.

"It's a slice out of time that never changed," Butterbaugh says. "I hate newer, yuppie places. I am an old-school guy."

Jerry Borisy started coming to Chuck's about 40 years ago. He has seen his children grow up in the same-as-it-ever-was interior: vinyl booths surrounded by historic photos of Catalina and the Belmont Pier, a potbellied stove and an oar suspended from the ceiling.

"The food is good and consistent," Borisy says over a Popeye's Delight, a Spinach omelette with jack. "It's a very comfortable place to come to. A lot of locals hang out."

Mallory Mims, a recent Long Beach State graduate, deferred admission to medical school for a year (she got accepted at both UCLA and UC Irvine) in part to take it easy and work for Chuck, her neighbor in the Shore.

"I love the customers, I love the people," she says. "You develop a rapport with them. You develop relationships."

One of those regulars has a great birth name, John L. Quick, and an even better nickname, "Alligator."

He lives on a boat in Wilmington and drives eight miles each way a couple of times a week to eat at Chuck's.

Quick usually wears an alligator-print T-shirt (not an Izod Lacoste) and puts figurines of alligators on the napkin dispenser of his table, a middle booth on the Ocean Boulevard side.

"He's a hell of a nice guy," Alligator says of Chuck. "He comes around and talks to you. It's a neighborhood breakfast joint."

Now that Hof's Hut on Second Street is gone, Chuck's and the Shorehouse Cafe are among the last traditional breakfast places in the Shore (though nearby Belmont Heights is well served by The Coffee Cup Cafe, Egg Heaven Cafe, The Pot Holder Cafe and others).

With rent, insurance and other costs, Chuck says he wouldn't get into the business now. His grown children live out of the area and aren't interested in taking over.

"It's tough," he says. "I wouldn't want to start again unless you're a big corporation."

Chuck, who declined to tell me his age, grew up in Naples and went to Wilson High and Long Beach City College.

"I was supposed to go to State but my grades weren't good enough," he says.

Instead he enlisted in the Army from 1962 to 1964, and learned to cook for the troops.

Chuck's father had bought the property where the cafe is now - oldtimers may recall the Beach Cafe before it - and the adjacent building, now a dry cleaner.

"He thought I needed a job," Chuck says. "He helped me. Everybody helped me. I was up to here in hock."

When he took over the restaurant in earnest in 1966, a newly hired city health inspector named Frank Colonna signed his license.

When Colonna went on to become a two-term city councilman for the Belmont Shore area, he had regular breakfast meetings at Chuck's, as did another regular, former Mayor Beverly O'Neill.

To this day, Colonna goes to Chuck's at least once a week.

"He's an enormous complement to a family of businesses that are now so \ in Long Beach," Colonna says. "We're lucky to have them."

BOJ

1. (1)New England Patriots (11-0)
   Philly gave them a game. Does that mean they're beatable?


2. (2)Dallas Cowboys (10-1)
   I'm not sold, but a solid #2


3. (3)Green Bay Packers (10-1)
   Great defense plus Brett Favre


4. (4)Indianapolis Colts (9-2)
   Two through four really is a toss up


5. (6)Jacksonville Jaguars (8-3)
   Relatively healthy now, they're a force


6. (7)Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3)
   So they barely beat 0-10 Miami on a crappy field, big deal


7. (9)Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-4)
   A little better running game and this would be a real 8contender


8. (8)Seattle Seahawks (7-4)
   A very good team keeps its position


9. (-)Cleveland Browns (7-4)
   I don't know how they're doing it, but they belong here for real!


10. (5)New York Giants (7-4)
    Another late season collapse?

OUT OF TOP 10: Detroit Lions (6-5)

BOJ

From The Onion:

"There is no doubt that Navy's recent 46-44 defeat of a motivated, entrenched Notre Dame team after a long drawn-out battle was a masterpiece of leadership, strategy, tactics, and bravery in the finest tradition of the service," said Grant Hughson, an editor at Jane's Sporting News. "And the total Air Force 41-24 domination of the Irish, accomplished by bringing to bear the sort of overwhelming force against which no opponent can retaliate, was a textbook execution of the doctrines of that particular branch of the American armed forces. Meanwhile, however, they seem to be making little or no headway in Iraq."

There's more at The Onion!

BOJ

Labels: Stuff From The Onion

From The Onion:

COLUMBUS, OH—The shame, humiliation, and ridicule local teen Brandon Means suffered from being the only member of his peer group still burdened with his own virginity were nothing compared to what he felt on the night he finally lost it, the 17-year-old said Monday. "I have never been so embarrassed in all of my life," Means said of the Saturday night fiasco. After some awkward fumbling, Means prematurely ejaculated, and, while trying to clean the semen off himself and girlfriend Kassi Helms, also 17, with a sock from his bedroom floor, he managed only to smear them both with lint. "There was this moment when I was on top of her and she realized I really didn't know where her [vagina] was, so she kind of had to steer my [penis] inside it, but at that point I was so demoralized that I lost my [erection]." Means added that when he heard his father enter the house, forcing both teenagers to immediately stop and clothe themselves, he had never felt a stronger sense of relief.

BOJ

Labels: Stuff From The Onion

So, I'm not writing much. There's a reason. Maybe I'll get to it some day. Until then it's...

NFL Rankings

1. (1)New England Patriots (10-0)
   Refuse to take their foot off the gas


2. (2)Dallas Cowboys (9-1)
   Tough game against a game Redskins team


3. (3)Green Bay Packers (9-1)
   I have a bias toward this team, but I can't move them up until they prove they can run the ball


4. (4)Indianapolis Colts (8-2)
   Banged up, they have a tough road ahead, but still the only team in the AFC who can challege the Pats


5. (6)New York Giants (7-3)
   A win against the Lions moves a team up? This year it does...


6. (7)Jacksonville Jaguars (7-3)
   Now that their QB is back, look for big things


7. (5)Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3)
   A loss to the Jets? Probably just a hiccup, but keep an eye on the Steelers


8. (-)Seattle Seahawks (6-4)
   The most talented of the 6-4 teams


9. (-)Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4)
   Solid QB play and defense. That's all you need in the NFC


10. (9)Detroit Lions (6-4)
    A loss to a ranked team doesn't dropthem out of the top 10

OUT OF TOP 10: Tennessee Titans (6-4), San Diego Chargers (5-5)

Detroit is on notice, two losses in a row is not the way to stay in the top 10. I want to bellieve, but you're making it hard for me...

BOJ

You know what I hate?

204.76.128.217

Stay the fuck away.

BOJ

Labels: Mega-Bitch Wednesday

1. (1)New England Patriots (9-0)
   They're undefeated and the class of the NFL


2. (3)Dallas Cowboys (8-1)
   Looked good against a good Giants team


3. (4)Green Bay Packers (8-1)
   The defense bottled up the dangerous Adrian Petersen, they're realy, really good


4. (2)Indianapolis Colts (7-2)
   I hate dropping them all the way to 4, but with two losses in a row, one to an unranked team, what choice do I have?


5. (5)Pittsburgh Steelers (7-2)
   Nice comeback, even if it was against the porous Browns D


6. (6)New York Giants (6-3)
   Didn't look particularly good, but better than the teams beneath them


7. (10)Jacksonville Jaguars (6-3)
   Beat a tough Tennessee team


8. (7)Tennessee Titans (6-3)
   Drop one spot in a tough loss to the Jags


9. (8)Detroit Lions (6-3)
   There hasn't been as bad a rushing performance in the NFL in the modern era, -16 yards for the game, yikes!


10. (-)San Diego Chargers (5-4)
    Nearly let one get away versus the Colts

OUT OF TOP 10: Cleveland Browns (5-4)

BOJ

1. (1)New England Patriots (9-0)
   They beat #2 in a great game last week


2. (2)Indianapolis Colts (7-1)
   Lost to #1 and did nothing to show that they're not the second best team in football


3. (3)Dallas Cowboys (7-1)
   They're my pick for best in a very competative NFC


4. (4)Green Bay Packers (7-1)
   I could justify them as #3 if they could just run the ball


5. (6)Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)
   Had an easy time with Baltimore, they just keep getting better


6. (5)New York Giants (6-2)
   A swap in places with Pittsburgh is not based on anything the Giants are lacking


7. (7)Tennessee Titans (6-2)
   I am still not sold on Tennessee, but they stay here until they prove they don't belong


8. (10)Detroit Lions (6-2)
   Forget the offensive genius of Mike Martz, this team is figuring out how to play the D


9. (-)Cleveland Browns (5-3)
   If you think I'm shocked by the team at #8, check this one out... and Brady Quinn is nailed to the bench...


10. (9)Jacksonville Jaguars (5-3)
    I know they lost last week, but they're staying competative with a nobody at QB

OUT OF TOP 10: San Diego (4-4)

BOJ

...later that same day...

BOJ

I'm not violating the strike, I didn't really write anything.

In support of The Writers' Guild of America's strike, The Globex Corporation Newsletter will not be publishing.

BOJ

Labels: Sue Foley Photo Friday

Early, isn't it? Anyway...

For yet another week, Pointless Shit is my NFL Rankings.
(Last week's rank in parenthesis)

1. (1)New England Patriots (8-0)
   I actually though the 'Skins would be a difficul matchup for the Pats...


2. (2)Indianapolis Colts (7-0)
   The Panthers kept Manning under wraps for a half, that's about as good as anyone's done


3. (3)Dallas Cowboys (6-1)
   Bye week did nothing to subtract from a fine season


4. (4)Green Bay Packers (6-1)
   Overtime win in Denver is a sign of how good this team is


5. (5)New York Giants (6-2)
   Beat the 0-16 bound 'Phins to win sixth in a row


6. (7)Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2)
   Not tested last week, but this is a fine team in all respects


7. (8)Tennessee Titans (5-2)
   I am so not sold on this team, but they keep winning


8. (9)San Diego Chargers (4-3)
   Won in spite of non-standard conditions this week


9. (10)Jacksonville Jaguars (5-2)
   The play defense and can run the ball, that's usually enough to win regardless of who's plain QB


10. (-)Detroit Lions (5-2)
    I can't even tell you how much I hate putting them on this list

OUT OF TOP 10: Carolina (4-3)

BOJ

Labels: Pointless Shit