Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dave and the Hot Dog Eating Champion

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I've decided not to give you all the details of the big Pride Parade (you really had to be there to believe most of it), suffice to say my evening ended by having dinner with Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest champion Takeru Kobayashi.

No, we didn't have hot dogs for dinner, though yes, he says he does sometimes eat them casually and not just 70 at a time.

Actually, he is making quite a bit of news this week and not just for hanging out with me. Click here to find out more...

Monday, June 28, 2010

Tongue Tied

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I'm not exactly sure what we were going for in this picture, but I think it had something to do with how hot it was outside.

It was quite a weekend, I'll give a recap tomorrow...

Friday, June 25, 2010

America the Great

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I haven't said much about the World Cup, mainly cuz I'm not much of a soccer guy, but someone just linked me to this video and I am somehow I think I'll watch America's next game. Oh, and he's also Jewish, disproving the "Jews aren't good at sports" theory.

As if I hadn't disproved that on my own.

Now here's Team USA's Benny Feilhaber lip syncing "No Air" by Jordin Sparks and Chris "Don't mess with me Rhianna" Brown...



Oh, also tomorrow is my 34th birthday and Sunday is the big Pride Parade here in NYC. Monday might be a rough one, but I'll do my best to check-in....

Thursday, June 24, 2010

iSpy

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I had several spies out and about in the city last night watching the lines as nerds and dorks from all over the tri-state area swarmed to Apple stores to get a hold of the iPhone 4. This picture was snapped of the line of the 14th street store at about 10 p.m. last night. You can only imagine how long it got by the time the doors opened today at 9 a.m.

I'm gonna swing by the Upper West location a little later today just to check-in on the madness. I'll tweet some pics, particularly if I see a trampled security guard or an unconscious employee.

Hmm, maybe BP can take all the old iPhones and plug the effin' hole with them. Lemme make a call about that...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Where Customer Service Goes to Die

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For those of you who live outside the NYC area, Duane Reade is our biggest pharmacy with over 250 locations. The logo pictured about is their new one, after undergoing major renovations in many of their stores because they were notorious for being dirty, smelly, generally unpleasant places. Not all the stores in the chain have undergone the renovation however, of course including the two closest to my apartment. Now it seems those renovations have stopped altogether because the company was recently purchased by Walgreens so they are in limbo while deciding whether to change all the store names or not.

I mention this not because I like to lecture on the business models American pharmacies, but because I experienced something yesterday at Duane Reade that is becoming all-too common in stores everywhere. First allow me to disclose my shopping list in bullet form...

  • 2 bottles of Sprite Zero
  • 1 Lean Cuisine
  • Degree Arctic deodorant
Quite an exciting and eclectic mix of good, indeed.

I went to the register to pay only to realize that only one register was open and there are about 8-10 people in line waiting. The manager was at another register counting money, not looking up to see that they could use some help up front. The girl behind the register was taking her sweet time and I noticed that she didn't greet anyone with a "hello" or "how are you?" or anything at all for that matter. She also didn't bother with "thank you" either, but she did manage to check her nails in between virtually every item she scanned.

(Do girls nails change often throughout the day? If I'm missing something here, please let me know.)

In the interest of common good, I decided to try a little experiment. When it was finally my turn I wouldn't say a word unless spoken to. This goes against my general policy of trying to be a half-way decent human being, but I wanted to give it to go. Needless to say, like she had done to everyone else, she didn't say greet me, thank me or anything. I think I made it slightly weirder by staring at her throughout the scanning, but fortunately she never even picked up her eyes to look at me.

I know these jobs suck. I worked for a summer as a stock-boy/cashier at a pharmacy in a mall many years ago. I've worked plenty of crappy jobs that I never discuss with anyone and would rather forget. But I see this general state of customer service getting worse and worse, especially in this city. I'm not even sure why it bothers me so much, it's not like I wanted to date her, but I guess a little human connection throughout the day is good for everyone. Duane Reade's are notoriously bad at this, and I'm curious what other stores in your neck of the woods are equally as bad.

As for me, I'm gonna try to do more of my pharmaceutical shopping at the local CVS, which also has rather unpleasant people behind the counter, but also has a few self-checkout machines, and I find those computers rather pleasant.

And perhaps date-worthy...

Friday, June 18, 2010

Something I've Never Understood

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Can someone please explain to me why when a team wins a championship that people in that city decide to flip cars, burn garbage cans and throw rocks through windows?

Chicago Cubs fans think they have it bad just because they haven't won in 102 years, but frankly I think it's the only thing holding the city together...

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Game 7 and 1/4th

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The first quarter of game 7 of the NBA Finals just ended with the Celtics up 23-16. Despite that score, I'm gonna predict the Lakers by one, with Kobe Bryant (pictured above, clearly having some sort of problem with his jersey) hitting a buzzer-beater to win it all.

Now let's see if the stupid amount of hours I've watched other people playing basketball actually translates into a correct prediction...

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Al Curbs Larry's Enthusiasm

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In a story that is truly strange than fiction, Star Magazine is reporting that Al Gore had a two year affair with Larry David's ex-wife, Laurie.

I'm guessing next we'll find out that Bill Clinton was banging Roseanne.

(That made sense in some really esoteric way, right?)

Monday, June 14, 2010

To Boldly Go Where No Podcast Has Gone Before

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Six Pack #43 with Leslie Jordan will be up a little later this afternoon. And if that's not enough for ya on a dreary Monday, we're interviewing Star Trek's George Takei later today for our next show. Tweet me any questions you've got for George, and in the meantime get to know him all over again starting with this clip of from The Soup...


Saturday, June 12, 2010

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Shock(wave) and Awe

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I don't often see a commercial that I have to actually rewind on DVR but that happened yesterday during this spot Gamestop* ad. It's for the new "Transformers: War for Cybertron" video game, and it's a total throwback to the Transformers of the 80's. The Decepticons here all look like themselves, sound like themselves, and in these 30 seconds act more like themselves than in both of Michael Bay's disastrous movies combined. But enough reminiscing about the good old days of 80's Transformers, let's take a look...



The truest of true Transformers fan will notice that the song Soundwave plays is "You've Got the Touch", which was played at the end of the original Transformers movie back in 1985. It's also the song that Dirk Diggler covered in "Boogie Nights" after his porn career crumbled. I haven't been able to figure out the exact link between those two instances, but believe me, I'm working on it.

Not only does the commercial hit all the right Cybertronian notes, but it's even funny. I mean Shockwave saying, "When your hit percentage exceeds mine, you may choose the soundtrack", have you ever heard anything more hilarious?

Anyway, good work Gamestop. While my best video game days are surely behind me I will have to pick this game up and give it a go on the Wii long enough to accidentally throw the controller into the TV.

*In the interest of full-disclosure it should be noted that I was assistant manager of Electronics Boutique at Broadway Mall in Long Island during the late 90's. Gamestop purchased Electronics Boutique a few years back, but I promise you that had nothing to do with my glaring endorsement of this ad. We all know how important transparency is in posts of this magnitude.


Monday, June 07, 2010

For the Birds

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BP says that their "Top Hat" is catching 6% of of the crude spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

Somehow, I don't think that this bird is quite pleased with that percentage.

Boo!

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I'm sorry about putting such a jarring picture up on a Monday afternoon, but it has just been announced that Helen Thomas will "retire" from Hearst Newspapers. I guess occasionally in this upside down word of ours, goodness does win out.

It's not all bad news for Helen though, as I earlier reported her new role in an upcoming Mel Gibson movie, and now I am hearing Hamas is naming a new rocket after her.

And, of course, she can always go work for the state-run Iranian media...

Sunday, June 06, 2010

The Witch and the White House

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Here's White House Witch Helen Thomas' written apology for telling Jews to "get the Hell out of Palestine."

"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

That doesn't really strike me as an apology since regretting the comments you make and apologizing for what you said are two separate things. Actually, I don't think she should even have to apologize for saying what she believes, but Hearst Newspapers does have to decide if they want to work with someone with such views.

I wonder what the reaction would be like if she told all the Muslims to get out of France or all the Mexicans to get out of Arizona. Someone should also remind her that in 1948 when the British left Palestine they offered to split the land between the two peoples. The Jews said yes, the Arabs said no and then promptly all attacked Israel. The lost that war, and every few years after launch another war to make up for their piss-poor decision.

Helen, the Jews would like the smallest, non-oil producing little piece of desert in the Middle East. Try to find Israel on a map of the Mid-East, usually they can't even spell the word on the country itself because it's so small in a nest of hostile countries.

Take a look for yourself and see if you can find it.

Interestingly, it isn't all bad news for Helen, according to my sources, she has been offered to play the evil witch in a new movie being produced by Mel Gibson.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Irony...Kinda

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I find it ironic that a great, old broad, Rue McClanhan, passed away yesterday and this ancient bitch gets to continue to spew hate (from the first row of the White House Press Corps....)



Helen probably wouldn't be happy that many of Rue's lovers (and I think a couple of her husbands) were Jewish.

Note: I did not make any comments about her looks, cuz I'm taking the high-road on this one.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

WWBD? (What Would Blanche Do?)

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Instead of being sad, I think we should all celebrate Rue today by doing what she says here in her own words...


Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Get GLAAD

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Episode #42 of The Six Pack with GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios is up on iTunes and BenDave.com. Of course, as a subscriber you knew that already.

Right?

Phew.

Cuz if not, this would be very awkward for you...

First Al and Tipper Joke

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Al and Tipper Gore have split. Apparently he only wanted to have sex with the lights off.

ZING!