Virgil's

"That's the best barbecue in the city," the cabbie claims as we roll past Virgil's through the slow midtown traffic on the way to my hotel.

It's a bold claim, and I wonder to myself how good can the best barbecue in New York City be?

It rains again that evening, and since I don't want to walk very far in the rain, I decide to put the cabbie's claim to the test. I cross 44th Street and enter Virgil's domain.
It's like stepping 1,200 miles back to Westport in Kansas city. The rustic decor definitely elicits the barbecue mood. I request a table for one. The place is packed, as I imagine most restaurants in Manhattan would be on a Friday night, raining or not.

I'm seated and order a Brooklyn Ale and the beef short rib. While I'm waiting for the food to arrive, I browse the placemats that tell a short story about Virgil's quest for great barbecue. It shows a map of the eastern half of the United States (they don't eat barbecue out west), along with markers for the best BBQ by region.

Happily, I see the KC metro with the highest concentration of notes:

• Kansas City, Mo.: Haywards Pit Bar-B-Que, made "burnt ends" into an art form.
• Kansas City Masterpiece, great example of KC style brisket.
• Arthur Bryants, a Kansas City tradition.
• Lenexa, Kansas, home of Paul Kirk, the "Baron of BBQ" world class cookoff champion and our Mentor and Hero

Presently my dinner arrives. The short rib is served in a bed of sauce and grits. It was good, though probably not worth the $25 price tag. Then again, diner was on the company tonight.

As for whether Virgil's is the best barbecue in the city, I really couldn't say since I didn't sample any other barbecue.

All I know is that it's no Oklahoma Joe's.

tagged: travel, New York, barbecue, Kansas City, Lenexa, Broadway, Virgil's, Oklahoma Joe's

Dinner for one

"Will you be dining alone this evening," said the well-tailored maitre d'.

I'm sipping my second glass of Healdsburg Carbernet Sauvingnon, and it's the fifth time since I sat down that I've heard the Latin host ask the same question. Each time the answer has been "yes," and we have all been seated in the same section.

The plate glass window in the dining room of the Restaurant Charolette frames a rainy street scene outside. People huddle under the neon-lit Broadway canopies of Virgil's Barbecue, Jimmy's Corner and other bars and restaurants as a thunderstorm pours down.

It strikes me that it rained the last time I was in New York.

My companions are dining with their Blackberries, checking email, responding to voice mails, tending to the never-ending minutiae that business travelers tend to in order to occupy themselves when business traveling alone.

I watch the huddled masses yearning to stay dry through restaurant picture window. I know I'm not the first to consider the irony of being alone in a city of 8 million people. It's strange and awkward to dine alone in a city. Even for an INTP like me.

I glance around at my fellow lone diners. They are now watching the picture window too. I wonder if they're thinking the same thing I am.

I wonder if they'll blog about it.

tagged: travel, New York, alone, business, blog, Carbernet Sauvingnon

Present and accounted for

A few months ago I received a gmail from Pete Dulin, editor and publisher of local e-mag Present Magazine.

He wanted to interview littl ol' me for a feature he was working on for the June issue about local bloggers. I figured he was doing a best-of/worst-of thing and needed a worst of, so I did the interview.

Fast forward to today, I get another gmail letting me know the June issue has been published (you can download the PDF doc here).

Present is a really cool publication. Pete and his writers do a great job covering the local scene, and since I learned about it I've developed a habit of printing it out and taking it to the bathroom at work for a few hours... but I digress.

The point is, the June edition has several entertaining interviews of local bloggers along with a nice column about the sociological place of blogs within the greater human condition.

And I was surprised to see Three O'Clock in the Morning listed among some really great blogs like Death's Door, Tony's Kansas City and NctrnlinKC.

So do yourself a favor. Go download the magazine and read how much of a jackass I made of myself.

PS- JD, don't get too bent out of shape on this one, it was a Kansas City article, so you really don't qualify. Feel free to submit a post to the KGB carnival, tho.

tagged: Kansas City, blog, magazine, culture, present

This thing's got legs

The Kansas Guild of Bloggers is really starting to pick up steam. Thanks to everyone for submitting posts and helping spread the word.

I also want to welcome two Kansas bloggers who have recently "joined" the group: Big Simon in Independence and Melissa in Hayes.

Now on to business. Choose your favorite Kansas-related post from the past week and submit for this week's KGB Carnival. I'll post the submissions (and some posts that I come across on my own) on Monday, June 5.

And don't forget to mention this call for entries on your blog and include the submit link.

Thanks. Check back Monday for the roundup.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB

YouTube Tuesday: I'm just dealing with a lot of crap right now...

Seth Green and the rest of the crew at Robot Chicken are comic geniuses. If you need any further proof, check out this brutal Star Wars send-up.

The Evil Emperor, playing the part of an arsehole CEO, learns of the destruction of the Death Star.

"That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! Do you have any idea what this will do to my credit!"

tagged: movies, YouTube, video, Star Wars, Palpatine, Robot Chicken, humor

KGB Carnival for May 29

Another great week in Kansas Blogging with some great posts submitted by KGB operatives. Let's jump right in...

• Dan goes after Kris Kobach with Kris Kobach Sold His Soul for Right-Wing Street Cred posted at Gone Mild.
  
  
• Simon Takes the Scenic Route at Big Simon.
  
  
• Joshua Rosenau is Back from New York at Thoughts from Kansas.
  
  
• John B. is also out and about and presets Travelogue II posted at Blog Meridian.
  
  
• Eric Gruber is working it out during The Summer of Steak at Grubesteak.com.
  
  
• Paul Decelles posts some amazing pictures and commentary about A Hidden Gem at theforcethat.
  
  
• j.d. examines a different kind of space with Cowley Co. College students punished over myspace blog? posted at evolution.

And this week's Honorary KGB blogger goes to...

• Melissa at Space and Time represents Kansas' west side with an interview of the baby sitter that wasn't hired.

Well, there you have it. Travel seems to be a theme today, which is appropriated given the holiday.

So get off of the Internet and go out and enjoy the day.

Cheers!

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB, travel, Clinton Lake, baby sitter, Amazon

Swimwear

With the summer beach season quickly approaching, I've decided it's time for some new swimwear. I'm considering this little number, though it might be a bit too "speedo" for me.

What do you think?




tagged: swimsuit, thong, speedo, nude, naked, fashion, humor

Amelie Friday, back by popular demand

All of the avid readers of this blog (well okay, one of the few readers of this blog) are demanding (well, casually inquiring) that Amelie Friday make its triumphant return to Three O'Clock in the Morning.

Well, far be it from me to disappoint (actually, that's what I do best, but do let's proceed).

Here's how it works: I list three things I like and three things I dislike from the previous week. Then, you add your own list in the comments.

Here’s my list for this week:

Things I Like

• Three-day weekends (who doesn't like that???)
• Dinner and drinks on the corporate card
• Boulevard Wheat on the deck at O'Dowd's on a sunny afternoon

Things I Dislike

• When the week-old bag of stinking, rotting, fermented grass clippings breaks open all over my legs as I'm bringing it to the curb the night before trash day.
• corporate reorgs (who doesn't hate that??)
• Having high expectations dashed by mediocre novel writing

Okay, that’s my list for this week. Add your own list of likes/dislikes in the comments section. Or better yet, post them on your blog and let me know so I can link to them. Let's make this a regular thing.

Have a great weekend.

tagged: Amelie, Blogger, corporate, Boulevard Wheat, O'Dowd's, Da Vinci Code

West Side represent, yo

Quick, tie a string around your index finger.

This string is there to remind you to submit a blog post for the Kansas Guild of Bloggers Carnival that will be posted on Monday, May 29.

Here are a few quick guidelines:

• Participating bloggers should be either living in Kansas or should at some time have lived in Kansas.
• Or, participating bloggers should have at some point traveled through, around, or over Kansas.
• Or, participating bloggers should have something to say that would be relevant to people living in Kansas.

That should about cover everyone.

One thing I would like to see more of is bloggers from western Kansas. Recent KGB carnivals have been pretty east-Kansas heavy, so if you know anyone from the West Side, tell them they better represent, yo.

And it always helps when you mention this call for entries on your blog. Feel free to include the submit link as well.

Thanks. Check back Monday for the roundup.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB

Book Report: Welcome to two years ago

I picked up a copy of an obscure little novel the other day to help pass the time during a long weekend trip to a high school graduation ceremony.

You may or may not have heard of The Da Vinci Code, a quick little read that swept the nation a couple of years ago. The fact that I just picked it up last weekend pretty much makes me the last person in the known universe to read it.

My initial thought after reading the first few chapters was "Hey, they should make a movie out of this."

But seriously, I gotta say, 50 chapters in, I don't get what all the hubbub is about. Sure, it's a good yarn, but I haven't read anything that I would consider controversial.

So the fictional account of the quest for the Holy Grail attacks Christianity. You would think Christianity would be used to this by now. There have only been, what, a dozen or so Holy Grail movies? None of which were as good as the opus by Monty Python.

But then again, it's not like Catholics are lining up to burn embassies over this, so no biggie.

My biggest disappointment is in Dan Brown's writing style. This is the first of Brown's books that I've read. The plot is rife with twists and turns, but the structure the narrative is a bit clipped and full of literary gimmicks.

There are lots of four-paragraph flashbacks, for instance. And did you notice how Brown sets up a really tough situation only to have a character resolve it simply by having flash of intuition?

"Langdon had no idea how they were going to figure out the secret combination. Then suddenly it came to him. The combination was his social security number in reverse."

See what I mean? I dunno, just seems a bit too easy to me.

But still it's a passable novel if not a classic. I'm looking forward to finishing the read, then seeing the movie in a couple of years when it's out on DVD or aired on HBO.

tagged: books, Da Vinci Code, movie, Dan Brown, writing, controversy, culture