With thoughts of practicality and originality fluid in his mind, Finsel pairs stories, ounces of bar-room lore and trivia with award-winning cocktail recipes that one wouldnt think of normally ordering but that bartenders should know how to make, nonetheless. Finsel assures that while the names people have been changed to protect privacy, the feeling and emotion behind the bar is genuine. Its filled with unusual, unconventional characters along with a deeper look into the history and practices behind mixology.
Cocktails & Conversations promises to both serve us with adult entertainment and an education that cant be found inside school. It aims to interlace a canvas fully supplied with all the ingredients imbued to the drink. Hopefully, as we drift through its pages we wont find ourselves with a craving for something more.
For now I say, lets raise our glasses to Finsels advice: Order something weve never had before, like Compari. Lets open Cocktails & Conversations, toast to love and happiness, and allow the jagged, icy stresses of our day to melt within our mouth.

See the full article from “encore Online”

Although early reports of Halloween II taking place immediately after the events of the 2007 remake had fans speculating that Zombie was following in the footsteps of Rick Rosenthal’s original Halloween II (1981), continuing Michael’s attack as he follows Laurie to Haddonfield Memorial. But the bulk of Zombie’s Halloween II takes place one year after the events of the first film. The now parentless Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is living with Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) and his daughter Annie (Danielle Harris) and coping with severe recurring nightmares of the ordeal she survived (although Annie survived an equally brutal attack at Michael’s hands and seems able to cope but whatever clearly there’s some psychic issues going on between Michael and Laurie). Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) is on the promotional circuit, pimping the release of his book on his ex-patient Michael Myers entitled “The Devil Walks Among Us.” His latest stop is Haddonfield, natch just in time for Halloween.

See the full article from “ShockTillYouDrop.com”

The latest death was reported as Afghan officials announced an 80 percent increase in the number of major fraud allegations submitted after last week’s disputed presidential election—a sign of the deep challenges facing the U.S. and its allies in shoring up a legitimate Afghan government capable of withstanding the Taliban insurgency, corruption and drug trafficking.
A brief statement by the NATO command gave few details of the blast and did not say precisely where it occurred. U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the service member who died was American.
That brought to 45 the number of U.S. service members killed this month in the Afghan war—one more than the previous monthly record, set in July.
———
Police searching Calif. kidnapping suspect’s home for evidence in unsolved prostitute slayings
ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP)—The twisted kidnapping case of a woman held captive for 18 years in a secluded backyard compound took another disturbing turn Friday as authorities searched the home of her alleged captor for evidence in the murders of several prostitutes and new evidence surfaced of missed opportunities to arrest him years ago.

See the full article from “Inside Bay Area”

Many of these Filipinos originally came to work the canneries of Alaska and the plantations of Central Valley. Most were poverty-stricken and open to abuse. As such, they were discriminated against freely, openly, and with impunityand oftentimes treated worse than the African-Americans who spoke better English and were superior in number.
Because they were mostly male, these Filipinos, who would later in life come to be affectionately called manongs, had to live under a harsh legal climate. It was impossible to own real property or any business, live in a white neighborhood, or become a naturalized American citizen. For matters of the heart, unforgiving anti-miscegenation laws were the order of the day. And since they could not petition for their loved ones from the Philippines to join them in their new world, many grew old single, repairing their depression and aches by frequent visits to bars, gambling halls, and prostitutes. When some love-struck, stubborn Pinoys developed intimate relations with white women anyway, hate-filled riots broke outthe Watsonville ones in 1929 being the most well-known.

See the full article from “Inquirer.net”

For the hell of it, I decided to put on the original HALLOWEEN 2 while I wrote this review. Jaime Lee Curtis, bad wig and Michael Myers running around a strangely empty hospital. But I love it. It fits perfectly with John Carpenters original classic. And now, with Rob Zombies Halloween 2, I have to say that his vision also fit into this new Michael Myers. You know the one. He comes from a broken home and had a stripper for a mom (Sheri Moon Zombie). And for those who havent seen one of the many trailers, she is back, along with another young version of Michael (played this time around by Chase Wright Vanek). It sort of reminded me of The Addams Family as mom and young Mike lead the older and meaner Michael to his destiny. And if you are any kind of Halloween fan, you know that it has something to do with finding that sister of his, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton).

See the full article from “JoBlo.com”

Fox 29’s Dave Schratwieser was there minutes after the robbery.
Just before 11 a.m. Monday, police swarmed the North American Motor Inn after two suspects pulled a gun and robbed the cashier of over $200. They walked out the door and down Belmont Avenue. That’s when police gave chase.
19th District officers chased the bandits across the Bala Golf Club golf course and through an apartment complex before they were arrested.
“The foot pursuit lasted for about 15 minutes. So excellent job by all my officers,” says Captain Mel Singleton of Philadelphia police.
The Motor Inn has been held up five times. Police say they’ve responded to numerous other incidents there.
“The North American Inn has been a persistent problem for me, underage parties, prostitution, that sort of thing,” says Captain Singleton.

See the full article from “MyFox Philadelphia”

They say no one’s as bad as the worst thing they’ve ever done. That will be unless you’re Teddy Kennedy and in 1969 you drove a car that went off a bridge in Martha’s Vineyard, killing your companion, Mary Jo Kopechne.
His negligence put paid to his presidential hopes and Kennedy, then in his mid-30s, called his own actions “indefensible”.
But in the 40 years after the tragedy, Kennedy did more than anyone else to promote the civil rights, health and economic wellbeing of American people. President Barack Obama called him the “greatest senator of our time”.
Another politician went through his own baptism of fire a little earlier. John Profumo was Britain’s War Secretary in 1963 when it emerged he had been embroiled in an affair with Christine Keeler, a callgirl also enjoying the attentions of a Soviet attache.

See the full article from “Melbourne Herald Sun”

According to the grand jury, Zaroff Jr., who is referred to as “The Boss” is the president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Outlaws. In 2006, he converted his business, Triple T Motorcycles, located at Somerset and Amber Streets, Philadelphia, into the Outlaws Philadelphia Chapter clubhouse.
The grand jury found that Zaroff Jr. and Rees routinely gave Hampton and other members of the gang orders directing the criminal activities of the Outlaws.
One conversation included Zaroff Jr. instructing Hampton and fellow associate Chris Custer, to assault and rob a member of the Pagans, a rival motorcycle gang, in response to a brawl at the Philadelphia tattoo convention on April 1, 2009, where several Pagans assaulted Custer and took his Outlaws colors.
Corbett said that the Outlaws held weekly meetings, known as “church,” where the club’s criminal activities were discussed, including drugs, gambling, extortion and prostitution.

See the full article from “Examiner.com”

Coyotes owners blame bank for forcing them to close in Milford Township
They file $10 million lawsuit against Univest, saying it based actions on religious reasons.
Owners of the controversial Coyotes strip club outside of Quakertown blame the bank that held their mortgage for forcing them to close the business in February, according to a lawsuit.
While acknowledging they defaulted on a $2.2 million loan, they said in the lawsuit that Univest National Bank & Trust Co. did not renegotiate financing terms a second time because of religious objections to adult entertainment.
Although the owners did not sue Milford Township, where the club was based, they did say township officials ”embarked on a campaign to close the club, all of which attracted national attention and media coverage, to the dismay of Univest,” according to the lawsuit.

See the full article from “Allentown Morning Call”

I don’t know what Vick’s reinstatement has to do with drinking alcohol, much less fruity adult beverages. Nor do I know what risk a fruity adult beverage might pose, except to Vick’s reputation in some quarters as a man perhaps not given to fruity adult beverages. But this is Roger Goodell’s NFL. And the fact that this rose to the level of a story in the first place is testimony to Goodell’s influence on the culture of the league. This is the same NFL that once upon a time gave us Bachelors III, Raider “Camaraderie,” Peter Gent, Semi-Tough and Michael Irvin snorting the Medellin cartel off a stripper’s tits, but now is so fully imbued with the infantilizing spirit of its commissioner that a lone vodka and pineapple is deemed, even by normally sensible outsiders, a “huge risk.” It’s a league of narcs now.

See the full article from “Deadspin”