Powell's Big Ass Bookstore

So, I have just returned from the Pacific Northwest to this STL furnace of love. While in the Portland area I experienced many fun/exciting/disturbing things, including, but not limited to, romantic beach bonfires with, uncomfortable stares from cougars, and scary PT Cruiser rental car adventures.


However, the most neat-o thing was going to Powell's bookstore in downtown Portland. The world's largest independent bookstore, it takes up 2 stories of an entire city block. I got lost more than once and it was a bit overwhelming in a completely nerdy fanboy kind of way. I thought it would be fun to randomly select five books, choose passages from said books and have you, the Gentle Reader, try to match the book to the passage.



Now the quotes may not be exactly right, but the staff was eyeing me writing stuff down, so I had to be quick.


#1: I felt it was a horror to eat meat that had been fed grain - instead of feeding grain to cows, people should be eating the grain.


#2: "Any given black person," he shouted, "is seventeen times more likely to kill a white person than vice versa." "Are we to remain silent?"


#3: Her arresting blue eyes were looking up at him now. She bent low and let his lips get tantalizingly close.


#4: "Soon we will meet," an ancient voice conveyed - the silence had been broken.


#5: Bloody Mary hooked both hands in Sparkle Plenty's studded belt and gave it a yank sending them both into the audience.



BookA: "Beautiful Stranger" by Julie London
Book B: "Songs of Earth and Power" by Greg Behr
Book C: "Rollergirl - True Tales from the Track" by Melissa Jordan
Book D: "A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins
Book E: "Confederates in the Attic" by Tony Horwitz


Bonus points for guessing which one that I have actually read. Answers will be posted at some point in the future. Void in AR,MS,AK and FL. Irish need not apply. Answering too quickly may increase the risk of anal discharge.

Underground STL, Volume 2

How about Tuesday night STL ideas?

Tuesday Night - Mangia Italiano has half-price bottle o' wine night. If the present weather situation holds for awhile (ie - not a million motherfucking degrees per usual) it is a great locale for South Grand people watching. The food is outstanding, local, fresh, homemade - I can't think of anything on the Hill that compares - and the preparation is always perfect. My favorites are the Chicken Pappardelle and Spaghetti Mangia.

Added bonus - no real Eye-talians work there so you can pepper your conversation with, "Honey, git us another bottle of this here Wop wine" or "My neighbor is always sneaking around in his greasy Dago way" without getting into a fight.

Tuesday Con't - Trivia at Newstead Tower Public House at 8pm - the place (in the Grove at Manchester/Newstead) has a cool "gastro-pubby without pretentious douchebags" feel. I always judge a bar by what kind of glass they serve vodka in. I can't get God's Water at Mangia because they serve it in these miniature brandy goblet thingees. At Newstead, I receive my birthright in a weighty, beautifully carved, marbled glass vessel of love. My loins tingled just thinking of it.

ANYWAY, the trivia is run by Tenacious Trivia. The game at Newstead is different than the ones that they run at other bars - less pop culture, more stuff that proves you went to college outside of Missouri. For example, no "Friends" questions, but you may need to know what underhanded ploy the British tried on Gen. Washington in NY - smallpox ridden blankets, of course. As long as you realize that you are playing for second behind "Team Giacomo"(Yes, that's my team, idiot - maybe you shouldn't play after all) , a good time should be had by all. It's free to play, the prizes are usually free drinks of some kind and it is way laid back.

Granite City's new Chamber of Commerce slogan:

Granite City - Where Serial Killers Come to Party!