• JeanineAnderson / Stranger Flickr
• Thanks, Fish Fry!

It's back, tonight and every third Friday of the month forever and ever!

Free fries and $2 Fat Tire pints: Happy hour is especially happy this evening from 5 to 7 p.m. at Pike Street Fish Fry and Moe Bar.

The fries are really good.

Spoiler alert: Here's a photo of the postmodern driving-range experience. Yes!

Attention teenagers: Facebook is not always your friend. Take it away, NBC Connecticut:

Beer cans, beer bottles, and lots of cups could be seen in several photos that Glastonbury high school students posted on Facebook. "In the pictures you can clearly see what looked like teenage kids holding beer cans, beer bottles or alcohol bottles," said Sgt. Joel White. "You can see beer cans lined up on a ping pong table." Police say a concerned citizen spotted the photos online and told school officials, who then notified police.

It doesn't look like any charges are forthcoming, but punishment may be:

Glastonbury Superintendent Alan Bookman would not confirm whether students had been disciplined because of the Facebook photos. He did say however the school has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to athletes. So any athlete caught drinking would be immediately kicked off the team.

Attention everyone: Posting photographs of illegal activity on the internet is always stupid. However, I won't be surprised if the next decade brings an official internet amnesty, wherein any and all questionable online behavior engaged in before a certain date can no longer be incriminating. If such an amnesty is not granted, I fear the only people eligible for elected office will be those who grew up without the internet (AKA the poor and/or Amish, which might not be such a bad thing...)

• This cocktail represents the forces of good and evil.

WELL KA-CHINGGG! You're one step closer to living your dream. Kind of. Two fancy-pants local bars are now offering Twilight-themed cocktails, for sparkly, vampiric intoxication:

The Hunt Club at the Sorrento has invented "The Bella Edward," which "combines sweet-sour ingredients to represent the forces of good and evil, light and dark, and the passion and restraint of the romance between the two lead characters."

“A Cullen Family Cocktail”

Balsamic reduction
1 teaspoon raspberry puree
2 ½ ounces raspberry vodka
½ ounce Krupnik Honey Liqueur

And Canlis is offering “The Temptation of Edward Cullen,” by bartender James MacWilliams:

“I was trying to capture some of the essence of the movie with this particularly vampires and the Olympic coast. Forks is surrounded by the Olympic national park on one side and the pacific ocean on the other. I was trying to create a biting crisp taste just hinting a forest and visually feeling like vampire. This drink is not for the feeble of heart. Strong but strangely keeps pulling you back. The crushed ice helps chill it and if done right will frost the outside of the glass like the crystal vampire skin of the books and movie.”

1oz Plymouth gin
1/4oz Zirbenz (Austrian Arolla stone pine liqueur)
1/8oz Le Tourment Vert Absinthe (A french vert or green absinthe with pronounce crisp eucalyptus notes)
2oz Champagne
3/4oz Green Walnut Wine (a sweet, homemade, aromatized, fortified wine with a spicy nutty flavor)

Overheard in the office:

"Do rich people watch Twilight?"
"I think rich people have teenage daughters."
"No, I think rich people have secretaries."

So many questions.

What we know for sure:

At the Moore Theater. Five bucks for a phenomenal party with the city's best and brightest and smartest and sexiest. I can't wait. You can't wait. Nobody can wait!

Read all about the winners—Zia Mohajerjasbi, Jeffry Mitchell, Stacey Levine, the Cody Rivers Show, and Pacific Northwest Ballet—here.

• Continuing to cheat tourists and drunks under new ownership.

Remember the rampant rumors at the end of September that world's best dive bar the Five Point was closing? Thanks be to drunk baby Jeebus, it's not true. But the OTHER rumor that a local club promoter was the new owner? True—it's Dave Meinert, who manages Blue Scholars, Common Market, etc., and produces the Capitol Hill Block Party. His soon-to-be-babymama/partner Mandy Park will be managing the place (she used to waitress there, and that's where she and Meinert met—awwww).

Will there be any changes? Nothing that's going to wreck the Five Point magic. Some of the duct-taped upholstery will be replaced, along with extra messed-up parts of the floor. Scrubbing has occurred. And a few updates to the food menu will happen on Monday: The coffee will now be Caffe Vita; liver and onions is back from yesteryear; and a couple more options for vegetarians will be added (including the Green Cat curry tofu scramble, with the recipe provided by the owner of the beloved bygone Green Cat Cafe).

It's good news for everybody who loves the Five Point. Cheers!

Via Laughing Squid.

• Cheers!

The SECB ended up at the War Room last night, where it bought Mike McGinn* a Guinness and then drank a quantity of whiskey. On mornings like this, the SECB recalls, what is very best is a plate of eggs and a milkshake. But where to go (without, of course, leaving the two-block radius)? Charlie's sounds a little weird. Glo's—does Glo's have milkshakes? Maybe it will have to be a coursed meal, with milkshake at Bluebird, then omelet at Cafe Presse. That is really suboptimal. The SECB has a new initiative for Mr. Eyman: Initiative All Restaurants Have Milkshakes. Vote yes.

*Knock on wood!

Also, Chef Nordo Lefesczki—or at least someone who bothered to register as such—has chimed in over in the comments on the controversial don't-call-it-dinner-theater Cafe Nordo: The Modern American Chicken. For a purportedly nutso, possibly fictional chef, Nordo sounds quite reasonable. And he says he never cooked onion rings in Arizona, as another commenter contends.

• JENNIFER RICHARD
• The staff/cast of Cafe Nordo (Nordo not pictured).

Ranging from thought-provoking to thought-revoking, BrüTübe will feature six curators, each presenting a 15 minute set of videos revolving around the evening's theme, "Fear Factor/Beer Attractor." This Halloween-inspired theme will focus on and around the phenomenon of fear and the resulting cultural responses. Presentations will be projected to a large screen while you enjoy beverages and snacks in café-style seating. There will also be a Halloween raffle & costume contest! Don't miss it!

This free event will be held in the Kirkland Arts Center Gallery during the current exhibition, Changes, on view through November 19.

BrüTübe Cürators:

Blood Squad (Improv Horror Comedy Troupe)
Gretchen Bennett (Artist)
Ben Kasulke (Filmmaker - Humpday)
Paul D. Natkin (Artist)
Emily Pothast (Artist, Musician)
Lindy West (Film Editor - The Stranger)

You should come to there! Come be by me! Starts at 7:30 pm!

Here is a video I will NOT be showing tonight:

• Its wallpaper is sorely missed.

Remember McLeod Residence? There was a murder there during its long-ago days as a speakeasy—someone involved in the operation was involved with the daughter of a local Chinese businessman/mobster, and this someone was beheaded in the bathroom. Its most recent incarnation got shut down—a tragedy—due to various complications arising from hellish fire codes. Crowds of mourners thronged the wake.

Tonight, McLeod Residence lives.

In partnership with the owner of the (great) new bar Bathtub Gin, the McLeods are reuniting to celebrate the anniversary of their collective death tonight from 7 pm to whenever, in the (great) old McLeod space (2209 2nd Ave, between Bell and Blanchard). $20 at the door includes four drink tickets.

• www.chapelseattle.com
• The Drinkening! SCREAM!

Also: more H'ween parties and events than you can shake a (scary) stick at may be found over here.

The Sun:

A DRUNK girl staggers along the street with her knickers around her ankles - in a shocking illustration of booze-riddled Britain. The picture emerged as experts warned British women are now binge-drinking TWICE as much as any other nation.And it is not just youngsters who are getting out of their heads. The number of middle-class, middle-aged women being taken to hospital with alcohol-related conditions has surged.

The Daily Mail:

Maybe she thinks it's the drink that is preventing her from putting one foot in front of the other. Or perhaps she knows the vulgar truth and is merely trying to impress her friends. Either way, the sight is certainly not an edifying one. This shrieking ladette was photographed staggering through Cardiff city centre late on Friday night.

Such scenes are not uncommon, which is why Cardiff - one of the country's worst cities for binge drinking - has just banned boozing on the streets. The crackdown is aimed at late night revellers, targeting rowdy hen and stag parties and generally trying to make the streets safer after dark. Police can use the new powers to confiscate alcohol or arrest anyone who defies them. The ban has been a success in trials in small areas but will spread across the entire city in time for Christmas and the New Year.

There is much more, like this story and this story, which considers "ladette culture" to be a sign that the United Kingdom has forgotten about "tradition, including religion, national pride, or even a sense of certain things being right and other things being wrong".

I think these news reports are interesting on several levels: For one thing, England went conservative just a year before America back in 1979, and this whole hedonism-being-emblematic-of-a-dying-culture thing is a classic conservative power-grab ploy. For another thing: I could totally see some new outlets closer to home totally taking a photo like this and trying to turn it into a crusade. So, you know, try not to take your underwear off in public, ladies, lest a stupid fucking credulous hack turn you into a poster child of everything that's wrong with the kids these days.

*Oddly, an average of 52 pubs are closing in the U.K. each week, so perhaps these young kids are downloading all that beer from the internet?

ANYWAY.

Tonight at Chop Suey (9 pm, $7) it's a spooky-scary version of Laff Hole:

It's called Laff Horrible, and will feature comedy from Andy Peters (back in town after moving to LA), zombie performance art from Johanna Buccola, creepy burlesque from Fanny Tragic, films from Travis & Kevin (The Entertainment Show) and an improvised slasher film from Blood Squad.

That's a great lineup, y'all. (Some representative clips after the jump.)

*Oh, a scary movie marathon, you say? HOW NOVEL. Which combination of scary movies that we've already seen should we watch this time? Just like we did last year? For literally no reason? They're available year-round, you know. Just sayin'.

A friend and I trundled sleepily up to Chiang's one Saturday morning, 11:30-ish, for a hangover-wicking early lunch. We were feeling particularly whitey that day—moo shu was to be had, Mongolian beef, maybe even some ridiculous fried abomination like General Tso's. We were sleepy! The world was our Americanized Chinese oyster. The short-haired, vest-clad, matter-of-fact woman who appears to run the place greeted us warmly. "Do you want the special breakfast menu?" she asked, walking us to our table. "Um, okay," we responded. "But can we have the regular menu, too?" She looked at us like we were stupid.

And Bar Exam (finally) goes to happy hour at Sazerac and enjoys its insane bounty:

• Bastille's Billy Beckett. Cute, isn't he?

It's 185 seats of les bon temps actively roulez-ing, with beer, wine, and cocktails priced to move at $3 to $6, and more than two dozen small plates under $10. Would grilled andouille sausage make you happy? How about gulf prawns, wood-fire-roasted with chorizo?.. The happy-hour menu boggles the mind while haphazardly circling the globe, encompassing local oysters, pulled-pork sliders, wood-fired pizzas (including the regrettably named "Funky Pizza of the Day"), beef tartare, feta-stuffed peppers.

Plus the Happiest Hour at Solo, and Chow Bio with bartender Billy Beckett at Bastille.

Fresh in Chow in tomorrow's paper: a review of Cafe Nordo's Modern American Chicken, the Chao Bistro/Chow Foods controversy, Calamity Jane's happy hour, and more!

What you see above is explained by LettersofNote.com:

As far back as the 9th Century, the beautifully named 'Dunhuang Bureau of Etiquette' insisted that local officials use the following letter template (dated 856) when sending apologies to offended dinner hosts. The letter was discovered, alongside thousands of other documents, in a sealed cave library in western China.

LettersofNote's translation (bolds mine):

Yesterday, having drunk too much, I was intoxicated as to pass all bounds; but none of the rude and coarse language I used was uttered in a conscious state. The next morning, after hearing others speak on the subject, I realised what had happened, whereupon I was overwhelmed with confusion and ready to sink into the earth with shame.

According to Lettersofnote, "The guilty party would copy the template text, enter the dinner host's name, sign the letter and then deliver with head bowed."

I miss the olden days. Thanks for the heads-up, MetaFilter.

You're probably gonna be drinking this weekend, right? Well, why don't you put that liver to good use and help get Referendum 71 approved?

Thursday: Party With a Purpose! At Bottleneck Lounge, 2328 E Madison St. 8:00 p.m. to midnight. No cover! You donate by drinking beer! All draft beer sales go toward the Approve Referendum 71 campaign! Exclamation points!

Friday: Ja! Yes To Approve Referendum 71 (yeah, that's what they call it, "Ja!" like German for yes). It's at BalMar, 5449 Ballard Ave. NW. $10 gets you a VIP pass for discounted appetizers and drinks. So show up and make a donation.

Beers, brats, and bands—for a good cause!—all night tomorrow at OktoberBreast at Georgetown's Smarty Pants.

• Kelly O
• Dapper barkeep at Tavern Law.

Over in the Seattle Times news-paper, an article about "the hot new bar trend," now with bonus hyphen.

Thanks to the resurgence of classic cocktails, we now have a new species of cocktail den lurking in the hippest neighborhoods.

But good luck finding them.

A GPS might help...

Already hot in San Francisco, Chicago and especially in New York City, where this trend started, these legal "speak-easies" are the new "it" thing in Seattle's nightlife.

This week in The Stranger: an examination of Belltown's (tiny, great) Bathtub Gin & Co. Last week: some obsessing about Capitol Hill's Tavern Law and the whole nationwide speakeasy fad. And feel free to write your own damn review of Capitol Hill's Knee High Stocking Co. since we haven't gotten around to it yet.

Didn't know about this place:

At Maxwell's, a fine dining restaurant in Tacoma's historic Walker Building, a server punches a code into a keypad to open the mahogany panel that is actually a door hiding a bar. 454 St. Helen's Ave., Tacoma (253-683-4115 or www.maxwells-tacoma.com).

Thank-you, Seattle Times!

• NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Despite rumors circulating to the contrary, the Five Point is not closed—yet uncertainties linger about the fate of one of the best dive bars in the world. The Five Point's motto, as spelled in neon in the window, is "WE CHEAT TOURISTS-N-DRUNKS SINCE 1929."

Two unrelated Slog tippers reported yesterday they'd heard the bar was going to shut down today. One of them went there yesterday afternoon to ascertain whether it was indeed closing; he writes via email, "I got confirmation that there are indeed new owners, but they (employees) had had only been told they may not be reporting to work today. Last I heard from an employee is that they are having a meeting today with the official word."

Another rumor has it that a local club promoter may be the new owner.

I went to the Five Point last night to see what the hell's going on. One worker, when asked if they're closing, said they weren't. When pressed, he said, "Just keep coming over the next few days," then allowed that they might be closing for a couple weeks for remodeling. When asked, "REMODELING?! The FIVE POINT?!" he said, "Nothing major, just the floors and stuff," and again, "Keep coming over the next few days."

A gentleman at the bar said he heard there was a fight going on among the owners, which could not be confirmed.

Asked what was going on, another worker said only, "Oh man, so much bullshit."

A woman who was conferring with various barkeeps behind the bar and having hushed conversations out on the sidewalk confirmed she was an owner; she identified herself as Vicky. She said, "The Five Point is open and it's going to stay open. Keep coming."

Asked if she knew how the rumors had gotten started, she said, "No idea. You live in the same world I do." (Do I? Because in the world I live in, that doesn't make any sense as an answer to that question.)

No new or updated liquor license application is on file. At the moment (and last night), the telephone at the Five Point just rings and rings; the good people of neighboring Tilikum Place Cafe say right now, the Five Point is open.

Don't go changing, Five Point, and PLEASE DON'T CLOSE! WE LOVE YOU!

Also performing tonight:
Luke Burbank (Too Beautiful to Live)
Travis Vogt (watch this, please)
Performers from the upcoming Seattle Sketchfest (probably funny!)
Emmett Montgomery's mustache (flaxen!)

It's going to be a great, great show. You go there.

Here's Adomian in a genius performance as drunk Orson Welles (cf):

And here's Adomian last night, performing Neil Diamond's "I Am, I Said":

Amazing. The man is a wizard.

Wine Tasting: Expectations Influence Sense Of Taste, Tests Show

Wine tastes different to those who are given information on the product before a wine tasting, tests where the test people received information on the wine before and after the tasting have shown...

The information not only influences the sense of taste, but also how deep we are prepared to dig into our wallets...

Who would've thought?! Thanks, Science!

Crazy About Swayze, the magnificently well-timed celebration-turned-memorial for the freshly deceased film icon, tonight at Central Cinema, where the evening will commence with a candlelight farewell singalong. I cannot wait.

Previous coverage here, advance tickets recommended, as Central Cinema isn't huge and Patrick Swayze is. (Was. Sob.)

Extra bonus: By some miracle of fate, I will be seeing Dirty Dancing for the first time tonight. I understand I am in for a treat. Again, I cannot wait.