The Return of Borf, the Ghostbusters Endorse Obama, and Other Observations

I think it's safe to call the Cafe 227 blog "defunct." I mean, I don't even live in DC anymore, let alone the actual Cafe 227 (which exists at an undisclosed location off of U Street). I am, however, in between jobs, which means I have a little bit of time on my hands. As such, I thought I'd take this time to document a few random observations of mine here in New York (where I now live).

1. Borf Lives

See, I always thought Borf was entirely a DC phenomenon. I remember nearly driving my car off the Roosevelt bridge one evening when I saw his enormous head on an overhead sign. Anyway, I thought I saw the last of Borf when I moved from the 202. But last night, as I was walking home from the office, I saw this on a fire hydrant near the intersection of 5th Avenue and Central Park South...


2. Gray's Papaya Steals Ghostbusters' Tag Line to Endorse Obama

The biggest things I miss about DC so far (other than my remaining friends) are (1) go go music, (2) Gilbert Arenas, and (3) Ben's Chili Bowl. The lack of an analogue to Ben's famous chili half smoke here in NY has been absolutely disappointing. There is, however, a half decent hot dog joint about 10 blocks from my apartment called Gray's Papaya. They're kind of a New York institution. And they seem to be strangely politically active as far as hot dog joints go. For most of this primary season, they've been trying to convince Michael Bloomberg to run. But now that he's officially out, Gray's has a new horse in the race -- Barack Obama.

The thing is, check out Gray's adaptation of Obama's campaign slogan:

"We are ready to believe again." Doesn't that conjure up memories of another NY institution?




3. Weird Weather Hits NY

So I've been using NetVibes obsessively lately to keep checklists, aggregate blog posts, etc. I recently installed a weather module that alerts me to the current and forecast conditions outside based on universally-understood graphics. For instance, if it's going sunny, NetVibes shows me a picture of a big yellow sun. And so on. Yesterday, I saw a new picture alerting me to some strange weather conditions this coming Sunday:

I think Sunday's picture is supposed to signal either (1) wind or (2) tasty cinnabons flying through the air.


4. iPod "Classic"

I stopped by the fancy Apple store inside the GM building this morning to buy an athletic armband case for my iPod, which will come in handy in some purely theoretical, non-existent universe in which I exercise. I showed the saleskid my 12-month old, 60 gig video iPod so he could find the best product for me.

"Oh, the iPod Classic," he said. "We don't really carry armbands for those anymore."

"Classic?", I replied, flabbergasted. "I just bought this thing 12 months ago. Paid top dollar. Now it's classic?"

"Yeah, you should buy the Nano. It's like your classic iPod, but really small."

I did not end up buying the Nano. But, I did find a nice, reasonably priced athletic armband case for my "classic" iPod on Amazon.com...