"It's Unrelentingly In Your Face."

That's what award-winning author Brian from 1000 Buffalo Stampede had to say about our latest BARBARian gathering last Thursday night... though he may have been referring to the Freeway Blogger-created cards that Dr. Laniac showed us, depicting a blurry photo of a Marine and the words "Proud to Die for your shitty gas mileage" (they're made to be placed on the windshields of SUVs, especially ones with Bush-Cheney stickers on them). I'm a still a little hazy on the details. See, I woke up early Friday morning in an alley off of Sixth Street with my pants around my ankles and a wad of foreign money stuffed into my jacket pocket (as I do many mornings), and then spent all day Friday among the Working Woozy (often confused with the Walking Wounded). That's why it's taken me until now to post anything about our little get-together.

But really, I'm fine. No need to worry. Seriously, don't get up. I'm okay.

It was a typical gathering, if by "typical" you mean raucous and ribald and drink-fueled and debauched. We tried to order too many rounds of Manhattans, driving the prima donna bartenders at Ben & Nick's nearly 'round the bend and completely draining their supplies of both Knob Creek and Maker's Mark bourbon. There were chicken wings and burgers and fried calamari enough to feed the entire homeless population of the East Bay, the better to soak up the alcohol of said Manhattans, not to mention endless pitchers of Red Rocket, Sierra Seasonal and Arrogant Bastard Ale. Most of the usual suspects were there (Original BARBARian co-founder Scaramouche; Drew from Scamboogah!! and his lovely wife, Teri; qubit from The Token Reader; mrgumby2u from itlookslike this; Mags from You forgot Poland!; Victor Shystee; Simbaud, the King of Zembla; Chuck from Belisarius and Bad Attitudes; Paperwight; and possibly a few others I'm conveniently forgetting at the moment -- as I said, I'm still a bit hazy), along with some (always welcome) new faces, like Brian from KRON 4's The Bay Area Is Talking, k/o's Kid Oakland and Matt from Say No to Pombo. If you missed it, you missed it, and more's the pity for you, because it will never happen again until the next time we get together and drink and talk blogging and politics and swap gifts and meet new people and end up in an alley off of Sixth Street with our pants around our- or maybe that was just me. Never mind.