Monday's with Motorcycles (and, by association, Us and Murray)

A public service announcement to those of you who ride bikes (or motorcycles) and to the rest of you who should be looking out for said bike riders:

Monday's with Murray (and Macey and Mr. Dave)

Back by popular demand, this time in rare video format:

Dellynnidate Update

Dellynnidate 2006 was exciting, entertaining, full of twists, and generally a pleasant success, though one wonders if any Elimidate from here on out will be able to match the fairy tale ending that made Elenadate 2005 a story for the ages.
There were a few naysayers, particularly Mr. Bintz, who lamented that Dellynnidate 2006 was "a debacle," and rumor has it that several in our company felt the bachelors had not stepped up to the plate. For the untrained eye, this may have appeared the case, but to the seasoned veterans, the whole event was both interesting and competitive.

The weekend nearly ended as soon as it began, when an external The Committee (we're still not sure who was on said committee) announced that Rabib would be Dellynne's escort to the semi-formal evening at the 1640 Hart House. With the romantic setting in a private room in one of the oldest buildings in America, and the unfortunate seating arrangement (which placed Rabib and Dellynne together at the end of the table), it appeared that Rabib had bolted to an early and insurmountable lead. I mean, Diamond Dave hadn't even arrived in Boston yet, and Rabib and Dellynne were already sharing a steak dinner. Fortunately, Murray and The Sleuth worked their wooing magic on one KZ, and Rabib's advantage was soon lost when he failed to buy Dellynne's dinner. You can hear Rabib's thoughts on the evening here.

Rabib didn't let the dinner hiccup affect his A game, however, and he continued to put the pressure on the other bachelors, taking Dellynne grocery shopping and creatively manipulating the car situation so that he and Dellynne were together on the ride to Boston, while the other bachelors were left wondering what happened as they rode alone. The tensions were high and Rabib's seemingly exclusive control of Dellynne erupted in a snowball fight among the bachelors. Murray and The Sleuth concocted a plan to disrupt Rabib's flirting, and spent the 45 minute drive to Boston text messaging Dellynne. The brilliant plan was not without its hitch, as Dellynne struggled to keep up with the two expert texters, and was ultimately confused as to which texts came from which bachelor. Although neither Murray nor The Sleuth got the edge in the texting, their plan was successful in that Rabib was no longer the center of Dellynne's attention.

The next opportunity for exclusivity came on New Year's Eve, when The Sleuth boldly bolted ahead of the meandering group and whisked Dellynne away to observe a lively street performance on the streets of downtown Boston. Upon Dellynne's confession of her unbridled attraction for black men, The Sleuth used his lawyering skills to secure Dellynne a spot in the street performance, where she was one of 4 women over whom the flying acrobat somersalted his way to a few more dollars. Had the bachelors been watching, they would have seen the black street performer put more moves on Dellynne in 30 seconds than the entire lot of Diamond Dave, Murray, The Sleuth and Rabib did all weekend. Thankfully, The Committee ruled that the street performer was ineligible, and the eligible bachelors were saved. Later that evening, The Sleuth stamped his seal of pursuit on Dellynnidate by ending 2006 and beginning 2007 with Dellynne in his arms, as they effortlessly whisked around the apartment, swing dancing to the likes of Glen Miller and company.

Murray's tendency to be a more subtle and coy pursuer is well documented, and time and space prevent me from cataloging his numerous attempts to win Dellynne's heart. But those who know the Murr Man well know that he never does anything half-assed, and when it comes to women, few can resist his boyish good looks and charming personality. Only time will tell if his playful antics will prevail.

Diamond Dave, in true fashion, was at times reserved and at times confidently forward. While he announced to the group during our Sunday morning lounge around that he was "sorta dating this girl back in Nashville" (The Committee is still out on the exact definition of "sorta dating") he was also the only bachelor to play his Timeout Card with Dellynne. His timing was nothing short of impressive, and his 15 minutes of alone time with Dellynne were spent walking arm in arm along Singing Beach off of the coast near Ipswich and Essex.

Although not a participant, because of his failure to actually show up in Boston, Macey also made his present known in Essex through his Eposts on Dellynne's Efacebook. However, his failure to be physically present ultimately cost him, and any promises of victory were empty attempts to make him fell wanted, bless his heart.

In the end, Dellynne refused to name a winner (probably because she had no idea she would be IN Dellynnidate until she arrived in Boston, and because she did not want to risk offending any of her brother's friends). However, she did offer the following thoughts on the whole weekend:

The Sleuth, my neck looks bigger than my dad's [a reference to the tshirt]. But, who cares... you look good [I know].
Murray- leaves early. and, he's running his own business and stuff, he's too busy for Bostonian liberals.
Diamond Dave- is he available? hmmm... hard to say. plus, he may end up marrying a beautiful African lady, and who am I to stand in the way?
Rabib- don't know. he's at least within a reasonable distance. But, he's running off to get a doctorate somewhere...
The Sleuth- available- but, distance is an issue. Plus, he smokes a pipe, nobody likes a pipe smoker [for the record, Dellynne is the only girl we know who in fact owns her own pipe, and smokes it]. Macey- from Lakeland, his biggest appeal. But, maybe I don't want a Lakeland guy... plus, he didn't put in the effort to be here... he therefore must lose.

Dellynnidate 2006. She won't vote, so you must...cast your vote now.

Monday's with Murray: Musings on food and the character of some friends while eating at a diner with Winston

We know most of you Subscribers probably wet yourself with excitement when you saw this Blog post title. He's back!

Indeed, our beloved Murray has returned (by proxy). And, with the highly anticipated reunion over New Year's Eve in Boston, we're sure there will be more where this came from...

[The following is from a recent Blackberry email from Murray entitled "Musings on food and the character of some friends while eating at a diner with Winston." We have inserted bracketed explanations for your reading ease - Eds.]

There's Winston [third founding member of MPC and current Project Manager] who always orders the worst thing on the menu ("egg sandwich sunny side up"). Characteristic of his bad taste in pop culture and most food.

Jamey ["Cool" Poole] who always eats free (years of practicing golf have finally paid off). Ironic since Jamey doesn't come across as much of a gambler.

Slippery [if you don't know who Slippery is...] who always eats free... at home instead of eating out with us. Before he got slippery he was known as Stingy Sleuth.

Andy Givens [Murray's Pensacola roommate] who always upsets the waitress ("would you like a beer?" "No just cheerios and orange juice" after being singled out for a driver's license at Big Bear). Andy likes to upset people.

Brien [Murray] who is always stuck with Jamey's bill. Typical of his ill-luck with golf.

Scott Hudson who always orders the best thing on the menu (and probably most expensive). Scott demands the best in quality and is willing to pay for it.

Miller Weedn [MPC salesman] who always eats out three times a day, 7 days a week. Miller Time to find a wife.

Snatch this soundtrack up

We're still looking for your musical ideas/suggestions/advice.


In consideration of your input (let no one ever say that ol' Slippery is not a legal bargain for exchanger), we recommend our own musical selection...


Snatch Original Film Soundtrack.


We've rediscovered the soundtrack over the weekend, after a long sabbatical dating back to probably our junior year of college. Snatch was a sweet film. The soundtrack is equally groovy. With the exception of Track 16 (Sensual Woman, by The Herbaliser - you can tell by its name is probably not worth your time) and maybe the Madonna cut (although some argue that a dose of Madonna on occasion is healthy for you) this eclectic album makes for some fun study music, and at least for us, brings back some great memories. We're pretty sure Dreadlock Holiday made it on to a PBT mix on year.

From Amazon: "In the same vein as Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction, the soundtrack covers a spectrum of musical hipness that is essential to the tone of the film artists included are Massive Attack, Madonna, Mirwais, Oasis, The Stranglers and The Specials."

Which reminds us, Murray, did you ever get the Snatch DVD back from Antonio...?

Must Have Music - Please Advise

Disclaimer: We stole this idea from a contemporary philosopher/southern intellectual.

We have re-signed with BMG music - we're a sucker for their sales, and we've found that $5 cd's make great Christmas gifts. (The trick is to keep signing yourself up under different pseudonyms - you get 5 free CD's for referrals, plus the 12 for 1 sign up deal = 17 for the price of 1)

So We need your help - what sort of meaningful music have we missed, what essential "must haves" should we include in our pending 17 CD order?

We think Gilli will include some Phish
We think Jamey may refer us to Sufjan
Macey will lead us in the ways of techno. Or Rush.
Noel has probably found some new hip hop band with sweet grooves that you would never imagine a computer programmer would jive to...
Strawbridge will lavish praises on some shuttle bus driver/musician that he met at the airport
Murray = Phoenix
Bintz says Mother Love Bone, but we seriously doubt BMG has that
Johnny T's music collection is already identical to ours

Anybody else?

Now taking suggestions...

Monday's with Murray: Fine Art

Picture used by permission from the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. Special thanks to Jamey for finding this.

Another one bites the dust

Strawbridge is now married. The Halfway House, our name for our matchmaking Home which for years now has had a way of getting its inhabitants married off (c.f. Sheldon, Bulthuis, Nedelisky, Bintz, Borger, Rayburn, etc.) has now worked its matrimonial magic on its very own co-founder. The fellowship has been broken, even while a new one has been formed. We will do our best to continue the tradition of the Halfway House without the aid of our long time associate, Mr. Strawbridge, although fate has given us quite the challenge as our current project (i.e. Manville roommate) is Murray. Tough draw. We think the US had better chances of success in Group E this World Cup.

We are still enroute from Denver back to sunny yankee land, so we will post some pictures from the wedding upon our return. In the meantime, here is this Wedding Weekend in Numbers:

315 - the width in milimeters of the tires on the SUV we rented while in Denver.

109 - songs handpicked by Macey and us (at the request of Stephen and Elena) which were supposed to be the playlist used by the DJ at the wedding reception.

6 - songs that the DJ actually played from our list. This confirmed our distrust and dislike for most wedding DJ's.

8 - members of the mariachi band that played during the wedding ceremony. The music was very festive, and it made for a very unique wedding.

20 - dollars for the ticket that one of the Strawbridge uncles got for parking on the side of the road near the park where we played soccer. There were about 18 of us playing soccer, plus another 15 or so sitting under a tree watching. The suburban was right next to the tree. The officer offered no warning or a chance to relocate the car - he just walked up and wrote the ticket.

3 - times that we made the 45 minute drive to the airport in a span of 8 hours on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

4 - people that it took to eat one order of the apple pancakes at the Original Pancake House.

12 - Slurpies from the 7-11 after two days of playing soccer.

1 - woman who is as energetic, passionate, and quirky as Stephen. He found her. And we celebrated.

Wednesday's Mith Wurray

Check out this nifty trick. Several of you have wondered what happened to this week's Monday's with Murray. Well, we missed it. But we found out that our computer has a "take the first letter of every word and flip it upside down to maintain a cool title for blog posts" button, which we just used. Granted, Wednesday's With Wurray would have made for a better illiteration, but the button doesn't understand that - it just does what it's programmed to do.

So, sorry for any trouble it has caused those of you for whom Monday's with Murray is a cyber shot of inspiration.

Easter at the Luthers, or Southerninity

Who needs an Easter egg hunt when you can do this instead?



Welcome to Easter [or insert any other holiday, birthday, or excuse to get together] at the Luther's.

To explain the above picture, we offer an excerpt from Caldwell's recent musings on this Easter at the Luther's. Note that Noah is the one across Papa's knee on the front tractor. Also, when did Dadu get so big?

"I feel like no words can appropriately describe that moment when I was flying from bump to grassy bump in your grandparents front yard clinging for my life to the steering wheel of the old lawnmower with your papa occasionally looking back at us and laughing . I'm pretty sure he was trying to throw us off. It was so much fun though. I'm pretty sure it was Noah's idea too; you should have seen his little face light up when he got on that lawn mower!... Man, you've just got to have times like that - when you ride a lawnmower to the back of the tractor and then go get a cold glass of sweet tea; I like to think of it as a time of Southern revival, reconfirming my Southern identity ... which I have renamed Southerninity."

And now for a ManvilleTabletalk poll:

Which Murray would you rather spend your Easter with? The lawnmower Murray pictured above, or the seersucker Murray pictured below?