Cheap Drunk Food Downtown Without the Line (Yet) [Mr. Sushi]

After the lights come on and the staff starts yelling at the bar-goers to get out on most Friday and Saturday nights, many 20 and 30-somethings happily stumble a few steps for a late night slice of pizza. I had planned to be one of these many this past Saturday night, but somehow I often forget that huge lines form if you don’t leave before the bars actually close. To my dismay, the lines at all of the quick late night food places on 7^th St. were already out the door. Sometimes they move pretty fast, but I was in no mood to stand and wait.

So, my girlfriend and I ended up wandering down main and past the Aronoff to Mr. Sushi, which opened at 580 Walnut a few months ago. If you can’t figure out what kind of food they serve from the name, I know a guy in Nigeria who has $31 million in the bank and needs your help.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend sushi if your chances of keeping your late-night sustenance in your stomach are low, but if pleasantly drunk, it’s actually pretty good. They told us that even though we were past the time for half-price sushi, they would give it to us anyway. An eight-piece California roll for $2.50? Count me in.

Mr. Sushi offers a full menu until 3 am on Friday and Saturday nights, with half price sushi from 10:30 pm to 2:30 am. It’s a good and reasonably priced restaurant for when you’re sober, too.

Dear Provost of Cincinnati: What Happened to The Phony Coney?

One of my favorite local blogs, The Phony Coney, seems to have disappeared. The Provost’s last post was May 13 and concerned COAST and its announcement of a petition to end Ohio’s Estate Tax.  As of a day or so ago, the whole blog was gone.  Something similar happened a few months back when the Provost deleted every post at The Phony Coney that concerned good ol’ Jason Haap, otherwise known as The Dean of Cincinnati.

If anyone has any info on what happened, I’d love to be able to tell the story.  Gimme a shout in the comments, at our twitter, or via email.

Peter King: Still an Idiot. [Pre-Season NFL Rankings Are Out!]

Before last football season, Peter King ranked the Bengals 28th of 32 football teams, we called him an idiot, and then the team made the playoffs.  This year, he’s ranked the boys 23rd and broken off this bit of deep, thoughtful analysis:

I love Carson Palmer. I worry about Carson Palmer. And I bet if you ask every Bengals fan out there, they’d say the exact same thing.

That’s his entire analysis.  So, yeah, he’s still a big fat idiot.

Did he watch the draft or any of the free agent signings the team made?  While the Bengals had some pretty gaping holes at the end of last season–Wide Receiver, Tight end, Safety, and an offensive line that’s clearly better at run blocking than pass blocking, they’ve addressed most of those to some degree.  Antonio Bryant, Jordan Shipley, and Matt Jones (along with his mustache) could all serve as big, solid Carson Palmer targets and might take some of the pressure off of Crazy legs Ocho.  Jermaine Gresham looks to be one of the better Tight Ends the Bengals have had in quite some time.  Bringing Adam Jones in might take some pressure off of the so-so-in-pass-coverage safeties we have, and while the team didn’t do an awful lot with the OL, it can be argued that not doing a lot with your OL is just as good as replacing a guy or two, as experience tends to make larger impacts at those positions than perhaps any other.

Okay, so he got the Bengals wrong in terms of where they stand against the rest of the league (probably).  How’d he do in the AFC North?  He was pretty miserable there, too, in ranking Baltimore and Pittsburgh ahead of the Bengals and only getting one right in ranking Cleveland behind Cincinnati.

Not seeing how he can justify this; Pittsburgh is in veritable shambles right now (finally) and won’t have a quarterback for the first third of the season.  Baltimore could be pretty good, but man, that defense is getting pretty old.  Cleveland?  They’re Cleveland (still).  It’d be stupid to predict the same kind of season the Bengals were able to pull off last year, but there’s no real reason that they shouldn’t be able to win their division, even in the face of one of the tougher schedules in the league.

Through all this prediction, pre-season ranking, and commentary business, one adage holds true: smack ‘em in the mouth on the field and the rankings are all bullshit.  But here’s hopin’ we don’t meet ol’ Pete in a dark alley anytime soon.

RIP Dio, the Littlest Giant of Metal

For those who spent the weekend kneeling in front of their toilets, here’s all you need to know about the last two days.

1. The Cincinnati Reds are in first place.
2. Ronnie James Dio has died from stomach cancer at age 67.

I wasn’t a fan of Dio or Black Sabbath, but anyone can appreciate his mark on music.  The guy was every bit as important to Sabbath as Ozzy.  And even into his 60′s, Dio stayed metal.  Unlike a certain metal band which actually named itself after metal.

The obits are already plentiful on the interwebs, but here are some manly tidbits about the Man on the Silver Mountain:

• Real name: Ronaldo Padovan.  He changed his last name to Dio after real-life mobster Johnny Dio.  Lesser known is that fellow Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne fashioned his speech patterns after fictitious mobster Mumbles of Dick Tracy fame.
• Popularized the “devil horns” hand gesture, which eventually begat the “shocker” maneuver.
• Is said to have stood 5’4″.  In other words, still tall enough to fit Daniel Ray Herrera in his pocket.

Rock on, Dio, and thanks for the rock.

These NASA Images from Friday’s STS 132 Launch are Awesome.

You probably are aware of this already, but there was a shuttle launch on Friday, and it was awesome.  Ready for some pics?  That’s what I thought.

From NASA: S132-E-007156 (15 May 2010) --- The thin line of Earth's atmosphere and the setting sun are featured in this image photographed by an STS-132 crew member on the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Atlantis during flight day two activities.

Roundtable: What if Cincinnati Sports Figures Owned Restaurants/Businesses?

Each week, TCM asks its writers to chime in on a particular subject of interest.  This week, we asked the question, “What if Cincinnati sports figures owned restaurants or businesses?”  This is what we got:

David C. Ben:
Pete Rose’s Floral Boutique (It’s a front for a sportsbook, of course.)
Carl Pickens’ Fried Chickens
Mike Leake’s Plumbing Services

Megan:
Bronson Arroyo’s Academy for Mediocre Musicians
The Marvin Lewis School for Wayward Boys
Marty Brennaman’s Institute for Friendly Chicago Relations

JasonB:
Dhani’s Fried Bug Emporium
Mike Brown’s Fuck You I Can Be a Chef, Too

Maoglone:
Votto’s Entrepôt de Poutine
Chad Ochocinco’s McDonald’s
Cedric Benson’s (I owe my offensive line a) Steakhouse

So, whatchoo got? Drop it in the comments.