Mike's Archive

Author: mjmadaio

  • Desert Island Beers

    A neat riff on the now famous “Desert Island Discs“, I thought I’d take a stab at this:

    Dogfish Head Chicory Stoudt: Chock full of chocolate and coffee, this baby will keep you warm on those cold, lonely nights.

    Yuengling Lager: Because the only thing worse than remembering home when you’re stranded on a desert island is not remembering home.

    Pilsner Urquell: The real stuff. On draft, of course. They tried to make the best Pilsner in the world. They succeeded.

    Modelo Especial: Hey, it is a desert island after all… if you didn’t have a light, refreshing Mexican beer, you’d probably wish you did.

    Half & Half: The very best of the beer combinations, Guinness & Harp go together like peanut butter and jelly.

  • MustRead: Return of the Coreys

    Eonline: Two Coreys Together Again

  • Protected: United’s “Economy Plus”

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  • 20 Years Burnin’ Down the Road: Bias still hurts

    June 19, 1986: Walking down the halls of Angier Elementary, someone tells us that Len Bias, the recent first-round draft pick and next in the line of legendary hoopsters for the hometown Boston Celtics, has died. “Yeah, right”, I say. It wasn’t possible. Cocaine? He was a great kid – Red Auerbach said so. No Way!

    Way.

  • Protected: UX Goes Mainstream

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  • Protected: 6-6-06!

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  • Hell’s Kitchen Predictions

    After watching the first hour, I say the two favorites are Giacomo and Heather. My dark horses are Rachel and Garrett. I look for those “chefs” to be the final four.

    It may seem like an obvious choice, but at this point I have to go with Giacomo.

    ****

    Update: After hour two, I’ve pretty much lost all faith in Giacomo. Heather has emerged and the clear cut favorite, with Garrett looking pretty good.

    The one true unknown is Keith — I think he has skills, but also a major attitude problem. A longshot, but not out of the question. Could replace Giacomo in the final four.

    The winner? Got to be Heather…

  • Protected: Another Marriott Story

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  • I Should Be Famous!

    A few crazy “blast from the past” tidbits that I stumbled upon recently:

    1) I was a die hard fan of “The Office” on BBC, and as such started watching NBC’s version as soon as it premiered. As skeptical as I was, I grew to love the US version as much as the original. My favorite character? Jim (played by John Krasinski), who is simply hilarious. So, how shocked was I the other day when I found out that I knew him when I was a kid???

    Really, I knew his brother Paul, who I played basketball with growing up. (Paul later played hoops for Brown.) It wasn’t, however, until I read that John went to Newton South High School (where I attended Freshman year) that I even came close to making the connection.

    2) So, on that same Newton South tip, my Wikipedia research brought up another somewhat famous South Alum — Hollywood director Eli Roth. Growing up, Roth was the bully-ish older brother of my classmate Gabe. I always thought he was a pompous jerk, but that hasn’t stopped him (probably helped, actually) from writing and directing the 2005 horror hit Hostel.

    The one tidbit about Roth that I remember was that he and his friends claimed to have handed out vodka at the Boston Marathon. I say “claimed” because I can’t confirm that this story is true, having not been there, but these were a bunch of punk kids, so it is certainly possible. What a dick move!

    Speaking of Roth and his friends, the were also responsible for starting the now infamous Newton South “scavenger hunt” in 1990 (my freshman year, btw). As stated on Wikipedia, the school “gained notoriety in 2002 for its “Senior Scavenger Hunt”, a student-organized contest that featured theft, vandalism, and various sexual acts committed by the graduating seniors in exchange for points.” (Of course, thanks to the Smoking Gun you can read the list.)

    Roth has written a movie based on this experience that is currently in production.

    3) Lastly, a quick shout to Jessica Chaffin, sister of my buddy Johnny.

    Perhaps I should take back my statement that “I should be famous.” Instead, if you were the sibling of a friend of mine growing up — you should be famous!

  • Belmont Stakes

    The absence of Barbaro and Bernardini in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes is unfortunate, but it is still a great race every year. Let’s celebrate by watching Secretariat’s legendary performance: