March Goating--Pre-shearing party

posted February 20, 2012 3:09 PM | |

Wed March 7 at 6:00 PM, The Grafton Pub

These five-month goating intervals really cramp my style.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:00 PM on February 20

These cramp-interval months really style my five goats.
posted by SpiffyRob at 4:16 AM on February 21

Drrr.

Five-week. Five-week goating intervals.
posted by hydrophonic at 7:05 AM on February 21

See, this leap year thing is making us all discombobulated.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:12 AM on February 21

'Goat' is a word that should never be used as a verb. I strongly protest.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:23 AM on February 21

yes, I realize that 'goating' is a participle being used as a noun here. My protest stands.
posted by tivalasvegas at 7:24 AM on February 21

How about goatening? It's what happens when instead of there can be only one, there can be only a double with cheese.
posted by garlic at 8:03 AM on February 21

"Five-week goating intervals" does sound like something you would need to be concerned with on a farm. And I guess it sort of is:

Goat as a verb

I'm tempted to add a third definition as "to meet-up with people from the Internet", but I like the Wikimedia Foundation too much to vandalize for a joke.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:05 AM on February 21

Well, as noted, the post does not use "goat" as a verb. We do use it as a verb at least once a month in my house, however.

"Hey, are you goating tonight?"
"I plan to. Guess I better put on some clothes, huh?"
"Mo says it behooves you to wear pants."
posted by crush-onastick at 8:10 AM on February 21

I see what you did there.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:42 AM on February 21

I'm sad to be missing yet another goat-up. On the other hand, I'll be honeymooning in the South Pacific, flying from Tahiti to New Zealand while you guys are drinking tiny beers, so I'm not that sad.
posted by booknerd at 9:32 AM on February 22

I feel like I've goated on the Goat. The Boyfriend and I are goating at the Goat at Madison and Ashland. We goated to a Hawks game and now it's goating outside. I had to go out and watch the Hawks goat it up. The boyfriend is goating some burgers, but I still goat that I've goated on the Goat.
posted by youngergirl44 at 8:46 PM on February 23

I had to go out and ...
You had to goat and do what now?
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:07 PM on February 23

Well, at least I goated a goat from the goat and it goated goating awesome. Goat you. Goat goaty goat.
posted by youngergirl44 at 9:44 PM on February 23

Sooo... I might be doing a guest bartending thing to raise money for my St. Baldrick's team on this day. Any chance the Goating could change location, or move on later in the night? I don't have the details yet (one of my team members is arranging it) but I'll post info as soon as I have it.
posted by misskaz at 8:17 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Ok, details: Grafton Pub, 6pm to 9pm. Jameson and PBR specials.
posted by misskaz at 8:53 AM on February 24

I dunno. I can't think of any puns on "Grafton."
posted by hydrophonic at 9:01 AM on February 24

But seriously, I'd be happy to have a goating excursion.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:02 AM on February 24

I see no reason not to goat at the Grafton for a good cause. I'll change the details, unless I hear some major objection. We won't take up too much space at Grafton, I assume?
posted by crush-onastick at 10:29 AM on February 24

How dare you do it somewhere close to where I live. That's just terrible.

Grafton
Graftoff
The Grafter (graft graft)
posted by SpiffyRob at 10:45 AM on February 24

sounds fine to me.
posted by garlic at 2:19 PM on February 24

I'll make one counter-argument to the Grafton Goat alternative, immaterial to my own waa-waa southside has to go so far-ness self, which is that the big ole international Drosophila conference kicks off that night. In the past, this conference has (almost) produced meet-ups unto itself, and as such I recommend that we keep it local (goatwise) to the Sheraton, for any itinerant Drosophilists looking for a good/better time.
But, upon review of the literature (i.e. finding the links) I see that this is a minority opinion/discipline and may not be a going concern for this meet-up.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:28 PM on February 24

Oh man. I would totally go to a Drosophila genetics conference, and any associated meetups. Since March 7th seems to be spoken for, I would suggest proposing another meetup that same weekend. We MeFites are not shy about multiple meetups.
posted by lholladay at 10:05 PM on February 24

I'll be late, but I'll see you there.
posted by eamondaly at 7:42 AM on February 25

Hooray! This means it'll take 20 minutes to get home instead of the usual 50.

Might want to fix the address, though...
posted by phunniemee at 10:36 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

I am also bartending (read as: likely wearing a lot of beer), since I'm shaving my head, too.
posted by bibliogrrl at 1:29 PM on February 25

So we're going to The Cove for karaoke afterward?
posted by youngergirl44 at 7:58 PM on February 27

The Griftin'
posted by adamdschneider at 9:28 AM on February 29

I'm thinking of going (I know, I know), but won't it be difficult to get seats together? Or is that just not part of the plan this time. Grafton's is usually quite crowded on Wednesdays--plus the Old Town School has their open-mic singalong stuff that evening, where a bunch of students come across the street after classes and set up song circles and the like.

Not that I'm against that. :D
posted by tzikeh at 10:38 PM on March 2

The guest bartending is only from 6-9. I have a feeling the students will have to find another place to do song circles (? WTF), as Grafton is likely to be packed with bikers (of both the motorcycle and pedal bicycle variety) for this event.

This is not going to be the typical MeFi meetup scenario. It's going to be a crowded bar scenario where some Mefites happen to be hanging out. (Here's the Facebook event set up by the other Baldrick's team, and you can see there are 53 people RSVPd so far.) If people want the more typical meetup, I'm totally fine with folks doing that and will in no way be upset if y'all stick to the Goat. I'm sure bibliogrrl feels the same way. We just want people to have fun!
posted by misskaz at 2:28 PM on March 4

I think I'm the only person who can edit this. So! FAVORITE this comment for TRADITIONAL GOAT MEETUP.
posted by crush-onastick at 4:14 PM on March 4

or favorite THIS COMMENT for GRAFTON GUEST BARTENDING MEETUP.
posted by crush-onastick at 4:14 PM on March 4

Voting to close randomly on Tuesday when I remember it.
posted by crush-onastick at 4:15 PM on March 4

How about we convene on the Grafton, but if it's too crazy we relocate to one of the other fine establishments of Lincoln Square? Huttenbar, Hansa Clipper, Spyner's....

This would mean alerting late-comers of our whereabouts. I know the Chicago folk did this before somehow, back when cortex was in town, but the mechanics are beyond me. I, using my wife's iPad, just barely managed to include the links for this comment.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:43 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

FWIW, I voted Goat because I fear change, but I'll likely at least show up if it's at The Grafton.

And nobody else voted. So I'm taking mine back.
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:00 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

I am suddenly reminded of how and why we settled on monthly Goats. It's like a flashback.

But I think hydrophonic has a reasonable solution.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:15 AM on March 5

Won't be able to make either. Enjoy!
posted by evisceratordeath at 9:25 AM on March 5

I didn't vote because I'm going to the Grafton no matter what.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:34 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

There's a chicago mefi twitter account that did it, maybe?
posted by garlic at 2:17 PM on March 5

There was, @mefichi, but the admin needs to re-auth the GroupTweet functionality.
posted by misskaz at 2:20 PM on March 5

Okay, I did a little scouting around Lincoln Square today. There are bunch of bars in the neighborhood, but despite living close by for six years, I've only been to a handful.

The Bad Dog Tavern is pretty much across the street from the Grafton. It's pretty big and they have food. Anyone been there? The name always turned me off, although there is apparently a wall of cute dog photos.

The Daily Bar & Grill is just up the street and also has food. They have bar seating and booths (not good for meetups), and a triangular central table that would work for us if we could snag it. I guess they have a party room that may be open, but I can only remember the main room.

Hansa Clipper is small and divey. No matter what kind of seating we get, we'll be hanging out together. No food. They've had open mic nights in the past but I didn't see anything posted today.

Huttenbar is where I usually go in Lincoln Square. If we get the tables in the back by the jukebox we'd be good. (Although that jukebox is dicey--lots of 90s rock.) No food.

Spyner's has a long bar and booths--again not ideal for us, although there have been Friday karaoke meetups there that congregated near the front door.

What do you all think? Bad Dog would be the easiest logistically, but, again, I've never been inside. Do they have open space? Movable tables? Staff that is cool with us moving tables?

Because they have a full menu, Bad Dog also would admit those under 21, I think.

If the twitter thing won't work we could chalk up the sidewalk outside The Grafton, although there's a chance of rain. Or vomit, I guess.
posted by hydrophonic at 4:15 PM on March 5

If the twitter thing won't work we could chalk up the sidewalk outside The Grafton, although there's a chance of rain. Or vomit, I guess.

You just know that if someone stumbles out of there to barf, they're doing it directly onto the MeFite chalk writing.
posted by evisceratordeath at 4:43 PM on March 5

Food will be imperative. I will look for food.
posted by tzikeh at 5:24 PM on March 5

So the mefi chicago twitter retweeter is @mefichi. follow it (and set it up so it's tweets come to your dumb phones if you don't have persistant data phones) if you want updates. It's been silent since June, until we started playing with it today, so don't worry about us screwing up your texting bill.

much.
posted by garlic at 7:06 PM on March 5

There was, @mefichi, but the admin needs to re-auth the GroupTweet functionality.

It's up and tested.

To read, follow @mefichi. If you don't intend to post, that's all you need to do.

To post, *direct message* @mefichi. Simply mentioning it won't trigger the repost.

I'm keeping an eye on followers and following back to allow you to DM. I'm leaving it as DM only for now simply to have some sort of control over who can post to it, and testing shows that's it much faster off the direct message trigger than watching for a reference to @mefichi.
posted by eriko at 7:53 AM on March 6

For some reason I cannot find @mefichi on the twitters. I seem to be technologically challenged lately.

I won't be able to make it to The Grafton, but in lieu of the (seemingly) traditional Blue Frog karaoke afterward, I propose that we all head up to Cary's on Devon for karaoke. Neither The Grafton or Cary's are too far off of the 49b Western Ave. bus line, which runs 24/7. The DJ up there is rad, and they have a decent beer list.
posted by bryanthecook at 10:06 AM on March 6

Caveat lector, if you prefer cabs, that part of the city is a taxi desert after about 10pm.
posted by bryanthecook at 10:08 AM on March 6

For those having trouble...here's the twitter feed
posted by eriko at 10:14 AM on March 6

49B does NOT run 24/7, as I learned New Years Eve this year. It runs until sometime between midnight and 1am.
posted by misskaz at 12:47 PM on March 6

I stand corrected.
posted by bryanthecook at 12:53 PM on March 6

I totally forgot this was tonight. We're going to the Bad Apple. Sorry.
posted by Windigo at 1:14 PM on March 6

IN MY WORLD IT IS WEDNESDAY.
posted by Windigo at 1:57 PM on March 6

That thing, above, where I said I'd probably come no matter the venue?

Lies.

Have a great time!
posted by SpiffyRob at 4:29 AM on March 7

IT IS WINDISDAY!
posted by hydrophonic at 4:45 AM on March 7

It is very Windisday. Is anyone going to the Goat? I would love to do the Grafton thing (drinking for charity, yea), but time constraints forbid. I do have time for a few at the Goat. Or could make time.
posted by readery at 4:57 AM on March 7

I think the general consensus was to meet-up at the Grafton and move ourselves if necessary.
posted by crush-onastick at 6:24 AM on March 7

Also, if stuff gets too crazy at The Grafton, there is always Ricochet's, which is just up the block, too.
posted by bibliogrrl at 6:24 AM on March 7

I just want to make sure no one misses this from the Franzen thread:

The greatest GIF of all time.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:54 AM on March 7

For those of you who don't know, the son of a close friend of mine has neuroblastoma and was the reason I started growing my beard. Of the many charities devoted to cancer and kids, St. Baldrick's has one of the highest donations-to-research percentages out there, so you can feel great about every dollar you donate.

TO THAT END: if MeFiChi helps kaz and bibliogrrl raise $250 tonight, the Daly Charitable Fund will kick in an extra $500.

I won't get to the Grafton until 9pm, but I figure you drunks will have amassed a nice pile of money by the time I get there and the more charming amongst you can help kaz and bibliogrrl pass a hat amongst the crowd every couple of rounds. Good luck!
posted by eamondaly at 2:42 PM on March 7 [5 favorites]

If I arrive to find a neatly-stacked pile of bills though, the whole thing is off.
posted by eamondaly at 3:07 PM on March 7 [1 favorite]

That's awesome. I donated online today thinking I wasn't coming tonight, but now it looks like I might make it after all. But in case I'm not there to mess up the pile of money, someone else please do it.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:18 PM on March 7