Big Night

You'll never believe this, but we were at the bar when we learned that Osama bin Laden was killed.  We had gone out to get a couple beers after J dealt with his van breaking down on the other side of town (and not being able to get a hold of me, and somehow not being pissed about it - a complete miracle).  We went to Herb's, our favorite cheap hangout, where Sunday night is Karaoke Night.  I've tweeted about it before; the crowd used to be mostly old people, which was awesome in many ways.  They got a new DJ recently and now the singers are mostly younger, but there's still one guy, Eddie, who is in his 60s and has the most impressive shock of artificially black hair you'll ever see.  But I digress.  We got to the bar before 9, but there was a foursome there who was already so drunk you'd have thought it was 2 AM on a Saturday.  Then there were the non-singing regulars - a bunch of middle-aged guys including one local newscaster who sit around making fun of the bad singers.  That's who I hang out with.
A little later, a younger regular showed up.  He is the grandson of a former Cleveland mayor, and I can't decide if he is cool or a douche.  I'm leaning toward cool, but I'm not ready to commit.  Anyway, he took a message up to the DJ that bin Laden was dead, and the DJ was basically like "Mr. P___ tells me that Osama bin Laden is dead.  Karaoke will not stop."

So as people continued to sing, Curt, the owner/bartender turned on a different news channel on each TV in the joint, and we saw that indeed the guy was dead.  I started to get a little nervous being in a crowd of drunks that size, hearing news like that (the bar is in a fairly conservative suburb).  But everyone reacted about the same.  Some cheering, but even that was tempered, and no one said anything offensive, and my faith in drunk Republicans was...  well, I don't want to say "restored".  Improved?

The music did stop for the President's speech (which happened more than 2 hours after we got there to have "a couple beers", omfg).  We all watched, a couple people recorded it on their phones, and then Curt bought everyone in the house a shot of Swamp Water, the house's "specialty" (a secret mix of something that tastes decent enough, but it a muddy green color).

And then?  All the singers gathered together for a heartfelt rendition of - you guessed it - "Proud to be an American".  OF COURSE THEY DID.

(I fucking hate that song)

And that is how the death of Osama bin Laden led to me going to work with a hangover.

OH!  I have to include this.  The TV directly across from us was tuned to ABC before we had any sound from any set, and all we could see was whatever footage they had available, and a huge chiron that said "Voice of Dick Clark".  This lasted a while - through multiple breaks - and I pointed it out to J and we wondered what the fuck they were asking Dick Clark's opinion for (and feeling bad for the poor chump who had to close caption that conversation).  Finally, they corrected themselves.  It was actually the voice of Richard Clarke, who worked for the State Department through like 5 administrations and, you know, might have something of value to offer.  (But can you dance to it?)