As it should. I love to indoctrinate people in the ways of sloe gin: pine trees and sweet plums. Christmas drink. It is to yum.

Heh. The alcohol chair for my club in college the year before I got there had bought, for no reason anyone could figure out, cases of sloe gin. Seriously, it was crappy beer, a handle of vodka, and sloe gin out our ears. Led to some very odd drinks. (I was fond of sloe gin and sprite, myself.)

Regular gin I can't cope with, though.

I'm happy to set something up on b.org, but it would require someone to hand count the ballots.

Fred Pete had volunteered earlier to count votes. If he's still willing then I'm thinking we can go with the b.org ballot system, it seems to have the least potential for error.

I'm waiting to get on a plane bound for Seattle, so I'll get the list of cities that are up for the vote in the next day or so. We'll double check to make sure that we aren't missing any cities, and then get the voting up and running. I'm thinking next week we'll open the polling.

ND, sounds good, on the polling.

Kicking the olives off a muffaletta negates the point of the muffaletta.

Not if the olives put you in the hospital, yo.

Well, it does seem that that would make it essentially an Italian sub. Not a muffaletta.

So I don't think you can kick the olives out of a muffaletta -- but you can have a completely different sandwich, this one without olives.

Question for the hivemind - my work colleague and I are looking for a nice, little, not necessarily fancy hotel in downtown Oakland, walking distance from Preservation Park, for the dates of 9/1 - 9/3. We both go for funky/comfy over schwank. Price under $140 pretax each per night preferred. The conference website recommended the downtown Marriot and Courtyard by Marriot and the Washington Inn. I have an email in to the visitor's center but I trust the hivemind more!

Folks who came for my wedding stayed at the downtown Marriott. It's a business/conference kind of hotel. Certainly nice enough but not even a little funky/chunky. (Though downtown Oakland, with its gold teeth shops certainly qualifies.) The Washington Inn is across the street and probably has more of the vibe you'd like. I think it's slightly more expensive. You'll be very near to Preservation Park, the historic district in downtown Oakland, and Le Cheval (the very yum Vietnamese/French restaurant the Buffistas went to).

Do be certain to check out the Paramount Theatre in downtown Oakland. If there's no show, see if you can catch one of the weekend morning tours. It's spectacular.

I would like to point out that a muffaletta without the olive salad would still be about four meals.

And that the martini was invented in my home town: Martinez, CA. There's a plaque on the site. We're all very proud.

I like gin okay, but the subtle pleasure of a good vodka, now that's a drink. Though I wouldn't want to mess it up with vermouth or, come to think of it, anything else. Must go back to Rasputin's and taste more yummy vodkas...

And, Heather, insent.

Going to look now. May not be until tomorrow that I respond. I'm about to get off work and home computer is sketchy (Why oh why did Mr. H have to get the newfangled wirless mouse, and then not have battaries in the house?)

Well, it does seem that that would make it essentially an Italian sub. Not a muffaletta.

So I don't think you can kick the olives out of a muffaletta -- but you can have a completely different sandwich, this one without olives.

Okay, if you're going to be that pedantic about it -- if you go to New Orleans and buy a muffaletta, only you scrape off the olives, you really are eating a muffaletta. It's not like you bought a hero, or a sub, or an Italian hoagie.

You're just not eating all of the muffaletta.

Okay, if you're going to be that pedantic about it -- if you go to New Orleans and buy a muffaletta, only you scrape off the olives, you really are eating a muffaletta. It's not like you bought a hero, or a sub, or an Italian hoagie.

You're just not eating all of the muffaletta.

Pfft. By this logic you're still eating a sandwich if you throw away the bread and simply eat the cold cuts.

I'm pretty confident that I'm still eating a muffaletta.