Excursion To Bangor

FIRST OF ALL....it's time we list the results for the Matt-Factor quiz. BUT FIRST - there was a PUBLISHING error in the original quiz itself. No one will LOSE points...I'm sure you're all relieved...but for those who actually answered the way I INTENDED it to be, you will gain a point. SO - Answer #8 should've been HORTON THE ELEPHANT - SEUSSICAL. For those who marked Capt. Von Trapp....nice try. You keep the point, but the answer is wrong. The ONLY person it really affects (near the top) is listed below. 100 points TOTAL possible.

HOW IS YOUR MATT-FACTOR RESULTS

100 POINTS

slegaveg

-

90 POINTS

KJB

Rachel

timoteo

Chris Sizemore*

-

80 POINTS

Chris Sizemore (*moved up to 90 for Horton-answer)

Shanna

-

70 POINTS

CES

hyung

sam

Priscilla Anderson

-

60 POINTS

Andrew Frace

Eric Thompson

Sharon G

Kat

Brendan W

Suanne

Sharon S

sma

-

50 POINTS

Audrey

Jill

-

40 POINTS

Audrey McCaffery

Andy

i'm going to suck at this...

-

SO - first of all - slegaveg is my younger brother TIM. And it looks like he was perfect. BUT - that was his SECOND time doing the quiz. So really, there were NO perfect quizzees. INSEAD - we ended up with 4 who had 90 points (since Chris Sizemore moved up) - and I took all those names and drew the winner....so CONGRATS goes out to: KJB! That's short for Kelly Jean Benedetti! Kelly is a good friend of mine from the DC area...and NOW, she is the winner of the Matt-Factor quiz. Thanks to ALL for playing.

Here is KJB and I....um, at the Matt-Factor Awards Ceremony. Her PRIZE will be on its way shortly!

Today, it was SHOWTIME here in Bangor/Orono, Maine. We're on a roll or something, because we had 2 more GREAT audiences today! They were WITH us. They were excited and they were well-behaved. And to top off 2 great shows, we had lunch at QUIZNO'S - which, let's be honest...you just can't go wrong.

The rest of our day, everyone was on their own. This afternoon, Jen and I decided to head into Bangor proper to see what adventures were there. The short answer to that is that NOT MUCH adventures were waiting for us. Downtown Bangor (HISTORIC Downtown Bangor) seemed to be either out of business, or closing for the day. But the ONE thing that I did want to see was the PAUL BUNYAN statue that I had bought postcards of! And we found it!

So here is Paul. And an explanation of the statue. This thing was in the middle of a swampy MESS in some park. But for the people, I waded out and got the shot!

We also went to the Chamber of Commerce (right by the Bunyan statue) , to see if they could give us an pointers on things to see, places to go for cheesecake (for me) and lobster (for Jen) and just general tourist-info. We walked in with those intentions, we walked out laughing and shaking our heads at the strange, STRANGE woman running the place. She was not very THERE...and not very customer-oriented, either. I got some postcards, found a magnet, and then I saw these 2 stickers on the wall that I wanted to buy for a couple of our crew people. So I asked the woman for them, and she got all flustered, and started mumbling about not knowing where they were...where to find them...and started rifling through all of the papers on the desk.

Finally, she said that she couldn't find any. SO...seeing as there wasn't a RUSH on the stickers, I asked her if I could simply BUY the 2 on the wall from her. WELL - I'm here to tell you that I might as well have asked to take possession of her home and her first born child (she was pregnant). And then she said, "Noooooooooo. Nooooooooooo. I couldn't sell you those...just incase they were our last ones." (CUE UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE....AND GO) So I stood there for a second, trying to process her reasoning, and then she LIT UP, and said, "But if you want to leave your address and pay for them now, when I find them, I'll drop them in the mail to you." I politely declined, and she tried to talk me into this GREAT idea of hers once again, and I turned it down again. I passed her my credit card, and slowly watched her head spin as she had to remember how to process a credit card, as she mumbled something about '...having to do these manually....' And at this point in my mind, I was screaming, 'LEAN OVER THAT COUNTER AND I'LL SHOW YOU MANUALLY, SISTER!'

Anyway...I'm happy to report that our walk around nearly-deserted downtown Bangor produced a NEW CHEESECAKE. We got it at some cafe/bakery that we walked by that was FULL of candidates for the Case Of The Unforunates. INFACT, if I didn't know any better, I would wager that the COTU folks were having a convention here in town. But I digress. So I found a Lemon Cheesecake at this place, and I've got a report and pictures below.

The Lemon Cheesecake. Great crust...good lemon flavor that wasn't too over powering. Pretty good consistency. I would give this cheesecake a low 8 on the MASE! It was a bright spot in our tour of downtown Bangor.

And finally...in a note of....just weird....look below! Outside the theater where we performed today, on the campus of the University of Maine, there was this little 2-building 'hobbit'-like community. No real explanation of what it was for. No signs. And, on one of the shacks, no LOCKS. So we invited ourselves in, had a tea party, and called it a day. (Just kidding - the open one appeared to be a stick-storage....for, um, Hobbit walks.)

So here is The Village. Weird, right? Entertaining, sure. But WHAT the crap is it for? Eric, Myself, Jill and Chris enjoy some time playing around the village.

Tomorrow we head out of Maine and down into New Hampshire! Look out Concord...Wonka is on the MOVE!

Cheers.

G