2009: A Year in Review... and "THE GREAT CLEANSING"

I would like to call the recession of 2009, "The Great Cleansing".
Sort like the colon cleansing you think about doing each year because you think:
a: you will get rid of that excess goo living in your colon and
b: somehow the starvation and excess toilet paper usage will bring about positive change.

I think in some strange way the analogy, (as I write this I am laughing because the first 4 letters of analogy spell ANAL)

ANALogy...there are no accidents in this world...oh, there I go again...go...I guess I could just say Sh-- happens. Is that really what it is all about? Perhaps it is...

Well, actually, you may not want to hear this but, the city sewer did back up into the basement of Cafe Hon. This, of course, caused me to close and lose a busy holiday Sunday evening. Quite apparently, Sh-- happens no matter what. And even the biggest pipes need the occasional cleansing.

The good news about this particular s--t is that it caused me to get rid of just about everything in the basement, including the bathroom, the sink and part of all the dry wall along with everything else that had been accumulating over the 15 or so years I have been in this location.

So, to this end, I can tell you that we had a sort of colon cleansing of the basement. It is great to have a fresh start from the BOTTOM up.

In 2009 the Hon Bar went from solidly stodgy to HIP, FUN and authentic. Most of the regulars have stopped noticing the hot pink accents or they got in touch with their feminine side. We also added the NFL Sunday Ticket and have joined the ranks of "sports bars." It just does not smell like a sports bar.

We were blessed with great weather for HonFest and saw record crowds and crowned Charlene Osbourne as 2009's Baltimore's Best HON.

Baltimore City was nice enough to fine me for the Big Pink Flamingo shortly before Mickey, Amelia and Speigel of 98Rock came to our rescue and badgered City Officials until they agreed to recalculate the fee and put up signs on Interstate 83 that say "Hampden." Now you have to look really hard for them, so I am going to have to jump on the old soapbox again. It looks like I will have a new Mayor to play with very soon. Darn it, I had just gotten Mayor Dixon's cell phone number over that one. Oh well.

I was tickled to see that the 98Rock Flamingo Flocking of City Hall made it into one of the Top Ten Baltimore Sun Photos of 2009.

The Odyssey School joined in the Flamingo Frenzy and created the very festive Flamingos hanging in Cafe Hon. The silent auction for them ends on January 12th.

2010 will mark my 18th year in business, I feel blessed to be able to say that I still have my first two employees, Dottie Warren in the Kitchen and Janet Trimble in the Dining Room.

God Bless you all in 2010!

And may your sewers and colon never be backed up!