Posted 6:27 PM by Gene

Some two-bit bar chain called Fox & Hound is being taken over in a leveraged buyout for about $160 million. I mention this because here in our neighborhood we're in the first of ten hours of on-street revelry emanating from one of its tony hives because tonight we happen to be a Pittsburgh suburb. This is the same neighborhood where some high strung neurotics forced a supermarket to close because its deliveries made too much noise. The Beloved EDDIE was no doubt on the phone for DAYS getting this joint to locate here -- "it's near culture and high art! It's near a palace of MUSIC!" Never mind the patrons' tastes may run more toward the infernal ELTON (whom the rich moron who named his money-munching musical mausoleum for himself insisted on opening it with); Eddie was then in his 10,000-restaurants-or-bust kick, with the result that anyone earning over a quarter-million a year can eat anywhere, and the rest of us are out of luck. And so tonight we get what Mr. RENDELI can insist is "the noise and bustle of a great booming city, always expanding, always creating more jobs for waiters and janitors and busboys and maids to propel this city into the 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMY!!!!!"

Shut up, Steeler fans -- and SHUT UP, EDDIE.

P. S. at 6:52 p.m. Well, the Steeler fans have shut up, a lot sooner than I thought. Eddie will never shut up -- even if a former Steeler puts him out of the government biz.