Chicago's Pump Room Restaurant Jumping Once Again

By Ross Everett

The venerable Pump Room Restaurant in Chicago is once again a beacon of civilized living. Famously memorialized in the Frank Sinatra song 'Chicago', the 'jumping Pump Room' was one of the first true fine dining establishments to open in the Windy City at the end of Prohibition. Almost immediately, it became a favorite of celebrities including the biggest stars in entertainment history--Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr, Jackie Gleason, Dean Martin, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan and Marilyn Monroe is just a very small list of the icons that made it a regular hangout. In the later part of the 20th century, however, it sort of fell off the map as a new wave of gourmet restaurants in the Windy City led by Charlie Trotter reduced it to a historical footnote.

Ernie Blyfield opened the Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel in late'38. He took the name from an'th century London pub favored by celebrities and nobility, including Queen Anne. The original pub got its name from the hot drinks pumped into the cocktails of its stylish clientele.

Blyfied's Chicago Pump Room took off immediately, and its most sought after table--'Booth 1' may have been the most desired spot of any dining establishment in the country for a time. Booth 1 was occupied by Sinatra and cronies like Jilly Rizzo, Judy Garland and daughter Liza Minnelli, Clark Gable, John Barrymore as well as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

After Blyfield's death in'50, the Pump Room lived on as a Chicago hot spot and welcomed a new era of big names including Mel Brooks, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Eddie Murphy. One of the most famous stories surrounding the club involves former Genesis drummer Phil Collins, who was refused entry for not wearing a jacket. This inspired the title of his next album 'No Jacket Required' which has sold over-- million copies worldwide and established Collins as a solo superstar. Following its release, the Pump Room sent Collins an apology--and an appropriate jacket for him to wear on his next visit.

Since being purchased by the Dallas Restaurant Group in the late'90s, things are hopping again, however. With the extremely talented chef Martial Noguier at the helm (who has worked in the kitchen of a number of Frances most renown chefs), and a $2 million dollar restoration of the facilities, the Pump Room is back among the rarefied heights of Chicagos best restaurants. Though the flaming food served on a sword that was the Pump Room trademark during its golden era is sadly absent (due to city fire codes), the menu is now up to snuff serving Noguiers sophisticated interpretation of classic American cuisine. In addition to the revamped cuisine, the Pump Room upgraded its wine offering and expanded the bar area.

Current Executive Chef Nick Sutton has continued the restaurant's tradition of excellence. The big draw of the Pump Room, however, remains the amazing sense of history that the dining room offers. The realization that a who's who of civilized American culture from Bogart and Clark Gable to Sinatra and Jackie Gleason broke bread in the room is a pretty amazing vibe. The good news is that the Pump Room again offers the quality of food and service worthy of such icons, and is a victory for culinary excellence amid the national infestation of mediocre chain restaurants.

About the Author:

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

How Banning Sports Betting Undermines The Constitution

By Ross Everett

The Federal ban on sports betting has been blasted by anyone who knows anything about the subject for a number of different reasons. Though the US professional leagues suggest that sports betting threatens the integrity of their games, the opposite is the case. The professional bookmaking industry is usually where any type of compromised or fixed game is discovered. Ultimately, the best case for legal sports betting is Constitutional.

Unfortunately, the Congress of the United States has shown very little respect for the Constitution in recent years. Were it to abide strictly by the role outlined for it by the founding fathers, the Legislative Branch of our government would have to relinquish any number of its powers in a variety of areas. The primary problem with our Congress is that it has increasingly become a collection of career politicians rather than a body representative of its constituency. As a result, the overriding concern of the average Senator or Congressman is increasing the power that he is able to wield, and as a result the power that his body is able to bring to bear. Most problematic for you and I, every increase in power at the Federal level must be brought about by a usurpation of state and local sovereignty and, more alarmingly, personal liberty.

The Federal prohibition of sports wagering which was enacted a few years back is of very dubious Constitutionality. Were it not for the grandfather clause, which allowed it to remain legal in jurisdictions in which it already existed, it would have certainly been struck down as unconstitutional on a number of different fronts. Ironically, the Nevada gaming industry wasnt too concerned at the passage of this law; indeed, they certainly liked the fact that they could go about business as usual while potential competition from other states for the sports wagering dollar was completely curtailed.

The mere fact that a proposed law or initiative is unconstitutional offers no protection for the citizenry. If a politician can suggest that a law is for 'the children' many will swallow the bait hook line and sinker. In many cases such prohibitive legislation contradicts one of the most important concepts in the Constitution--that of the right to sovereignty and self-determination of the individual states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Under the 10th Amendment, unless the power in question has been expressly given to the Federal government by the Constitution, and/or unless it has expressly been prohibited to the states to govern as it sees fit. If an individual state chooses not to regulate a certain activity, it is the right of each individual citizen to make their own decision.

So, you should be asking yourself at this point, where exactly does the Constitution delegate to the Federal government the right to make policy on sports gambling? The answer is that it doesnt, and it is very questionable that they have the Constitutional authority to do so. Fortunately for all freedom loving Americans the founding fathers would beg to differ.

Sports gambling may seem a minimally important issue to some, but the erosion of liberty is an incremental danger. The danger to broader concepts of personal liberty may seem a million miles away, but with each additional law intended to protect us from this or that the Federal government becomes larger and more powerful and the rights of the sovereign states"and the individuals that comprise them"are shrinking and being weakened.

About the Author:

Ross Everett is a freelance writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

A Look At Websites Featuring Digital Scrapbook Kits

By Marcella Finlay-Ross

If you are trying to preserve your family's memories in a scrapbook, you may have found that it can turn out to be a very expensive hobby. Buying papers, albums, cutters and other special equipment can make it prohibitively expensive. Many people love the convenience and lower cost of digital scrapbook kits. There are ways that you can make an already inexpensive hobby even less expensive. Here are a few tips that you can use to make that possible.

Because you are using your computer to arrange digital photographs and use textured "paper" accents, you do not need to pay for many supplies. As well, you can often produce one or two pages at a time which means that the amount of supplies you need to buy is actually quite low. However, unless you shop intelligently, any hobby can be quite expensive given enough time. Remember that you should make sure you are completely happy with any of your layouts before finalizing them so that you do not have to redo them and end up spending more money.

With a digital scrapbook, everything on the page is a digital image. Where a paper scrapbook uses physical pieces of patterned paper or metal or fabric items to decorate a page, everything is reproduced electronically with a digital scrapbook. In order to add things like certificates, ribbons and other mementos, a digital scrapbooker can scan them in using a digital scanner. The image can then be digitally altered if needed. This can include removing stains or watermarks from certificates, papers and ribbons.

There are paper scrapbook kits and digital scrapbook kits. A digital scrapbook kit will often include page templates, digital decorative papers and other bits and pieces. A physical scrapbook kit will often include the album, the pages, embellishments, lettering, mounting adhesives and metal brads. Expensive kits will have more options and accessories included with them. This is true of both digital and paper scrapbook kits. Looking around in craft stores and online will give you a good idea of what is currently available.

Rather than buying pages right in time for specific holidays, think about completing these small projects shortly after the holiday has taken place. You might find that normally expensive seasonally themed page kits can be much less money when the seasons change and the holiday has passed. Learning when to shop can be the best way to save money on the overall cost of your digital scrapbook.

Brag books are also great scrapbook projects for people without a lot of spare time. A digital scrapbook kit that makes a brag book has numerous pages already laid out on a master sheet. All it takes is for you to position the photographs and have the book printed and trimmed. It can then be put in an album for you to keep with you. Paper scrapbook kits are also available so that you can make these small, portable books. They are very popular with new parents and grandparents.

Digital scrapbook kits can be used to create great scrapbooking layouts that are shared online or they can be printed and preserved in an album. They are designed to be printed in extremely high resolution because you want to make sure that the details in the papers and the photographs are visible.

Finding ways to lower the cost of digital scrapbook kits can make an already affordable hobby even easier to pay for. Whether it is by shopping at better times of the year or getting your albums printed in multiples, thinking creatively can save you quite a lot of money.

About the Author:

Finding out more about the use of digital scrapbook kits will make life easier. There are great scrapbooking software that can help you save those memories for generations, easily. Check them out now and purchase one!

Need Investors? Get Publicity That Will Make Investors Beg You to Invest

By James Scott

If you're a business on the venture capital trail there's no doubt you've heard the term that usually shuts most fund raising efforts down before they can actually begin, that term being 'due diligence'. When an investor from venture capital firm expresses interest in funding your project, the next thing that happens after intent contracts are submitted is the dreaded due diligence process.

A cloud of confusion usually hangs over the minds of those about to go through this procedure but if you are informed and prepared this process can go from being a migraine inducing nightmare to a confidence booster no brainier that starts a bidding war between investors. The reality of investor due diligence in the new millennium begins with a solid online investigation using the most popular search engine, Google.

The objective for the entrepreneur is to create a powerful and authoritative online presents with all the bells and whistles an investor is seeking in a well pedigreed executive staff that is asking for millions of dollars in investment capital. Your plan must be well diversified through various online media genres such as video marketing, how to videos, article submission and press releases with content focused on the cutting edge and leadership role your company plays in your industry niche.

It's a given that you should make a concentrated effort in filling your own blogs with new, viable content on a daily basis, you should make it a habit to blog on other industry specific blogs as you lead the investors back to your site with your blog signature. Don't forget about the power of audio and video Pod-casting. Let the investors hear your voice, then them feel the powerful conviction and intonation in the keywords as you hypnotize them and place them under your spell.

There are products on the market that cater to plastering the internet with your message with a strong focus on company branding and mass media marketing and publicity. If you pay attention to the branding aspects of your company with a strong and authoritative position on the internet, due diligence will be as easy as taking a nap!

About the Author:

Learn more about Publicity Marketing, Princeton Corporate Solutions has lots of helpful information at their website on how to get Publicity publicity quickly

Roller Girls Bring A Dead Sport Into The 21st Century

By Ross Everett

Roller Derby was never really a big deal in the US, but has been around forever and was a staple of the early days of television. It was similar in its promotional format to its better known "sports entertainment" cousin, professional wrestling. It was frequently seen in the same bad timeslots on the same low powered UHF TV stations, and it was run by the same loose confederation of promoters and businessmen that characterized the regional territory era of pro wrestling. That's where the similarity to wrestling ends--it's storylines made pro wrestling angles look like high drama. While there is a definite history to the sport--great teams like the LA T-Birds and Bay Bombers, and legendary skaters like Ann Calvello it never really stuck in the public consciousness like the pre-Hulk Hogan era of pro wrestling.

New era roller derby reached a national audience through the A&E reality series Roller Girls. It featured a local, all-girl roller derby league in Austin, Texas and followed the lives of the players on and off the track. While the show was oddly engaging, it was the first clue that many had that such a league existed in the first place. A sport that was never taken seriously to begin with and that was really living on borrowed time since the'60's before fading into the lowest level of obscurity had been rediscovered and embraced by an eclectic group of young women. They had kept the same essential format, thrown in a healthy dose of burlesque camp and Varga pin-up inspired glamour and made it into their own vibrant subculture. They changed some of the nomenclature and competitive format--in lieu of regularly scheduled games they renamed the competitions "bouts" a la MMA or boxing. The result was a compelling mixture of glamour, toughness and athleticism driven by a healthy dose of punk rock "do it yourself" mentality.

Today, the same sort of league featured on "Rollergirls" had become a full blown cultural phenomenon. There are now literally hundreds of local "roller girl" leagues in the US, many under the auspices of a national organization called the Womens Flat Track Derby Association. Las Vegas has the 'Sin City Roller Girls', Portland, Oregon the 'Rose City Rollers" and Seattle the 'Rat City Rollers'. There are now groups in not only the larger and traditionally "hipper" cities but also smaller flyover country environs such as Birmingham, Alabama and Omaha, Nebraska and all over Canada, Europe and Australia. Most of the local groups similarly play up the campy retro pin-up/hot rod iconography and everyone involved sure looks like they're having a good time. Between teams there's a vibe of good natured competitiveness and camaraderie.

This organic rebirth and growth of roller derby is a result of young women taking what essentially was TV time filler and made it into their own distaff 'action sport'. The roller derby circa 2009 is a matriarchal success story. No one is in it for the money, as these local groups are typically run as non-profit organization. The women involved have recreated this sport, and run it, promote it and compete in it on their own terms.

The new generation rollergirls also pay homage to their sports' pioneers much in the same way that skateboarders give props to Duane Peters and Tony Alva and surfers evoke the names of Duke Kahanamoku and Greg Noll. Many of the individual group websites have sections devoted to the history of roller derby, and the late Ann Calvello--regarded as the Queen of the original Roller Derby--is revered as something of a patron saint.

About the Author:

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Japan MMA Flashback: Aoki Dominates JZC At DREAM 2

By Ross Everett

After a controversial no contest in their first matchup, there was no doubt as to the winner of the DREAM 2 rematch between Shina Aoki and JZ Calvan. Aoki controlled the fight from the opening bell and used a wide repertoire of submission attempts to keep his opponent off balance and on the defensive. Perhaps the most impressive element of the one sided victory was Aokis dominance of the ground game, which many observers considered to be JZs edge in the contest.

Aoki scored early with a takedown and controlled Calvan on the ground, working a heel lock attempt before taking his opponents back and attempting a rear naked choke. He was never able to complete the hold, but maintained a bodylock on JZC for the rest of the round. In the second, Aoki put on a submission clinic and demonstrated his ungodly flexibility as he spun from an armbar to a triangle choke and back again. Calvan was able to counter or escape, but looked completely out of sync as he generated almost no offense whatsoever over the 15 minutes.

Aoki was very emotional in his postfight speech to the crowd, while JZC just looked disgusted with himself for losing such a one sided contest.

With the victory Aoki advances to the semifinals of the lightweight GP tournament. Thats the plan at least, as Aoki made some statements in the Japanese press leading up to the fight that win or lose there would be no way hed be ready for the next round with only half the preparation time as the rest of the field. Hopefully the impressive victory and the enthusiastic response from the holiday week Tokyo crowd will change his mind as hes now the man to beat even with the short prep time.

The rest of the card was devoted to the opening round of the middleweight GP tournament. Taiei Kin defeated Minowa-man Ikuhisa Minowa in a very closely contested and entertaining fight.

Korean judoka Yoon Dong-Sik also advanced with a unanimous decision victory over Shungo Oyama. Most of the damage in this fight came from Yoons ground and pound from full mount, and he controlled the tempo from the outset. Two one sided contests followed, with Zeleg Galesic submitting Magomed Sultanakhmadov via arm bar in a minute and a half of the first round. That was followed by the MMA debut of former Pac 10 wrestling standout Ian Murphy, who had a worst case scenario draw against BJJ specialist Ronaldo Jacare.

About the Author:

Ross Everett is a freelance writer who has written on sports betting and how to successfully bet on NFL football. He has appeared as a guest on TV and radio talking about boxing, hockey and NFL pointspreads. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a wombat.

Learn to Read Differently

By Jay Polmar

Many people do not believe that they can read faster because if they had, they already would be reading faster. And, they've gotten so many years of proof (like taking their current age and subtracting 4 to 6 years) and that read in the same way --- yes for years!

Not only is it a well established behavior pattern, but you also firmly believe that that's normal to be like that. And they also believe that if they try to read faster, they'll lose comprehension.

Yes, too many people consider that by reading faster theyll lose their level of comprehension. And that;s why some people think that "Speed Reading" is not a good phrase, because they assume that people are just speeding and not reading.

To help people become effective readers we do several things:

* Show them how to unlearn old slow habits that hold them back

* Teach you some great new techniques that will increase reading speed, data processing and quality of comprehension

* Shift from the slow reader to a reader who harvests knowledge

Years ago the Chinese moved from using an abacus to a calculator to perform calculations and now they are shifting to micro, mini-computers and they operates many gigabytes of data and knowledge.

This isn't only about reading faster which will always happen when you train yourself to be a more efficient reader. Its about learning how to do things differently. And, in that way you are going to get a far more effective result, and get it faster than you ever thought could be possible.

You can take your reading speed and double or triple it or more. The most dramatic impact of doing things differently will be the impact of the development of an automatic file system " and using winner strategies to retrieve the right data for exams, presentation, or any person, before you even begin to do what others call "Speed Reading".

So effectively you learn to be reading smart right now " somewhat similar to how you read, right now but faster.

If you are not an efficient reader already, reading takes away your free time. When you realize that 60-80% of what you read is irrelevant dribble, and you cut through it so fast, that you are breaking speed limits " and you read with better comprehension and recall.

And it is just about doing a few things differently.

About the Author:

Become the best Become in College and in the Corporate America. Make sure to check out Dr. Jay Polmar's most excellent course: The Complete Speed Reading Program -- there are family and business editions. The Complete Speed Reading program , and be the best Become in College and business- be powerful!

Yeast-Free Living - Alternative To Expensive Yeast-Free Breads

By Matt Bournston

If you have recently tried to follow a yeast-free diet, you have probably realized that a lot of yeast-free bread's are expensive. So, what cheaper alternatives are there?

My advice would be to make your own yeast free bread. This is actually very easy to do once you know what ingredients to use. And the great thing is, it means you will have complete control over what you include in the bread. You will also be able to eat it fresh from the oven, still warm.

Take a look at this great yeast free bread recipe.

Ingredients:

* Olive oil or lard (for greasing)

* 1 level tsp salt

* 9oz/250g plain flour

* 8fl oz/225ml of live yoghurt or buttermilk

* 2 tsp soft brown sugar

* 1 level tsp bicarbonate soda

How to Make the Yeast-free Bread:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 230C/445F. Grease a baking sheet with the oil or lard.

2. Sift the flour, salt, and bicarbonate of soda into the mixing bowl, then add in the sugar.

3. Mix the yoghurt or buttermilk into the mixture with a wooden spoon, and then kneed into a dough using your hands until it becomes firm and soft. If you think it feels too wet or sticky, simply add more flour to the mixture.

4. Lightly kneed the dough in the bowl for approximately 30 seconds, until it's smooth, and then shape it into a ball, making it as deep as possible. Put onto the greased baking sheet, and cut a deep X in top with a knife. This lets the bread to expand as the soda begins to work.

5. Place the dough into the oven and cook for approximately 12 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 200C/400F and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes. Once it's ready, the bottom of the bread should sound hollow when tapped.

6. Leave the bread to cool for fifteen minutes, and then serve.

About the Author:

There are still a lot of delicious, tasty foods that a person can eat once you have removed yeast. Eating a yeast free diet is actually a lot easier than you might think. For FREE information about living on a yeast free diet, visit Yeast Free Diets