Beijing Boyce

For those seeking a write-in candidate...

NOTE: More places to see election coverage are listed here.

The excruciatingly protracted U.S. presidential election campaign wraps up this week. (Seriously, Thomas Jefferson visited me in a dream and said to speed things up. He said the campaign is so long that the athletes’ entry at the Olympics’ opener looked like a hundred-yard dash. So long that his wooden teeth have gone through eighty generations of termites. So long that a new Grand Canyon could have been formed. Oh, he also asked someone to get the price of his favorite drop, Lafite, under control before he goes bankrupt.*)

Anyway, the future of Daily Show jokes comes down to the face-off between Obama “The DC Lama” Barack and John “Insane in the” McCain. If you are hungering for the results, and food and drink to go with them, here are places to catch the action on Wednesday.

Sequoia Cafe (Guanghua Road) will show CNN coverage, starting from 7:30 AM. According to the invite, “Watch the results on the big screen throughout the day including breakfast and lunch.” For more info, call 6501-5503 or 13701-178-073.

The Saddle Cantina also pops its doors at 7:30 PM AM and will have big coffees for RMB20, while The Rickshaw is mulling a breakfast deal (I’ll update as info arrives).

The American Chamber of Commerce election event is 8 AM to 1:30 PM at Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel (RMB100 members, RMB250 nonmembers). Expect CNN coverage, a mock vote, and “a balloon drop when the next president of the United States is announced.” Proper ID is needed: see this invite for details.

If anyone knows of other places with election events, please let me know at beijingboyce@yahoo.com.

Only one of them gets the keys to the car...

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* Finally, before saying, “I told you so,” Jefferson noted that in 1816 he wrote, “banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

Hot stuff

UPDATE: I visited Nearby the Tree tonight (November 2) and found about ten people enjoying free beer. The special lasts all month save for November 7, when it appears there is some kind of special event. Also, patrons who want to eat something other than pasta can have pizzas delivered from The Tree (RMB45 and up).

Nearby the Tree, the sibling establishment of pizza and Belgian brew joint The Tree, celebrates its one-year anniversary with a month of… free beer?

The Web site states that, “For the whole month of November to celebrate our one year anniversary there will be free flow of local draft beer daily from 6pm to 9pm in the downstairs bar.” It adds that Nearby the Tree will also have daily food promotions. And that it will provide cots for those who lapse into carb comas.

The place is behind Yashow, just down from the Sanlitun police station (see this map).

By the way, I haven’t had it for a while, but I always liked the spicy kick of the ricotta and spinach tortelloni arrabiata.