In a seedy karaoke bar, by the banks of the mighty Bosphorus...

The picture at left is a guy I know. Ed.

Let me tell ya - the guy can sing. It's like his voice was touched by the finger of God himself. Some guys get looks, some get charm, some get money. Ed got his voice. (Which, as you can probably guess, is a HUGE hit with the ladies.)

He's hardly the best looking man the world, definitely not the most wealthy, and definitely not the youngest. He does, however, have the most "chutzpah," as they say in Iceland. (Or is that Greenland? I can never remember.)

So I'm out a couple of nights ago with Ed. He HAD TO get out and "croon," as he calls it. So we head to the Chancery. It's a quaint little pub that has karaoke on Tuesday nights. I'm got nothing in the vocal department, but they have New Glarus' Spotted Cow on tap - which is always good.

We walk in - and as if on cue, the karaoke DJ starts playing Chicago. (Not the cheesy 70's-80's band (25 or 6 to 4), or the 90's musical Chicago, but Old Blue Eyes' "My kind of town, Chicago is..." It's Ed's song. Dude OWNS that song. Close your eyes, and you'd think you were at the Sands in Las Vegas in 66. He's that good. No lie.

Ed jumps behind the karaoke screen, (like he needs to read the lyrics - I think not.) unplugs the singing frat boy's mic, and grabs the second microphone from the stand - and just takes over. As stated before - dude OWNS Frank. Frat boy is speechless, The DJ isn't totally freaking out - as within a half verse - he thinks that this is a GOOD thing. SO off Ed goes.

He took us all on a vacation. A lyrical, musical vacation. (All this, the day before Joey Bishop - the last living member of the Rat Pack - died, at age 89.)

Ed finishes, and the crowd is just spent. Tears are in everyone's eyes, smokers and non-smokers alike need to light up. Again - it was THAT good. But Ed is just starting.

He takes a shot of Jagermeister, and he decides he's gonna try to hit on this model. (OK - maybe she wasn't a model, but she was model-quality hot.) I'd put her at about 23. Ed's like 60. Maybe older. I've never seen his ID. I snicker to myself. It was great.

So he walks up to her - clear out of the blue, and says, "Hey beautiful - I'm Ed."

"Hi. I'm Jessica."

And I'll be damned. Dude forgot I was even there. He spent the rest of the night chatting this girl (GIRL - not woman) up, and after 2 hours or so - he leaves with her.

I think they're engaged.