08-11-2004, 09:46 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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will always be an Alyson Hanniganite
Location: In the dust of the archives
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Political Mudslinging that I can get behind.
Now, this is my kind of polital mudslinging! 
Quote:
Tired of election-year mudslinging and party politics?
Then you might want to avoid Murphy's Lounge Sunday night.
Especially if you're also tired of mixed drinks and women in bikinis.
That's right, the people slinging mud at Murphy's will be female mud wrestlers. Politically active female mud wrestlers.
Every dollar that Murphy's collects at the door from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. will go to Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan organization that fights for freedom of expression and encourages young people to vote.
Before you get your feminist panties in a bunch, get this: Mud wrestling at Murphy's was a woman's idea, that of a college graduate with a degree in sociology.
Katie Mason, 24, is a bartender and waitress at Murphy's, 96th and L Streets. (She has a day job, too, at a group home where she puts that degree to work.)
She came up with mud wrestling as a way to draw in people her age who aren't usually politically active.
Ever since she voted in her first presidential election four years ago, Katie has been fired up about American politics and world events.
"How can we get people 18 to 30 to pay attention?" she wondered.
The more she thought about mud wrestling, the more appropriate it seemed.
I mean, in what other country are women free to get an education, have a career and also strip down to their swimsuits for some grimy grappling if they so please?
"I think we take a lot of things for granted," Katie said.
She recruited fellow bartender Amanda Olig to help sell Murphy's owner Terry O'Halloran on the idea.
At first, Terry said, he thought it might be too much. He didn't want a strip show at Murphy's. But Katie and Amanda thought the event could be tasteful. A certain kind of tasteful.
The wrestling is limited to other Omaha bartenders and waitresses. The Murphy's group wants wrestlers with the right attitude. The wrestling isn't meant to be overly aggressive or titillating.
The goal is fun, Amanda said. "We're not trying to make it into something sexy-slutty."
Not that being sexy isn't a part of it, Katie said.
"I'd like to embrace that," she said. "I'm a sexy person, and I think that's fun."
Neither Katie nor Amanda has mud-wrestled before. The closest Katie has ever come to mud wrestling is playing rugby in college.
Trying to organize the event has been a challenge, Terry said. They didn't even know where to get the mud.
"We thought about using brownie mix," he said, "but thought it might be cost-prohibitive."
They found an excavation company to bring in "good clean dirt," Katie said. And they are making a ring out of hay bales.
Twenty $25 ringside seats already have sold out. (That's $500 for Rock the Vote.)
Entry will be $10 at the door and $8 with a voter registration card. If you aren't registered, Rock the Vote will have a booth set up outside the bar.
So . . . which party is likely to benefit from the mud-wrestling party, Democrats or Republicans?
Katie doesn't care.
She thinks partisan politics drives young people away from voting. And she hopes the mud wrestling will bring in people who haven't decided yet.
"I'm kind of tired of 'you're either a liberal or a conservative.' I think we should look at it as - you participate or you don't participate."
In politics, not necessarily mud wrestling.
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Any guesses where ol' Bill O is gonna be on Sunday night? 
__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony
"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus
It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.
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