Super Bowl XLIII at the Penthouse Executive Club

In what almost certainly amounts to a welcome detour from the continued economic meltdown, Rev. Ted Haggard's continued hypocrisy and personal travails and other bad news of late, I joined more than a dozen other people at the Penthouse Executive Club on Manhattan's far West Side to watch Super Bowl XLIII.

This venue on the corner of 45th Street and 11th Avenue is (an upscale) strip club in case anyone who has either never been to New York or is simply curious about why an openly gay man would spend an evening in the company of topless women who have a variety of natural or surgically enhanced cup sizes. My reporter PJ invited me and I suppose my curiosity in the heterosexual experience got the better of me. The free prime rib, excellent mashed potatoes, tortellini and crème brûlée added to what turned out to be quite a pleasant, and dare I conclude, relaxed evening.

The Pittsburgh Steelers eventually beat the Arizona Cardinals. The commercials were a mixed bag as always, and the drunken bridge and tunnel folks who sat behind us in the third quarter are three notable observations. All and all, though, the Penthouse Executive Club is a surprisingly pleasant and dare I say sophisticated place to watch football and beautiful women who serve $7 diet cokes and dance topless on stage during half time.