We at Crooked Monkey would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. Tonight is the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The Jewish New Year is a little different than the secular new year. Instead of wearing party hats that say "2009" on them, we wear yarmulkes. Instead of binge drinking, we pour some glasses of manishewitz. Instead of Dick Clark and Ryan Secrest ushering in the new year, we have a Rabbi and a Cantor. Instead of the ball drop, we have the shofar.

There are many deeper layers for the Jewish New Year that I won't get into right now, but my dad (Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt) is giving me some reading to get in the mood for the holiday. I'm excited to close up the shop and start reading. It's important to be in the right mindset for Rosh Hashanah, a holiday that focuses on renewing and regenerating the self and reviewing your actions. How can we improve for the new year?

Crooked Monkey will be improving in many ways--we are producing funnier t-shirts (if that's even possible). We will be stocking more t-shirts, which means we can ship shirts out quicker. We will be focusing much more on marketing and celebrities--meaning our email campaigns will be more existent and celebrity sightings will be more frequent. We will be targeting the college scene a little more. And we will work to be better people.

Let us know if you have any resolutions for this new year--or if you have any ideas for Crooked Monkey.

We'll be closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last nights Presidential debates were quite interesting. McCain looked like a 45 year old beauty queen. Remind me to hire his make up artist next time I'm on national television. He performed well too, pointing out Obama's shortcomings and referencing his countless trips abroad and relationships with heads of states.

Obama looked calm and reserved--focusing on the future and how he can help bring change to our country. As he usually does, he spoke in broad idyllic terms, which promoted his sense of non-partisan talk.

The candidates had some fundamental differences, which was important to see them battle head on.

But I think the real winner was Jim Lehrer. What a class act. How come he hasn't run for president yet?

Oh and why wasn't anyone wearing any of our political t-shirts? Or funny t-shirts? What's the deal here. I refuse to vote for any president that can't rip off his tie and support Crooked Monkey's funny t-shirts.

I'm at a tradeshow in South Beach called Trafik. It's been pretty good--traffic has been alright but business has been good. Our funny t-shirts are a big hit here--we just came out with some destination shirts that are doing pretty well.

Anyways, I turned on the TV today and started watching some good old local news. Local news never fails to amuse me. But this time it hit a little closer to home than usual. The lead in to the story was "High end boutique sells more than just clothes." What a cliffhanger. And me being in the clothing business, I decided to stick around and listen to this tantalizing story. The camera pans to a boutique owner--a very familiar looking boutique owner--being whisked away in hand cuffs. After a few more seconds I realize she owns To di For in Miami and that shes bought Crooked Monkey in the past. The reporter explains that she was charged with distributing marijuana from her retail store in Florida. Sounds like the economy has gotten pretty bad.

She stopped buying Crooked Monkey about a year ago--I guess she thought our Best buds and chai times designs were a dead giveaway to her back room dealings.

Here me now. Hear me now. We've been producing this shirt for a while, but only now feel that the online world is ready for this shirt. What with the stock market crashing and all, what better way to say "bring back the good old days," than this t-shirt.

So I'll explain the shirt a bit, because the deeper meanings are sometimes lost on us. The first explanation for this shirt, is that we all love those original Apple IIe computers. The original Macs were the best. The world was a little simpler back then--black and white screen, floppy disks, and Oregon trail.

The second, and more esoteric context for this shirt is our third tribute to the one and only Jerome, from Martin. We first came out with It's my duty to please your booty, Playa from the himalaya and now "The Mac from Way Back" has entered the market.

So i've gone through the trouble of finding the best Jerome clip around. Watch it twice because there are subtleties that need to be recognized. He starts off the clip with his patented "jerome in da house" and then moves on to some other priceless lines.

Today is a day for posting new funny t-shirts from Crooked monkey. We posted our University of Maryland college licensed t-shirts earlier today. That was a huge post for all Terp fans, and for anybody who Fears the Turtle.

So here's our Facebook Stalker shirt. It goes well with our Tag this t-shirt and our Facebook it's my day job t-shirt. It's actually my favorite of all three, although all three are pretty awesome. This completes our trio of facebook shirts. Look out for our poking t-shirt, coming out soon.

Hey hey. Our University t-shirts are finally up for sale on Crookedmonkey.com! They've been selling really well in the stores, and we now have stock of the shirts. That's great news. You can now pick up/check out the coolest licensed college t-shirts on the planet. We chose UMD because of our strong connection to the University of Maryland, because we Fear the Turtle, and because we simply love the Terps.

Here's your options:

So, check out our Guy's College t-shirts here, and check out our girls College t-shirts here

Courtney from ShopFlick interviewed us for their blog, shopflick.com. Enjoy!

SF: What does your brand stand for?

MW: Crooked Monkey is about fun. We strive to put smiles on people’s faces by providing them with funny t-shirts. At the end of the day, the goal of Crooked Monkey is to remind people how awesome College and bring people back to their glory days.

SF: What is the inspiration?

MW: College students, the college lifestyle. We try and take the best four years of a person’s life and express it through soft, vintage style tees. Its college-inspired humor, and college kids are who we aim to please.

SF: Who are your customers?

MW: The college student, obviously. But we also recognize that guys and gals who are just about to enter college, and who just left college, have a strong bond with Crooked Monkey as well.

SF: What’s new this season?

MW: We’re introducing a line of hoodies, flannels, and sweat pants. We also just secured collegiate licenses so look out for Crooked Monkey’s irreverence to hit the college mascot scene in a big way. And like always, count on us for hilarious, humor graphic tees.

SF: What items are people responding to most?

MW: For girls our environmental and political screens have been doing really well for us. For the guys our classic humor t-shirts have been very strong this season.

SF: Are any celebs wearing your pieces?

MW: Yup. Miley Cyrus wore our “Waking Up is Hard to Do” shirt on her video blog, The Miley and Mandy Show. We wrote it on our blog: http://www.crookedmonkey.com/2008/03/miley-cyrus-wears-crooked-monkeys.html

Also, Silas on “Weeds” wore our “I’m not a Gardener, I Just like Hoes”.We wrote about this on our blog as well: http://www.crookedmonkey.com/2007/10/tv-show-weeds-features-crooked-monkey.html

SF: How did you get started in the industry?

MW: We started at a bar in College Park on May 5, 2005. That was our launch party and the rest is history. Our first big account was National Jean Company in Long Island, and we’ve never looked back.

SF: What is your must-have item?

MW: Scarves. They’re functional when it gets cold outside and they can dress up a t-shirt or dress down a cute dress. They’re the absolute best day-to-night staple.

SF: What are you wearing right now?

MW: Plaid. I can’t get enough of it for fall. And Crooked Monkey tees, of course. They’re perfect for day time - comfortable, effortless, and chic. Not to mention the wearer of a funny t-shirt always gets a ton of attention.

SF: Is there anything else you would like to share with the Shopflick community?

MW: Keep checking www.crookedmonkey.com for our newest t-shirts. We produce t-shirts like its our job, so we’re always coming out with new hilarious stuff for you guys. And if you have any questions or comments, post them or email me.

In our second installment of "We love Entourage, and we know our readers love Entourage so we will review Entourage episodes a few days later than we should," we take a look at "Unlike a Virgin."

My roommate, current dentist, and former Crooked Monkey Funny t-shirts model, put it well when he said this is a new day for Vince. Vinny Chase has decided to grow up a bit. Realizing that he can't always get what he wants by flashing those boyish good looks, Vinny starts the first day of his new life pro-actively chasing movie roles and women. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the next pay day, Vince calls a meeting with Ari to determine his fate. Instead of settling for the girl with nice legs, he woos Justine Chapin and whisks her away into his car. You get the feeling that Vinny is about to tear some shit up.

And we got a little more Lloyd which was great. His prance-turned-sprint was priceless.

I'm not going to talk too much about Drama, cause I think it went a little over the top. Good work Turtle--Bros over hoes. It always works out for the better.

Favorite Ari quotes:

-No indies E. Think of it as the Holocaust. Never again.
-You will come back stronger than ever. Like Lance Armtsrong only with two balls.
-Pull the plug on the projector.

The current state of the economy is effecting everybody. Few people are able to "Make it Rain" these days, but some are taking the hit harder than others.

Earlier today, Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers went into bankruptcy. This historic moment will impact many, many people, and we at Crooked Monkey extend our best wishes to people who are suffering from the current mortgage crisis.

Watch this video to see how two "Roommates" are handling the situation.

Here are some Crooked Monkey funny t-shirts that make suggestions on how to cope with the current market:

Be frugal! Cheapness is a virtue. Don't Waste My Daytime Minutes
Who needs an income? Facebook is My Day Job... and I love it!
Make Your Voice Heard and vote for the candidate you think is best equipped to handle the economic crisis.
Waiters, Bartenders, Strippers, Moils - all careers that Do it For the Tips - and they make good money!

I haven't really gotten a chance to blog/talk about Las Vegas. Crooked Monkey Funny t-shirts took quite a large booth this time at the tradeshow out there. It was twice the size of last year's booth, and it really helped increase our Wholesale Funny t-shirt customer base. We got it into a slew of new stores and introduced our fall line. We've got a great picture of Ben wearing our I recyle boys t-shirt.

If you'll notice in that picture my tri's look pretty big. Well there's two way to grow those babies. You can either spend time in the gym or wear smaller shirts. I've chosen the latter.

Back to the topic at hand. Tipping in Las Vegas. It's such a ridiculous "custom" in Las Vegas. Every single person in the entire city expects hand outs. My brother and I played a little game where we tallied up all the tips that we were expected to give in a day. I also had a pocket in my wallet that was dedicated to tips--I figured I needed about $50 in singles a day to satiate the Las Vegas obssession with tipping. At the end of my trip I was giving bills to anyone walking within a five foot radius--lest I upset someone for not being forthcoming in offering tips.

Next year, instead of handing out tips, I'm going to hand out our "I do it for the tips" t-shirt. Maybe that'll cheer them up.