Stories of Restaurant Customers…

…Who Weren’t Supposed To Eat That:

http://kitchenette.jezebel.com/stories-of-restaurant-customers-who-werent-supposed-to-1715882612

For the most part, love reading these stories.  Many are quite humorous, others quite horrifying.  All are told from the point of view of those who work in the restaurants and what their client’s asked for, what they got, and what they ate.

I’ll add a story of my own, though I never worked in a restaurant and therefore offer this from the perspective of a client.

Many years ago, when I was living in South America, my father and I took a co-worker of his for lunch to a restaurant specializing in steaks.  It is the only memory I have of going to eat lunch with my father and a co-worker so I guess I must have been out of school at the time and tagging along with him.

This co-worker had recommended the steak restaurant and raved about its food to us.  As neither of us had been to this restaurant before that moment, we followed this man’s lead and let him order first.

My father’s co-worker asked for a certain type of steak and added he wanted it “extra grasoso”.  What that means is “extra greasy”.  Mind you, we are talking the mid to late 1970’s here, well before any concept of “healthy” food.

My father and I, as mentioned, followed the co-worker’s lead and recommendation and asked for the same.

When the meal arrived, it was an impressive enough looking thick, grilled steak.  It smelled good and certainly looked good and we cut into it and began the meal.

My very first piece of the steak, it would turn out, had a chunk of fat on it, though I didn’t realize it at that moment.  No, I realized it when I took my very first bite of the piece and it was like I hit (pardon the language) a fucking gusher.

My mouth was suddenly filled with a nauseating amount of grease.

There was no way I would take that down so I grabbed my cloth napkin, which thank the Gods was dark red, and pretended to wipe my mouth while spitting the whole nasty thing out.  Because of the dark color of the napkin, it was impossible to tell what evil lay within it.

I don’t believe I ate any more of that super greasy steak but recall my father’s co-worker happily -and very quickly!- taking his down.  When I looked to my side and at my father’s meal, I noticed he too barely touched any of his steak.

As the years pass, I can’t help but wonder what happened to this man.  He was quite young at that time, at least five to ten years younger than my father.  Given his atrocious dietary interests, I wonder if he’s still alive or succumbed to some kind of extreme arterial blockage many years before.

Regardless, I can only hope that that restaurant and its “extra greasy” steaks didn’t survive too terribly long, though I have to say this in their defense: They served exactly what was asked for!

Now that’s interesting…

Amanda Hess for Salon.com offers the following article which presents some interesting food for thought:

Why Teenagers Love Making Jokes About 9/11

It’s hard to believe but its been a whooping 14 years since the 9/11 attacks and, therefore, there are many, many youths out there who have absolutely no memory at all of the horrific events of that day in 2001.

What is interesting, and presented in this article, is the gallows humor some teens are engaged in regarding the conspiracy theories.  Ms. Hess analyses and tries to come up with the reason why we engage in such morbid humor (it isn’t the first time) and what it may mean.

I think her conclusions are fascinating even as the subject matter remains a truly disturbing one.

Whodathunkit?!

It appears after one year of legal marijuana sales, Washington State has generated an eye-popping $70 million in tax revenues:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/06/washington-marijuana-taxes-70-million_n_7737722.html

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’ve never so much as taken one sampling of any “illicit” substance.  I tried smoking cigarettes when I was young and stupid and thought it looked cool but didn’t find it worth pursuing (thank the Gods!).

In High School and College I certainly had illicit drugs within my reach, including marijuana, but I never once was tempted to use them nor cared to.  Even today I’m so damn “straight” that I don’t even drink alcoholic beverages.

And yet I fully support legalizing drugs.

No, I certainly don’t want my daughters or relatives exposed to them or, even worse, hooked on them.  However, drug use is something that in my opinion has always existed and always will, and like Prohibition in the 1920’s, fighting its use only criminalizes and jails people while allowing shady characters to make a ton of money off it.

So why not do like Washington State and, at the very least, legalize marijuana and then tax its sale?  Rather than police action, the tax revenue could at the very least be better spent on education and treatment.

It would appear that the first year of legalization in Washington state has certainly created a tax boon.  As Tom Angell, chairman of the advocacy group Marijuana Majority stated in the article:

…these are real dollars that can now be spent on things like schools, healthcare and road repair instead of going straight into the pockets of the drug dealers who controlled the marijuana market prior to legalization

It’s that last part that I think is the key and perhaps the ultimate solution to society’s many problems with illicit drugs.

Trailers that ruin movies…

Over on reddit, someone opened up on the topic of Terminator: Genysis having such a spoilery trailer (it revels who the villain of the piece is, something that probably should have come as a surprise to viewers), and asked which other movie trailers gave away too much of the movie they were trying to build up hype for:

Reddit: Spoilery Trailers

When scrolling down on the comments, someone pointed out this link, to…

Mental Floss: 12 Trailers That Spoil The Movies

I was thinking of which trailers I personally found most spoiled the movie they were promoting and the one that to me was the worst in that respect had to be the trailer for another Terminator film, in this case Terminator 2:

I know there are those who really like Terminator 2 and consider it among the best action films ever made.  While I enjoy the film, I’ve always felt it wasn’t as good as the original Terminator.  Having said that, the above trailer, which was the official trailer for that movie’s release, gives away the movies BIGGEST element: That the Arnold Schwarzenneger machine was the good guy.

The fact is that the first half hour or so of Terminator 2 presents a near identical reprise of the original Terminator, complete with time traveling and acquiring a “target”.  Director/writer James Cameron took pains during this segment of the film to NOT give away the fact that this time around the Schwarzenneger Terminator is good.  In fact, it appeared he wanted audiences to believe him to be just as bad as he was in the first film, then surprise us when the “target”, a young John Connor, is trapped between what turns out to be (another intended surprise) two Terminators.

But of course, the above trailer gives all that away and all that work on creating suspense and surprise are effectively shot down.

In the end, Terminator 2 was a smash success so the spoilery trailer didn’t do much damage with audiences.  Still, I really wish I could have seen the film upon its original release without seeing this trailer.  I might well have come away with a higher regard for it and its biggest surprise.

Just plain eerie…

Over at Slate.com is a fascinating article, with some equally fascinating pictures, concerning…

Abandoned Amusement Parks

The article is about Seph Lawless, a photographer who has an interest in this subject matter and has released a book with his photographs of abandoned parks.

My favorite picture, from the article, is probably this one (I say probably because there are other almost equally great ones to be found.  This picture, by the way, is from the remains of the “Joyland Amusement Park,” Kansas):

joyland1

There’s something eerie about seeing these childhood amusement centers abandoned and slowly being overrun with vegetation.  It’s like something you could find either in a horror novel or some nostalgic tour through memory lane.

If you’re interested, you should check out the other pictures.  They’re fasinating.

It was just a matter of time…

Dukes of Hazzard Pulled From TV Land Schedule Amid Confederate Flag Controversy

For those who know nothing about the Dukes of Hazzard, it was a comedic/action TV show that aired from 1979 to 1985 and which had the main characters drive around in the car presented below, complete with this gaudy orange paint job:

Your eyes do not deceive you.  What you see on the car’s roof is indeed the Confederate Flag.  Every single episode of the show’s run featured this vehicle and its colorful paint job and, yes, Confederate Flag.  The car itself, by the way, was called the “General Lee”.

I was a big fan of the show for perhaps a season or so waaaaay back when it originally aired and before the formulaic plots bored me away (this all occurred well before the original “Duke” boys were replaced by other actors, a move which likely hastened the show’s eventual cancellation).

At that time I knew very little about U.S. Civil War and, more importantly, post-Civil War History, having lived in South America for several years.  Believe it or not, the schools there didn’t care all that much about the U.S. Civil War, preferring for some mysterious reason to spend more time teaching their own history. 😉

When I eventually moved out of South America and started attending high school in Northern Florida, I received my first lessons regarding the Civil War.  Having digested that information, I was rather surprised to find so many people in and around that city, including friends I had in the school itself, using/displaying the “stars and bars” on things as diverse as baseball hats, shirts, and vehicle paint.  Though I was living in what could be considered part of the deep south, given what I learned about the Civil War I was curious why many people back then (we are talking the early 1980’s) both romanticized and ignored elements of that war.

Before I go any further, I should note that my personal observations are from that specific time and involved the people I lived in and around and should NOT be considered a broad generalization of everyone who lives in the South.  Again, these experiences are limited to those I knew at that time.

Having said that, when the subject of the Civil War came up, I often had the impression that many of my schoolmates, at least those who were into the romanticism of the Civil War, perceived it as one of Northern aggression, even though the “South” was the first to actually attack.  Similarly, these same people didn’t view slavery as the central issue on which the war was fought, rather describing the conflict as the North trying to destroy the Southerners’ “way of life” and their care-free, “rebellious” nature.

Though I was quite young at that time, once I had a general understanding of the Civil War I grew uncomfortable seeing the Stars and Bars on people’s clothing or flagpoles or on vehicles.  In my mind and backed up by every legitimate historical book/account, the Civil War was fought by the South to continue their barbaric practice of slavery.  The North’s stance, the idea that slavery was an odious practice which needed to be gotten rid of, was the right one while the Southern side clearly wanted to keep their heinous practice going.  I’m not unsympathetic to the massive loss of life on either side of this war and the general horrors present therin, but one can at least understand, when one looks at the historical records, what this fight was actually about and which side was fighting for something -slavery- I think we can all agree upon was beyond simply a very bad thing.

So back then I couldn’t help but wonder what African Americans (of which there were plenty both in the city and in my school) must have thought when seeing this flag so prominently -and proudly!- displayed by many locals.

That was thirty five years or so ago and today, a full one hundred and fifty years since the Civil War ended in 1865, it appears society may finally be coming to the realization that displaying this flag, and therefore what it represented, may not be such a great idea after all.

I suppose its better late than never.

As for the Dukes of Hazzard TV show, I never got the impression it was trying to show off “Confederate” values or somehow fuzzying up the history of the flag, though it most certainly was offering a “good ol’ boys” view of the south.  In fact, the show was for the most part harmless fluff, but I can certainly understand why there might be those who find it painful to look at that flag, even (and especially) in such a light hearted entertainment medium.

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately…

It’s been a rough week and time simply didn’t allow me to post.  That’s the way it goes when a close relative has health issues and everyone has to scramble.

Regardless, things are looking up now and I finally have a bit of time.  So, how about something fun?  From TV’s Mythbusters, Jamie and Adam, comes a list of…

9 “Lost” Inventions That Could Come In Handy Today

Interesting that of the 9 listed, two came from Nikolai Tesla.  It’s sad to look back and see Mr. Tesla’s life and realize that we had among society one of the more forward thinking individuals of recent memory…and we could have done so much more with him, had we invested even more than we did in his ideas.

Having said that, all the mentioned items are fascinating, and I was depressed to find that Starlite (the second “lost” item listed) is among those lost.  I distinctly recall seeing a video years ago on TV showing the incredible properties of Starlite, specifically the demonstration with the egg which is part of the video below…

…and thinking this was a product that would truly revolutionize the world.

Is Starlite indeed lost?  The above video states that while the inventor died, his surviving family may well know the formula to the material.  One can’t help but wonder if maybe the military -US and British- do as well.  Then again, if you hit the link under the word Starlite above, one of the comments produced stated that while the material was very good, it only lasted two weeks or so before decaying/falling off whatever it was painted on.  This comment noted the product still needed work to become a more “permanent” paint.

Still, what a wonderful concept, and clearly one that appeared to work!