Well, since the first installment of the Great Food Court Project, my work has truly been blessed by the gods, for this week, coupon books appeared in the break room at work. And these coupon books feature over two dozen coupons for food court restaurants in the vicinity!
So today, I headed over and ate at the Great Steak & Potato Company. Places like this always have slightly different names, but you can usually identify them by their predilection for serving french fries in a cup. They also chop up meat in tiny pieces and grill it and it becomes something kind of resembling a philly cheese steak.
If I were to order the things with the most interesting names on the menu, I would have ordered a Ham Explosion sandwich (ham, onions, peppers, mushroom and swiss cheese) and a King Potato, which features cheese, bacon, sour cream, and either olives or chives (I was sitting kind of faraway when I was taking my notes. I guess chives makes more sense but olives is funnier to me). Although the Great Potato (which is the King Potato with either steak or chicken) is a close runner-up, I guess because it kind of sounds like something Linus from Peanuts would sit around waiting for.
But I didn’t order those things. Instead, I chose a super steak sandwich, which is steak, cheese, onions, peppers, and mushrooms; mushrooms, of course, being what distinguishes a super steak from a regular steak. Also with my coupon I got free fries.
The food court was not as crowded as usual today, but even so, there were not many patrons at the Great Steak & Potato Company while I was there. I wonder if their food preparation methods work against them. On the one hand, it’s probably the only place where they cook the food when you order it, as opposed to placing it under a heat lamp, but on the other hand, when that place gets backed up, it’s backed up.
As I ate my super steak, I tried to learn something from the Great Steak & Potato Company by browsing their menu. In addition to the sandwiches, they also serve salads with the chopped up meat on them. They also have a wide variety of baked potatoes with lots of toppings on them. Some places in this cheesesteak genre will instead substitute fries for baked potatoes and serve loaded fries. I think I prefer loaded fries to loaded potatoes. I don’t know. As soon as I typed that I doubted myself.
My super steak was okay but not super. That said, I’m not really a cheese steak connoisseur and I tend to find these places kind of hit-and-miss. While eating, I tried to make a chart of how things can go well at these places, and how they can go bad:
Factors that make a good cheesesteak sandwich
-Bun a perfect mix of crispy and soggy
-A lot of cheese distributed throughout sandwich
-Proper ratios of mayonnaise or other special sauce
-Generally, I think shredded lettuce is better than big leafy lettuce
Factors that spell doom for cheesesteak sandwich
-Bun too hard, hard to eat
-Bun too soggy, sandwich falls apart
-Sandwich falls apart due to unwieldy ingredients, regardless of bun conditions
-Meat too dry
My chart also needs to include something about vegetables. There’s also something tricky about the vegetables in the cheese steak, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Anyways, it was okay. The fries were good although too salty. While I ate, I tried to decide if the awning and sign for the Great Steak & Potato Company was dingier and dirtier than its neighbors, but I think that might have been my imagination.
When I got back to the office, I had to get some Junior Mints from the convenience store downstairs to really complete the meal and close the palate. Just something to keep in mind if you happen to eat at one of these types of establishments and feel that something is missing when you’re finished.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
steakin' it out
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
taste test
For several weeks, I have been intrigued by the ads that have been appearing for Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate. It kind of seems like a win, because I love Diet Dr. Pepper, cherries and chocolate. I was leery, of course, about the combination. If it had just been Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper, well, I think that would be good because it would be kind of like Diet Cherry Coke which is delicious. It’s the chocolate that is cause for concern.
I haven’t tried any of the other specialty Diet Dr. Peppers, which I believe are Berries & Cream and Cherry Vanilla. Berries in cola has absolutely no appeal, and neither does vanilla for me, really. But this cherry chocolate…so intriguing. Especially when I found a single 20-oz bottle for sale in Kroger. Obviously, you can’t commit to a 12-pack with a beverage like this. When I bought the drink, amidst a whole array of other items, it was the only one that the grocery bagger commented on. “What, are they putting food in our Coke now?” she said.
Well, tonight is the big night to try this new beverage, and I am blogging about it in case anyone else has been wondering. For reference, I am drinking this chilled, as opposed to with ice. I don’t really like ice in my drink.
If you swirl it around like you’re supposed to do with wine, you see a very distinct red tint. Clearly we are dealing with some cherry flavoring along the lines of Cheerwine here.
A chocolate scent is immediately distinguishable upon opening the bottle. Followed by a strong cherry finish. It smells kind of like a chocolate covered cherry.
Oh my, it tastes disgusting.
I am trying to think of what this tastes like. I think it kind of tastes like liquid Tootsie Roll. Like, you know how when you eat a Tootsie Roll, and then you kind of have saliva left over in your mouth, and you swallow it? That’s how I would sum up Diet Dr Pepper Cherry Chocolate.
I really can’t taste the cherry or the Diet Dr. Pepper in this concoction. Perhaps all the flavors are battling for dominance and all that’s emerging is crap.
Okay, you know what the problem might be here? I’m kinda hungry. Maybe this drink needs to accompany food. I’m going to go heat up a burrito.
No, food does not help the situation at all. I’d rather drink a burrito flavored beverage than this Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate. And bear in mind, again, that I am a person who loves Diet Dr. Pepper, cherries, and chocolate. I just feel that that bears repeating. I guess that concludes this taste test. I suppose it’s possible that after dinner, the flavorful soda might serve as a kind of dessert wine, a full-bodied port, but I have my doubts about how long I’m going to keep drinking this
I would just like to send a message to the fine folks over at Diet Dr. Pepper, if they should ever happen to stumble upon this blog: please don’t hold this poor review of your product against me. I really really love Diet Dr Pepper. Send me a free case and I’ll frequently write about how great it is. Just please don’t send me a case of this flavored crap.
Tune in next time when I evaluate Diet Cherry Coke and Cherry Coke Zero. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? I HAVE NO IDEA!
I haven’t tried any of the other specialty Diet Dr. Peppers, which I believe are Berries & Cream and Cherry Vanilla. Berries in cola has absolutely no appeal, and neither does vanilla for me, really. But this cherry chocolate…so intriguing. Especially when I found a single 20-oz bottle for sale in Kroger. Obviously, you can’t commit to a 12-pack with a beverage like this. When I bought the drink, amidst a whole array of other items, it was the only one that the grocery bagger commented on. “What, are they putting food in our Coke now?” she said.
Well, tonight is the big night to try this new beverage, and I am blogging about it in case anyone else has been wondering. For reference, I am drinking this chilled, as opposed to with ice. I don’t really like ice in my drink.
If you swirl it around like you’re supposed to do with wine, you see a very distinct red tint. Clearly we are dealing with some cherry flavoring along the lines of Cheerwine here.
A chocolate scent is immediately distinguishable upon opening the bottle. Followed by a strong cherry finish. It smells kind of like a chocolate covered cherry.
Oh my, it tastes disgusting.
I am trying to think of what this tastes like. I think it kind of tastes like liquid Tootsie Roll. Like, you know how when you eat a Tootsie Roll, and then you kind of have saliva left over in your mouth, and you swallow it? That’s how I would sum up Diet Dr Pepper Cherry Chocolate.
I really can’t taste the cherry or the Diet Dr. Pepper in this concoction. Perhaps all the flavors are battling for dominance and all that’s emerging is crap.
Okay, you know what the problem might be here? I’m kinda hungry. Maybe this drink needs to accompany food. I’m going to go heat up a burrito.
No, food does not help the situation at all. I’d rather drink a burrito flavored beverage than this Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate. And bear in mind, again, that I am a person who loves Diet Dr. Pepper, cherries, and chocolate. I just feel that that bears repeating. I guess that concludes this taste test. I suppose it’s possible that after dinner, the flavorful soda might serve as a kind of dessert wine, a full-bodied port, but I have my doubts about how long I’m going to keep drinking this
I would just like to send a message to the fine folks over at Diet Dr. Pepper, if they should ever happen to stumble upon this blog: please don’t hold this poor review of your product against me. I really really love Diet Dr Pepper. Send me a free case and I’ll frequently write about how great it is. Just please don’t send me a case of this flavored crap.
Tune in next time when I evaluate Diet Cherry Coke and Cherry Coke Zero. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? I HAVE NO IDEA!
Monday, February 18, 2008
57 channels (and nothing on)
This weekend I had to sit around and wait for the Comcast man, but boy oh boy, was that time well worth it! Now I have cable and (legal) internet! That means I no longer have to curl up in the one corner of my apartment trying to pick up a signal. I’m writing this sentence in my bedroom!
And this sentence in my kitchen!
And I’m writing this in my bathroom!
And this sentence is brought to you from my deck.
But anyways, now I’m settled in on the couch. God bless my router. Other than a serendipitous 5-hour Project Runway marathon that got me all caught up on what’s been happening the past few weeks, I haven’t really had time to play around with the cable and see what’s there. So we’re gonna do that now, together. I did this once before, when I was desperate for daily content (http://iwiggleitjustalittlebit.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-probably-should-have-read-book.html). Let’s see how it shakes out in a different city. Starting time: 9:03 p.m.
2--a guy is singing a song about how much he loves God in front of a picture of praying hands, and behind the picture appears to be a bunch of cubicles with people at work. Do they know about the singing guy? It’s hard to tell.
3--Dance War with Carrie Ann and Bruno. When I lived with my parents, they got me pretty hooked on Dancing with the Stars. As much as I enjoyed the judging of Bruno, I had no desire to watch this show. Although right now Bruno is wearing a cowboy hat! That’s so adorable! What other headgear have I been missing? Also, this is the week where they’re going to announce the new contestants of Dancing With the Stars! But after only a moment I can tell this show is too annoying to stick around and wait for the announcement. I’ll google it later.
4—Terminator the Sarah Conner Chronicles. I should probably point out that it’s not like I could have identified this by myself, but my cable has one of those things where it flashes up the name of the program when I change the channel. Terminator is a pretty good movie. Not so good that I’d watch a tv show based on it. Does anyone remember the short-lived television show based on A League of Their Own? I didn’t think so, and if that show can’t make it, neither will this one.
5—Here is a church service.
6—It’s a commercial for Disney World and/or Disney Land. Man that small child sure looks happy.
7—“Shaft” is on the channel Peachtree TV, which is a channel I have been watching the past few weeks because I could pick it up with only an antenna. It’s a weird channel. It shows movies and tv shows at random times. Wait…Christian Bale is in Shaft?!
8—PBS is talking about Native Americans and the skills they provided the white man.
9—Two and a Half Men is on CBS. I don’t know what it is about this show, BUT IT IS ALWAYS ON WHEN I HAVE TURNED ON THE TV LATELY. Seriously. Did it just go into syndication, or have they just been showing it a lot because of the writers’ strike?
10—This is a Pussycat Dolls episode that is entitled “Let’s get girlilicious” which is a phrase I’m going to try to work into more conversations. I guess any noun followed by –licious is pretty good. Bloggylicious. Odorlicious. Nilla waferlicious.
11—Bible reading by a guy sitting at what looks like some weird Ikea table.
12—Brooke Shields is trying to sell me toothpaste. I find Brooke Shields mildly annoying.
13—This is a makeup commercial with…Brooke Shields?! No, I’m joking. That would be too crazy a coincidence. It’s just Leeza Gibbons.
14—A soap opera in Spanish. The guy looks very sensitive and heartbroken. Oh no now he’s crying! The girl is just walking away. What do you think happened between them?
15—America’s Funniest Home Videos. This show really does have a catchy theme song. But this clip is from 1994, and Bob Saget is not hosting. So that means that the show probably held onto it for a few years and then was like, eh, it’s funny enough, I guess.
16—Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. Hmm. I can’t tell how close we are to the famous Colin Firth dripping wet scene. It’s the age old question, should I stay or should I go?
17—You are always approved for credit at Nissan South! They’re certainly not losing any money on this crappy ad!
18—A firefighter is talking about getting a cancer screening.
19—This looks like a public access channel about getting on Medicare in Georgia.
20—Another public access channel showing a woman doing ballet by herself in a castle. She is really not utilizing all the castle space available to her. Dance, girl! There’s tons of room in that banquet hall! Wait, now there’s an orchestra. Are they in the castle too? I can’t tell. Okay now they got more dancers in that banquet hall. That makes me feel better.
21—Some public government channel. Something about civil rights and hip-hop, but not as exciting as it sounds.
22—Oh my God, some Bible show about how Katrina was designed by a secret society to kill black people. But God saved them. What?
23—We finally get to a shopping network…I was starting to think I got more religious channels than shopping channels. They are selling a gross yellow sweater. Four easy payments of $11.04.
24—An Atlanta City Council meeting. They have a nice room for their meetings.
25—TV guide channel! I better not peek ahead!
29—Shopping channel selling a treadmill. This treadmill totally changed this woman’s life!
30—Hillary Clinton is talking to people in Wisconsin. Look, maybe this deserves its own entry, but I am having recurring dreams about Barack Obama. We just sit there and talk, that’s about it. This weekend I dreamt that I was running for president also, but I wanted to drop out, and I had all these delegates to give away, and I really wanted to surprise Barack Obama and give them to him. I guess I was dreaming I was John Edwards.
31—Weather Channel. Give me some words Weather Channel! I have no idea what that color-coded map means!
33—These people have a lot of kids and they’re just talking about feeding them.
34—Larry King is talking to a panel of people about I don’t know what. But I think he has too many people on the panel.
35—Headline News is on, but I don’t see any presidential candidates, so I’m switching.
36—Boring commercials.
37—There’s Barack! People are fainting at his rallies. But this is Fox News so that’s probably somehow going to be bad for Barack.
38—These people are going to try to stop a girl from taking pills.
39—Family Guy. One time I saw the voice of Lois (Alex Borstein) at a coffee shop in Seattle.
40—A commercial for the DVD of Rendition, which didn’t get very good reviews, but it does have Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgard and Reese Witherspoon. So probably worth a rental.
41—Law & Order. I don’t watch this show.
42—Wrestling! The favorite show of my youth.
43—I don’t know, and the show description is not helpful.
44—Hockey. Detroit: 4, Colorado: 0.
45—College basketball. La Salle: 75, St. Joseph’s: 79
46—College basketball. Texas A&M: 11, Texas: 23. If you can’t mess with Texas, who messes with who in this scenario?
47—World series of poker…from 2004! Whatever happened to that poker show on Bravo? Is that still on?
48—I can’t tell what this is.
49—Golf…from 2004! Why are all these sports from 2004? Don’t we have enough current sports?
50—boring commercial for a mop. I mean a Swiffer. It’s not a very clear commercial.
51—Flavor Flav!
52—Commercial for cell phones that integrates skateboarding.
53—College football from 2001! Wake Forest: 14, Chapel Hill: 31. I guess google it if you want to find out what happened SEVEN YEARS AGO.
54—I don’t know.
55—Lifetime movie that appears to be about motivating a young girls’ track team.
56—A commercial about getting a sports channel. A good selling point would be mentioning whether your games are current or from four to seven years ago.
57—Oh they are showing how they bottle juice. Oh maybe marmalade. That’s what they just said. It’s a fruit product.
58—Car commercial with cute boy. No, wait. Never mind.
59—A commercial for contemporary furniture. It is about as boring as it sounds.
60—A guy is trying to live with a tribe of creepy people. Uh, I can’t tell anymore cause it’s freaking me out and I’m switching. Thanks Travel Channel.
61—They’re doing something with a dog. Oh my God can you believe how many channels I have?
62—This is the Cartoon Network, a show called “my gym partner is a monkey.” They seem to narrate in rhyme.
63—Home Improvement. What an annoying show.
64—A guy in a space suit is going to fly over a football field? I have no idea what’s going on. But I think he wishes he was on the football team?
65—Designing Women, post Delta Burke.
66—The Godfather. I should watch this movie again sometime. But not right now.
67—South Park. I’ve never really gotten into this show.
69—Oh my God, Gone with the Wind is on Turner Classic Movies! It’s the greatest feeling ever to stumble onto Gone with the Wind on television, even if you own it on both tape and DVD. Okay this is motivation to finish this little exercise up fast and get back to Scarlett. They’re playing the intermission music so I have plenty of time. Oh there’s still so much good stuff to come. Ok let’s get going.
70—Project Runway. As I mentioned, I watched this over the weekend. I pick Christian to win it all. Although I do like Rami and I don’t care if he makes the same outfit every week.
71—Martin Lawrence.
72—Don’t know, don’t care, gotta get back to GWTW.
73—A guy in the snow talking in Spanish.
74—A Star Trek.
75—I think it is a channel all about cars.
78—A CSI. I have never watched this show
79—Natalie Portman movie.
80—CSPAN-2. Wait, where was CSPAN 1?
106—something about Best Buy. The store.
Okay, now I’m getting into some channels that it says are unavailable to me. I think I also have some music channels, and I have OnDemand, which I don’t really understand and will have to explore at a later time. The point is, I have plenty of good entertainment at my disposal now. But right now I have to return to the greatest film of all time. Robert E. Lee just surrendered. Didn't see that coming! Plant more cotton, Scarlett! Cotton oughta go sky-high next year!
And this sentence in my kitchen!
And I’m writing this in my bathroom!
And this sentence is brought to you from my deck.
But anyways, now I’m settled in on the couch. God bless my router. Other than a serendipitous 5-hour Project Runway marathon that got me all caught up on what’s been happening the past few weeks, I haven’t really had time to play around with the cable and see what’s there. So we’re gonna do that now, together. I did this once before, when I was desperate for daily content (http://iwiggleitjustalittlebit.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-probably-should-have-read-book.html). Let’s see how it shakes out in a different city. Starting time: 9:03 p.m.
2--a guy is singing a song about how much he loves God in front of a picture of praying hands, and behind the picture appears to be a bunch of cubicles with people at work. Do they know about the singing guy? It’s hard to tell.
3--Dance War with Carrie Ann and Bruno. When I lived with my parents, they got me pretty hooked on Dancing with the Stars. As much as I enjoyed the judging of Bruno, I had no desire to watch this show. Although right now Bruno is wearing a cowboy hat! That’s so adorable! What other headgear have I been missing? Also, this is the week where they’re going to announce the new contestants of Dancing With the Stars! But after only a moment I can tell this show is too annoying to stick around and wait for the announcement. I’ll google it later.
4—Terminator the Sarah Conner Chronicles. I should probably point out that it’s not like I could have identified this by myself, but my cable has one of those things where it flashes up the name of the program when I change the channel. Terminator is a pretty good movie. Not so good that I’d watch a tv show based on it. Does anyone remember the short-lived television show based on A League of Their Own? I didn’t think so, and if that show can’t make it, neither will this one.
5—Here is a church service.
6—It’s a commercial for Disney World and/or Disney Land. Man that small child sure looks happy.
7—“Shaft” is on the channel Peachtree TV, which is a channel I have been watching the past few weeks because I could pick it up with only an antenna. It’s a weird channel. It shows movies and tv shows at random times. Wait…Christian Bale is in Shaft?!
8—PBS is talking about Native Americans and the skills they provided the white man.
9—Two and a Half Men is on CBS. I don’t know what it is about this show, BUT IT IS ALWAYS ON WHEN I HAVE TURNED ON THE TV LATELY. Seriously. Did it just go into syndication, or have they just been showing it a lot because of the writers’ strike?
10—This is a Pussycat Dolls episode that is entitled “Let’s get girlilicious” which is a phrase I’m going to try to work into more conversations. I guess any noun followed by –licious is pretty good. Bloggylicious. Odorlicious. Nilla waferlicious.
11—Bible reading by a guy sitting at what looks like some weird Ikea table.
12—Brooke Shields is trying to sell me toothpaste. I find Brooke Shields mildly annoying.
13—This is a makeup commercial with…Brooke Shields?! No, I’m joking. That would be too crazy a coincidence. It’s just Leeza Gibbons.
14—A soap opera in Spanish. The guy looks very sensitive and heartbroken. Oh no now he’s crying! The girl is just walking away. What do you think happened between them?
15—America’s Funniest Home Videos. This show really does have a catchy theme song. But this clip is from 1994, and Bob Saget is not hosting. So that means that the show probably held onto it for a few years and then was like, eh, it’s funny enough, I guess.
16—Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. Hmm. I can’t tell how close we are to the famous Colin Firth dripping wet scene. It’s the age old question, should I stay or should I go?
17—You are always approved for credit at Nissan South! They’re certainly not losing any money on this crappy ad!
18—A firefighter is talking about getting a cancer screening.
19—This looks like a public access channel about getting on Medicare in Georgia.
20—Another public access channel showing a woman doing ballet by herself in a castle. She is really not utilizing all the castle space available to her. Dance, girl! There’s tons of room in that banquet hall! Wait, now there’s an orchestra. Are they in the castle too? I can’t tell. Okay now they got more dancers in that banquet hall. That makes me feel better.
21—Some public government channel. Something about civil rights and hip-hop, but not as exciting as it sounds.
22—Oh my God, some Bible show about how Katrina was designed by a secret society to kill black people. But God saved them. What?
23—We finally get to a shopping network…I was starting to think I got more religious channels than shopping channels. They are selling a gross yellow sweater. Four easy payments of $11.04.
24—An Atlanta City Council meeting. They have a nice room for their meetings.
25—TV guide channel! I better not peek ahead!
29—Shopping channel selling a treadmill. This treadmill totally changed this woman’s life!
30—Hillary Clinton is talking to people in Wisconsin. Look, maybe this deserves its own entry, but I am having recurring dreams about Barack Obama. We just sit there and talk, that’s about it. This weekend I dreamt that I was running for president also, but I wanted to drop out, and I had all these delegates to give away, and I really wanted to surprise Barack Obama and give them to him. I guess I was dreaming I was John Edwards.
31—Weather Channel. Give me some words Weather Channel! I have no idea what that color-coded map means!
33—These people have a lot of kids and they’re just talking about feeding them.
34—Larry King is talking to a panel of people about I don’t know what. But I think he has too many people on the panel.
35—Headline News is on, but I don’t see any presidential candidates, so I’m switching.
36—Boring commercials.
37—There’s Barack! People are fainting at his rallies. But this is Fox News so that’s probably somehow going to be bad for Barack.
38—These people are going to try to stop a girl from taking pills.
39—Family Guy. One time I saw the voice of Lois (Alex Borstein) at a coffee shop in Seattle.
40—A commercial for the DVD of Rendition, which didn’t get very good reviews, but it does have Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgard and Reese Witherspoon. So probably worth a rental.
41—Law & Order. I don’t watch this show.
42—Wrestling! The favorite show of my youth.
43—I don’t know, and the show description is not helpful.
44—Hockey. Detroit: 4, Colorado: 0.
45—College basketball. La Salle: 75, St. Joseph’s: 79
46—College basketball. Texas A&M: 11, Texas: 23. If you can’t mess with Texas, who messes with who in this scenario?
47—World series of poker…from 2004! Whatever happened to that poker show on Bravo? Is that still on?
48—I can’t tell what this is.
49—Golf…from 2004! Why are all these sports from 2004? Don’t we have enough current sports?
50—boring commercial for a mop. I mean a Swiffer. It’s not a very clear commercial.
51—Flavor Flav!
52—Commercial for cell phones that integrates skateboarding.
53—College football from 2001! Wake Forest: 14, Chapel Hill: 31. I guess google it if you want to find out what happened SEVEN YEARS AGO.
54—I don’t know.
55—Lifetime movie that appears to be about motivating a young girls’ track team.
56—A commercial about getting a sports channel. A good selling point would be mentioning whether your games are current or from four to seven years ago.
57—Oh they are showing how they bottle juice. Oh maybe marmalade. That’s what they just said. It’s a fruit product.
58—Car commercial with cute boy. No, wait. Never mind.
59—A commercial for contemporary furniture. It is about as boring as it sounds.
60—A guy is trying to live with a tribe of creepy people. Uh, I can’t tell anymore cause it’s freaking me out and I’m switching. Thanks Travel Channel.
61—They’re doing something with a dog. Oh my God can you believe how many channels I have?
62—This is the Cartoon Network, a show called “my gym partner is a monkey.” They seem to narrate in rhyme.
63—Home Improvement. What an annoying show.
64—A guy in a space suit is going to fly over a football field? I have no idea what’s going on. But I think he wishes he was on the football team?
65—Designing Women, post Delta Burke.
66—The Godfather. I should watch this movie again sometime. But not right now.
67—South Park. I’ve never really gotten into this show.
69—Oh my God, Gone with the Wind is on Turner Classic Movies! It’s the greatest feeling ever to stumble onto Gone with the Wind on television, even if you own it on both tape and DVD. Okay this is motivation to finish this little exercise up fast and get back to Scarlett. They’re playing the intermission music so I have plenty of time. Oh there’s still so much good stuff to come. Ok let’s get going.
70—Project Runway. As I mentioned, I watched this over the weekend. I pick Christian to win it all. Although I do like Rami and I don’t care if he makes the same outfit every week.
71—Martin Lawrence.
72—Don’t know, don’t care, gotta get back to GWTW.
73—A guy in the snow talking in Spanish.
74—A Star Trek.
75—I think it is a channel all about cars.
78—A CSI. I have never watched this show
79—Natalie Portman movie.
80—CSPAN-2. Wait, where was CSPAN 1?
106—something about Best Buy. The store.
Okay, now I’m getting into some channels that it says are unavailable to me. I think I also have some music channels, and I have OnDemand, which I don’t really understand and will have to explore at a later time. The point is, I have plenty of good entertainment at my disposal now. But right now I have to return to the greatest film of all time. Robert E. Lee just surrendered. Didn't see that coming! Plant more cotton, Scarlett! Cotton oughta go sky-high next year!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
a kind of valentine
Tonight I was settling down with a glass of wine and “War and Peace,” and it struck me that both things started with ‘w,’ and that I loved both things. These are the kinds of patterns that obsess me. So I decided to separate all the things I loved by the letter they began with. Some of these things I will probably love forever, some of them might be passing fads. I might have to edit this tomorrow. I limited myself to six things, max, after the letter B exploded. But c’mon, could you cut any of those B-things?
A
award shows
Abraham Lincoln
Amazon.com
Atlanta
authors
amusement parks
accordions
alt-country or Americana or whatever you want to call it
B
beer
bookstores
Bev Night (RIP)
Bruce Springsteen
board games
beaches
Bojangle’s
Barack Obama
brothers
barbeque
breakfast
boats
bars
C
concerts
cousins
celebrity gossip
coffee shops
cake
D
dairy products
diet dr. pepper
Dad
David Letterman
Dinosaur Comics
dishwashers
E
email
Emory
the Episcopal Church
earrings
Easter
Edelweiss (the song)
F
farmers’ markets
folk music
fingernail polish
flip-flops
Funfetti cake
G
Google
Gone with the Wind
gnomes
Girl Scouts
gummy bears
grudges
H
horoscopes
history
happy hours
holidays
hors d’oeuvres
I
Italy
ice cream
independence
internet
J
John Cusack
Juno
journals
Japanese gardens
junky antique stores
K
Krispy Kremes
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy
Kleenex
“knocking around”
kopek (the word)
L
Larry David
Lenox Square food court
lists
libraries
living on the top floor
lyrics
M
magazines
mountains
margaritas
Mom
mix CD’s
museums
movies
N
neighborhoods
nachos
naps
nicknames
O
omelets
oceans
office supplies
onions
orange juice
P
pizza
popes
presidents
puzzles
parties
Q
quips
quotes
QI, the best Scrabble word ever
quarters
quilts
quiet
R
road trips
Rolling Stone
recommendations
rain
S
smoothies
sneakers
sweatshirts
Stephen Colbert
sales
stationary
T
trivia
tv show theme songs
trains
traveling
Target
U
uncles
unabridged books
underwear
V
vacation
vegging out
vomit (sometimes)
Vatican City
W
wine
War and Peace
waffles
Warren Zevon
walks
X
xerox machines
xylophone use in the song “Mamma Mia” by Abba
Y
York Peppermint Patties
Yoga
YouTube
Z
I don’t like anything to do with the letter Z.
A
award shows
Abraham Lincoln
Amazon.com
Atlanta
authors
amusement parks
accordions
alt-country or Americana or whatever you want to call it
B
beer
bookstores
Bev Night (RIP)
Bruce Springsteen
board games
beaches
Bojangle’s
Barack Obama
brothers
barbeque
breakfast
boats
bars
C
concerts
cousins
celebrity gossip
coffee shops
cake
D
dairy products
diet dr. pepper
Dad
David Letterman
Dinosaur Comics
dishwashers
E
Emory
the Episcopal Church
earrings
Easter
Edelweiss (the song)
F
farmers’ markets
folk music
fingernail polish
flip-flops
Funfetti cake
G
Gone with the Wind
gnomes
Girl Scouts
gummy bears
grudges
H
horoscopes
history
happy hours
holidays
hors d’oeuvres
I
Italy
ice cream
independence
internet
J
John Cusack
Juno
journals
Japanese gardens
junky antique stores
K
Krispy Kremes
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy
Kleenex
“knocking around”
kopek (the word)
L
Larry David
Lenox Square food court
lists
libraries
living on the top floor
lyrics
M
magazines
mountains
margaritas
Mom
mix CD’s
museums
movies
N
neighborhoods
nachos
naps
nicknames
O
omelets
oceans
office supplies
onions
orange juice
P
pizza
popes
presidents
puzzles
parties
Q
quips
quotes
QI, the best Scrabble word ever
quarters
quilts
quiet
R
road trips
Rolling Stone
recommendations
rain
S
smoothies
sneakers
sweatshirts
Stephen Colbert
sales
stationary
T
trivia
tv show theme songs
trains
traveling
Target
U
uncles
unabridged books
underwear
V
vacation
vegging out
vomit (sometimes)
Vatican City
W
wine
War and Peace
waffles
Warren Zevon
walks
X
xerox machines
xylophone use in the song “Mamma Mia” by Abba
Y
York Peppermint Patties
Yoga
YouTube
Z
I don’t like anything to do with the letter Z.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
the ground beneath her feet
There’s a moment in “Bridget Jones’s Diary”, at the book release where Bridget makes a fool of herself trying to introduce her boss, where you can just hear the character of Natasha (the snobby character trying to win Colin Firth) say to Salman Rushdie, “So how autobiographical is your work?” The audience doesn’t hear the answer, because the attention has shifted to the love triangle of Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.
Well, tonight, I heard the answer to that question at a lecture by Salman Rushdie.
I was pretty excited to see Salman Rushdie, because I’ve never seen anyone in person who’s been sentenced to death by the Ayatollah, nor have I seen anyone who was involved in the making of “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” About a year ago, Rushdie gave his manuscripts, papers, drafts, etc. to Emory, and he’s in the midst of a five-year stint as Distinguished Writer in Residence, which includes a public lecture each year. Tonight’s topic was “Autobiography and the Novel.”
Rushdie began by reading the title pages to three great 18th century novels—Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and Tristam Shandy—pointing out that none of those novels feature the authors’ name on the title page. Rather, each book is purported to be written by the main character, and the author could remain in the shadows. No one asked Swift if his work was autobiographical, if he had spent a lot of time talking with little people. Rushdie traced the rise of the author as a celebrity to Charles Dickens, who gave readings where he acted out scenes from his books and stumped for this favorite political causes.
Nowadays, Rushdie says it’s impossible to have a conversation about his work without someone asking if his writing is autobiographical. The wrong way to answer such a query, according to Rushdie, is by saying, “well, some of it might reflect bits and pieces of people I knew or things that happened to me, and some of it I made up, so it’s actually a work of fiction.” The correct way to answer, because it’s what everyone wants to hear, is, “yes, it’s completely autobiographical.” Readers want to decode characters, events, and lines, until they think they have a person completely figured out, particularly in an age where memoirs and autobiographies are flying off the shelves. People are dying to expose themselves; why not fiction writers?
Obviously, Rushdie said, a writer’s life shapes his or her work, and in some cases it’s interesting or important to know something of the author’s life when reading a novel. He gave examples of how his own life had affected his work and gave some other examples—how seeing Oxford, Mississippi had informed his reading of Faulkner, how knowing that Atticus Finch was based on Harper Lee’s father might affect “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and how you sort of have to know that Vonnegut was present for the fire-bombing of Dresden. This is what Rushdie called the “higher gossip.”
But, he said, not everyone who saw the fire bombing of Dresden wrote a book, and not everyone who came from Oxford wrote a book. Knowing the higher gossip doesn’t enhance a reading of the book, because it’s not where it came from, it’s how it’s written and presented to the reader. All of these real places and faces have to book cooked up by the writer; Rushdie called it “the joy of cooking.”
In the middle of this very funny and entertaining speech, I thought, is Rushdie essentially telling me that people actually do make up things that go into their books? It seems so simplistic to think that it comes down to someone explaining that fiction is made-up. But I guess the more I think about it, the more examples I can name where I’ve wanted to figure out the back story of the art. Which songs are about Paul McCartney’s sheep dog and all that. It’s a waste of time to look for what we want to be in the book, as opposed to what’s actually there.
Rushdie talked of envying the 18th century writers who didn’t have to answer for their literary creations, and how perhaps it was wise for writers to just destroy everything, so that scholars wouldn’t have something to dig through. He thinks that Shakespeare’s reputation can only be enhanced by the fact that he left no drafts, notes, laundry lists, etc….all we can do is look at the texts themselves. Then, of course, Rushdie had to acknowledge that he had just given all of his papers to Emory. But at least he was able to recognize that they’ll be in good hands.
Well, tonight, I heard the answer to that question at a lecture by Salman Rushdie.
I was pretty excited to see Salman Rushdie, because I’ve never seen anyone in person who’s been sentenced to death by the Ayatollah, nor have I seen anyone who was involved in the making of “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” About a year ago, Rushdie gave his manuscripts, papers, drafts, etc. to Emory, and he’s in the midst of a five-year stint as Distinguished Writer in Residence, which includes a public lecture each year. Tonight’s topic was “Autobiography and the Novel.”
Rushdie began by reading the title pages to three great 18th century novels—Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and Tristam Shandy—pointing out that none of those novels feature the authors’ name on the title page. Rather, each book is purported to be written by the main character, and the author could remain in the shadows. No one asked Swift if his work was autobiographical, if he had spent a lot of time talking with little people. Rushdie traced the rise of the author as a celebrity to Charles Dickens, who gave readings where he acted out scenes from his books and stumped for this favorite political causes.
Nowadays, Rushdie says it’s impossible to have a conversation about his work without someone asking if his writing is autobiographical. The wrong way to answer such a query, according to Rushdie, is by saying, “well, some of it might reflect bits and pieces of people I knew or things that happened to me, and some of it I made up, so it’s actually a work of fiction.” The correct way to answer, because it’s what everyone wants to hear, is, “yes, it’s completely autobiographical.” Readers want to decode characters, events, and lines, until they think they have a person completely figured out, particularly in an age where memoirs and autobiographies are flying off the shelves. People are dying to expose themselves; why not fiction writers?
Obviously, Rushdie said, a writer’s life shapes his or her work, and in some cases it’s interesting or important to know something of the author’s life when reading a novel. He gave examples of how his own life had affected his work and gave some other examples—how seeing Oxford, Mississippi had informed his reading of Faulkner, how knowing that Atticus Finch was based on Harper Lee’s father might affect “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and how you sort of have to know that Vonnegut was present for the fire-bombing of Dresden. This is what Rushdie called the “higher gossip.”
But, he said, not everyone who saw the fire bombing of Dresden wrote a book, and not everyone who came from Oxford wrote a book. Knowing the higher gossip doesn’t enhance a reading of the book, because it’s not where it came from, it’s how it’s written and presented to the reader. All of these real places and faces have to book cooked up by the writer; Rushdie called it “the joy of cooking.”
In the middle of this very funny and entertaining speech, I thought, is Rushdie essentially telling me that people actually do make up things that go into their books? It seems so simplistic to think that it comes down to someone explaining that fiction is made-up. But I guess the more I think about it, the more examples I can name where I’ve wanted to figure out the back story of the art. Which songs are about Paul McCartney’s sheep dog and all that. It’s a waste of time to look for what we want to be in the book, as opposed to what’s actually there.
Rushdie talked of envying the 18th century writers who didn’t have to answer for their literary creations, and how perhaps it was wise for writers to just destroy everything, so that scholars wouldn’t have something to dig through. He thinks that Shakespeare’s reputation can only be enhanced by the fact that he left no drafts, notes, laundry lists, etc….all we can do is look at the texts themselves. Then, of course, Rushdie had to acknowledge that he had just given all of his papers to Emory. But at least he was able to recognize that they’ll be in good hands.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
thinking outside the bun
Well, I hope that everyone was able to get to sleep last night, and able to concentrate on work today, even with all the excitement and mystery surrounding the beginning of The Great Food Court Project.
Well, the time has come to announce that today I ate lunch at…Taco Bell.
I know, it’s kind of a dud and a boring way to start off The Great Food Court Project. I probably chose it in part as a way of getting that one over with. But here’s the other reason I chose it: you know that urban legend about the girl who ate at Taco Bell, and then she got a sore throat, and it ended up being cockroach eggs that hatched? Well, whenever I’ve eaten at Taco Bell since I heard that story, I feel like I get a sore throat out of hypochondriac sympathy. But I already have a sore throat! I’m sick with a really bad cold! So I’m untouchable to the normal Taco Bell effects.
It’s probably been three years since I ate at Taco Bell, despite living across the street from one in Seattle for awhile, although that particular Taco Bell seemed more like a place where people did drugs than ate. I did love it when I was a child, and I fondly remember dipping cinnamon twists into nacho cheese with my brothers back in the day. So as I stood at the counter to order, I must say that I was struck by the loss of knowledge I’ve suffered where Taco Bell is concerned. What’s bigger—a burrito supreme or a stuft burrito? Just what are the seven layers in a seven-layer burrito? What do all these types of nachos come with? These are things I used to know.
Other things I noticed as I ordered: the line for Taco Bell was all male, although in the time in which I was eating, I did notice two females get some food there as well. Also, I really do think that Taco Bell might be the last truly affordable fast food restaurant. It’s also been awhile since I ate at McDonald’s, but aren’t combos there now like six bucks? I guess the flip side to the cheapness might point to poor quality, like maybe there’s some truth rumor that they just kill cats and use that for beef. But I don’t know if that’s true. I’m not saying it is. Please don’t sue me, Taco Bell.
Well, today I had nachos supreme and a baja chicken chalupa, and both were fine. The shell of the chalupa wasn’t quite as magical as I remembered it being…I remembered it being the finest in fried bread, and when I was little, I thought chalupa shells should be used in everything, despite having an inkling even at that age that they were awfully unhealthy. But anyways, both items were just fine, even though I’ll be a-okay if I don’t eat at Taco Bell for another three years.
As I left the food court, I had a few extra minutes, so I made a loop through Urban Outfitters. I got like a nail or a tack or something stuck in my shoe, but luckily I got it out before it penetrated the food and would have required a tetanus shot. No one said The Great Food Court Project wouldn’t be dangerous.
Well, the time has come to announce that today I ate lunch at…Taco Bell.
I know, it’s kind of a dud and a boring way to start off The Great Food Court Project. I probably chose it in part as a way of getting that one over with. But here’s the other reason I chose it: you know that urban legend about the girl who ate at Taco Bell, and then she got a sore throat, and it ended up being cockroach eggs that hatched? Well, whenever I’ve eaten at Taco Bell since I heard that story, I feel like I get a sore throat out of hypochondriac sympathy. But I already have a sore throat! I’m sick with a really bad cold! So I’m untouchable to the normal Taco Bell effects.
It’s probably been three years since I ate at Taco Bell, despite living across the street from one in Seattle for awhile, although that particular Taco Bell seemed more like a place where people did drugs than ate. I did love it when I was a child, and I fondly remember dipping cinnamon twists into nacho cheese with my brothers back in the day. So as I stood at the counter to order, I must say that I was struck by the loss of knowledge I’ve suffered where Taco Bell is concerned. What’s bigger—a burrito supreme or a stuft burrito? Just what are the seven layers in a seven-layer burrito? What do all these types of nachos come with? These are things I used to know.
Other things I noticed as I ordered: the line for Taco Bell was all male, although in the time in which I was eating, I did notice two females get some food there as well. Also, I really do think that Taco Bell might be the last truly affordable fast food restaurant. It’s also been awhile since I ate at McDonald’s, but aren’t combos there now like six bucks? I guess the flip side to the cheapness might point to poor quality, like maybe there’s some truth rumor that they just kill cats and use that for beef. But I don’t know if that’s true. I’m not saying it is. Please don’t sue me, Taco Bell.
Well, today I had nachos supreme and a baja chicken chalupa, and both were fine. The shell of the chalupa wasn’t quite as magical as I remembered it being…I remembered it being the finest in fried bread, and when I was little, I thought chalupa shells should be used in everything, despite having an inkling even at that age that they were awfully unhealthy. But anyways, both items were just fine, even though I’ll be a-okay if I don’t eat at Taco Bell for another three years.
As I left the food court, I had a few extra minutes, so I made a loop through Urban Outfitters. I got like a nail or a tack or something stuck in my shoe, but luckily I got it out before it penetrated the food and would have required a tetanus shot. No one said The Great Food Court Project wouldn’t be dangerous.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Introducing an exciting new blog feature!
When I lived in Seattle, I frequently complained that food courts in the Pacific Northwest, to put it bluntly, sucked. If someone were to inquire why, it was hard to put my finger on exactly why I thought that way. Surely, the absence of Chick-fil-a, the hallmark of southern food courts, was a factor. But what else? Why was the weird combination of restaurants in the greater Seattle area’s malls so offensive to me? Why eat at malls anyway?
Sometimes, when I tried to explain to people about food courts, I would reference the food court at Lenox Mall, in Atlanta. If you went to college with me, you might remember that this was one of my favorite places in the world to eat. Sure, there are lots of great places in that general vicinity to eat, but if I was in the area, I wanted to go to the mall to eat. Even if I wasn’t going to go to the mall to shop. It’s such a big food court! There’s so much choice! Is that exciting to anyone else?
Well, my current job is located about a fifteen-minute walk from Lenox Mall, and I have decided to take it upon myself to explore why this food court holds such fascination for me, by eating at every single restaurant there and blogging about it. I don’t know how long it will take, because I’ll probably just head over there a few times a month, and it won’t be the only thing I write about, but I hope in the process that we all learn something about food courts, mall culture, the politics of eating, science, small businesses, Barack Obama, and ourselves. I also hope to establish myself as one of the preeminent bloggers on mall food courts, or at the very least, Lenox food court.
Anyways, it will all start tomorrow, so check back in to see where I go. Even I don’t know where I’ll end up! Can you feel the excitement?!
Sometimes, when I tried to explain to people about food courts, I would reference the food court at Lenox Mall, in Atlanta. If you went to college with me, you might remember that this was one of my favorite places in the world to eat. Sure, there are lots of great places in that general vicinity to eat, but if I was in the area, I wanted to go to the mall to eat. Even if I wasn’t going to go to the mall to shop. It’s such a big food court! There’s so much choice! Is that exciting to anyone else?
Well, my current job is located about a fifteen-minute walk from Lenox Mall, and I have decided to take it upon myself to explore why this food court holds such fascination for me, by eating at every single restaurant there and blogging about it. I don’t know how long it will take, because I’ll probably just head over there a few times a month, and it won’t be the only thing I write about, but I hope in the process that we all learn something about food courts, mall culture, the politics of eating, science, small businesses, Barack Obama, and ourselves. I also hope to establish myself as one of the preeminent bloggers on mall food courts, or at the very least, Lenox food court.
Anyways, it will all start tomorrow, so check back in to see where I go. Even I don’t know where I’ll end up! Can you feel the excitement?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)