Nobody believes me when I tell them there was a cartoon in the 1980's about a group of hip hop frogs. It was on the same show with "Karate Kat," the "Mini Monsters," and the "Tigersharks" - which was like the "Thundercats," but underwater.
There are so many weird 1980's cartoons that nobody seems to remember.
Nobody believes me when I tell them that there were TWO Ghostbusters cartoons in the 1980's. One was called "Ghostbusters" and had an ape and had the catchphrase, "Let's go, Ghostbusters," and the other was "The Real Ghostbusters" which was based on the movie. The same is true for the "Beverly Hills Teens," "The Spiral Zone," "The Toxic Crusaders," and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes."
Four words: Biker Mice from Mars. For some reason this show was phenomenal to my 5-year-old mind in the early 90s. When I was in pre-school at my synagogue we had a day where we all made mezuzot, but instead of the generic prayer to God we thanked God for whatever. My mezuzah thanked God for making Biker Mice from Mars.
FW - thanks for this funny 80's memory. I do remember the two g-busters toons. I also agree with Dan L below: "It just confused the hell out of me when I was a kid."
Along similar lines, i've gotten into searching (via the advent of youtube) the intro themes for 80's tv dramas like CHiPs and Magnum PI. This leads to strings of shows I'd forgotten about (Airwolf) and others I'd never known existed (Automan, starring Desi Arnaz Jr!). I've decided that the 80s were obsessed with cars, motorcycles and helicopters (and their flagrant accessories).
Had an incident day before yesterday, wanted to get some feedback from y'all... I was shopping at a warehouse club store, getting stocked up. I went to a checkout, got to my turn. The checkout woman was mumbling something about signaling the people after me that she was closing, that they weren't hearing her. I joked that there was probably one bit of sign language that they would understand. I got a response back about how she bets half the people in here don't speak a word of English. So now I know I'm dealing with an asshole, so I get tight-lipped. But she continues rambling, though, about how the whole country's going to hell, that we're all going to "end up in Washington, picking cotton and watermelons". I'm pissed, but I don't say anything. I leave.
A little while later, I decide to call the store's 1-800 number and report the incident. I refuse to give my member number or anything that could allow them to directly trace this woman's identity, but I do let them know that I felt that she had said some racist stuff, and that they needed to know.
My rationale: I really despised this woman, but I didn't want to see her fired. She's not in a position of influence, she clearly does not have a lot of money, and she and her family would probably suffer un-duly if she were dismissed. My hope is that management might corral the shift workers, and read the riot act about appropriate conduct in their environment. If she's got a sense of self-preservation, she'll get the message.
And that's it. I can hear various friend's voices in my head, saying alternately "too far", "not far enough", "meh, you shoulda let it go", "maybe you could have had the balls to speak to her directly". And on and on. I'm comfortable enough with my response to post it here for you to peruse, but just curious if anyone has any other moral or procedural response. I'm ambivalent about it, so I want to hear other possible perspectives.
Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance.
That's the motto I live by. When people say things that reveal prejudice I usually shut up. Unless, I'm in a place or have the time to ask questions. Sometimes when one asks enough questions a person finds out that it isn't racism that motivates some people per se, but resentment at lost opportunity, a crappy job, or anger at themselves. I sometimes think to myself "there but for the grace of god go I.
I just wonder why the hell the person thought it would be remotely acceptable to say in the first place. I know this woman evidently lacks some intelligence, but I would at least think she would have the common sense to realize that shes unlikely to find too many people who agree with her today.
I think you were on target. And it's from something I remember reading about small business owners, that the employees that do customer service are the face customers know them by, and when people are pissed off at those workers they so often DON'T tell the boss "hey, your clerk made a bunch of racist comments she thought I would agree with, and pissed me off, and so I started shopping somewhere else." They just vanish.
There's several options:
Everyone knows perfectly well who it was, because that's the employee who always does that stuff.
There are a dozen people who talk like this in the breakroom, but this is the first they've heard of it leaking out to the front of the store.
Management is utterly clueless.
Etc.
Dan W, I think a lot of people react by going quiet and "mmm. Mmm hmm. Bye." I don't even object to that in a lot of cases. (And in Borat I saw a lot of it. Not "You have revealed our prejudices" but "You have revealed that we're a surprisingly tolerant bunch who mostly just hope the crazy visitor will be leaving soon.") That's how people can state that everyone--everyone--they talk to either loves or hates the president, or Palin, or Rush. They start talking away to the people in line at the coffee shop, or watching their kids at the playground, and interpret "mmmm" as "Tell it, Sister!" rather than "It's not worth arguing with you, crazy lady."
I think you did just about right. Lady's obviously off her rocker, and I do have some sympathy for people in that situation. She's probably doing one of the few things she's capable of doing for cash. It's either that or sitting at home collecting welfare. Still, that kind of behavior just isn't acceptable, and the store's probably losing business because of it. They aren't running a charity. So calling the management with some non-identifying stuff was probably the best way to be kind but firm.
Asking McDonald's employees for things that veer slightly off of their numbered meal system in almost never a smooth proposition.
I asked the girl to put a round egg on my McGriddle bacon egg and cheese this morning and she had that "DOES NOT COMPUTE" look in her eyes. Of course it came to me wrong, and I had to ask them to correct it. Twice.
Most of all I hated looking like "that asshole with the weird order holding everyone else on line up".
Not entirely true. I worked at McDonald's when I was 16 for the summer btwn jr and sr year in HS. People asked for the craziest ish and we always had to do it. SOmetimes if the order took to long we had to take it out to them at their table. One time, a family came in, the were Indian (from the sub-continent) and they all had heavy accents, even the little kid who was mabye 4 or 5. They ordered a cheeseburger with no meat. Yes a cheesburger with no meat, essentially a grilled cheese sandwich. Did we make it? We sure did. I assumed that they asked for this b/c somehow the kid had taken a hankering for McDonalds and presumably they were Hindu (hence my mentioning their being indian), and being a vegetarian is required (or at least expected ?)for their religion, hence the request. The kicker was that I thougth they asked for one with meat and one without. SO once we finished making the "special" one and gave them both of them, the father expalained that they only needed the one without the meat. The little girl started to cry like someone had done something to her. I was rather vexed b/c she got what she wanted anyway, I just couldn't entirely understand her Dad and thought she was a terrible brat at the time. Now as an adult, I figure she was tired and cranky and maybe couldn't understand me and thought she wasn't getting her special "cheeseburger with no meat" or that maybe they'd had a hard time getting it at another McDonalds and she thought it was happening again. Anyway a very odd incident. This was about 19 years ago, so I don't know if the McDonalds are still so willing to comply with such requests but you never know. Now how presumably life-long vegetarians started eating at McDonald's and ordering grilled cheeses, is beyond me. God I hated that job. Couldn't go willing into a McDonalds for another 4-5 years and had to change the channel everytime a McDonalds commerical came on for awhile.
McDonalds has round and square eggs? And they taste different? My eye is also not computing.
My husband, a tea-not-coffee drinker, has had many adventures in the South trying to order "hot tea" at fast food places. Drinking pre-iced tea does not compute. (The north grasps hot tea but also thinks you can sweeten iced tea by pouring sugar in it, which is nuts.)
I'm the one person on the planet who hates scrambled eggs and their branch of food products such as omlettes and the McDonald's square/foldy egg. I need my yolk and my egg white to have their own constituent flavors. They use the round egg for the buscuit. I used to make the mistake of asking for the "poached" egg and that kid would act like I'd just spoken Klingon.
McDonalds is factory food. Like the old Model T that came in any color a person wanted as long as the color was black. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle.
Hey man, I know your frustration. I also worked at a coffee/breakfast joint for years. So I've been on both sides of the counter. That said I think you're real problem is that you're going to Mickey Dee's. Go to a local spot or somewhere that you can become a regular. It'll be better for you and the McDonalds staff :)
Hmmmm. Might be time to break old habits (tho food preferences are tough). If you're in an urban environment, you've definitely got choices; suburban, probably not so much. But you know this. Don't know what to tell you dude, except enlighten your tastebuds ... I've had the mcgriddle - there are better b-fast sandwiches out there waiting to be discovered by you!
Watching Stanley "Angry Black Man who despises Angry Black Men" Crouch dragon-punch Glenn Beck on The Daily Beast brought a smile to my face.
"But if one listens to conservative race baiters like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh — professionals who are loons on demand and for pay — one notices that they also live inside of shared toxic exaggerations. Or at least spout them. As they speak of Barack Obama’s supposed hatred of white people, the red seems to grow from their necks and rise under the skin on the backs of their heads until continuing to their faces, which then take on the kind of purple that white people call “wine stain.” I doubt a brew will calm them down. Nor will a painkiller."
TNC, I thought early on you'd had a little bit about losing a bunch of weight when you moved to NY because it just wasn't a comfortable environment to be large, and Marc/Megan/James's go-round on weight reminded me. Link, or comment? I understand if you find all of us weighing in on weight boring and don't want to add your 2 cents.
(Googling reveals that you are a blogger of weighty topics, with real weight, etc.)
It's true, when people from the suburbs come into Boston for the Red Sox games and other tourist attractions, many of them are very heavy, and just seem uncomfortable on public transit, walking everywhere, etc. I sometimes think that the subway couldnt really operate during rush hour if every person on it was overweight or obese. But, I`m conflicted because there are few things more annoying than people running and biking on busy city sidwalks.
I haven't been keeping up with the debate. I know it's going on, but haven't followed it. It's weird--keeping up with you guys' comments is like reading a two or three additional blogs.
If you notice, over the past couple months, a lot of the posts have been self-referential and self-contained.
Anyway, yeah, it was a social stigma thing. No one did anything. I could just feel it. The restaurants were smaller. The city require more walking. And the 42nd street subway in August is not where you want to be when you're 298 pounds. (Which I was.) It wasn't cool at all. And the combined effect forced me to drop. Which, I think, is a good thing.
I'm not much of a New York snob, but whenever I'm in "fly over country" the size difference always strikes me.
There was a recent feature in The New York Times "Where Thin People Roam, And Sometimes Even Eat" and essentially they interviewed many upper class white women and gay men who go to expensive gyms, restaurants, or just smoke. They decry the waistlines of the rest of the nation.
“My mom always says, ‘The smaller the dress size, the larger the apartment,’ ” said one lifelong Upper East Sider.
With the exception of James's short addition, it's been a few good points buried in a load of tangential stuff.
But I remembered your saying that about comfort. I know they found that more fit people move where it's easier to be fit (so the environment was selecting for them, rather than causing them to be thin. But people who move to very fit places for coincidental reasons, like a sabbatical in Holland, often have the adults losing 10 lbs because it's just so much easier to walk and bike than to bother with a car.
On our vacation out west there were noticeably fewer really big people. Overall I was struck by it. Especially that it wasn't just on serious hikes in the park, where you understand that there's a fitness level to naturally self-select. Even in the Flagstaff Walmart we didn't run into as many really wide people as I've come to view as usual for the mall/box store venue. And when we go to Alabama to see the mil, it's the opposite. I could gain 80 lbs and blend right in.
I'm interested in that point about self-selection--Denver strikes me as a place where it'd be a lot easier to exercise. Jackson, Mississippi, not so much. Whose post was it in?
My wife and I are both somewhat fat and not the world's most fashionable dressers by any stretch of the imagination, and we live in Southern California. A couple years ago we were in the Midwest and visited King's Island theme park outside of Cincinnati. At amusement parks one stands in line a lot and engages in a lot of people-watching. After a while we realized that, compared to the other people in line, we were actually pretty good-looking. We had reasonably nice haircuts, weren't letting our guts hang out of our shirts, were more or less at the median, weight-wise, etc.
Someone on here quoted an author who said something like If an egg breaks against a wall no matter how right the wall and no matter how wrong the egg I stand on the side of the egg.
In my mind our constitutional amendments are designed to protect eggs from being being broken. They don't always work. Sometimes judges remove the packing peanuts that protect the eggs in their boxes, but they are the best protection we have against being an egg on the wrong side of brute force.
In my view, the protection of self against the unreasonable encroaching tyranny of the majority is the most important function of the state. It's what made the recent charade denouncing "empathy" horrifying to watch. Ahh theater.
I gotta say the ninth.
Oh, and TNC, I have to recommend Steve Erickson's Arc D'X to you if only because I'm curious what you will make of it given your Civil War-ness. It's a surreal examination of American history coupled with millennial angst that is essentially a dialogue Erickson sets up between his characters on the subject of slavery. It opens with Sally Hemings and Jefferson wherein Erickson imagines Sally leaving him in Paris while believing herself vaguely responsible for Jefferson's possible story-death. It culminates in Jefferson selling himself into slavery and an epic journey of a piece of rubble from the Berlin Wall bearing the inscription "Pursuit of Happiness". It's audacious and in lesser hands, shlocky, but I'm a fan.
A testimonial here. I had laparoscopic surgery on my innards yesterday. (I'm a 53 year-old female so I'm sure you can guess what.) My health care provider is Kaiser Permanente. I was initially horrified to learn that this particular procedure is "out-patient." What?!!! You come in, stand in a waiting line with your Kaiser card, they do their thing when it's your turn, and send you home THAT DAY! WHAT?!
I have to say that what I experienced yesterday was what health care should be, I think. All info was computerized but the actual human care was compartmentalized. Each department handled their thing with the info readily available through the computer but with humans asking important questions along the way to confirm computer info. (Name, allergies, medical record number, what procedure are you having.) The pre-op personnel were wonderful - not at all terse and jaded. I went into surgery yesterday at 10:15 a.m. and was home by 5:00 p.m. Three small incisions. Up. Walking around. Steady if not quick.
And my co-pay was $15. Granted, my insurance is provided by my job and if I were to purchase this insurance privately at my age, it might be prohibitive. But the cost of Kaiser to my employer was so much less than other insurers.
The idea of being just a number can be daunting but it forces you to be proactive with your healthcare. They have a preventive care program for just about everything.
Testimonial over. I was given to raving because I had motherfrakking surgery yesterday and I'm home, up and able to read TNC all day. Oh, and it may be the medication that's given me this need to testify.
I`m home today because my contact lenses have left my eyes "Inflamed and infected" in the words of my doctor, and the eye drops for this cost me 60 dollars, and I have employer provided insurance.
I'd have offered were I more knowledgeable of the debate; I just don't know enough about the nuance of the issues; and I'm medicated so thinking is scattershot. It really was me just wanting to testify to folks I watch every day and frankly more interested in what anyone else had to say who was thinking clearly.
I will say that what was available to me through my healthcare provider should be available to all via any proposed national healthcare system. Kaiser's pool is deep and wide which is why they can do what they do at the price that they do it. But they have a seemingly impersonal way of doing things. Most employees pick a more expensive healthcare provider because they need more, ummmm-personal attention--from their provider/doctor. But I see Kaiser's way as the future of healthcare and the only way a national system can operate.
Andrew has an instructive graph of the birthers. They're in the South (surprise!) and to the extent the GOP is now in the South there's probably no way they can climb out from under them--which I would predict will lead to even more losses in the West, Midwest, and North, as Republican candidates try to explain why their crazy southern brethren shouldn't be held against them.
Long Island Iced Tea? I thought dudes only bought them for unsuspecting chicks because they couldnt tell how much alcohol taste was being masked by sweet and sour mix.
ANY beer from Three Flloyds Brewing in Munster, Indiana. Simply the best beer made on earth. Their Alpha King is what Sam Adams wants to be when it grows up. Typical beers are to their 'Dreadnaught' as you are to Batman. Proximity to Three Flloyds is sufficient justification to relocate to the midwest.
It depends on what I'm doing. For the summer it's usually Capirinias and rocks margaritas. If I'm going to be outside all day in the heat (boating in Arizona, hanging out at the beach) then Coors Light right out of the ice chest. Anything else and you'll pass out, Coors Light hydrates and you can drink it all day without getting too drunk. And beer out of the ice/water slurry in an ice chest is so cold and refreshing.
For colder weather I like manhattans, martinis, porters and stouts.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Does anyone remember the cartoon "Street Frogs?"
I do now. Thanks a lot.
Nobody believes me when I tell them there was a cartoon in the 1980's about a group of hip hop frogs. It was on the same show with "Karate Kat," the "Mini Monsters," and the "Tigersharks" - which was like the "Thundercats," but underwater.
There are so many weird 1980's cartoons that nobody seems to remember.
Nobody believes me when I tell them that there were TWO Ghostbusters cartoons in the 1980's. One was called "Ghostbusters" and had an ape and had the catchphrase, "Let's go, Ghostbusters," and the other was "The Real Ghostbusters" which was based on the movie. The same is true for the "Beverly Hills Teens," "The Spiral Zone," "The Toxic Crusaders," and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes."
The one with the ape was based on a show from the 70s that I had no idea existed. It just confused the hell out of me when I was a kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Busters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmation%27s_Ghostbusters
Four words: Biker Mice from Mars. For some reason this show was phenomenal to my 5-year-old mind in the early 90s. When I was in pre-school at my synagogue we had a day where we all made mezuzot, but instead of the generic prayer to God we thanked God for whatever. My mezuzah thanked God for making Biker Mice from Mars.
Go figure.
FW - thanks for this funny 80's memory. I do remember the two g-busters toons. I also agree with Dan L below: "It just confused the hell out of me when I was a kid."
Along similar lines, i've gotten into searching (via the advent of youtube) the intro themes for 80's tv dramas like CHiPs and Magnum PI. This leads to strings of shows I'd forgotten about (Airwolf) and others I'd never known existed (Automan, starring Desi Arnaz Jr!). I've decided that the 80s were obsessed with cars, motorcycles and helicopters (and their flagrant accessories).
On the rare Sundays that we didn't go to church, I'd watch that. I still remember the opening song.
I hope this is appropriate.
Had an incident day before yesterday, wanted to get some feedback from y'all... I was shopping at a warehouse club store, getting stocked up. I went to a checkout, got to my turn. The checkout woman was mumbling something about signaling the people after me that she was closing, that they weren't hearing her. I joked that there was probably one bit of sign language that they would understand. I got a response back about how she bets half the people in here don't speak a word of English. So now I know I'm dealing with an asshole, so I get tight-lipped. But she continues rambling, though, about how the whole country's going to hell, that we're all going to "end up in Washington, picking cotton and watermelons". I'm pissed, but I don't say anything. I leave.
A little while later, I decide to call the store's 1-800 number and report the incident. I refuse to give my member number or anything that could allow them to directly trace this woman's identity, but I do let them know that I felt that she had said some racist stuff, and that they needed to know.
My rationale: I really despised this woman, but I didn't want to see her fired. She's not in a position of influence, she clearly does not have a lot of money, and she and her family would probably suffer un-duly if she were dismissed. My hope is that management might corral the shift workers, and read the riot act about appropriate conduct in their environment. If she's got a sense of self-preservation, she'll get the message.
And that's it. I can hear various friend's voices in my head, saying alternately "too far", "not far enough", "meh, you shoulda let it go", "maybe you could have had the balls to speak to her directly". And on and on. I'm comfortable enough with my response to post it here for you to peruse, but just curious if anyone has any other moral or procedural response. I'm ambivalent about it, so I want to hear other possible perspectives.
Since you asked.
Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance.
That's the motto I live by. When people say things that reveal prejudice I usually shut up. Unless, I'm in a place or have the time to ask questions. Sometimes when one asks enough questions a person finds out that it isn't racism that motivates some people per se, but resentment at lost opportunity, a crappy job, or anger at themselves. I sometimes think to myself "there but for the grace of god go I.
I just wonder why the hell the person thought it would be remotely acceptable to say in the first place. I know this woman evidently lacks some intelligence, but I would at least think she would have the common sense to realize that shes unlikely to find too many people who agree with her today.
But she does-- she gets people who agree with her or just brush it off. That's why she keeps doing it.
I think you were on target. And it's from something I remember reading about small business owners, that the employees that do customer service are the face customers know them by, and when people are pissed off at those workers they so often DON'T tell the boss "hey, your clerk made a bunch of racist comments she thought I would agree with, and pissed me off, and so I started shopping somewhere else." They just vanish.
There's several options:
Everyone knows perfectly well who it was, because that's the employee who always does that stuff.
There are a dozen people who talk like this in the breakroom, but this is the first they've heard of it leaking out to the front of the store.
Management is utterly clueless.
Etc.
Dan W, I think a lot of people react by going quiet and "mmm. Mmm hmm. Bye." I don't even object to that in a lot of cases. (And in Borat I saw a lot of it. Not "You have revealed our prejudices" but "You have revealed that we're a surprisingly tolerant bunch who mostly just hope the crazy visitor will be leaving soon.") That's how people can state that everyone--everyone--they talk to either loves or hates the president, or Palin, or Rush. They start talking away to the people in line at the coffee shop, or watching their kids at the playground, and interpret "mmmm" as "Tell it, Sister!" rather than "It's not worth arguing with you, crazy lady."
I think you did just about right. Lady's obviously off her rocker, and I do have some sympathy for people in that situation. She's probably doing one of the few things she's capable of doing for cash. It's either that or sitting at home collecting welfare. Still, that kind of behavior just isn't acceptable, and the store's probably losing business because of it. They aren't running a charity. So calling the management with some non-identifying stuff was probably the best way to be kind but firm.
I think that was a very appropriate, measured response. Well done!
Asking McDonald's employees for things that veer slightly off of their numbered meal system in almost never a smooth proposition.
I asked the girl to put a round egg on my McGriddle bacon egg and cheese this morning and she had that "DOES NOT COMPUTE" look in her eyes. Of course it came to me wrong, and I had to ask them to correct it. Twice.
Most of all I hated looking like "that asshole with the weird order holding everyone else on line up".
But you are! The McDonald's system is not made for custom orders, and breakfast is the second busiest time of the day.
Not entirely true. I worked at McDonald's when I was 16 for the summer btwn jr and sr year in HS. People asked for the craziest ish and we always had to do it. SOmetimes if the order took to long we had to take it out to them at their table. One time, a family came in, the were Indian (from the sub-continent) and they all had heavy accents, even the little kid who was mabye 4 or 5. They ordered a cheeseburger with no meat. Yes a cheesburger with no meat, essentially a grilled cheese sandwich. Did we make it? We sure did. I assumed that they asked for this b/c somehow the kid had taken a hankering for McDonalds and presumably they were Hindu (hence my mentioning their being indian), and being a vegetarian is required (or at least expected ?)for their religion, hence the request. The kicker was that I thougth they asked for one with meat and one without. SO once we finished making the "special" one and gave them both of them, the father expalained that they only needed the one without the meat. The little girl started to cry like someone had done something to her. I was rather vexed b/c she got what she wanted anyway, I just couldn't entirely understand her Dad and thought she was a terrible brat at the time. Now as an adult, I figure she was tired and cranky and maybe couldn't understand me and thought she wasn't getting her special "cheeseburger with no meat" or that maybe they'd had a hard time getting it at another McDonalds and she thought it was happening again. Anyway a very odd incident. This was about 19 years ago, so I don't know if the McDonalds are still so willing to comply with such requests but you never know. Now how presumably life-long vegetarians started eating at McDonald's and ordering grilled cheeses, is beyond me. God I hated that job. Couldn't go willing into a McDonalds for another 4-5 years and had to change the channel everytime a McDonalds commerical came on for awhile.
What's a "round egg"? (I have the does not compute look in my eye...) ;)
McDonalds has round and square eggs? And they taste different? My eye is also not computing.
My husband, a tea-not-coffee drinker, has had many adventures in the South trying to order "hot tea" at fast food places. Drinking pre-iced tea does not compute. (The north grasps hot tea but also thinks you can sweeten iced tea by pouring sugar in it, which is nuts.)
I'm the one person on the planet who hates scrambled eggs and their branch of food products such as omlettes and the McDonald's square/foldy egg. I need my yolk and my egg white to have their own constituent flavors. They use the round egg for the buscuit. I used to make the mistake of asking for the "poached" egg and that kid would act like I'd just spoken Klingon.
McDonalds is factory food. Like the old Model T that came in any color a person wanted as long as the color was black. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle.
Hey man, I know your frustration. I also worked at a coffee/breakfast joint for years. So I've been on both sides of the counter. That said I think you're real problem is that you're going to Mickey Dee's. Go to a local spot or somewhere that you can become a regular. It'll be better for you and the McDonalds staff :)
I *needed* that McGriddle with the round egg, though. As far as I know, the non-McDonald's breakfast world has yet to really duplicate that creation.
Hmmmm. Might be time to break old habits (tho food preferences are tough). If you're in an urban environment, you've definitely got choices; suburban, probably not so much. But you know this. Don't know what to tell you dude, except enlighten your tastebuds ... I've had the mcgriddle - there are better b-fast sandwiches out there waiting to be discovered by you!
Watching Stanley "Angry Black Man who despises Angry Black Men" Crouch dragon-punch Glenn Beck on The Daily Beast brought a smile to my face.
"But if one listens to conservative race baiters like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh — professionals who are loons on demand and for pay — one notices that they also live inside of shared toxic exaggerations. Or at least spout them. As they speak of Barack Obama’s supposed hatred of white people, the red seems to grow from their necks and rise under the skin on the backs of their heads until continuing to their faces, which then take on the kind of purple that white people call “wine stain.” I doubt a brew will calm them down. Nor will a painkiller."
HA! Shōryūken!
TNC, I thought early on you'd had a little bit about losing a bunch of weight when you moved to NY because it just wasn't a comfortable environment to be large, and Marc/Megan/James's go-round on weight reminded me. Link, or comment? I understand if you find all of us weighing in on weight boring and don't want to add your 2 cents.
(Googling reveals that you are a blogger of weighty topics, with real weight, etc.)
It's true, when people from the suburbs come into Boston for the Red Sox games and other tourist attractions, many of them are very heavy, and just seem uncomfortable on public transit, walking everywhere, etc. I sometimes think that the subway couldnt really operate during rush hour if every person on it was overweight or obese. But, I`m conflicted because there are few things more annoying than people running and biking on busy city sidwalks.
I haven't been keeping up with the debate. I know it's going on, but haven't followed it. It's weird--keeping up with you guys' comments is like reading a two or three additional blogs.
If you notice, over the past couple months, a lot of the posts have been self-referential and self-contained.
Anyway, yeah, it was a social stigma thing. No one did anything. I could just feel it. The restaurants were smaller. The city require more walking. And the 42nd street subway in August is not where you want to be when you're 298 pounds. (Which I was.) It wasn't cool at all. And the combined effect forced me to drop. Which, I think, is a good thing.
I'm not much of a New York snob, but whenever I'm in "fly over country" the size difference always strikes me.
There was a recent feature in The New York Times "Where Thin People Roam, And Sometimes Even Eat" and essentially they interviewed many upper class white women and gay men who go to expensive gyms, restaurants, or just smoke. They decry the waistlines of the rest of the nation.
“My mom always says, ‘The smaller the dress size, the larger the apartment,’ ” said one lifelong Upper East Sider.
With the exception of James's short addition, it's been a few good points buried in a load of tangential stuff.
But I remembered your saying that about comfort. I know they found that more fit people move where it's easier to be fit (so the environment was selecting for them, rather than causing them to be thin. But people who move to very fit places for coincidental reasons, like a sabbatical in Holland, often have the adults losing 10 lbs because it's just so much easier to walk and bike than to bother with a car.
On our vacation out west there were noticeably fewer really big people. Overall I was struck by it. Especially that it wasn't just on serious hikes in the park, where you understand that there's a fitness level to naturally self-select. Even in the Flagstaff Walmart we didn't run into as many really wide people as I've come to view as usual for the mall/box store venue. And when we go to Alabama to see the mil, it's the opposite. I could gain 80 lbs and blend right in.
I also lost weight in Holland because their food really sucks. I`m open to a lot of different culinary styles and I have never eaten such crappy food.
Also the Dutch are much taller on average than Americans, the weight distributes differently, most of the dudes are over 6 feet tall.
I'm interested in that point about self-selection--Denver strikes me as a place where it'd be a lot easier to exercise. Jackson, Mississippi, not so much. Whose post was it in?
My wife and I are both somewhat fat and not the world's most fashionable dressers by any stretch of the imagination, and we live in Southern California. A couple years ago we were in the Midwest and visited King's Island theme park outside of Cincinnati. At amusement parks one stands in line a lot and engages in a lot of people-watching. After a while we realized that, compared to the other people in line, we were actually pretty good-looking. We had reasonably nice haircuts, weren't letting our guts hang out of our shirts, were more or less at the median, weight-wise, etc.
It was an odd feeling.
What's your favorite constitutional amendment?
Mine's the 14th, by the way.
Tie between the 9th and 10th.
States' rights man, I see.
Easily the 14th.
The ones we haven't thought of yet........ :)
Seriously the 14th.
Someone on here quoted an author who said something like If an egg breaks against a wall no matter how right the wall and no matter how wrong the egg I stand on the side of the egg.
In my mind our constitutional amendments are designed to protect eggs from being being broken. They don't always work. Sometimes judges remove the packing peanuts that protect the eggs in their boxes, but they are the best protection we have against being an egg on the wrong side of brute force.
Haruki Murakami :)
In my view, the protection of self against the unreasonable encroaching tyranny of the majority is the most important function of the state. It's what made the recent charade denouncing "empathy" horrifying to watch. Ahh theater.
I gotta say the ninth.
Oh, and TNC, I have to recommend Steve Erickson's Arc D'X to you if only because I'm curious what you will make of it given your Civil War-ness. It's a surreal examination of American history coupled with millennial angst that is essentially a dialogue Erickson sets up between his characters on the subject of slavery. It opens with Sally Hemings and Jefferson wherein Erickson imagines Sally leaving him in Paris while believing herself vaguely responsible for Jefferson's possible story-death. It culminates in Jefferson selling himself into slavery and an epic journey of a piece of rubble from the Berlin Wall bearing the inscription "Pursuit of Happiness". It's audacious and in lesser hands, shlocky, but I'm a fan.
C'mon. It's the 21st, obviously.
I like the mnemonic device for prohibition and de-prohibition. 18th and 21st amendments, same as the old and new drinking ages.
Otherwise, I have to go look them up. Even with the bill of rights.
To answer your question, though, my fave is the 25th, cos I once imagined a way to game it for political ends.
The First. Speech, press, assembly, religion. If you were going back to basics in a post-apocalypse world, that's the stuff I'd like to see hang on.
4th, too bad it is so often violated.
A testimonial here. I had laparoscopic surgery on my innards yesterday. (I'm a 53 year-old female so I'm sure you can guess what.) My health care provider is Kaiser Permanente. I was initially horrified to learn that this particular procedure is "out-patient." What?!!! You come in, stand in a waiting line with your Kaiser card, they do their thing when it's your turn, and send you home THAT DAY! WHAT?!
I have to say that what I experienced yesterday was what health care should be, I think. All info was computerized but the actual human care was compartmentalized. Each department handled their thing with the info readily available through the computer but with humans asking important questions along the way to confirm computer info. (Name, allergies, medical record number, what procedure are you having.) The pre-op personnel were wonderful - not at all terse and jaded. I went into surgery yesterday at 10:15 a.m. and was home by 5:00 p.m. Three small incisions. Up. Walking around. Steady if not quick.
And my co-pay was $15. Granted, my insurance is provided by my job and if I were to purchase this insurance privately at my age, it might be prohibitive. But the cost of Kaiser to my employer was so much less than other insurers.
The idea of being just a number can be daunting but it forces you to be proactive with your healthcare. They have a preventive care program for just about everything.
Testimonial over. I was given to raving because I had motherfrakking surgery yesterday and I'm home, up and able to read TNC all day. Oh, and it may be the medication that's given me this need to testify.
I`m home today because my contact lenses have left my eyes "Inflamed and infected" in the words of my doctor, and the eye drops for this cost me 60 dollars, and I have employer provided insurance.
What is unsaid in your post (and of interest to me) is your opinion on the current healthcare debate. Will you venture an opinion?
I'd have offered were I more knowledgeable of the debate; I just don't know enough about the nuance of the issues; and I'm medicated so thinking is scattershot. It really was me just wanting to testify to folks I watch every day and frankly more interested in what anyone else had to say who was thinking clearly.
I will say that what was available to me through my healthcare provider should be available to all via any proposed national healthcare system. Kaiser's pool is deep and wide which is why they can do what they do at the price that they do it. But they have a seemingly impersonal way of doing things. Most employees pick a more expensive healthcare provider because they need more, ummmm-personal attention--from their provider/doctor. But I see Kaiser's way as the future of healthcare and the only way a national system can operate.
Andrew has an instructive graph of the birthers. They're in the South (surprise!) and to the extent the GOP is now in the South there's probably no way they can climb out from under them--which I would predict will lead to even more losses in the West, Midwest, and North, as Republican candidates try to explain why their crazy southern brethren shouldn't be held against them.
xkcd on Gatesgate:Woooooo!
A friend of mine suggested Samuel Adams Summer Ale. Not bad actually.
I am a Corona man myself — but hey, maybe that’s just the traitorous American, open-orders Amnesty commie pinko that I am.
For real drinks -- it's a Vodka Cranberry, and the occassional Long Island Iced Tea.
@TNC (et. al.): What is your beer and drink of choice?
Long Island Iced Tea? I thought dudes only bought them for unsuspecting chicks because they couldnt tell how much alcohol taste was being masked by sweet and sour mix.
@LCrawfty: Duly noted. I had not considered that point. Thank you.
I like it as a sweet drink that gets me hammered.
Just about anything by Founders Brewery out of MI. If I can't get that or another micro ... gotta go with Guinness and a shot of Jack.
The Scottish Tartanic Ale at the Blackfoot River Brewery.
Best beer I've ever had anywhere. Hands down.
Failing that A stone fence
(Pint of Woodchuck Apple Cider shot and a half of Jack with a lemon)
Otherwise any variety of stout or porter or if everything else is gone a newcastle.
ANY beer from Three Flloyds Brewing in Munster, Indiana. Simply the best beer made on earth. Their Alpha King is what Sam Adams wants to be when it grows up. Typical beers are to their 'Dreadnaught' as you are to Batman. Proximity to Three Flloyds is sufficient justification to relocate to the midwest.
http://www.threefloyds.com/
Really?
If I'm ever in indianna I'll give it a shot.
It depends on what I'm doing. For the summer it's usually Capirinias and rocks margaritas. If I'm going to be outside all day in the heat (boating in Arizona, hanging out at the beach) then Coors Light right out of the ice chest. Anything else and you'll pass out, Coors Light hydrates and you can drink it all day without getting too drunk. And beer out of the ice/water slurry in an ice chest is so cold and refreshing.
For colder weather I like manhattans, martinis, porters and stouts.
Hacker-Pschorr Hefe-Weisse is my perfect beer. I'm not much of a beer snob though. You can't be if you prefer Moosehead to Alexander Keith's.
I don't like beer.
I like mojitos. And peach schnapps with milk.
Mostly I just drink tea though.
Do not help the MSM catapult the propaganda any longer.