Peaceful Holiday Weekend

It sounds like sour grapes, but there is something to be said about not having a fancy beach house to go to over a long summer weekend. The city is really so peaceful with many of its residents gone.

I don't think a parking space on my block goes unclaimed ever -- typically the new car is waiting as the old car maneuvers its way out. I noticed coming back from dinner tonight that there were three empty spaces right around my building.

To get to this restaurant tonight, I take a short cut through a parking garage and it held about half the cars it normally does. When I crossed the street to the restaurant, always in the middle of the block, I usually have to time my crossing, but tonight I didn't even have to wait -- that's how light traffic was. It's quieter and people are calmer and it's just a nice break from the usual hub-bubs

What are you reading this weekend?

Vanity Fair has a little section called "Nightstand Reading" where celebrities say what book they're reading -- and sometimes their picks make me laugh because they are typically the most arcane, serious, scholarly books you could imagine. I simply don't believe anyone would read these books.

Me, I just started The Lost City of Z, a true story, about a Victorian explorer in the Amazon looking for a lost civilization. I believe it was a best seller a year or two ago. It's still #520 on Amazon's list. (*That's Amazon, the bookseller, not Amazon, the river.)

So far, so good. The explorer's name is Percy Fawcett and at one time that was a household name. He was supposedly the last of the great individual explorers. I've just read 25 or so pages to establish the background.

What are you reading?

My Soda'd Past

One night this week, flipping around the channels, I saw a scene from a soda fountain from the 1950s, and the server picked up a stainless steel holder and then whacked it over the top of these upside down paper cones so that the holder now had one paper cone.

OMG.

I had totally forgotten about those cones, but I remember drinking out of them. Actually they were handy -- the soda fountain could throw away the paper cup and they didn't have to wash the stainless steel holder. Above is the best picture I could find of them. That got me thinking about different soda experiences.

For a while in the late 50s, early 60s, there was a soda machine that opened like a chest. The bottles were lined up in rows with a metal collar around the neck of the bottle. You'd pick your soda from the row, and ease the bottle along to the opening, which, of course, would open only after you paid.

The best thing I can equate this to is when you rent a cart at the airport and you ease one cart out to the end and the collar releases the one cart.

But the best part of this was the soda bottles were soaking in water so you'd be all hot on a summer day, get your cold soda and it would come out dripping in cold water. This is a picture of one of them, and I can still feel that cool water because your hand would get wet as well easing the bottle down the little line to the opening.

Then when looking for pictures, I came across this Hires barrel, which instantly rang a bell with me. I find the brain so amazing (I know: DUH) But my brain has not contemplated that root beer barrel for decades, literally, and then in a microsecond there is recognition.

Precision Ordering

For our monthly lunch, Barbara and I thought we would switch out from pastrami and go back to another of our usual haunts -- a NY chain called Jackson Hole, known for its hamburgers. But we don't like the hamburgers because they are too big, too thick so we always order scrambled eggs.

But, not just any eggs. I like mine soft. She likes her bacon "crispy" and her French fries "well done." I used to make fun of her until I had crispy bacon envy so I add that to my order too.

It's a weird inverse proportion deal in NY that you can make the most precise order and it will be respected. Scrambled soft, well-done fries, crispy bacon. I heard someone ordering something unusual "on the side" and later mentioned it to the waiter -- this was in a Greek coffee shop/diner -- and he laughed and said when people order things "on the side," he asks them if they want it on the right or the left side. Customer is king typically in these places.

Try ordering scrambled eggs soft in the hinterlands and you'll get a deer stuck in headlights look. Try personalizing your order and you're likely to get a "no can do" from the server -- "that's the way it's made" or "the cooks won't do that" or "no substitutions" -- go to a bagel place in NY and order a "well done poppy with lots of seeds" and the guy will go rooting through the poppy bagel wire basket and then hold up the perfect bagel for your inspection.

I don't care how many seeds are on my poppy bagel, but evidently other people do, as I've heard that order a lot -- same with "well done sesame." I guess we want our moneys-worth. I've seen people point to the precise cupcake they want when they all look essentially the same to me -- "No, not that one, THAT one..."

In a city that moves at fast speeds, there's always time, it seems, to have your food, your bagel, your coffee exactly the way you want it.

What have you never done?

In response to regulation of ATM fees, here comes a news item from today:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has never used an ATM. But that doesn't mean he can't learn how!

"I could learn how to do it just like I've . . . I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries," Nelson said, according to the Omaha World-Herald. "I know about the holograms."

By "holograms," Nelson clarified that he meant the bar codes on products read by automatic scanners in the checkout lanes at stores such as Lowe's and Menard's.Nelson's office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

It's hard to believe you could have never used one -- like the girl I wrote out a week or so ago who'd never eaten a hamburger.

I started thinking if there's something that everyone's done, that I haven't. So here are five things I've never done:

I've never jumped out of an airplane.
I've never eaten brains.
I've never been to South America.

Hmmm... this is tough... I keep thinking of things and then saying, "no, you've done that..."

I've never been arrested.
I've never swum with dolphins.

However, I have walked with a dolphin. I was on this beach in North Carolina and there was a dolphin about 20 feet offshore and as I walked down the beach, he walked with me, really the way a dog might. I'd stop and the dolphin would stop. It was really something. I had regular clothes on -- I don't know if I would have gotten in the water with the dolphin if I had been wearing a swim suit.

Ok, so what have you never done? Has anyone never used an ATM?

Home Again

I did make an early departure from my Econolodge -- left at 6:45 and did well until entering NJ and it was just such traffic -- had to wait about 30 minutes in a line for gas on the Jersey Turnpike. It was "full-service" pumps and each guy would be handling four pumps at a time so it was slow going.

As I was making my way up my steps, this woman stops me, had never seen her before and she asks me why I'm not wearing one of my pretty dresses. She acts like she knows me. Then she says, "And you always wear the matching socks."

I do not want to ever see the woman she has confused me with.

She then says she wants to ask me something and says, "Do you think Oberlin is on par with Columbia?" and I thought about it and said no, and she was satisfied with that answer.

OMG: What a dump!

I broke my own rule about staying in crummy hotels. I hadn't made a reservation until yesterday, and I have to say a lot of places were fully booked. So I was spending too much time and said the heck with it and just picked this Econolodge in Washington, PA.

This is how bad it is: there is no commercial sign. The sign is one of those yellow boards where you put letters on them and tow it behind your car. It's the kind of sign you'd see that says CARWASH TODAY or something. You can see the sign smack dab in the middle of the top picture.

The guy behind the counter didn't really speak English. I asked him if there were any cases of bed bugs and he didn't know what the word meant (which I took as a good sign) and I pantomined it and he got what I was saying and said "Oh noooooo, noooo."

This is the kind of place where you'd put your 6-man traveling drywall crew or something. On the bright side, I am just steps from my car! [see photo -- now's that's close!] That's also the only window in the room.

Two guys were hanging out next door, drinking beer. Both had fully tattooed arms and cut off sleeve T-shirts. One guy's shirt said "My Momma Thinks I'm Special."

The room is remarkably clean -- honestly. Yes, the carpet is stained and there are no doubt alien life forms on the bedspreads, but the bathroom is as clean as any hotel. The towels are clean and smell good. There's a microwave and a refrigerator, an old, but working TV with remote control and HBO. The air conditioner is noisy but works well. Even too well... I put it on high and I'm about to turn it down. And there's two little bottles of shampoo.

Continuing on the bright side, there's a Taco Bell right across the street, and I would definitely recommend #8 value meal which is 3 tacos (hard or soft, and I recommend soft) washed down with their icy Cherry Limeade. Quite a refreshing combination.

I am about 30 miles into Pennsylvania from the Ohio border, heading East, of course -- which brings me to another positive -- I won't be tempted to linger in this room.

I was also thinking that I am glad I'm not a girly girl who would be too squeamish to stay here. OK, it pushed my boundaries a bit and I held my breath for a second when I pushed open the door not knowing how bad it would be, but for tonight, this is Home Sweet Home.