Saturday, November 29, 2003

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29 NOV 03: HOLIDAY LEFTOVERS



Maybe you've been nibbling on turkey for a few days. I've been chewing on several interesting scenes....



SCENE 1: An east Alabama couple which attends church with me marked its 50th wedding anniversary Friday. We shared a cake in their honor this afternoon -- a cake with pictures of the husband and wife when they were young. The photo of the wife showed her SO young that it brought all sorts of Alabama stereotypes to mind.



I don't know how bakeries do it -- making cakes with photos in the icing. I'm even more amazed that every time I have a piece of a picture, it doesn't taste like ink at all.



(But I have to let other people slice those cakes with people's pictures on them. I fear I'll chop somebody's nose in two.)



SCENE 2: This evening's Florida State-Florida football game was truly a thriller. So why on earth did WRBL interrupt the CBS telecast in the final minute, for 95 seconds of commercials? Did someone there want to reenact the Heidi Bowl?



Would YOU want to have been answering the phones at WRBL, while those commercials were on the air? And to make things worse, the surprising local break never even showed the Cash 3 lottery numbers.



The interruption of the football game ended with a slide claiming an infomercial was starting on WRBL. If that program had started and the game not returned, I'm not which would have happened in more abundance - local football fans having heart attacks, or Florida fans trying to turn over cars in the station parking lot.



(By the way, about that infomercial which started ten minutes late - is the only name they could think of "Holiday Shop?" Hasn't WRBL noticed another TV station has used a VERY similar name for years?)



During the second half of the Florida State-Florida game, CBS got Georgia head coach Mark Richt on the telephone. Richt admitted he was "stuck in Atlanta traffic," heading from the Georgia Tech game to tape his coach's show. Yet another out-of-towner who needs to learn MARTA trains are more convenient....



SCENE 3: Two Fort Benning buzzcut boys are talking over dinner at a Taco Bell. One of them apparently is a Roman Catholic from New York:


"Every Saint Patrick's Day, it's a holy day. We have a special mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is one of the biggest churches in the United States...."


Huh? For some reason, Houlihan's Old Place doesn't seem to mention that part of the tradition.



I'm torn over what to have for dinner at Taco Bell, so I ask the woman behind the counter what's the difference between a Chalupa and a Gordita.


"The Gordita is on pita bread.... The Chalupa is deep-fried, and dipped in grease."


That settles it. I order two Gorditas - while wondering why those names aren't reversed.



(Instant Message to the Taco Bell staff on Buena Vista Road: I said "MILD" when you asked about a sauce. Did my northern accent sound to you like HOT?)