Sorry I’ve been away for so long. It wasn’t planned, it just sorta happened. I’ll try not to let it happen again. Ahem. I have a few odds and ends for you guys today: shit’s been building up. So, let’s get to it, shall we?
— I was recently in West Virginia, visiting my parents. It went well, thanks for asking. On Sunday all my living aunts and uncles converged on the place, along with my brother, and here’s the Kay side o’ the family. My mother’s side did not participate in the photo session, but they were there too. It was fun. I’m not sure what’s going on with me, though. It looks like I’d just spotted something suspicious off in the distance, and was trying to figure out what I was seeing. Also, I’m towering over everyone. Oh well.
That’s my brother, my dad, aunt Marg, uncle Danny, aunt Charlotte, and my big doofus ass. “What the hell is that thing?” In any case, it was a fun day: lots of stories and lots of laughs. It was good seeing everyone.
— While in West Virginia I had a few local goals. I wanted to patronize a Tudor’s Biscuit World, go to Budget Tapes and Records, and buy a case of Devil Anse IPA. All are WV exclusives, and I was able to achieve my lofty goals. At Tudor’s I had a bacon and cheese biscuit, and it was both huge and tasty. It’s good for you, too! Simply packed with nutrients. …OK, it’s just salt and fat. What do you want from me? The people at Budget weren’t friendly, but I spent a half-hour there anyway and actually bought two used CDs from them, both by ELO. Weird… They were super-cheap, and looked like they’d never been played. I got Out of the Blue and A New World Record for a total of $5. Not bad. And I got the case o’ beer at Drug Emporium on Patrick Street, for about $50. It’s not cheap, but it’s damn good. It’s in the downstairs fridge as I type this, chilling and preparing itself for battle. Toney doesn’t like it very well, so I’ll probably drink the whole thing. I’ll try to pace myself and savor it. We’ll see how it goes. If you live away from where you grew up, what MUST you do or buy when you revisit? That’s the Question of the Day. Please let us know. Use the comments section.
— Yesterday I received upsetting news, my friends. After more then fifteen years I was booted from the Amazon affiliate program. They said I violated their Terms of Service by encouraging you guys to click through my links. So, I’m out. No warning… just ACCOUNT CLOSED. The email says it may be appealable, but they’re pretty hardcore. An appeal is a longshot, at best. No, I think I’m at the end of the road with them, which sucks. It makes me sad. I wish they’d issued a warning and allowed me the opportunity to fix the problem. Ugh.
— In more upsetting news, I recently visited a Taco Bell near my job. I always get the same thing, and know exactly how much it costs. This time it was cheaper, and I assumed the dipshit cashier rang it up wrong. So, I snatched the receipt out of his ball-juggling fingers and took a look. Check this shit out! The little prick gave me a Senior Discount. I just looked up from the receipt and said, “Are you serious?” and he about shit himself. We’d had previous encounters, and I clearly unnerve him. He just turned and scampered into the kitchen. Senior discount! Does a senior eat all that stuff? No, he does not! He eats one taco and a small coffee. I’m getting fired up just thinking about it.
— Toney texted me this link earlier and wrote, “This is the most Pennsylvania thing you’re going to see all day.” Check it out. The local news station has a hotline where people can call in and leave comments on whatever subject they choose, and it’s comedy gold. This is a weekly recap, I believe, not the main Talkback 16, or whatever they call it. Anyway, you should check it out. It’s good stuff.
— And finally… I have a new episode of the podcast for you guys and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. The bulk of it was recorded while driving on my West Virginia trip. It’s an unusual episode; I’d never attempted field recordings before. Some of it’s kinda rough, but there are laughs for sure. Give it a listen if you get the chance. At the handy widget below, or wherever you normally get your podcasts. It’s out there, available everywhere.
I’m calling it a day, boys and girls. One more day of work, and it’s the weekend already. Pretty nifty! I could get used to the two-day workweek.
Have a great one! And don’t forget the Question. Use the comments section.
And I’ll be back soon.
Support us with a monthly donation at Patreon, and get an extra podcast episode every week!
Too bad about the Amazon thing. My Amazon bookmark was your link. I hope you got some shekels from all the shit I buy from them..
Maybe he gave you the señor discount. It is Taco Bell after all.
Señor! *rimshot*
Maybe he gave Jeff an advance on the senior discount figuring he won’t get chance to legitimately use it on account of all the Taco Bell he eats.
When I go back to my hometown, I try to get a pizza from Barnaby’s, and some boiled peanuts
Returning home to Massachusetts it is seafood, and eclairs. If I had to choose just one it would be the eclairs, they are a taste of heaven. Or at least as close to heaven as I will ever get. Unlike just about everyone else I know I couldn’t care less about alcohol, but a good bakery is utopia. My fantasy is to break into one and gorge myself until the cops show up. Life is all about having goals.
That Amazon thing is some, as they say, boolshit. I always clicked there from here although I always wondered if you could see what freaky shit I bought. Could you?
I’m from Canada and I too like to stock up on crap/junk when I go home. Any Vachon pastries, but especially Passion Flakies & Ah Caramels, along with Canada-only candy bars like Aero (both mint & milk), Caramilk, and Oh Henry (the big ones, not the little pussy size you get in other countries). And of course I need to drink a lot of Canadian beer and head off the hangover by stopping at Pizza Pizza before going to bed.
Pretty sure Aero is not Canadian!
Correct, technically they are British but they are manufactured in Canada for that market and available everywhere. They are hard to come by in the USA since they are imported and are much more expensive too.
Have you tried buying them on Amazon (sorry Jeff) shipped from the UK? I get my Jammie Wagon Wheels that way, $10 for 24 delivered.
A big sarcastic Thank You for getting Ringo Starr’s No No Song stuck in my head. awesome
When I go back to KY, we try to eat at Owensboro’s Moonlight BarBQ, close to my home town, Beaver Dam. In the town where I first went out on my own, Evansville, IN, I get a Texas BBQ Stromboli from Pizza King. Sweet sainted mother of Mr. Creosote – I have to have a nap after eating at these places.
Not so much my hometown but if we visit the neighborhood where I lived for 11 years then I’ll order a whole #11 Two Brothers Sandwich. OMG it is so delicious. I’ll eat half and save the other half for dinner. In Los Angeles, there used to be a fried chicken place called Pioneer Chicken which tasted better than Kentucky Colonel. As kids, we would love it when Dad would say, “We’re having chicken.”
It’s been too long since I’ve had pizza and a chopped salad from this place: https://www.pizzaworksoldsaybrook.com/
Wood-fired pizza ovens and rosemary in the crust = delish, and you can watch the Amtrack trains go by while you’re having a nosh!
If I’m in Harrisonburg, you’d better bet I’m going to Jess’ Quick Lunch for a couple of chili dogs. Been too long since I’ve been there as well. Guess I just don’t get out much anymore in my growing dotage.
Old Saybrook! You’re just a half hour from Noank, where my grandfather grew up. The tourists like Abbot’s Lobsters. I’ll be visiting the Seahorse next time I’m up that way.
Glad you still like ELO. Embrace the senior discounts, my friend. The man owes it to you. AARP is my friend!
When I return to Southern California for my annual to semi-annual trip, I always go to The Hat, In N Out and several other places you can’t find in Oregon (Jollibee and Raising Cane’s are also down there, which we don’t have up here yet.) When I drive I also stock the car with rare and unusual ramen noodles that they sell in Koreatown in LA and bring them up for friends. I have a few craft breweries I’ve grown fond of there too, which I frequently return to (Angel City, for example.) I don’t miss living down there, but my visits are always enjoyable because of the vast amount of activities and great ethnic cuisine that you can’t find in Portland.
Can’t wait to listen to the newest podcast; I’m curious about your guerrilla style recording.
I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t get this: You violated Amazon’s Terms of Service by trying to send business their way? What the fuck? I guess you were supposed to say, “Sure you could visit Amazon and buy books and women’s underwear and galoshes, BUT IT WOULD BE WRONG.” (I understand Watergate humor is making quite a comeback. [I miss women in underwear and galoshes, but it was wartime and I was young]). I guess you’ll have to find another sponsor who likes being pissed on. Not my cup of tea, but live and be well.
John
I don’t get it either. I thought that was kind of the point. Lots of other sites do that same. Baffling.
Jeff would get a small cut of our purchases from Amazon when orders were placed through his link.
By asking us to click into Amazon through his link instead of typing the Amazon URL directly into our browser, Jeff was theoretically taking money out of Jeff Bezos’ pocket.
And God knows, Bezos needs every nickel he can get his hands on now that his divorce left him with only a couple of billion, the poor bastard.
I try to hit all the usual suspects when I go to Cincinnati (which – alas – is not that often anymore, since my Mom passed away in 2013): Skyline, LaRosa’s, Blue Ash Chili (amazing double-decker club sandwiches) and United Dairy Farmer’s ice cream (really tough, without mom’s freezer to put the cartons in). I would also be going to Donatos Pizza, since the only one we had here in Northern Virginia closed 10 months ago (the bastards). And if they still made it, I’d try to get Barq’s Root Beer or Red Creme Soda but pretty sure Barq’s went out of business at the turn of the century. :/
When I go back home to Wheeling it’s DiCarlo’s pizza, pepperoni rolls and Colemans fish sammiches
I was just back in NYC this past weekend, visiting my mom. If I’d had a little more time I might have picked up some bagels and had a Sabrett’s or two. At least I managed to get a pepperoni slice.
And yes, what a load of garbage from Amazon. I’ve been using the WVSR link for years.
I live on a different continent to “home” so when I go back I load up on fish and chips, and meat pies. Oh and chips/crisps. I don’t understand US chips, I go to the grocery store and there are 300 types of yogurt, but only a handful of flavors of chips – what’s up with that?
Limey,
We’re all from different places, but we’re also from different times. My local grocery has a chip aisle, which I assume your inner Brit calls a crisp aisle. The decade I started buying my own groceries, the idea of a “chip aisle” would have been a punch line, not a casual reality. Potato chips were greasy, thick, salty, and one flavor. They took up ten or so linear feet or an end cap, and at a big store there were two brands.
A supermarket (a new concept in that doomed decade) might have two brands of white yogurt. I don’t know how it tasted but it couldn’t have been very good. Jack Lalanne ate the stuff, and maybe some guys of questionable sexual preference who threw around a medicine ball at the gym. I still don’t eat it, but it does take the better part of an aisle to display the choices: “Genuine Mountain-Cultured Tayberry-scented Gooseberry-infused low cholesterol high protein separated accented soft Yogurt Made by Greek Ex-pats living in the secret hillocks of Peru”. It’s still yogurt; I’m still not eating it. I’ll get my probiotics the old-fashioned way.
John
Utz brand out here on the right coast do a line of chips that are thick and cooked in tallow (like I assume your chips were back in your black and white times) – and I don’t like them 🙂
Seems to me there’s a gap in the US market for fun flavor chips. Probably not hedgehog flavor though.
I stand with Dr. Brian May on hedgehogs. As for “Utz”, I can only surmise that’s the sound that emanates from your body after eating tallow-cooked potatoes. Should you want to “try this at home” here’s a handy product:
https://www.iherb.com/pr/Epic-Bar-Grass-Fed-Beef-Tallow-11-oz-312-g/86447?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyezv8t2c5QIVAtlkCh2i2wCWEAYYASABEgKg3fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
John
By the way, Limey, monochrome doesn’t get enough love. Imagine Casablanca or The Thin Man in color: more colors, less emotion because the color screen does the work for us. I remember the shock of Jack Kennedy getting shot in black and white; then the Zapruder film showed us the assassination in color and it was just another mob hit: a bad day for everybody but Dan Rather. I was 13, and, as I feared then, the American Presidency has gone downhill since.
John
When we go back to visit family in Maine, we always make a trip to Lennie’s Superette for a sub sandwich and a Moxie. We also buy out the Movie section at the local IGA, along with a healthy supply of Mrs. Dunster’s donuts, large tubs of Fluff for baking, and local maple syrup.
Twice a year I visit family and friends in Iowa. A must stop is Tasty Tacos in Des Moines.
They are magical.
Amazon is VERY draconian. I receive merchandise from them in return for reviews. Over the 10 years I’ve been doing this, their TOS have changed several times. They have booted other people in this program out randomly, deleted reviews en masse and generally been dickish. Once you’re in the Amazon orbit: they can snuff you in a heartbeat.
Sorry I’m late to the party.
Jeff, nice family photo. That’s going to be a,happy memory to cherish.
Fukkit, embrace the superior citizen discount. We’ve all worked hard enough for it!
Trips to Rhode island means fish and chips and fried calamari. Yes I can get that in my hometown but rhodyuses peppers in their calamari that’s different f err on new York.and the fish and chips seem fresher.
I’m not too far from my hometown, but whenever I go to Dayton, I gotta swing by and grab a Marion’s Pizza! It’s simply the best pizza around, and they don’t have it here in K’lumbus, Ahia!
Just go ahead and embrace those senior discounts now–because in a couple of years, you’ll be hollering at the clerk when you DON’T get it!
Hey JR, we hail from the same valley. Wife and I also hit Coleman’s Fish (try the soft shell crab next time) and DiCarlo’s Pizza. Also like Drover’s Inn wings and Dairy Queen cheeseburgers from Wellsburg. Cabbage rolls from Mehlman’s Cafeteria in St. Clairsville are also a hit most trips.
I used to get the senior discount at Long John Silvers on Kanawha Blvd. in Charleston, when I was in my mid-20s. I wore it lake a friggin’ badge of honor, just like when I got the mall employee discount at Steak Escape in the Town Center. I didn’t work at the mall, I just ate there so often they either assumed I did, or appreciated my business and it was their way of saying thanks. That’s $0.85 that you didn’t have to pay, it adds up. Go back and tell that dude you misread and thought he charged you EXTRA for pico or something, and thank him for savin gyou some cents.
I still live here, so I can’t answer the question.
You should have gotten a skee-lo CD, because that’s what the rest of your family is thinking looking at this pic with you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryDOy3AosBw
‘Hey. Hagrid!’
I’m with Limey on crisps, meat (Scotch) pies, and of course, haggis.
‘Always with the haggis!’
People love to hate haggis, but I love eating it. I’ve never been to Scotland, but haggis has made its way here to Arlington Va. now and then.
A trip to CT wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Modern or Frank Pepe’s pizza in New Haven. Fried whole belly clams somewhere on the shore too. Don’t get there too often from SW GA
I think they start advertising for Frank Pepe’s by exit 1 on I84! There are billboards near exit 18 – Watertown.