I’m in the midst of a work-lunch crisis, my friends, and have decided to take drastic action. Yes, you guessed it, I’ve now reached a level of desperation where I’m planning to take my own food. …Will somebody please hold me? This is uncharted territory, and I’m a little scared. You can hear me go on and on about it and rant like a crazy person in the brand new episode o’ the podcast. At the fancy-tits widget below, or wherever you get your podcasts. I also share a couple of crazy messages left at the hotline. Enjoy! It’s fun.
Speaking of podcasts, I’ve started listening to a new one called Root of Evil. Wild shit! Here’s a Rolling Stone article about it. It’s an eight-episode documentary that proves the old “truth is stranger than fiction” adage. It’s about an incredibly fucked-up family (and I do mean incredibly), told by their modern-day descendants. Oh, this thing has it all… Murder, incest, drugs, Man Ray, the Black Dahlia. It is crazy, and extremely well-done. If you’re into that sort of thing, I’m confident you’ll love it.
Another thing I’m currently enjoying is an animated series on Netflix called Big Mouth. I was unfamiliar until a guy at work started raving about it. Apparently, it’s popular, ’cause Netflix just renewed it for three more seasons. In any case, it’s about Middle School kids going through Middle School things. It’s raunchy as hell and very funny. Not to mention somewhat bizarre. Like, for instance, the ghost of Duke Ellington living in the attic? I never could’ve predicted it. If you like the idea of a filthy version of Freaks and Geeks, you should definitely check this one out. It’s not just 100% filth, though. It also has the Freaks and Geeks heart and is highly recommended.
I also just started watching Season Three of Goliath on Amazon Prime. Do you watch this show? It stars Billy Bob Thornton as a brilliant lawyer who’s attempting to turn his back on the profession and quietly drink himself to death. But he keeps getting sucked back in, which interrupts his self-destruction. I enjoy it a great deal. I wasn’t aware Season Three had been released until a few days ago and watched three one-hour episodes in one sitting over the weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who knows about this show, which concerns me. I ask people, and they always say, “Never heard of it.” So, I’m worried it’ll go away. It’s really good. Are you familiar?
And, of course, the World Series starts tonight. I’ll be following that too. Unfortunately, I don’t hate either team, so it’s difficult to know who to pull for. I love the Reds, am indifferent about a lot of teams and hate a few. Both the Nationals and Astros fall into the middle category, which doesn’t help me at all. Oh well. It’ll be the last scraps o’ baseball for about four months, so I’ll be clinging to it while it lasts. On a semi-related note, are you familiar with a Twitter account called Baseball’s Best Fans? It’s one of those perfect ideas that make you grumble that you didn’t think of it first. The guy simply retweets shitty things that St. Louis Cardinals fans — supposedly baseball’s best fans — post on the internet. You could do this for any team, of course. But other teams don’t have the BEST FANS reputation. It’s good stuff.
I didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night. Ugh. I’m already dragging. It’s my own fault, too. Oh well.
If you’d like to bring us up to date on how you handle the lunch-at-work situation, please do. Use the comments section. Also, if there’s something you’re currently enjoying, please share that, as well. It’s not all cynicism and negativity around here.
I’m calling it a day, my friends. Thanks for reading! I was listening to Bakesale by Sebadoh while writing this one, in case you’re keeping an Excel file or something.
I’ll be back soon.
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Hubster and I loved the first season of Goliath. I’ll never pass up a show with Dwight Yokum. When season 2 came out it started off slow so we dropped it. We have to finish Bosh then Goliath is next.
What’s the story on everyone having a podcast all of a sudden? Heck – even Robert Plant is doing one.
Loved, loved, loved the first season of Goliath. Couldn’t get into Season 2 and abandoned it. Enjoying Season 3 immensely; up to Episode 3. Don’t get a lot of time to watch, so it’s taking awhile. Terrific show. Need to catch back up on Bosch too.
I bring my lunch every day, but we also only get 30 minutes (teacher). I sit and eat at my desk instead of the teacher’s lounge. I like the silence. I get enough talking kids all day, I enjoy just sitting by myself for those 30 minutes.
Go Stros!
Plan A would be to meet my wife for lunch from time to time but she never wants to. I eat out with coworkers once in a while but more often than not just go solo. It’s nice quiet time. That’s when I go. I’m not allowed to eat out very often, or really at all. Leftovers are good, sometimes I find myself just grabbing something out of our overstocked freezer before it gets too old.
Unfamiliar with everything named here except The World Series and lunch. Rooting for the Nationals, as I must or my Mom will haunt me after she’s gone.
I work a ‘remote’ job, so most of the time I wobble to the kitchen to see what’s good in the ‘fridge, but will venture out for a Wendy’s or whatever if I’m feeling housebound. No set schedule, I like to keep the stalkers guessing.
We just started watching Goliath. I never heard of it until we saw previews on Amazon Prime. I also enjoy any show that includes Dwight Yoakum. Guess we should put Bosch on the list too. We are also watching Breaking Bad again before we watch El Camino.
I WFH so I eat leftovers. If I go into office, I have the boss buy me lunch.
I want to talk with someone who watched Lodge 49 on AMC (and Hulu). Season 2 just finished. Has just the right amount of weirdness.
I can’t offer much talk, but I enjoyed season 1 of Lodge49, but my schedule had me ending up missing this past season which stinks. What I hate most is it is not being rerun so I can catch it (at least not being rerun here in Canada on amc. I’ll have to give their website another try, but that failed miserably when I tried to catch up on BCS). But I did enjoy the weirdness and odd tie-ins that occured during season 1 of the Lodge and was looking forward to seeing what Cheeches role was going to be, and if whatshisname, Sam (Sam on Burn notice) was going to be more tyrant or more Sam.
Watched all seasons of Lodge 49. Love the show and all the characters. It is one of those no shit laugh out loud shows for me. The wife doesn’t get it.
Now that my best work buddy moved to DC, I’m eating at my desk almost everyday. bummer but I’m saving $$.
Lovely. Now “I like to watch” has been conflated with “I like to eat” and neither is substantially addressed in the blog.
After decades of talk, we finally have 500 channels, and there’s nothing on. Just virtual leftovers.
John
That’s the great thing about cable TV. Now it takes half an hour to find out that there’s nothing on, instead of five minutes.
I don’t know, Chill. Life always seems too complicated to comprehend, but I think it comes down to this with regard to “there’s nothing on”. If nobody’s showing Liston vs. Clay, Liston vs. Ali, or the Rumble in the fucking Jungle, just take a walk. Make cartoon characters out of the clouds and take a piss on a tree. Life’s short. Nature calls.
John
Work Lunch: Brown bag my own sandwich. Everyday. Sometimes the same thing for days on end until I switch it up. Currently making a sandwich using whole grain bagel. The bagel seems to do a better job filling me up. Thats it. I gave up on fast food long ago both for cost and inconvenience.
Lunch has been a mix of packing and eating at my desk or hitting a drive thru and eating at my desk.
Had a Dr appointment today with a new family Dr as my other Doc moved, she was not impressed with my weight or my cholesterol levels so looks like I’ll be packing more or driving a little farther and hook up with my old Doc who was fat like me and couldn’t give me grief about it.
I keep forgetting about stuff on Amazon Prime, I need to check some of that out since I’ve cut the “cord”.
Probably rooting for the Natinals.
I drink a lot of coffee in the morning so I am not usually hungry for lunch.
I am glad you said something about Big Mouth. I saw cartoon/middle school and was going to let my 8 year old watch it. Ill advised I take it?
I am in the same boat as you Jeff about the World Series. I have no love or hate for either of the teams. However… speaking of my 8 year old, his team was The Nationals in his T-Ball league and he has a hat with the Wallgreens lookin’ W on it so GO NATS I guess.
Being a Mets fan I am obligated to have a deep-seated hatred for the Nationals, so I’ll be rooting hard for the ‘Stros. At any rate, it should be a series filled with great pitching matchups.
Me too. Huge Mets fan.
I bring my lunch to work 90% of the time. What, am I made of money?
I alternate between eating out and bringing lunch. Some days I don’t eat at all and just drink coffee and water until I gorge myself at home for dinner. Or I just snack throughout the day. Really just depends on my mood and if I really feel like taking time for a break.
Watched first two seasons of Goliath but due to changes at work, haven’t been able to catch any of 3 yet.
Thoroughly enjoyed 1 & 2. As for lunch, I have to eat while I work and bring my lunch 90% of the time. Someone in the group runs everyday to one of the local downtown restaurants but I don’t want to spend the money or put the weight by eating restaurant food every day. (Izzy’s, Skyline, Eli’s BBQ, Jimmy Johns, Riverfront Pizza and other local Cincy eateries)
My company buys us lunch every day. Now, this might sound like a great perk and for all intents and purposes it is. But (and there’s always a but) it kinda sucks. We all have to eat together like John boy and Mary Ellen. It’s coo when it’s just us co workers but when the owners waltz in its strained and painful
Plus, they only want to order from 2 places in town that kinda suck. I’m going to start the revolt soon and bring in my own food soon.
By coincidence, Strained and Painful is the title of my monograph on intimacy over age 65. Minus, having spent 40 years in corporate America, it does a pretty good job of describing many interactions with executive management, although the pain is in the obverse. Depending on personal preferences.
John
The patriarch of this company is 92 years old. It must be very pained and strained for him.
I just don’t like the idea of communal eating every single day. I was used to bringing lunch from home and then running errands on my lunch hour. But, I’m grateful to be employed.
do you have to eat at a certain time? somedays I’m starved at 10am, others I don’t remember to eat lunch till 3…
yes – they get freaked out if the lunch isn’t here by noon. I’ve seen one chick lose it because there was a meeting in the room we eat in and it was going past 12:00.
Funny, it doesn’t take much to make this crew freak out. Maybe I’ll mess with the clocks next week.
It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.
I’m glad you feel grateful, but you’re bright and innovative. You deserve something better than synchronized eating, which might be a fine Olympic demonstration sport, but sucks at work.
John
The Nationals are my geographically-nearest team, so I guess I’ll pick them if I have to choose one. Growing up, we were a Mets household (Dad was a Dodgers fan pre-’58, and the Mets were the Not-Yankees). But still, National League either way. I’m still bitter about that designated hitter thing.
Lunch-wise, I’m fortunate to work in a place where there is a wealth of good food to be had: Thai, sushi, Vietnamese, Greek diner, American diner, barbecue, cheap Chinese takeout, Salvadoran, etc. I just started the job a few weeks ago, so I’m still exploring the lunch options. Working days is a big help; these places are all open at noon, but I bet they’re all closed at midnight.
But sometimes I’ll make a big batch of something on the weekend, and take it for lunch. Today it was split pea soup – I found a ham bone in the freezer Saturday morning! Other times it will be a casserole, lasagne, chili, whatever.
Almost forgot: Houston Ashtrays.
Duke Snyder, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Carl Furillo and Jackie. I was a wee lad when I sat on the davenport with my Grandfather and watched the Game of the Week in glorious black and white. Grampa died in 1957 so never had to witness the ignominy of The Move. I still miss him and I still miss the Bums.
John
I remember Gil Hodges being an old man – manager or something. IIRC Koufax, Campanella and Drysdale were still playing deep into the 1960s. I did participate in the impromptu street party that took place in October 1969 in my part of Brooklyn.
As a kid, I was baffled by “my beer is Rheingold the dry beer.” Its BEER. I’ve SEEN it. It’s a BEVERAGE. How could such a thing be dry?
And finally, stay tuned for Kiner’s Korner. Featuring Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy and Lindsay Nelson.
Thanks for those memories. The telecast was in black and white, but the radio broadcast was in color. I’ve been told by those who were there about the experience of walking down any Brooklyn street and never missing a play because of the radio calls coming through the open windows of the apartments and brownstones. Red Barber had left after ’53, but Young Scully and the team broadcast all the home games and some of the away games.
Thanks for supporting the Bums.
John
I’ve seen all 3 seasons of goliath all the way through. I wish the writers and producers would stop trying to show their cinimatic chops. Fuck your sybolism and jumping around. Just tell a good story. I kinda fell for the crazy ass sister in season 3 and it was a big disappointment to get through the whole season without seeing her tits or even an ass shot.
And they say American cinema criticism is dead.
Man, that’s 24 hours of your life you’re not getting back. I hear Google has a quantum computer that can generate dozens of T&A shots in a 24-hour period. Looks like you put your money on the wrong Goliath. But now I don’t have to. Thanks.
jtb
We thought season 1 of Goliath was great, season 2 just so-so. Just started season 3 and so far it,too, seems to be so-so. I’m with Jason…forget the symbolism and tell the story.
I always pack my own lunch. I am such a picky eater. I’ve never heard of any of those shows but will check them out.
Possible answer to a question you had in your podcast. Atlantans perhaps call stand-alone Chick Fil-A resraurants ‘Dwarf’ because S. Truett Cathy’s original diner, opened in 1946, was named the ‘Dwarf Grill’. Of course, the chain has become enormous now, and a person can eat one of their homophobic sammiches in almost every city in the US.
Mmmm….. homophobic sammiches! Delicious!
I work at home so lunch is spent in front of the TV getting pissed of at the news. It is almost always some beautiful mercury laced Bumble Bee Solid White Albacore with some mayo and onions, coupled with steamed veggies of some sort or a big salad. It usually provides some entertaining smells for the afternoon depending on whether I have asparagus which produced front end smells, or broccoli and cauliflower, which produces back end smells.