People, you get 32 minutes of my time tonight. “Westworld” starts in …31 minutes now, and I’m committed to enjoying a little more entertainment in the form of fictional stories on page and screen. It really helps me relax more than just scrolling Twitter all weekend.
Still, reality intrudes.
By the time you read this, the latest development in the Waffle House shooting in Tennessee will be old news — that the gunman was enough of known lunatic that he’d actually been disarmed by the police after he tried to enter the White House, then re-armed by his father, to whom police had given the guns. Y’all can discuss that along with every talking head on cable news, but what I found most striking about the story is this: That the hero, James Shaw Jr., the man who tackled and disarmed the shooter, was at the second Waffle House he’d visited in the wee hours. His first choice, the Bell Road Waffle House, was full. At 2:30 a.m. So he and his friend walked to the Murfreesboro Pike Waffle House, where the shooting occurred at 3:20 a.m.
The Waffle House: Where the South Goes to Sober Up.
Every member Most members of this family is are filth awful people.* *Edited to exclude children, from whom hope for change springs eternal. I mean, every last one of their lazy, lying asses. Today, it’s Ivana:
She, too, is “very sad” about (Donald Jr. and Vanessa’s) split, but thinks her son will be fine. “Donald Jr. is a good-looking guy. He is successful. He is not going to have a problem to find a girl,” she said. “Maybe Vanessa might have a little problem because she has five kids… who is going to date and marry the woman who has five children? Especially since she is young [40] and she might want to have more.”
Ivana, the story later notes, has been married and divorced four times.
We haven’t had an OID story for a while, but this one is pretty-pretty OID:
A 34-year-old man was shot in the face early Sunday morning during a home invasion on Detroit’s east side, but managed to hit the suspect in the head with a two-by-four, Detroit police say.
Officers arrested the suspect as he was receiving medical attention at an area hospital.
Shot in the face, but still manages to brain his assailant with a two-by-four, whom the police arrest while he’s seeking treatment. I was hoping the shot guy spit out the bullet and refused further medical attention, but no. Still. That’s pretty damn tough.
Time’s up! Westworld awaits. Enjoy your week ahead, all.
LAMary said on April 22, 2018 at 9:15 pm
I’m not willing to condemn the young son yet, but otherwise I agree completely. The whole clan is awful. Can’t wait to get Ivana’s opinion when Jared gets busted or otherwise kicked to the curb.
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Jakash said on April 22, 2018 at 9:16 pm
In a rare twist, this will evidently be the first comment on this thread, rather than the last on the previous one, which it applies to. Oh, well, skip on by folks…
Edit: Missed it by that/much!
Anyway, Deborah,
“…the center of the second row of the lower balcony, the best seats we’ve had so far.” Sounds wonderful! Since those are just about the best seats in the whole place, I would hope you enjoyed them. If we could pick where to sit, money be damned, that’d be about the place. : ) Yeah, the clarinet, the oboe, that violin solo by the concertmaster — there was quite a lot to appreciate in “Swan Lake.” One of my favorites.
That last minute of Francesca da Rimini, though. Bombastic, perhaps, but I thought it was thrilling — tomAYto / tomAHto, I suppose. ; )
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basset said on April 22, 2018 at 9:20 pm
Pretty much any recent tv series or movie since, let’s say about 1976, is going to get the same response from me on here… never seen it. So I will add… never seen Westworld.
Been really impressed with the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcasts, though, I would recommend those. Anyone who can spend two hours talking about Buck Owens’ and Don Rich’s contributions to country music has to know his shit. https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/
I’ve driven past both of those Waffle Houses many times but never been inside, the running around drunk after midnight and looking for something greasy to eat phase of my life is long behind me.
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brian stouder said on April 22, 2018 at 9:34 pm
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; great movie on the big screen (loved the “Who ARE those guys?” night-time scene, as Paul Newman and Robert Redford watch the posse almost fall for the split-trail, and then figure out the correct one to follow)…that’s gotta be an old enough one.
My brother watched Bonnie and Clyde (from the late 1960’s, eh?) on the big screen at the old Rialto theater, and threw-up during one of the bloody shoot-outs!
To me, that became the gold-standard by which to judge if a movie was sufficiently bloody/jarring – if it made people barf in the aisles
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brian stouder said on April 22, 2018 at 10:04 pm
OK – OK, I admit it; I’m enjoying it as the shit hits the fan for ol’ Shit-for-brains-Sean –
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/michael-cohen-case-shines-light-on-sean-hannitys-property-empire/ar-AAwd0p1?ocid=spartandhp
The records link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. The properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them.
Dozens of the properties were bought at a discount in 2013, after banks foreclosed on their previous owners for defaulting on mortgages. Before and after then, Hannity sharply criticised Barack Obama for the US foreclosure rate. In January 2016, Hannity said there were “millions more Americans suffering under this president” partly because of foreclosures.
Hannity, 56, also amassed part of his property collection with support from the US Department for Housing and Urban Development (Hud), a fact he did not disclose when praising Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, on his television show last year.
Christopher Reeve, Hannity’s real estate attorney, said in an email he would “struggle to find any relevance” in Hannity’s property holdings, which he said were highly confidential. I doubt you would find it very surprising that most people prefer to keep their legal and personal financial issues private,” said Reeve. “Mr Hannity is no different.” Spokespeople for Hud and Fox News declined to comment on the record.
Looks like ol’ Shit-for-Brains is actively ‘hitting the fan’.
Maybe we’ll have to rename him some variant of ‘Mr Potter’ (As in “It’s a Wonderful Life”)…maybe ‘Sean Shit-for-the-Potter’, or some such…
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Linda said on April 22, 2018 at 10:57 pm
Not only the south: Toledo has 3 of them. We also have darn near a Chk Fil A on every corner.
Besides, I thought Shoney’s was where the south went to sober up.
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basset said on April 22, 2018 at 11:08 pm
No, Shoney’s isn’t open that late. Waffle House and Krystal (think of a Southern White Castle) are more the after-bar places, as far as I know anyway.
I’ve heard, can’t prove it but it could be true, that Nashville is the only city with both Krystals (based in Chattanooga) and White Castles. A billboard on I-40 downtown does advertise the “last southbound Castle,” for what that’s worth.
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MarkH said on April 22, 2018 at 11:29 pm
In Cincinnati in the ’70s it was the Toddle House. In Columbus, it was Western Pancake House, at least it was in the late ’70s (where I had an actual in-person 3:00AM encounter with Larry Flynt). My favorite, if not the best in Columbus, was Warren’s on North High Street.
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Dexter said on April 23, 2018 at 1:28 am
In my day-turned-to-night, for many it was a place out east on 30 called Huddle House, I think. For me, it was always Sambo’s . Sambo’s grub was always perfect and the place was lively after the bars turned the lights up to blind us .
I used to eat at Waffle House every chance I got on vacations. I quit in 2004 when I was staying for a few months with our daughter in New Bern, SC. The cook at the New Bern WH would crack eggs and fire the shells towards a five gallon bucket and miss half the time, then walk on the goo as he cooked. His unlaced untied boots were really gross, his white uniform was totally filthy. I couldn’t hack it anymore and gave up. But if you can be gunned to death sitting having coffee in a fucking Waffle House, no place is safe. And there was a school shooting a couple days ago that didn’t even make the news. Now for another jolt, as we all know, gas prices are about to rocket again. In SoCal now, Shell super premium is $4.99.9. Regular unleaded is $4.59 to $4.79. Here in NW Ohio, it’s $2.59, and headed for $3 in the fast lane.
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BigHank53 said on April 23, 2018 at 4:24 am
I guess Ivana wasn’t planning on spending much time with that set of grandchildren anyway.
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MarkH said on April 23, 2018 at 5:25 am
basset – thanks for that Cocaine & Rhinestones link. Talk about a rabbit hole…
In the early ’70s I was only one of two DJs at the OSU campus radio station advocating for country music of that era. Led to stints at the Lancaster and Columbus country music stations. In Lancaster we hosted a number of live shows, including Ernest Tubb, who gave us a brief sit-down chat. A lot of info and memories in those podcasts. And yes that guy knows his stuff.
Speaking of campus radio, you may be the only one here to appreciate this: an aircheck of Letterman’s show on Ball State’s station, from April Fool’s Day, 1969. Manic and unfiltered, you likely can relate. And sense what’s in store for him.
http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/listen-to-21-year-old-david-lettermans-college-radio-show-1969.html
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Deborah said on April 23, 2018 at 5:43 am
I only remember eating at a Waffle House once in my former life, driving down I-75 in Florida on our way to visit my dad in Miami for Christmas. I got served a bowl of chili, the waitress put the chili down on the table with her thumb in the bowl. Yuck. Ever after that we referred to WH as Awful House.
I forgot to mention an incident that happened when we went to the symphony Saturday night. We walked to it and on our way down Michigan Ave we kept encountering a woman who reeked of too much cologne carrying a ginormous purse. We hurried beyond her but inevitably at each red light she would catch up with us. And of course who do you think ended up in a seat at the symphony right next to ours? And her giant bag was always halfway in my foot space. So even the best seats can turn out to be uncomfortable.
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bb in de said on April 23, 2018 at 6:54 am
MarkH, were you at WLOH in the late 70s/early 80s? It wasn’t my musical cup of tea but on winter mornings I tuned in with fingers crossed, as WLOH was the main source of info for Fairfield County school closings and snow delays in the pre-internet dark ages of my youth.
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Suzanne said on April 23, 2018 at 8:31 am
We stopped at a Waffle House (the Wa-Ho, as a young woman I knew called it. She was from Louisiana) a while back on our way to something. It was in Northern Indiana but I can’t recall where. I knew we’d made a mistake as soon as we sat down. Redneck heaven. The food was pretty bad, too, and the coffee awful.
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Dave said on April 23, 2018 at 8:36 am
bb in de, are you a fellow Fairfield Countian? I grew up in Pickerington, a bit earlier than you, 50’s and 60’s.
Dexter, I don’t remember a Huddle House on 30 East but I do remember the Sambo’s. I also remember a Pal’s Truck Stop in New Haven, located just past the Y where old 30 splits off. Today, there’s a Hall’s Restaurant on that site.
That Waffle House is only a couple of miles from where my youngest son lived for awhile. I know of two other Waffle Houses we would pass within two or three miles of that one, both on Bell, the hero had been to one on Bell that was packed.
MarkH, as I’m sure you’re well aware, Ernest Tubb was a real force in early country music.
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basset said on April 23, 2018 at 8:42 am
Indeed he was, and I’ve seen him quoted as saying a large part of his appeal was that when someone would hear him on a jukebox and say “hell, I can sing better than that guy!”… he usually could.
one of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcasts describes how Tubb got a load on one night and went to the WSM radio offices with intent to shoot someone he was upset with. ended up firing one shot into a wall or ceiling or something and getting hauled off to jail.
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basset said on April 23, 2018 at 9:09 am
Middle of the night spot in Bloomington in the 70s was the Hour House restaurant near the optometry school… the “Breakfast Special” of eggs, hash browns, toast and coffee was a dollar-sixty. There’s a Subway in that spot now, or was last time I was up there anyway… it’s on the end of an apartment building and if I have the story right that’s where Subway Jared lived and ate while he lost all his weight.
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Judybusy said on April 23, 2018 at 9:32 am
All this waffle talk makes me want to make waffles.
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Julie Robinson said on April 23, 2018 at 9:46 am
Never ate at the Hour House, because for one semester I lived on the third floor of the building and the exhaust fan fed right into my bedroom window. In fact, the smell acted as an appetite suppressant in general, and I was at my lowest-ever weight.
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bb in de said on April 23, 2018 at 10:09 am
Fellow Fairfield Countian indeed, Dave. I came along later than you but still remember when “Olde Town” Pickerington was all there was, and a decades-old gas station was the only thing on 256 beside the interstate instead of the shopping + traffic mecca that runs all the way down 256 now. I grew up closer to Lithopolis, went to BCHS.
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Deborah said on April 23, 2018 at 10:30 am
Julie Robinson, I know what you mean by appetite suppressant. I worked in a design studio that was above a Quizznos, that smell makes me want to puke even to this day, that was over 20 years ago.
Now that I’m leaving for NM next week the temperature in Chicago is finally just the way I like it.
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Sherri said on April 23, 2018 at 10:38 am
I will confess to having eaten at Waffle House in the wee hours in a less than sober state, more than once. It is the place to go in the South to sober up, because it’s cheap and it’s open.
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Dorothy said on April 23, 2018 at 10:54 am
I wonder if I’m the only regular reader here who’s never been to a Waffle House? I take great pride in that fact too, but my oldest sister loves to eat there. Which makes me amazed because she has gone through a period where she’s claiming to only eat healthy food. I’m guessing she is blindfolded every time they eat at a Wa-Ho. Does anyone else here like First Watch as a breakfast place? Their Eggs Benedict are to die for. I had never tried them before in my life until about two years ago. Now it’s all I ever want when I go there.
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Suzanne said on April 23, 2018 at 10:59 am
Yes, First Watch is wonderful! Eggs Benedict and their Avacado toast/egg dish is good, too. And good coffee!!
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Sherri said on April 23, 2018 at 11:34 am
In 2016, the latest year for which there is data, there were 1148 gun related deaths in Tennessee. That same year, there were 1037 traffic fatalities.
Maybe adding a little more friction to the process of buying and owning a gun might change that. Licensing requirements. Liability insurance requirements. Taxes. Safety requirements before a model can be sold in the US.
If I could wave a magic wand, sure, I’d confiscate every AR-15 and similar models in existence and destroy them, but that’s unlikely to happen. I think we can stop pouring gasoline on the fire, though. The NRA has been making it easier to manufacture and buy and own a gun; we can make those things harder.
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LAMary said on April 23, 2018 at 11:51 am
I went to college in Denver and I don’t recall any Waffle Houses there. There were IHOPs and places call Country Kitchen or something. The place we went to in the wee hours was called the White Spot which we referred to as the Wet Spot.
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Heather said on April 23, 2018 at 12:28 pm
Dorothy, I have never been to a Waffle House either!
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MarkH said on April 23, 2018 at 12:34 pm
bb in de — I was indeed there from ’76-’78, did continuity, weekend jock and sold air time. Back then the stations were WHOK AM & FM in the little white building on the hill NW of town. The AM changed to WLOH around 1980, the FM went by the moniker K95 and eventually moved its facilities to Columbus, but was still licensed in Lancaster. I brought my great campus radio buddy Greg down and he worked WLOH as AM DJ and music director seemed like forever. He did move on and just retired as the director of the Fairfield Co. Visitors Bureau. Dave and I had old home week some years back as I lived in Picktown through 1979, on Hill Road south of the 256 intersection, when there was just a flashing stoplight and Lawson’s anchored the little retail plaza there. How Fairfield County has changed…
One other connection – at that time I was just out of j-school and took a job as part-time reporter for The Times in Canal Winchester. In addition to high school athletics I covered Bloom Township Trustees and Bloom-Carroll school board. The school board in particular had quite a collection of characters, made for good copy.
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MarkH said on April 23, 2018 at 12:41 pm
BTW, If you were from Lithopolis, maybe you knew the WHOK/WLOH news director in the early ’80s, Cathy. She grew up there, works for AEP in Lancaster now.
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Scout said on April 23, 2018 at 12:51 pm
I’ve been to a WH once and never returned. I don’t remember it being terrible, just not memorable at all. The last time I went to an IHOP I felt like I contracted diabetes there was so much sugar in everything. First Watch is definitely a good breakfast choice, chain-wise. I too like the Benedict.
Twitter had a field day with Hair Furor being banished from Barbara Bush’s funeral, while Melanoma looked like she was having a better day than she’s had in several years.
https://twitter.com/bryanbehar/status/987838636832931841
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bb in de said on April 23, 2018 at 1:34 pm
Of course! “K-95. Where the K stands for Kountry!” How did I manage to forget that?
News director Cathy doesn’t ring a bell for me, but we weren’t quite in Lithopolis proper. I just assumed “We lived between Greencastle and Royalton” was too hyper-local, even when talking to fellow Fairfield Countians.
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Julie Robinson said on April 23, 2018 at 1:39 pm
Years ago on vacation we saw a movie in Imax 3D, which made me nauseous. Then we ate at what I think was a Waffle House. It all came up later as the nausea continued. I’ve since learned that there’s a portion of the population whose brains can’t process 3D, Roger Ebert being a member along with me.
And squee! The new little prince is chubby and adorbs, and Cathy Cambridge has already made an appearance holding him, complete with beautifully coiffed hair, makeup, jewelry, pantyhose and heels. Is she human?
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Connie said on April 23, 2018 at 2:53 pm
Waffle House was always a special place to go together for my husband and our daughter when little. And always sat at the counter to watch the waffles do their thing.
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Suzanne said on April 23, 2018 at 3:06 pm
Julie, I have the same problem. We saw some IMAX movie years ago about space and I couldn’t watch most of it. I even have trouble in a plain old regular movie if I sit too close. If the movie is hand held camera work, I just plain can’t watch, no matter how far back I sit. I missed the battle scenes in Lord of the Rings. All that motion made me nauseous.
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Sherri said on April 23, 2018 at 3:23 pm
The common denominator of so many of the strange and troubling cultural narratives coming our way is a set of assumptions about who matters, whose story it is, who deserves the pity and the treats and the presumptions of innocence, the kid gloves and the red carpet, and ultimately the kingdom, the power, and the glory. You already know who. It’s white people in general and white men in particular, and especially white Protestant men, some of whom are apparently dismayed to find out that there is going to be, as your mom might have put it, sharing.
Rebecca Solnit: https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-the-myth-of-real-america-just-wont-go-away/
I’m not just happy to be in a bubble from people like the fictional Roseanne (or the real one) — I delight in the distance. I’m a proud coastal elite. I don’t want any part of those Roseanne-esque people and their ignorance or viewpoints. That’s not soap-boxing — that’s fact. Live your tragically insular, religiously hypocritical white lives somewhere I’m not. I’m fine with the divide — you do you. Let’s never meet and I’ll ignore you and suffer your breathing if we do.
TV critic Tim Goodman: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/tim-goodman-why-i-dont-watch-roseanne-trump-related-tv-confessions-1104503
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Deborah said on April 23, 2018 at 3:40 pm
Sherri, that Rebecca Solnit link is powerful, we need more people who can write things like that.
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Suzanne said on April 23, 2018 at 3:59 pm
“…everyone who’s not Joe the Plumber is Maurice the Elitist. We should know them, the logic goes; they do not need to know us.”
I have definitely encountered this sort of mentality here in the heartland. Those big city people need to come our here and see the “real America” but no, we won’t go visit New York or LA. Too scary.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 23, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Dear Rebbecca Solnit, and Tim Goodman
Why bless your Little old left wing hearts.
Pilot Joe
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alex said on April 23, 2018 at 5:00 pm
Shooter captured! Yay!
He had clothes on this time.
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David C. said on April 23, 2018 at 6:27 pm
Dorothy @23. I can go you one better than never having eaten at a Waffle House. Before this weekend, I’d never heard of Waffle House.
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beb said on April 23, 2018 at 6:31 pm
Thinkprogress has an article on the Waffle House shooter
https://thinkprogress.org/waffle-house-shooter-gun-loopholes-03cf92a2d7e2/
The take-away is that this guy has had mental issues for going on to a decade, was known to both police and FBI and yet somehow flow under the mental health restrictions for gun ownership. And when the police took his guns away they gave them to Reinking’s father who gave them back to the shooter. His father deserves to be prosecuted as an accessory to murder. But the bigger takeaway is that society values the right to possess murderous weapons over mental health and public safety. Gun registration is not the answer — confiscation is.
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Scout said on April 23, 2018 at 7:02 pm
Please starve the troll. Attention goes straight to his hips.
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David C. said on April 23, 2018 at 8:43 pm
Never been to a Waffle House, now I never will.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/04/chikesia-clemons-alabama-facebook-waffle-house-video/
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Diane said on April 23, 2018 at 8:47 pm
I also have never been to a Waffle House. After reading the comments here, I now also suspect that I never will.
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Jeff said on April 23, 2018 at 9:30 pm
Man, after having waffles in Bryant Park last Thanksgiving week, from the booth on the corner by Broadway — every waffle I’ve had since then is a faint shadow of the ur-waffle that is Wafels & Dinges.
Greg E.! Working on World Heritage for the Ohio Hopewell Earthworks, I got to work with him a bit in Fairfield County, Mark, and he introduced me to the wonderful weirdness that is the Stonewall Cemetery. Worth a visit if you’re in the area: http://www.historicalparks.org/stonewall-cemetery/
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Sherri said on April 24, 2018 at 12:23 am
Could the ERA could back from the dead?
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/the-equal-rights-amendment-could-be-the-perfect-remedy-for-the-metoo-era.html
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Dexter said on April 24, 2018 at 3:49 am
Appetite suppressant for me was fresh cooked Kraft carmel (not caramel there) from a giant hopper coming through a hole in the bottom, formed into a three-feet long log and slammed into a pan for tempering. I would eat a little every now and then and when meal-break arrived, I would eat very little regular food at all. Just a little killed my appetite and in a few weeks I had lost 32 pounds. I then quit the job and reported to the baseball team down in Winston-Salem, NC. I at least looked fit.
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Jeff Borden said on April 24, 2018 at 9:49 am
Thank you for posting those links, Sherri.
There’s a fascinating story about a fishing town called Grimsby in England, which voted for the Brexit by a huge margin. In actuality, there is very little fishing done from Grimsby. The big job generator –employing large numbers of Poles and Lithuanians– is an enormous fish processing center. Yet it will suffer greatly when Britain exits the E.U.
What the story focuses on is the allure of the past. The townspeople of Grimsby are in love with the romance of their old lives, even though hundreds of its sailors perished at sea. They are convinced the old times will return if only England is freed from the E.U. shackles. Thus, a relatively insignificant industry is being favored over one that generates far more money and jobs. The article notes there is a similar nostalgia in the coal country of America. Far more people work in renewable energy, but the nostalgia for the past wins out.
I’m deeply into my sixties now and determined never to be one of “those guys,” prattling on and on and on about the superiority of good old days that never were. I’m happy to embrace the future. . .even when technology bedevils me.
Nostalgia is a powerful drug. Many of our fellow citizens are hooked on it. And that’s a serious problem.
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Dorothy said on April 24, 2018 at 9:59 am
David @ 40 – I can’t imagine where in America you could live without seeing a Waffle House! They are like ants – they’re everywhere! Bright yellow signs with black letters – I can’t think of a single interstate interchange where I’ve never seen one. Just…. wow!
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susan said on April 24, 2018 at 10:08 am
Dorothy, I’ve never seen one in the Pac NW.
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Dorothy said on April 24, 2018 at 10:20 am
Thanks Susan. I figured there had to be a place where they don’t have a presence. It’s funny how we assume that something that is common in one place is not even known in another! Somehow this reminds me of the weird practice of cutting pizza in squares in many parts of Ohio. When we first moved out of PA in 2002 and went to Cincinnati, I thought people had lost their minds. Cutting pizza NOT in triangular wedges?! My mind boggled! (I’m being somewhat sarcastic here, which is not easy to read on a screen. But still – who had that wacky idea in the first place anyway??)
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Deborah said on April 24, 2018 at 10:44 am
Dorothy, Waffle House’s invisibility to some could be caused by a manifestation of what my husband calls “evaluative oblivion”. It partly means that there is so much low quality stuff out there competing for our attention, that it all melts into mush, and nothing really stands out. If you’re in a room full of people screaming chances are you won’t be able to make out anything they’re saying.
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john (not mccain) said on April 24, 2018 at 11:53 am
No WH in western NY. I used to lament that fact, but stopping at one in SC on the way back from my mother’s funeral in 2016 cured me of ever wanting to go to one again. Not only was this one filthy, which had not been my experience from eating at many different locations pre-1994, but one of the crakkker waitresses asked to sit next to us to get away from some black people who had sat next to her. Fortunately, we were seconds from leaving anyway.
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susan said on April 24, 2018 at 11:56 am
Waffle House Store Locator. No wonder I’ve never seen one in the Pac NW.
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Jakash said on April 24, 2018 at 12:08 pm
David C. lives in Wisconsin, no? As far as I can tell, there aren’t any Waffle Houses there. Well, not that chain, anyway. They started in the Southeast and have expanded, but the closest one to Chicago seems to be near Indianapolis…
Chicago is famous for deep dish pizza, of course. (Insert insults and “that’s not pizza, that’s a casserole” remarks below, if you wish.) But it’s a big freaking city, so there’s a thriving thin-crust contingent, as well. One of the variations of thin crust is often cut in squares, which is called “tavern style” or “party cut.” Wikipedia says the thin, crunchy-crust version is “found in Chicago and throughout the rest of the Midwest.”
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Jolene said on April 24, 2018 at 12:23 pm
No Waffle Houses in the Upper Midwest either. Never saw one in ND or Minnesota. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in any of the places I’ve lived: ND, Seattle, Chicago, Champaign, IL, Tucson, Boston, Pittsburgh, Alexandria, VA. Can’t say I’m sorry, though I do love a good breakfast.
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Deborah said on April 24, 2018 at 12:32 pm
I don’t think this was the exact article I read about this a while back but FEMA uses Waffle Houses as a way to know how bad a hurricane or other crisis is in a given geography. Waffle House has developed a system of distribution that works during disaster conditions. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/09/07/how-fema-uses-waffle-houses-disasters/641145001/
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Jolene said on April 24, 2018 at 12:41 pm
The Post has a collection of photos re what the Obamas have been doing since they left the White House. Most are familiar, but there are a few I hadn’t seen before. And even the familiar ones are heartening in these times.
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Suzanne said on April 24, 2018 at 1:55 pm
Aaaand the market is tanking again. The Dow down 500. I get nervous every time, remembering that in 2008, it kept tanking.
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LAMary said on April 24, 2018 at 2:07 pm
Is anyone else put off by the Waffle House logo? It looks crappy and temporary to me, like no thought was put into choosing it. Even crummy places have less ugly signs. There’s a tiny shop here in LA on North Figueroa Street. They sell inexpensive clothes some stuff like dishtowels and aprons. They have a lovely oval sign outside that says, “Martha’s Clothings.” If Martha can pony up for a nice sign, Waffle house can do better.
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Sherri said on April 24, 2018 at 2:42 pm
Think of Waffle House as more like a truck stop than a restaurant. It’s cheap and it’s open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. No, I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat at one, but back in the day in a small town in the South, middle of the night options were pretty limited.
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MarkH said on April 24, 2018 at 3:00 pm
Jeff – knowing where you live and your reach outside Licking County, I wondered if we might have some friends in common. It is a small world! I know some folks in Granville as well; look for an email from me.
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Dorothy said on April 24, 2018 at 4:25 pm
How could I have forgotten this? One of my brothers said, years ago, that he was pretty sure it must have been a job requirement for waitresses at Waffle House to be missing at least 1/3 of their teeth. Yes it’s a not-very-nice comment but apt, I’m guessing, since he’d been to bunches of them.
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Dexter said on April 24, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Sepsis killed my mother-in-law at age 68 in 1988. Sepsis killed my cousin Steve at age 61 in 2010. Poppy Bush now has sepsis, and is crushed at his wife’s loss of life. He’s now 93. A real test for modern medicine.
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Julie Robinson said on April 24, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Sepsis came *this* close to claiming me some 21 years ago. I did wonder how Poppy would handle the long days of visitation and funeral. Then I saw the close up of his socks and thought; swollen ankles, retaining water, heart disease?
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Dorothy said on April 24, 2018 at 5:32 pm
When Mrs Bush died last week I said to my hubby that I predict Mr Bush will follow not far behind her. It happens often, especially to folks that old. My Aunt Ruth died of brain cancer in 1987 or ‘88 and UncleTim, (her spouse) who had not been in poor health, got sick and died just under four months after losing his love. They were in their late 60’s at the time.
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David C. said on April 24, 2018 at 5:39 pm
You’re right, Jackash. I’m in Wisconsin, and West Michigan before that. Both Waffle House deserts. The nearest is in Toledo.
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basset said on April 24, 2018 at 5:40 pm
On a happier note, we need something like this today… clear signals would have made my dating years much less stressful:
https://www.vogue.com/article/secret-language-of-the-fan-eighteenth-century-fans-de-young-museum?mbid=social_twitter
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Jenine said on April 24, 2018 at 5:40 pm
Super cool footage from Rosetta close to surface of a comet!
CNET article with more info.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 24, 2018 at 7:19 pm
In my freight hauling days, I ate at Waffle House a few times, not bad after flying all night and some times it was the only thing around. Waffle House must be doing something right, they have a huge hanger at the Atlanta Peach Tree airport and fly a couple Gulfstreams at around 50+million a piece along with a new King Air.
Must be some profit in there somewhere.
Pilot Joe
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alex said on April 24, 2018 at 7:45 pm
Must be doing something right Indeed. The overhead of cleaning their stores would seriously eat into their profits.
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Dorothy said on April 24, 2018 at 7:49 pm
Alex: ❤️❤️❤️
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Sheryl Prentice said on April 26, 2018 at 4:36 pm
I’ve never eaten at a Waffle House either. The nearest one to our farm in the wilds of northwestern DeKalb County, Indiana, is in Anderson. I go to Indianapolis often, but always took a look at the WH and said “Ummm, no.”
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