Take time to remember

This post is not about politics, snakes, or dogs. Its about a restaurant.

As first reported by KB, the Country Omelette burned down this morning. When I was a kid, a finicky kid, we'd have our occasional family breakfasts at the Country Omelette. If it was close enough to 11, I could get a hamburger. If not, pancakes. I would stack the jelly like most kids do, or I'd take a trip to the bathroom staring at all the white people (the most I'd ever see in any given week otherwise) and the large landscape photos of places in Europe used mostly to cover the walls than to advertise any particular place.

The Country Omelette was also where, after ordering a hamburger at 11am, I first heard the story of my parents first date. They met in Dallas. My dad, like many people loves breakfast, so he assumed my mom did too. He took her to what he says was one of the best places in Dallas for breakfast. They arrive at around 10am, and she orders...a hamburger.

The Country Omelette would probably be considered a dive if not for its huge windows in every booth. It had a bar, booths, and tables, a permanent salad bar with those mini-cereal boxes that seem only to exist in restaurants. It also had not changed since it opened in the late 1970s, hence it had brown shag carpet and fake wood paneling that had faded to a derby brown.

The best part though was that on our way out I could get an Andes Candy, which you could only get there and no where else, ever.

So, RIP to the Country Omelette of my childhood, I had only good memories of thee.

Some if not all of you out there in the tubes must have a similar family eatery that you remember from childhood, so take some time to remember and lets hear about it. You too lurkers!

Special Guest T from HN on Voting

Hello all, this is a cross post from from HN :

Voting

Are you registered to vote? Are you going to vote? Do you know where you can find out who is running in your district?

If you're not registered to vote, take 5 minutes out of your day today and fill out your voter registration card. It's ridiculously easy. You're too late to vote in the Nov 7th election, but you can vote in the next one!

If you're not going to vote, you're basically throwing away your one chance to change how things are done around your city, your county, your state, etc. Besides, if you don't vote, you can't complain about how shitty things are. And, man, things are shitty. Have you been paying attention?

If you want to find out who is running for office in your district, check out this website. Or this one. Make informed decisions in the voting booth. Your future depends on it.

So get to it, Gentle Readers! Woot!

brought to you by tiny robot on 10/25/2006

Good news, Bad news, you pick

While trolling the partisan blogs today, I came across the answer to a question that I have had in my mind for the past couple of years: Are Bush (personally) and his administration really fundamentalists? Do they really believe the words that come out of their mouths or the words they distribute in press releases?

Sadly (or happily?), the answer is what my parents have always cynically suspected: No.

According to a new book written by David Kuo, who was the number two guy at the Office of Faith Based initiatives, the Bush Administration has been using fundamentalist evangelical Christians for their vote much like you'd use a bludgeon to club a baby seal.

So both sides get their comeuppance and prove my parents right: The fundamentalists didn't get to turn their narrow view of morality into U.S. law (at least not on the federal level), the Administration is tagged as a bunch of phonies, and it becomes clear that their agenda really is to make as much money possible for themselves and their loyalists. Move over Ulysses S. Grant.

Katy Blogs

So you think you have too many blogs to read? Well too bad because here is one more to add. My sister has started a blog and though her updates are about as frequent as Midwest or BBQ, there they are. Some of you out there may have met my sister before. Some have not, but perhaps all have heard the oft told story of how she drove a bunch of drunken college students home from a party.

The party was at Midwest's old apartment and for some reason Katy was in town and for some other reason I took her to this party. Even though she was 15 and had a learners permit, we had no intention of letting her drive.

As the party progressed, someone, lets call her Margaret needed a ride home. I volunteered, but was told that I could not drive. M also decided she could not drive, so we volunteered Katy to drive. Why not?* Its legal, she has a learners permit, so the four of us along with Mel-a-rific and possibly someone else piled into the car and we were off. We let Margaret sit up front so she could direct....I confess this story is not as good as it should be as all I remember of the trip was the car lurching across 26th street into the left lane of a residential street as another likely drunk vehicle was coming at us in the proper lane. Scream, scream, scream and we were all sober. After dropping off Margaret (if that is her real name), M took over.

Truthfully, it was not Katy's fault that she so unprepared for the Austin streets at 15, but we still never let her forget it.

*Later it was revealed that Mel-a-rific had given Katy at least 2 beers sometime during the party.

The limited appeal post

For those librarians out there, our registrar turned me on to this novel way of presenting the book online. In this case, an auction catalog. I'll be forwarding this on to the listservs later.

Just for fun!

For the Simpsons Fans

This caught my eye as I was looking for an obituary for a patron. Enjoy.


Ol' Grimey was older then I thought.