Just an FYI, it's Schlotz<b>s</b>ky's. :)

Thank you spelling police. ;)

Wireless Menu
 

I'm looking forward to ordering the wireless Heart of Palm™ Salad online.

Well, the A/C is fixed, blowing cold air again. The house is down to 82F and the cats have begun to re-congeal. Gonna haveta keep going to the coffee shop from time to time, though, cuz I made a friend or two there. :)

Hmm, somehow I can't see hanging out in a Schlotzsky's...

That's Schlotzsssssky's for some of you.

A cute anecdote:

In 1996, my father suffered a series of major heart attacks. (To the surprise of all involved, he survived open-heart surgery and is doing all right today -- I just got back from a week's vacation with him at the beach.) On day five of the ordeal, he was transferred to Bryn Mawr Hospital for the surgery.

I was, as you might expect, a tightly-wound bundle of nerves that day in the waiting room. I read and reread every magazine in the room eight times, wore a track in the rug pacing around, and found that nothing could distract me from the worries at hand... except the tempting-looking sandwich being eaten by a woman sitting across from me.

Finally, I just _had_ to break into her conversation to ask: "WHERE did that come from?" It was Schlotzsky's Deli, up the street. Their BBQ Chicken Pizza was even better.

Sadly, that Schlotzsky's has since closed up, and according to their web site, the remaining locations closest to West Chester are in New York City and Washington, D.C., both just over 100 miles away. That's a long drive for a sandwich.

(Sort of like how I'd have to drive to suburban Baltimore-Washington to find a Hard Times Cafe. The bastards opened a location in Raleigh AFTER I'd left there for good post-college. Finding good chili near Philly is nearly impossible.)

A second Philly anecdote, from the same afternoon: I got the news that my father had survived the surgery and was bubble-wrapped in Intensive Care, and I stumbled out to my car. I flipped on the radio, and caught the tail end of the John DeBella show on WYSP, just as one of their trademark end-of-week songs came on -- a charming little ditty called "F--k Everybody" by Chain of Fools.

All of the tension of the day spontaneously collapsed, as I doubled over laughing. It was a perfectly absurd capper to my day.

I emailed DeBella at his web site, describing the incident and thanking him for the entertainment, and was greeted by a response of "What's your address? We'll send it to you." A few days later, a cassette-single popped up in my mailbox.

And, thus, I have a permanent soft spot on my radio dial for DeBella, whichever station he may land on.

(The song is <a href=http://jdbshow.com/audio.html>out there,</a>though I'm looking for an .asf->anything else converter.)

vsp, DeBella is now on WMGK, I believe. They just had a story on him in the Weekly a few weeks back.

its my experience that its damn near impossible to find good chili anywhere. only place ive ever had good chili is when someone makes it from scratch (and even that is no guarantee). not me tho, my chili sucks.

~james

I have had some goooooood chili, but yes, it's always homemade.

Here's a little trick I learned from a friend's mom.

Take your really tasty chili and add

- Cooler Ranch Doritos (ground)
- Sour cream
- plenty of shredded cheese

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

i think my childhood was ruined when i saw my dad adding brown mustard to his chili. secret ingredient my ass. still good tho. one of my old coworkers made this fantastic chili that had a damn near perfect taste. then just about the time youre finishing the first bite, the fire kicks in. it wasnt a meal, it was an experience.

~james

Well, of course homemade chili can be good. Homemade ANYTHING can be good. The trick is to find good chili where you're not the chef. ;)

For a chain, Hard Times Cafe is pretty good, if you happen to visit the Washington 'burbs. I've never been to Cincinnati, so I cannot comment on the likes of Skyline.

One of my favorite chili recipes came from <a href=http://www.waider.ie/misc/recipes.pdf>Garnish With Beak</a>, the talk.bizarre cookbook. Mark-Jason Dominus's "Chiladelphia" uses real peppers instead of salt-heavy chili powder, can be easily modified, and is part of a cookbook that includes a recipe for a RICHH sandwich. How can you go wrong?

That's like McDonald's trying to pass off Thousand Island dressing as its secret sauce. :)

well, yeah, but i think they add relish to it, so that makes it really special or something.

Starbucks is now doing free 'net access as well (though there is a bit of a catch). In looking at the locator, it's already available in many of the Philadelphia shops.

Great stuff. Armed with the appropriate wireless hacking tools, this provides many opportunities to anonymously inject stuff onto the net.