Hospitals...

There are so many things not to like about hospitals. I like the IDEA of them - healing the sick - but the reality, for a patient, or, in my case, the daughter of a patient, far from a place where they help you get better.

Here I sit, as I type, in the nuclear medicine lab as my father has a "stress test." Apparently there's a worldwide shortage of a particular isotope they usually use for this test, and they have to use another, slower one. Which means lunch in the hospital cafeteria! Yikes. And then a 3 hour wait to repeat the test. My father is not pleased and cranky. I don't blame him.

I think, also, that I would hate a job where I had to wear scrubs every day, was subjected to primarily flourescent lighting, and the weird-smelling, dry, cold hospital air. And then there's the ugly art, the strange color choices and other aesthetic issues. I'm glad I didn't choose medicine as a career!

Internet Is (almost) totally silent about AMAZING TASTE TREAT!

My father belongs to an Atlanta country club (Capital City Club). It is not the very most socially sought after or elite. That distinction would go to the Piedmont Driving Club, but the CCC is right up there. It does have one particular food that would make it worth joining just to have in unlimited quantities. I am, of course, talking about the basket of hot butter Saltine crackers served as you sit down for dinner. In recent years other Atlanta clubs have added these onto their tables as well, but make no mistake, the CCC had it first.

The internet is virtually silent about these hot buttery crackers with the exception of a brief note in an article in 1999 which you can see here (about midway down the page).

How could this be? Have Atlantans been keeping this delicious secret on purpose? I remember as a kid trying to make them at home. I put butter on my saltines and stuck them in the oven, and got soggy crackers. I even tried different temperatures to no avail. The real things are crisp! The butter has saturated them without making them soggy in the least. I actually assumed they were fried in the butter. I still don't know how they do it.

I'd like to share a picture with you, but I have none. Imagine the cracker a golden yellow, warm, crisp, buttery, melting in your mouth. You could eat a dozen. As a kid I would spread extra butter on them. Decadent in a very Southern way. Does anyone really know how to make them? Can we share these with the world? It's about time!

Desperately Seeking Wi-Fi

So when I visit my dad, I always have my trusty Blackberry (I just upgraded to the Curve! Loving it.). However, sometimes, for work etc. I need the Real Thing. Not Coca-Cola, but the True Internet. And my technologically-impaired father has none. Lucky for me, I live less than a mile from Brookhaven Station where no less than 3 establishments have free wireless. Dunkin' Donuts, Hudson Grille, and The Mellow Mushroom. I usually sit in my car (as I am now!) and quickly upload/download what I need to do and split. It works. Not ideal, but whatever. What's strange to me is none of these 3 places strike me as the kind of place that would have free wi fi. Maybe Dunkin, but the others - a sports bar/restaurant and a pizza place aren't exactly the kinds of places. Whatever. I'll take it! (that's my computer, in the car, outside the Dunkin')

Weed 'Em Out?

view from the day
Originally uploaded by absolutwade

Why aren't there pedestrian crossing signals on Park Avenue in Midtown? Are they trying to elminate the weak ones in the herd? What's the deal? I mean, honestly.

The Incredible Edible Cancer Stick

This morning I went into a local bodega because I was running late and I knew they sold hard boiled eggs. A great portable breakfast. I saw the sign on the counter, "2 hard boiled eggs $1."

"Great," I thought to myself, "they have some this morning."

After waiting for the person ahead of me to pay, I went up to the counter.

"Hard boiled eggs," I requested. The man mumbled something back. I thought he was repeating my order as he turned around to grasp an item.

The clerk placed a pack of Marlboro Lights onto the counter saying, "Marlboro Lights?"

Um, no. HARD BOILED EGGS.

I thought that these two things sound alike. How did this happen? This man was not a native English speaker, was that the problem? Was it because it was early in the morning and I was mumbling? A bit of my sounthern accent coming out?

HARD BOILED EGGS. MARLBORO LIGHTS.

I laughed.