Comments on: Join us at Maid-Rite

By: Kathy Hilen-Smith

Kathy Hilen-Smith — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:05:16 +0000

That call was from our adoring son, and that is the ,"you did wha?" look. Michael has one too. The best part of that call was when I told him we were at Maid-Rite. He so sad now.

By: Amy Mabli

Amy Mabli — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:48:36 +0000

I like the photo where Kathy looks like she's saying "your phone call interrupted my loose meat experience, bitch".

By: Sheila Ryan

Sheila Ryan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:38:17 +0000

Oh, and we now refer to Blue Velvet as “the wrong movie”, much as superstitious theater folk speak of “the Scottish play”.

By: Sheila Ryan

Sheila Ryan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:05:58 +0000

Hey, that reminds me of a funny moment chez Martin-Ryan. Pause. Jon picked up a $5.00 DVD of Blue Velvet at the 24-hour HyperSuperStuporStore the other night. Late. Real late. After he'd been going at least three days without sleep. Came home in the dead of night (I'd crashed out), popped it into the machine, and watched a good bit of it. Come morning, told me, "I kept waiting for Nicholas Cage to appear and say, 'This snakeskin jacket symbolizes my individuality and belief in personal freedom.' Then when Dennis Hopper said, 'Fuck Heineken! Pabst Blue Ribbon!', I realized I was watching Blue Velvet, not Wild at Heart." It had been a rough week. Rough couple of weeks.

By: Michael Grant Smith

Michael Grant Smith — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:51:18 +0000

Pabst Blue Ribbon, Neighbor.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:43:22 +0000

Michael, the Stroh’s Longnecks were right. My roommate is a representative for a high end booze company, and we do our share of high-falutin’ drinking, but we also take a special pride in walking down to the Chevron station to grab a six pack of something cheap and American on hamburger night, sloppy joe night, or really just about any time we need a break. Cans are preferred over bottles. It’s just a different genre.

By: Michael Grant Smith

Michael Grant Smith — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:19:47 +0000

Sheila, maybe imaginary roads lead to imaginary diners?

By: Michael Grant Smith

Michael Grant Smith — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:17:20 +0000

Stroh’s longnecks are $1.65 each. Heineken is $2.15 per bottle. I told Kathy, at these prices we could afford to hang out and get hammered, loose-meat or no. We didn’t, but we could have done so.

There was a time in my life I would have automatically ordered a Heineken based simply on what I thought was beer snobbery — and not a little amazement at finding it at a venue like Maid-Rite in Greenville (Ohio). I’m older now and what passes for wiser. Longneck Stroh’s beer just seemed right.

By: Sheila Ryan

Sheila Ryan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:08:05 +0000

It would delight me no end to experience the fabled American road food/diner paradise, the place whose apparently myriad incarnations Jane and Michael Stern have earned a good living touting for decades. But these joints always let me down! I’m not saying that the ones I’ve encountered are worse than franchise places, mind you, just that I find them different, yet not really what I’d call better.

But I’m open. Certainly I’ll have to explore a diner or cafe or two if I continue much longer with this imaginary road film nonsense.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:52:21 +0000

Lord, I love local fast food joints. Our Beefy King has killer roast beef sandwiches (heated–proudly–before your very eyes over a stainless steel contraption called “the steamer”), but loose meat is not something readily available around Orlando.