viernes, noviembre 11
Friday’s Are For Smorgasbords
At least that’s what I remember my school doing throughout most of my elementary years. I probably passed through a couple grades before I realized what a smorgasbord was. At first I figured it to be some German or Eastern European dish which automatically led me to think t would be disgusting. This false assumption on my part also led to a bit of contemplation on how a school in Miami, with a predominantly Hispanic student body no less, could get away with serving some Euro-dish that sounded like a foot disease. It wasn’t until later that I realized what the word really meant- leftovers.
It was all just a glorified way of taking everything that hadn’t been cooked or served the
previous four days and making a fifth day of lunch out of it. Like most kids I packed a lunch the majority of the time so it wasn’t like eating the same thing I had eaten the day before was really going to cramp my style.
My favorite thing to think about Friday smorgasbords is how they came up with the idea at my school. I’m sure they weren’t the first to do it either. The school’s board of directors probably met over budget issues for the fifteenth time one year to figure out how to save more money, and one guy probably thought he had
the greatest idea when he brought up the smorgasbord concept. “We’ll only have to buy 4 days worth of lunch! Was probably his most convincing point. There after the entire board probably joined together in Mr. Burns like finger rapping as they basked in the glory of masking their budget cut with the façade of the Swedish word for a fish, eel, cheese, and egg buffet.
I actually had the same issue with “pot luck” dinners. I didn’t know what crazy American tradition that was, probably some lucky pot gathering. Either way I, being of Cuban descent, knew I’d never go to one.
So I’m bringing it back Florida Christian School style and making Friday’s here a smorgasbord. No not the fish buffet version but the other definition- a collection containing a variety of sorts of things. Wow, I didn’t realize how vague that definition was until copied it over.
Since we already started off with food I’ll let you all in on something I’ve been doing at work that probably leads some people to think I’m strange and others to believe I’m a godsend. Which side of the fence
you fall depends a lot on how much you enjoy Mexican food and social interactions. My workplace isn’t any different than the majority of them in that there are some people there that would rather be by themselves with their work than spend time interacting with their coworker, but this isn’t about them. On Friday’s a few of us have made it a tradition to go eat Mexican food at a little place called Fontova’s. I mentioned going there one day while I was in training and then it got pushed back to a Friday, w
hich then found 7 other people coming along to partake in burrito festivities. Almost immediately Friday’s became Fontova Friday’s and I made sure to do my best Mexican yelp and ethnic exclamations every time the two magic words were mentioned in my presence. If you could imagine Chairy from Pee Wee’s Playhouse being Mexican it would be what she would scream every time Pee Wee said the word of the day.
I also went on to make a flyer promoting Fontova Friday’s. These quickly became collectors’ items and the biggest Mexican food enthusiasts around the office can be identified by the presence of these flyers in their cubes. Each week I make a new one, but not this Friday. I feel I’ve done enough for Fontova already by talking about it here.
The people who work there are all Mexicans so I make sure to use my Spanish to my benefit when ever I’m there. I would say on average I pay $1.50 less than everyone else who goes with me for the same meal. It’s pretty obvious why I’m so enthusiastic about continuing to go. Still, the best Mexican food I ever had was in San Francisco.
In Superhero news we can still look towards Louisiana and Mississippi for some acts of bravery in vigilantism. That is where Karl “The Mailman” Malone is making a new name for himself. Many of you may remember Karl as part of the basketball-crime-fighting-duo: Stockton&Malone as part of the Utah Jazz professional basketball franchise. In their years together they came to exemplify the pick and roll and among other things- short shorts and Rogaine ads. These days though Karl is cleaning up the area that was demolished by Hurricane Katrina. Even though the federal government tried to stop Karl and his construction equipment (re: superhero arsenal) company from assisting in the reconstruction and relief effort The Mailman went ahead and did his best to restore life in the gulf. 115 condemned homes in Pascagoula, Mississippi were cleared by
Malone with no one’s permission. Talk about seeing a problem and getting the job done. This country would be better off with more men like Malone- does the right thing even though no one asked him and has a killer jump shot.
Kudos, Mailman you have done your namesake well. Rain, sleet, snow, or red tape can’t stop you from delivering.
Most of our modern day heroes are the soldiers who fight in wars and keep the majority of us safe and free. It seems that someone in Florida felt the best way to honor the fallen men of valor and courage is by using their tombstones as a walkway outside their mobile home. Every time this person stepped outside their humble abode they were reminded that someone died so that they could walk barefoot to the back of their trailer without getting mud all over their feet. Those past wars may have been praised for preserving freedom but we should never take for granted the amount of ringworm that was avoided thanks to countless deaths in combat.
So far no one knows who these tombstones belong to. It has been two years so I’m going to post the names here to do my part to restore some of the dignity these men deserve even in death.
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It was all just a glorified way of taking everything that hadn’t been cooked or served the
previous four days and making a fifth day of lunch out of it. Like most kids I packed a lunch the majority of the time so it wasn’t like eating the same thing I had eaten the day before was really going to cramp my style.My favorite thing to think about Friday smorgasbords is how they came up with the idea at my school. I’m sure they weren’t the first to do it either. The school’s board of directors probably met over budget issues for the fifteenth time one year to figure out how to save more money, and one guy probably thought he had
the greatest idea when he brought up the smorgasbord concept. “We’ll only have to buy 4 days worth of lunch! Was probably his most convincing point. There after the entire board probably joined together in Mr. Burns like finger rapping as they basked in the glory of masking their budget cut with the façade of the Swedish word for a fish, eel, cheese, and egg buffet.I actually had the same issue with “pot luck” dinners. I didn’t know what crazy American tradition that was, probably some lucky pot gathering. Either way I, being of Cuban descent, knew I’d never go to one.
So I’m bringing it back Florida Christian School style and making Friday’s here a smorgasbord. No not the fish buffet version but the other definition- a collection containing a variety of sorts of things. Wow, I didn’t realize how vague that definition was until copied it over.
Since we already started off with food I’ll let you all in on something I’ve been doing at work that probably leads some people to think I’m strange and others to believe I’m a godsend. Which side of the fence
you fall depends a lot on how much you enjoy Mexican food and social interactions. My workplace isn’t any different than the majority of them in that there are some people there that would rather be by themselves with their work than spend time interacting with their coworker, but this isn’t about them. On Friday’s a few of us have made it a tradition to go eat Mexican food at a little place called Fontova’s. I mentioned going there one day while I was in training and then it got pushed back to a Friday, w
hich then found 7 other people coming along to partake in burrito festivities. Almost immediately Friday’s became Fontova Friday’s and I made sure to do my best Mexican yelp and ethnic exclamations every time the two magic words were mentioned in my presence. If you could imagine Chairy from Pee Wee’s Playhouse being Mexican it would be what she would scream every time Pee Wee said the word of the day.I also went on to make a flyer promoting Fontova Friday’s. These quickly became collectors’ items and the biggest Mexican food enthusiasts around the office can be identified by the presence of these flyers in their cubes. Each week I make a new one, but not this Friday. I feel I’ve done enough for Fontova already by talking about it here.
The people who work there are all Mexicans so I make sure to use my Spanish to my benefit when ever I’m there. I would say on average I pay $1.50 less than everyone else who goes with me for the same meal. It’s pretty obvious why I’m so enthusiastic about continuing to go. Still, the best Mexican food I ever had was in San Francisco.
In Superhero news we can still look towards Louisiana and Mississippi for some acts of bravery in vigilantism. That is where Karl “The Mailman” Malone is making a new name for himself. Many of you may remember Karl as part of the basketball-crime-fighting-duo: Stockton&Malone as part of the Utah Jazz professional basketball franchise. In their years together they came to exemplify the pick and roll and among other things- short shorts and Rogaine ads. These days though Karl is cleaning up the area that was demolished by Hurricane Katrina. Even though the federal government tried to stop Karl and his construction equipment (re: superhero arsenal) company from assisting in the reconstruction and relief effort The Mailman went ahead and did his best to restore life in the gulf. 115 condemned homes in Pascagoula, Mississippi were cleared by
Malone with no one’s permission. Talk about seeing a problem and getting the job done. This country would be better off with more men like Malone- does the right thing even though no one asked him and has a killer jump shot. Kudos, Mailman you have done your namesake well. Rain, sleet, snow, or red tape can’t stop you from delivering.
Most of our modern day heroes are the soldiers who fight in wars and keep the majority of us safe and free. It seems that someone in Florida felt the best way to honor the fallen men of valor and courage is by using their tombstones as a walkway outside their mobile home. Every time this person stepped outside their humble abode they were reminded that someone died so that they could walk barefoot to the back of their trailer without getting mud all over their feet. Those past wars may have been praised for preserving freedom but we should never take for granted the amount of ringworm that was avoided thanks to countless deaths in combat.
So far no one knows who these tombstones belong to. It has been two years so I’m going to post the names here to do my part to restore some of the dignity these men deserve even in death.
- Allen J. Brown, Army private, World War II, 1922-
1993 - Steve Btewton (may be a typo), Army private, World War II, 3-19-1917 - 4-14-1984
- Clarence Dixon, Army corporal, World War II, 9-11-1912 - 2-11-1984
- Thomas Edison Hadley Jr., Army rank unknown, World War II, 10-7-1922 - 12-30-1980
- Isaac Samford Howell, private first class, branch unknown, World War II, 1907-1994
- J.C. Purifoy, Army corporal, Korea, 1930-1993
- James Singletary, Army rank and war unknown, 1878-1981
Have a great weekend! I’ll be in New York so hope and pray I run into some good material on my trip.
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