5/25/2011

San Francisco Fog - Something Lurks Inside


Patty and I were in San Francisco recently and we stayed at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue. (BTW, the hotel restaurant was never open the entire 5 days we were there) Now I have heard tall tales about how thick and how fast the fog rolls in from the ocean. The three photographs below were taken from our hotel window, (What a view huh?) in the span of an hour. Now I believe.

Photo one: An almost clear view to the ocean and the city including the San Francisco cable cars can be easily seen. (Click the thumbnail for a much larger version)
Photo two: The fog rolls in quickly engulfing the city.
Photo three: Total immersion of the fog.

I told Patty we should hurry down to the street so we could meet Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh. She looked at me puzzled like I had gone mad. I explained that San Francisco used to be an old fishing town built over an old leper colony and when the fog rolls in the former inhabitants (Zombies) come back and exact revenge.

That evening we had a hauntingly good time. The Fog is the true San Francisco treat.


LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL

5/17/2011

Margherita's Italian Restaurant

Margherita's Italian Restaurant
Margherita's Italian Restaurant
Patty calls me and tells me of a new restaurant close to town called Margaritaville. Al right! I was down with that. I loved Mararitaville in Las Vegas and Orlando and now there was one close in town. I was ready for some “Cheeseburger In Paradise.” We went as soon as I got home.
We found ourselves in Girard on the main drag and Patty says, there it is, there’s Margaritaville. Damn, I must of heard wrong, (I am 51) for there before me was the Margherita’s Restaurant sign. The place was packed and the parking lot full so it took some ingenuity in parking.
Italian Bread And Butter
Totally bummed that I wouldn’t be having mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potato, I settled for a standard classic. A short time later, some Italian Bread was brought to the table. It was fresh and tasted good. Bravo!
Standard Salad
Next came the salad. It was standard fare. It was good, fresh, with plenty of lettuce and enough added items to compliment the dish. So far, so good.
Margherita's Chicken Parm
Margherita's Chicken Parm
You guessed it. I ordered the Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. After all, it was an Italian restaurant, the sauce is usually good and the meals generally very above average.
The portions were good. The chicken juicy and zero fat. The cheese melted and the sauce plenty and zesty. The Penne was well cooked, hot, and with the sauce, was good.
Margherita's Restaurant Inside Dining
Margherita's Restaurant Inside Dining
My only real complaint was the seating. Not that we were cramped, but we were right next door to the rest room. Not that it’s a bad thing, but usually, you cannot hear what’s going on inside the rest room. At Margherita’s, you know everyone’s business if you know what I mean.

The cost was roughly $10 dollars without tip which is a real good price. The food was good, portions adequate, the service OK, but the placement, not so good.
The Grassy Knoll Institute scores 3 out of 5 shots and recommends Margherita’s Italian Restaurant for dinner. (Just make sure you are not seated by the rest room)



LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL

5/04/2011

Cocca’s Pizza Boardman Sucks Pepperoni Roll

Cocca’s Pizza, Boardman, Ohio, consider yourself on notice. I was once a loyal customer of yours, ordering either a pizza, chicken tenders, pepperoni roll, or all of the above roughly once a week. No more! I can tolerate plenty, but your complete lack of customer service and lousy management has put an end to my patronage.

Just about every week I would call for a pizza and an order of chicken tenders. I would then be told twenty or thirty minutes depending on how busy they were for my pick up time. No problem right? Wrong!

Every time I went in to pick up my order, (After waiting the specified amount of time, 20-30 minutes) my pizza would be ready but they always failed to prepare the chicken tenders. The employee would blurt out something like, “Sorry, I forgot to get the tenders ready. It’ll be 10 minutes or so!” Sometimes, the employee would begin to ring up my order and notice the tenders weren’t there and then call back to the other employee’s asking who forgot to put the order in. Many other excuses like above followed.

Now, if they forgot once in a while it would be no big deal. But the last time I ordered, they really screwed up.

As usual, I walked in the doors after 30 minutes and went to the counter and gave them my name. He went back to the oven where my pizza was sitting and put it on the table where the employee’s were making pizza’s. He then looked over the fryer and saw my chicken tenders were not there. BIG SURPRISE!

Then he lied to me. He said my tenders were cooking and would be ready in a minute or two. I said no problem. As promised, the fryer oven buzzed and the employee took the chicken tenders out of the fryer. Then the manager said something like, Wait, those aren’t his tenders. They are for another customer. The manager then proceeded to tell me that another customer ordered after me, (Yes, after me) and it was a large order and he needed the fryer for another 20-30 minutes before he could make my order which he forgot to do in the first place. He then turned away and continued his work.

What The Fuck! I asked why I couldn’t have four of the dozen or so pieces that were just made so my pizza would not get cold and my order would be complete and I could be on my way. He said matter-of-fact, “No, you’re going to have to wait. I have to get this order done for another customer.”

Now, a good manager would have understood the situation, knowing that his employee was at fault and would have remedied the problem right away by giving me the four pieces already done and scrambled to make up a little more time for the customer who has not even arrived yet. Everyone would have been happy. Cocca’s Pizza would still have a long time customer. Instead, he was a complete asshat.

I told him to keep the pizza or shove it up his ass, whichever he preferred. I didn’t stick around to see which option he selected.

With that,
The Grassy Knoll Institute scores Negative 2 out of 5 shots and DOES NOT recommend Cocca’s Pizza Of Boardman for dinner.
               

LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL

5/03/2011

WikiLeaks Hacked By Giant Aliens

Wiki Leaks Snowden
Wiki Leaks Snowden
In a reversal of roles, Wiki-Leaks, the nefarious non-profit website publisher of classified media from governments around the world, has been hacked. An elite team of giant aliens infiltrated Wiki-Leaks files during a routine server reboot. Terabytes of valuable information was downloaded concerning strategy and assessment of the enemy which will certainly damage the war effort against the giant aliens poised to take over the world.

One data disk was left behind by the aliens with an encrypted file

After decoding the file, it merely read....

Processing... processing... processing... and a single link was present named Fresh Hell.


LURKING ON THE GRASSY KNOLL