JohnnyBerry™ is an unabashed ham-lover currently living in beautiful Downtown Orlando. He is blogging only at the request of his probation officer...
Today is Olive Louise Jenkins Smith’s 6th birthday.
Little Miss Olive shares her birthday with Senator Barack Obama.
I hope Senator Obama can give us a fraction of the joy she has brought into our lives when he is elected president.
By the way, if today was Senator John McCan’ts birthday, I would hope for the same thing, but that grumpy old fuck only brings joy to the makers of Geritol and butt cream.
Back in the day the 99¢ menu at Wendy’s was all the rage.
Now it is the $5 menu at other restaurants.
Subway has a $5 foot-long sub - JohnnyBerry™ seems to recall lots of choices, but you don’t get chips or a drink or a cookie for that price, they’re extra.
Quiznos has a $5 menu but you only have three subs to choose from, and again there’s no drink, chips or cookie.
Domino’s has some stuff for $5 but you have to spend $15 to get it.
Bennigan’s so far, has the best deal for $4.99. You get to choose 10 Lunches - Everyday from 11AM-2PM:
1. Turkey O’ Toole
2. The American Burger
3. Monte Cristo
4. Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich
5. Golden Chicken Tender Lunch
6. Kilkenney’s Grilled Chicken Salad
7. Turkey Deli Sandwich and your choice of soup
8. Soup and Salad Lunch Combo (this is the puniest of all the choices)
9. Irish Grilled Cheese and Tomato Basil soup (this is JohnnyBerry’s™ favorite so far)
10. Chicken Platter Lunch
And you get to choose from a Fountain Drink, Iced Tea, Coffee, or Bottled water (It’s called “Déjà Blue” from the makers of Schweppes)
Anyway, JohnnyBerry™ worries about the servers at Bennigan’s - they work just as hard for the $4.99 meal as they do for the $9.99 meal but you know some cheapskates will still only tip them 15%. Which will trickle down to bad service when you order the $4.99 lunch?
JohnnyBerry™ is not pushing Bennigan’s because technically even with only a 15% tip the total is $5.7385 which ends up being more than the $5 menu everyone else is offering.
Deep down JohnnyBerry™ wishes Chick Fil A would roll out a cheap menu because JohnnyBerry™ has yet to find something on their menu that he doesn’t like.
The drawback to eating so much at Bennigan’s is it reminds JohnnyBerry™ too much of the movie “Waiting” - set in the fictional “Shennanigans” a play on Bennigan’s.
Now if you haven’t seen the movie, then you’re in for a treat.
Just get it on Netflix and take a gander — it might not be worth purchasing but then again you never know – JohnnyBerry™ picked his copy up in the $5 (there we go again) bin at the local Squall-Mart (yes, it’s Wal-Mart - it’s just there’s always poor people’s children squalling for things their parents can’t afford.)
Here’s a scene from the movie. Enjoy.
Most of you will not know who this woman was, but JohnnyBerry™ does.
JohnnyBerry™ grew up listening to her sing.
In person, at concerts in churches and school gymnasiums.
On recordings.
On the radio.
And every Sunday morning on television.
Yes, every Sunday morning JohnnyBerry™ would watch a television program called “The Gospel Singing Jubilee”, and every week Vestal would be on there.
And every week JohnnyBerry™ would put a paper bag on his head (it would look like a chef’s hat) to pretend he was Vestal Goodman. She had “big hair” back in the 1970s. As you can see in the video below it was still big, but back then it was a beehive of activity and JohnnyBerry™ would put that paper bag on his head and lip-sync all her songs using a big wooden spoon as a microphone (later JohnnyBerry™ would upgrade and use his “Mr. Microphone” instead of the wooden spoon).
As JohnnyBerry™ grew older he still listened to Vestal even though she kind of disappeared from the concert stage in the early 1980s. Along with her husband, Howard, they worked for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker on the PTL Club.
Then she had a resurgence in the early 1990s with Bill Gaither and his Homecoming Videos - which featured older gospel singer like Vestal and Howard that had been out of the limelight.
As a result, JohnnyBerry™ got to see Vestal several more times in the 1990’s and early 2000s in large arenas and civic centers in cities like Atlanta, Lexington, and Orlando.
But on December 27, 2003 JohnnyBerry™ received sad news.
Vestal had passed away — in all places: Florida Hospital Celebration Health near the Walt Disney World Resort. Vestal had the flu and decided to leave the cold of Nashville for the warmer weather of Florida.
The funeral service was open to the public so JohnnyBerry™ made arrangements to fly to Nashville to attend. The visitation was on New Year’s Eve 2003, and her funeral service was held on New Year’s Day 2004.
Still, JohnnyBerry™ misses her. It is hard to explain. JohnnyBerry™ is not religious, but Vestal had a significant impact on his life and it would not have been the same without her.
JohnnyBerry™ still misses her and always will.
JohnnyBerry™ finally got some much needed rain today.
After spending the night away from home last night JohnnyBerry™ went to the 2008 Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival with BetaMike and KellyLiv.
We went to see a program called Totem Figures presented by a Canadian fellow by the name of T.J. Dawe (pictured above).
JohnnyBerry™ does not usually sit still and listen to one person talk for 90 minutes as it reminds him too much of church, but this Canadian fellow was interesting.
There’s a review on OrlandoSentinel.com that helps to describe the show, but an even better review is posted on a blog called Archikulture Digest on ink19.
From T.J.’s website:
Totem Figures is a ninety minute monologue about personal mythology. About the idea that we’re all the main character in our own epic adventure. About having one’s own personal Mt. Rushmore. TJ extrapolates this concept, and exemplifies it with his own mythology. His life story, inner and outer. Including many things he’s never talked about in all of his previous monologuing.
The show’s 90 minutes.
None of it’s made up.
This is TJ’s tenth year touring the fringe circuit with his own material, and his tenth solo show as writer/performer.
TJ’s building a website (having someone build a website) for the show at www.totemfigures.com – but go there after you’ve seen the show.
Now JohnnyBerry™ will write more later about his personal Totem Figures.
A lady at work is from the same town I am from — Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
Population 4,865 (1,100 of that is prison population).
She was telling me about visiting her mother and telling me about cooking salmon patties for her.
Daddy used to cook salmon patties for us when I was a child. Mother was not a good cook, her best dish is potato salad, but since I figured out her secret ingredient was Thousand Island Salad Dressing, she really doesn’t have any good dishes.
Anyway, I digest.
I got to thinking about Daddy and salmon patties and I seem to recall that I hated his salmon patties.
But for some reason I wanted to try to make me some, so I stopped off at my favorite Publix in Winter Park - the one on 17-92 in the Holleiana Plaza.
I had no idea how to make them but luckily there was a recipe for “salmon burgers” on the label of the can.
Naturally, JohnnyBerry™ modified the recipe to suit his tastes and damn if they didn’t turn out pretty good.
Salmon, chopped onions, seasoned bread crumbs, parsley, garlic salt, cayenne pepper, mayonnaise, lemon juice and egg beaters.
Yeah, I know the egg beaters throw folks off but damn if JohnnyBerry™ doesn’t have to be careful when he can.
Speaking of mayonnaise, I have a friend in Kentucky that is the Director of Theatre and Speech at a community college up there (he’s the Director because he is the only faculty member…) and he can’t say mayonnaise — he says, “man-aids” - swear to God. Would JohnnyBerry™ make that up?
The patties turned out pretty good and I think I will make some more tomorrow night when the BetaMike gets home.
