Pure Fiction I: Breakfast.

by | Nov 23, 2020 | Fiction | 121 comments

And to think, I’d just stopped into the little diner for a bite of breakfast.

I didn’t expect to get embroiled in such a controversy.

I like a good breakfast when I’m on the road, and I had a car full of samples to show to buyers in Lincoln, Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix.  Two weeks on the road.  It gets tiring, but that’s my game – carpet.  A-One Carpets and Floor Coverings, and I’m the top sales guy, territory covers most of the West.

It’s a good thing I don’t mind driving.

Anyway, on the morning in question, I’d just stopped into this little diner in North Platte, Nebraska for a bite to eat.  It was a tiny little place, maybe ten booths and a counter, but there were several truck drivers in there, eating and passing the time.

Truckers always know the best places to eat.  That’s the first thing I ever learned when I started making my living on the road.

I took a seat at the counter – counter waitresses are always the more experienced and faster girls in any place that has them – and was taking a look over the menu when a short, portly little fellow in a dark yellow shirt and lemon-yellow tie took the stool next to me.  He looked for all the world like a little lemon with thick glasses.

“Morning,” he said.

“Morning,” I answered.

“Eat here before?”

“No,” I told him.  “I’m on the way to Denver.  Place looked good.”

“It is.  I eat here a lot.  I work in the railroad yard on the other side of the river.  Sam Howard,” he said, extending his hand.  I shook his hand, told him my name.

“You want my recommendation?”

It never hurts to listen to the locals in such things.  “Sure.”

“Try the ham and eggs.  It’s the best breakfast in the house.”

I flipped the menu to the next page, and there, big as life, was a color photo of the ham and egg breakfast. It all looked pretty standard, except…

“Looks sort of odd.  A little…  green?”

“Yeah, it is, a little.”

I turned the menu to catch the light a little better.  “Is it the menu?  Faded or something?”

“No, no, that’s just the way it is.”

“Green?”

“Green-ish, yeah.”

“I think I’ll pass.  I don’t think I can get past that color – looks like they’ve gone bad or something.”

Sam waved at the waitress, asked for coffee.  “Well, they’re not something you’d eat at home, I guess.  I mean, do you think you’d cook up something like that in your own house?  Like you said, the only way you’ll get something like that in your own house is if it had gone bad.  I’d be worried about attracting vermin.”

“No, I wouldn’t want to cook anything that color in my house.  It’s like you said – I’d be wondering if it would attract mice.  I don’t want to eat anything that’s had mice nibbling on it.”

“Yeah,” Sam continued, “But that’s the thing about the ham and egg breakfast here, you see, it isn’t bad.  It’s quite good, in fact.  It’s just the color’s a little odd.  There, see, there goes Janie with a plate now.”

The counter waitress passed by in front of me with a large plate full of ham and eggs.  They did have a definite green tinge to them.

“Smells good, doesn’t it?”  Sam asked.

“Not bad, but I’ve had a bit of a cold.  I can’t smell too much.”

“Trust me, they’re good.  They’re unusually good.  I’ve had them packed up on take-out to take out as a picnic when I’ve gone out to the lake.”

“Box lunch?”  I asked.  “How was it when you got there?”

“Great.  Smelled so good, I had a fox wander down the shore looking for it.  I tossed him a couple of bits.  He seemed to like it.”  Sam shook some sugar into his coffee, stirred it.

“Still,” I said.  “I don’t need a box lunch today.  And I’m not so sure I’d trust an animal’s judgment on culinary matters, anyway – foxes are mostly scavengers, aren’t they?  I don’t know as I’d set down to share a ham and egg breakfast with one.”

“Suit yourself,” Sam tasted his coffee, made a face.  “You’d think a place that put up a ham and egg breakfast as good as they do here could make a decent cup of coffee.”

“Here – try some creamer.”  I passed him the little container of creamer packets.

“Thanks.  Still, you’re a traveling guy, right?  Janie there can make you a ham and egg sandwich on an English muffin.  Her sandwiches are great, and you can take it along with you – have it for lunch, maybe.”

“No, I never eat in my car.  I’m in the car enough as it is, I like to stop and eat.  Besides, ham and eggs sandwiches are too messy – I’d get it all over the upholstery.”

“My son always asks for a pack of Janie’s sandwiches when he and his friends are spending the night in the tree house I built him.  Can you imagine that?  I tell you; I can’t even remember what it was like to spend the night in a tree house.”

“Me either.  And I’d sure never take one in my car – that’s a Company car, you know.  If I got egg stains all in the upholstery, there’d by trouble.  Say, would you mind if I just looked over the menu for a minute?”

“No, not at all.”  Sam leaned over the counter, sipping his coffee.

The pancakes looked good.  I’d just about made up my mind to order the blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon when Sam spoke up again.

“You know, I rode the Amtrak to New York last year.  The dining cars on those things are just awful – you can’t get anything decent for breakfast.  Too bad you can’t get something as good as the ham and eggs from this place on the train.  You ever ride Amtrak?”

“No.”  I hate to admit it, but Sam was beginning to get on my nerves – and I like people in general.  Heck, I wouldn’t be much of a salesman if I didn’t like people.

“Well, if you ever did, you’d be damned glad to see a plate of Janie’s ham and eggs on that train.”

“I don’t think so.  I’m really more of a pancake man, myself.”  I turned away, hoping the little man would take the hint, but he went right on talking.

“You know, you’re just turned off by the look of them, that’s all.  If you just tried them, without worrying about the color, you’d probably like them.”

“I’m just really not interested, thanks.  I don’t even like ham and eggs that much in any case, and when they’re a funny color like that, well…”

“Yeah,” Sam plowed on, gesturing with his coffee cup, “But let’s say you were in here with the lights turned down one night.  If it was just a little bit dark, you’d have eaten them before you ever noticed the color.  Then you’d know how good they are.”

“No thanks.  Listen, if you don’t mind, I’ve about decided to have the blueberry pancakes.”

“All right,” Sam said.  “Those are good too, don’t get me wrong.  But boy, those ham and eggs…” Just then the waitress passed by with another plate of ham and eggs, again tinged that damnable green.  Was everybody in the place eating the things?

“It wouldn’t have to be really dark, even.  It’s just a hint of green.  Even if the sun wasn’t coming in those windows so strong, say if it was raining, you’d probably never notice it.”

“Listen, not even if it was raining and I was riding one of those Amtrak cars.  There’s just no way.  Now could I look over the menu, please?”  I don’t like getting curt with people, but this Sam with his yellow shirt was really beginning to bug me.

“Okay, okay, sheesh.  Just trying to help you out.  I’d hate to see you go off with a bad impression of my hometown, you know.  And this place’s ham and egg breakfast is the best thing to eat in North Platte.  Everybody comes here for the breakfast, and they all seem to like the ham and eggs.”

And just as he said that, there went another plate of ham and eggs, trailing what I had to admit was a pretty good, savory ham-and-eggs kind of smell.  Still, there was that color.

“I wouldn’t feed them to a goat,” I snapped.  I felt bad about that, right away, but that Sam was just so insistent.  “And I can’t imagine a goat would be too happy about sharing a plate of spoiled ham and gone-over eggs.”

Sam actually chuckled.  “Well, friend, I can’t blame you there.  I wouldn’t want to set down at table with no goat, either.”

“Good.”  I waved at the waitress to order my pancakes, and she was walking down the counter towards us when Sam leaned over towards me again.

“You know, I just can’t let you leave without trying this breakfast.  It’s the best breakfast you’ll find in the Platte valley.  Come on, you’ll love it.  I’ll treat.  What do you say?”

“Oh, all right,” I sighed.  One thing a traveling man like me can’t refuse, it’s a free meal.  “I’ll try them.”  On Sam’s insistence, I ordered the ham and egg breakfast.

When the plate arrived, I stared at them for minute or so.  They looked like normal ham and eggs, except for that strange tinge of green.  It wasn’t really bad, but it was there.  They sure smelled good.

Sam was staring expectantly at me.  The waitress, Janie, was watching too – she must have heard part of the conversation.  There was nothing else I could do; I took a bite.

“They’re delicious!”

“See?  What’d I tell you?”  Sam was gloating, but he was a tad justified.  I took another bite.  “These are the best ham and eggs I ever had!”  I’d even forgotten my manners – my Mom would have smacked me for talking with food in my mouth like that.

I finished the plate quickly and waved to Janie to make up a couple sandwiches to take with me.  Sam was grinning like a Cheshire cat on his stool.

“You know,” I told him, “I took my wife on a Caribbean cruise last winter, and I thought they put up a good breakfast.  Their ham was good, but not this good.  And those eggs – well, I’d sure have taken these ham and eggs over the ham and eggs on that danged old boat.”

“Well, I’d hate to see you pass right on through and miss out.”

“And to think I said I’d have refused them to a goat!”  I laughed.  “And you know, the color really isn’t that noticeable – not that I wouldn’t eat them in a rainstorm or at night.  Heck, I’d eat these anytime.  I can see what you mean about Amtrak now – I’d be wanting something like this on the train over what they probably served.”

“You’ve got that right,” Sam chortled, adjusting his awful yellow tie.  “They’re good day or night.”

“Well, Sam, I can’t thank you enough.  Those ham and egg sandwiches will make a great lunch, too.  I might stop at a rest area, but you know, I may just nibble on them as I drive.  I can see why your son wanted them for his overnight!”

“A rest stop would be good.  You could always eat in one of those little picnic kiosks they have there.”

“I like those things,” I said.  “Even if they are like little brick boxes with doors.”

“And you won’t have to worry about the wildlife coming around to beg for food, either,” Sam laughed.

“I wouldn’t mind,” I told him.  “I like animals.”

Janie brought my bag of sandwiches, and Sam insisted on paying for those, too.  “You make sure and stop by when you come back through,” he said.  “I’m here most every morning if you stop in for breakfast again.”

“I’ll do that, and thanks again.”  I thanked, Janie, too.  “Say, I don’t suppose there’s any chance of learning the secret?  So I can have them at the house?”

Janie laughed and shook her head, but I could tell she was pleased.

Sam was getting ready to leave as well, struggling his portly body into the most God awful dark yellow sport-coat.  I hadn’t noticed until that moment, but…

“Say, Sam, I just noticed.  You didn’t have anything but coffee!”

“Oh.  That.  Yeah.”  He thumped his chest.  “I can’t touch ham, or eggs, either.  Cholesterol.  My wife would hang me.”

“Oh.”

Sam shook my hand.  “You have a safe trip, friend, and stop back in anytime.”  He waved as he walked out the door towards his car.

Nice man, that Sam Howard.

But for the life of me, I never will understand how he could wear that awful yellow suit.

About The Author

Animal

Animal

Semi-notorious local political gadfly and general pain in the ass. I’m firmly convinced that the Earth and all its inhabitants were placed here for my personal amusement and entertainment, and I comport myself accordingly. Vote Animal/STEVE SMITH 2024!

121 Comments

  1. Brochettaward

    This article was a minute late. This First is done in protest.

  2. DEG

    First one’s free.

    I look forward to the next part.

    • Swiss Servator

      Does he start scratching a lot and ask at every diner if they have green eggs and ham?

  3. Brochettaward

    Green eggs and ham? It’s a mind control conspiracy.

    What do I win for spoiling the story?

  4. Raven Nation

    Animal: without getting too specific, is that picture from a diner located about 4 hours east of North Platte?

    • Animal

      I think it’s in New Jersey, actually.

      • Raven Nation

        Might be this.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Looks like it, right down to the newspaper dispenser.

  5. Sean

    And no one was wearing a mask?

    O M G.

  6. Swiss Servator

    “a dark yellow shirt and lemon-yellow tie”

    Great, next we find his brother is in the back, with a monkey chained to the grill.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      “I bet you’re not so curious any more, you furry bastard!”

  7. Not Adahn

    You know what goes great with green eggs and ham? Fresca.

  8. CPRM

    Pure Milk Fiction…the only glib that will get that reference is on hiatus…such is 2020…

  9. Gustave Lytton

    One place I worked had the title service assurance manager for the duty supe, which rotated among the three or four supes. So there was a board with their names in the office with the “SAM I Am” square underneath whoever had the duty.

    • Not Adahn

      During the initial construction of this facility, the guy who was the assistant to our Hookup Area Coordinator had “ASSHAC” written on his hard hat.

  10. Yusef drives a Kia

    I read like a Twilight zone episode, I kept waiting for the Yellow Man to pull out a smoke with his third arm…..
    Good stuff Animal!

  11. Fourscore

    I knew a guy named Sam Howard, many years ago. Pretty sure its not the same one but the guy I knew was over bearing, not like the North Platte guy.

    Good story, Animal, thanks, if I’m ever in NP I’ll be looking for that restaurant, maybe get a free meal, if I play my cards right.

  12. Chipwooder

    I can’t explain why but Green Eggs and Ham was my least favorite Dr. Seuss book as a kid. I liked Oh Say Can You Say the best.

    • Tundra

      There are some great stories in The Sleep Book.

      Used to read that to my kids all the time.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Loved reading my kids “Fox in Sox”

      • Chipwooder

        That was my sister’s favorite.

    • robc

      Yertle the Turtle and Atlas Shrugged have the exact same plot.

      • Gdragon

        You may be the only one here that recognizes this name but I remember when Esix Snead got called up to the majors and my friend said that he sounded like a Dr. Seuss character, Esix Snead the Base Sneetcher ?

        Then I sent him back “He’ll sneetch and he’ll sneetch! He’ll bunt and he’ll run! He’ll sneetch and keep sneetching till the games are all won! He’ll sneetch them at Wrigley, and also Bank One!” and we died laughing for the next half hour or so.

      • robc

        You kinda have to like anyone whose primary position is “pinch runner”.

      • Gdragon

        In my sim league I often stash a guy on the roster for exactly this reason, I’m basically a perrenial playoff team and I love having a guy like that to use in a short series.

      • Gdragon

        *perennial

  13. Tundra

    Nice.

    Suess for grown ups.

    And us.

    • pistoffnick

      “Seuss for grown ups”

      “Horton Fucks a Who(re)”

    • pistoffnick

      “Mr. Brown Can Screw, Can You?”

    • pistoffnick

      “Whack-it Wednesday”

    • pistoffnick

      “The Foot Fetish Book”

    • pistoffnick

      Not Seuss, but a riff on one of my favorite children’s books

      “Mr. Pine’s Purple House (of Pleasure)”

    • Gdragon

      Yertle’s Penis Turtle

    • db

      “The Snatches”

    • db

      “The Pale Green Assless Chaps”

  14. CatchTheCarp

    The county I live in mailed out annual real estate and personal property tax bills this week. One County councilman had the audacity to float out the idea that County should consider extending the due date this year or possibly forgiving a portion of the tax due.

    “In an interview, Fitch questioned the fairness of taxing businesses such as restaurants that were not allowed to function for parts of the year. And while many homeowners prepay their taxes into an escrow account, he said, some residents, including older residents who have paid off mortgages, typically write a check at the end of the year. In a year in which many people suffered financially, he said, taxing districts should not expect to collect every dollar. “We need to have this conversation,” he said.

    As you can imagine this setoff a shit storm amongst the public sector.

    “Fitch’s tweet including a copy of his memo on Monday sent shock waves across the county as taxing districts contemplated the potential impact of floating or forgiving a significant part of collectively some $3 billion in taxes.

    Fitch found out what school districts thought of the idea: It would be very bad.

    “I am not sure as to the process that would be used to enact a change, but obviously school district budgets would be dramatically impacted if it were enacted,” Paul Ziegler, chief executive officer of EducationPlus, a nonprofit that provides leadership and resources to districts, told Fitch. Tax abatements, she said, “would most likely force the shutdown of all government entities and taxing authorities.” Hahaha, if only that were true.

    “It’s not clear how much support the idea would have on the council, but any effort would almost certainly need a vote from Ernie Trakas, R-6th District. His take: “At the end of the day, we have a government to run and we have to function. I just don’t think we can go there.”

    We’re all in this together!

    • wdalasio

      We’re all in this together!

      I swear if I ever hear that line again, it will be too soon. it’s inevitably a warning that the next thing you’re going to hear coming out of the utterer’s mouth is demands that the government f**k somebody over so that they can feel generous with other people’s lives.

      No, we aren’t “in this together”. The only “in this together” we are is the men with guns they’re using to hold their neighbors hostage to their every whim. If they had even a goddamned inkling of human empathy, they’d look at the misery and suffering they’re imposing on other people who don’t share their particular circumstances and recoil in horror at the monsters they’d become. Instead they trot out this trite platitude and pretend it gives them some sort of moral high ground.

      • Akira

        My local Kroger has this stupid bi-hourly announcement that all employees and shoppers must wear a mask, and it ends with a chorus of people chanting “We’re all in this together“. Very Orwellian.

        And yea, government employees getting paid to sit at home are not “in it together” with regular people who have had their livelihoods destroyed and enjoyment sucked out of their lives.

      • Fourscore

        “we have a government to run and we have to function”

        Maybe not. The government that functions best is one that functions less.

        Model Ts seemed to be simple and functional, made Hank a fortune

      • CatchTheCarp

        The comments were fun to read – every commenter who wrote the County and school districts should plan on a little belt tightening was immediately mobbed by the usual suspects – shills for teacher and public sector unions who made it clear that they were all essential and dedicated public servants and society would collapse without them. SSDD.

      • leon

        And of course we also need to close down those Schools and restrict Buisness times and access to public services in order to protect those valiant public service people.

        And If the murderers and commies come knocking on your door at night, don’t call the cops or try to defend yourself, it’s not their job, but you also have no right to self-defense.

    • zwak

      If I had a kid in that school dist. I would be right up in their grills, “your precious fucking school district wasn’t there for my kid last year, so my taxes aren’t here for you THIS year!”

      Fortunately, my kid has graduated from college, but the property taxes on my rental unit are kind of irritating me right now.

    • Ted S.

      As you can imagine this setoff a shit storm amongst the public sector.

      I prefer government sector, as they really are different from us and it highlights how we’re not all in this together.

  15. pistoffnick

    Fascism [when it comes to America] is not likely to be identical with the kinds on tap in Germany, Italy and Russia; indeed, it is very apt to come in under the name of anti-Fascism. — H. L. Mencken, fortune teller.

    • kbolino

      Lots of people, right and left, seem to want fascism without the label. The label is icky, and only bad people support it. But the ideas, especially those on economics and social organization, remain quite popular. And heck, even antisemitism is getting a comeback, though it is hardly unique to fascism.

      • wdalasio

        Exactly this. If I were to give what I’ll call “a fascist’s description of fascism”, I’d be willing to wager it would poll at around 60% popularity.

        Consider:

        “The problem with our current politics is that it’s too atomistic and centered on selfish personal interests. What we need, instead, is a political and economic system centered on collaboration, organized by a strong caring government that understands the need to balance everyone’s interests and promote the welfare of society as a whole. Rather than this chaos and exploitation of every man for himself, we need leaders who will make all elements of society come together as one and forego their selfish demands for a society that will ensure that peoples’ wants and needs are balanced. This isn’t communism. It’s a third way. We want businesses to be able succeed. But, we want them to succeed fulfilling a greater social mission than the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Because, just like individual twigs tied into a bundle, we’re all stronger together.”

        I’d be willing to bet you could get large numbers of America’s political class, and even some of its business class, on board with this.

      • robc

        Is that yours or did you steal if from somewhere, because if you did it, that is awesome.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Reminds me of talking with others who are fed with the trash and homeless encampments. Almost universally their solution is to round up the bums, transport them to a camp, forcibly detoxify the addicts, and put them to work so they’re “productive members of society”.

      • Suthenboy

        Pat Buchanan approves.

        *To think that his one utterance of this idea completely tanked his presidential campaign…once upon a time in America

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Mussolini, has to be, first 5 words had me…

      • wdalasio

        Honestly, no. I made it up myself. It’s one of the things I’ve played around with. If I were a fascist, what would I think? Remember, this was an ideology that a lot of the “respectable, right-thinking, people”, at one time, believed was the wave of the future. What would have been the premise that would have attracted them? Or at least rationalized their support? And the sad part of it is, as much as the current crop of “respectable, right-thinking, people” use fascist as a catch-all for evil and icky, their ideas really are pretty in tune with this.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes. We’ve effectively had a fascist economic system since the 1930’s. Every attempt to scale it back has been met with howls of protest from the left.

      • leon

        And the right taking the opprotunity to say “Look we believe in small government, but we have to be ok with some regulation, or else we’d be in the wild wild west!” or some variation of it.

    • Fatty Bolger

      True. But regardless it will come on the heels of socialism, as usual.

  16. Shpip

    Forty minutes in and no one has linked to this.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      I remember watching that during the original broadcast. His dead-pan delivery made it perfect.

  17. leon

    Great Animal! I’m embarrassed to say it took me a while to figure it out. Maybe halfway through the story.

  18. Drake

    Rand Paul to DOJ: Investigate who funds these Antifa who attacked me!

    DOJ to Rand Paul: lol, no

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      This is the kind of shit that riles me up. The descent into politically biased lawlessness has been swift and glaring.

    • WTF

      You knew that any interest in investigating that crap would just go away if Trump didn’t win.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Now the real work of investigating Trump and Trumpers can proceed.

    • Suthenboy

      I wonder why? It’s such a mystery. I guess we will never know.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      ~04 Subaru Forester with one of those bug guards above the windows?

      • Tundra

        I don’t think the Forester had taillights that high on the D pillar.

        Honda CRV, maybe?

      • Suthenboy

        No…window angles are wrong. The CRV windows are rounded, not straight lines. Range Rover? I don’t know my cars well enough but I do have a CRV.

      • Sean

        You sure? I can kind of see it as a CRV…late 90s early 00s.

        Plus the tail lights look about right.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yup, I’m looking at a ’99 crv with the bug guards on the windows, and it’s a spittin’ image.

      • Suthenboy

        No. The rear most window for the car in question is taller than the passenger windows. In the image in question the rearmost window is taller than the passenger windows. Kinda odd looking really.

      • Suthenboy

        OH, maybe so. Like I said, I don’t know my cars very well. I know when I park in a large lot I have a hell of a time finding that CRV. Every damned car in the lot looks just like it.
        I need a tall antenna with a red tennis ball on the tip.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      Looks like the tail lights are giving a thumbs-up. Is that what you were referring to, Sean?

      • Sean

        These are the thieves who stole from my employer last night.

      • Drake

        A getaway car?

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        I have an alibi.

      • leon

        I couldn’t have robbed that bank, i was driving the getaway car!

    • The Hyperbole

      I’d help if you enhanced that photo.

      • Sean

        *taps keyboard*

        ENHANCE

        *taps keyboard*

        ENHANCE

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Meh, Air Travel is for the Birds………………

    • leon

      Freedom Pass? Is this like when freedmen were required to carry their papers to prove they were free?

    • kinnath

      I expect my employer will require vaccinations to return to the office.

      • leon

        Schools will require it, Entrance to any government building will require it etc. etc.

      • kinnath

        The real question is how anyone can verify if you had the vaccine.

        I don’t expect the vaccine will leave a little round scar (most of you are too young to understand that).

      • UnCivilServant

        Clearly you need to be RFID tagged to show you’ve been innoculated.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I guarantee the government is working on that solution right now. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s electronic in nature.

        They’re fully capable of and motivated to restrict your freedom of movement until you get your papers, but God forbid you should have to present id to vote.

        This country is so fucked.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yes. There’s been hints already that there will be a vaccination registry. The question is what form.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        to buy goods and services? how about travel?
        Yikes….

      • Urthona

        Schools will require it.

        but They’ll never block access to government buildings because minorities would bitch.

      • leon

        Honestly, i initially would doubt if it stand up to any legal challenge, but the way the courts have been ruling. I am sure some institutions will limit the ability to enter without an inoculation. Courthouses, jails etc.

        And then i get into my disagreement about vaccines, and the idea that they are only effective if we get 100% or 95% of people to take them.

      • Urthona

        I think it’ll wind up with policies similar to what states already have for things like polio and measles (both of which are away worse than Covid, but still).

        Here in Texas, people were bitching because a certain percentage of schools have people below the 95% inoculated mark.

        Turns out all of those schools were in rich white areas.

        In California, it turns out the people claiming religious convictions to avoid vaccinating their kids were rich white atheists.

        This is an interesting one, because it seems really that it’s the elitist side of the Democratic party that doesn’t want to vaccinate their kids. But that’s the demographic most likely to want to run your life.

        So I guess what I’m saying is I actually don’t think they’ll be any mandatory vaccinations coming. They’ll be a similar set of policies to what we have now in various states.

      • DEG

        The vaccine will be required.

        You read Ozy’s book right? The people that matter want to line their pockets at our expense.

      • leon

        Interesting. I’m not opposed to vaccines. I would like to _wait_ and see on this one before getting the kids lined up to get innoculated for something that is well known not to be particularly dangerous to them.

        And that is where i get into arguments over vaccines, because expressing that feeling i know will bring out the “you’re endangering other people!”. What i don’t get is how that is the case if the other people are free to get vaccinated (yes i know not everyone can take vaccines for health reasons, etc, but the vast majority of people that doesn’t apply). It often gets thrown around like vaccines only work if 95% of people get them.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Jacobson v. Massachusetts hasn’t been overturned. Lower and appeals courts will cite that and scotus will decline cert as settled law.

  19. UnCivilServant

    Bitz of my stormraven are swaddled in painters tape and I’ve applied the first round of spray primings to the areas that need to be painted but are unreachable when assembled.

    Still debating if I should build the pilot to be the guy from Scintilla vitae who flew the Stormraven there and paint it in the Rogue Trader’s livery, or make it a Space Marine and paint it in the livery of the guys who can legally field it in the tabletop rules.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Space Marines! Rico’s Roughnecks FTW!

      • UnCivilServant

        That unit was mobile infantry, not space marines.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Way to wreck my thing UCS, still go with the Marines,
        /Pedant…………

  20. grrizzly

    Still better than LA.

    Pennsylvania bars and restaurants will be restricted from selling alcohol on what is generally one of the most popular drinking nights of the year.

    The alcohol sales ban, which will be in place across the state, starts at 5 p.m. on Nov. 25 and will end the next morning.

    • Sean

      Assholes.

      • Drake

        Really sums it up. Nothing to do with a virus, just waving their authoritarian dicks around.

    • Not Adahn

      generally one of the most popular drinking nights of the year

      ?

      March 17?

      May 5?

      Dec 31?

      • Not Adahn

        Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during the academic year?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        every Day?

    • Idle Hands

      Lmao we live in clown world. This is literally just punishment.

      • wdalasio

        Maybe the right way to deal with these bastards is ridicule. I’m sure someone can Photoshop Tom Wolf in a dominatrix outfit grabbing people’s booze. Paste it all over the place in PA.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Here’s the full link. The shooting war starting yet?

      Among the highlights, each locality is free to add whatever restrictions they want to on top of this, and apparently the Dept of AG has the authority to fine me $300 for not wearing a mask.
      There is also an online ratting system.
      Regarding the alcohol ban, I’m unclear if it starts at 5 PM Wednesday or is only for Wednesday. The wording on this is not clear to me.

      https://breaking911.com/breaking-pennsylvania-issues-alcohol-ban-extends-stay-at-home-order-ramps-up-enforcement/

      • pistoffnick

        “There is also an online ratting system.”

        It would be a shame if that online system were to be inundated with frivolous calls.

        “I saw a guy named Hugh Janus drinking at Mo’s bar”

      • leon

        Malicious overcompliance is one of the most effective means to fight this shit. Make the signal become all noise.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        Ha. I had to put my name and # on a list in a NJ bar to get served.

        Just call me Jerome Richardson from now on.

    • Fatty Bolger

      The well heeled and well connected will still have their cocktail parties, though. On the down low, of course. Shhhh!

  21. db

    FOR SALE: 1999 Honda CR-V. One Owner, Only Driven at Night

    • Sean

      ?‍♂️?

  22. leon

    Speaking of mandatory Vaccines, where is Ozzy? i havn’t seen him in a long while.