One thing you can say about travel: it is good for blog content.
Some things I found while I was on the road. Why don’t we start off with my “You can call me Jimmy Lileks” mode.
My family sort of has a tradition of accumulating matchbooks. There were a lot of matchbooks where I was, many for restaurants that have gone out of business.
The significance of the “Cathedral Buffet” explained here.
I like ships. I like maritime history. I picked this out because I was curious about the history of the SS Mardi Gras.
Turns out, the SS Mardi Gras was the very first Carnival Cruise Lines ship.
RMS Empress of Canada was an ocean liner built in 1961 by Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker-on-Tyne, England, for Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. The liner sailed in the trans-Atlantic trade between Liverpool and Canada.
Ted Arison bought the ship in 1972, renamed it, and it went out for its first Carnival cruise on March 11, 1972. It sailed for Carnival until 1993, bounced around various other cruise lines, and was finally broken up for scrap in 2003.
I remember Billy Beer, even though I wasn’t of drinking age at the time. But I do not have any recollection of “J.R. Ewing’s Private Stock”. (It should come as no surprise to the Texas contingent among my readers that “Private Stock” was produced at the Pearl Brewery.)
Just for fun.
Also, just for fun, regional variations among snack flavors:
The Old Bay flavored cheese curls (there are also potato chips) are a little weird, but not that surprising to me. I recently bought some Old Bay flavored goldfish for the Saturday Dining Conspiracy’s collection of odd snacks.
“Roast Pork Sandwich” does seem a little odd to me.
Someone asked me what the difference between “tomato pie” and “deep dish pizza with no meat or cheese” was. This led me to look up “tomato pie”, and I wish I had not.
