You Plant A Demon Seed, You Raise A Flower Of Fire

The Joshua Tree
U2 (1987)

The fastest selling album in British history was released 35 years ago today.  The Joshua Tree would go on to sell over 25 million copies worldwide and propel U2 into superstardom.  In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it at #26 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The record begins with three consecutive songs which have each become anthems: Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and With Our Without You.  It then punches you in the gut with an angry and powerful stand against the military actions that Bono witnessed in El Salvador - Bullet The Blue Sky.  It's a snapshot of blind human aggression that sadly continues to be relevant today.

The Joshua Tree is a album that everybody who loves and appreciates music should listen to in its entirety, uninterrupted, at least once in their lives.

The Most Important Nuggets Of The Day

Breakfast Nuggets
Jimmy Dean (2022)

If you walk down the freezer aisles of any grocery store, you might notice that are more foods that have been turned into nuggets than there ever used to be.  In the past few months alone, I've seen chicken, turkey, fish, lasagna, mac and cheese, corn, and many other meatless and/or cheese and pepper enhanced versions.  The most recent of these that I've tried is Jimmy Dean's Breakfast Nuggets, which are stuffed with chicken sausage, eggs and cheese.

They're not bad as a snack, and they might make a fun inclusion in a Nugget Night where you pop a bunch of various types of nuggets in an air fryer to make each bite of your dinner a mystery, but I'm not sure that they're worth buying on a regular basis.  A 12 oz bag cost almost $7 at my local Wal-Mart.  For seven bucks, I could make a ton of fried eggs with cheese and breakfast sausage patties.  I could see these costing this much at a fast food restaurant because you're paying for the convenience of being able to pick 'em up at the drive thru and eat them in the car, but as a grocery store item that sits in your freezer, they're overpriced by at least two bucks.

Private Parts On The Silver Screen

Private Parts
Paramount Pictures (1997)

The Howard Stern biopic, based on his 1993 autobiography of the same name, was released nationwide 25 years ago today.  It was the #1 film at the box office for its opening weekend and went on to have a successful run with mostly positive reviews.

The Howard Stern Show was broadcast in NEPA on Z-Rock in the years leading up to the release of this film.  I was 15 and 16 years old at the time and I made it a point to listen to his show whenever I could, much to the chagrin of my grandparents who I was living with.

It wasn't until after I saw the movie that I picked up a paperback copy.  It wasn't nearly the sleazefest that some folks tend to associate with Mr. Stern, but it's also not the kind of thing I could leave sitting out in the open if I didn't want to have an argument with my grandmother.  She and I butted heads on a lot of things when I was a teenager, so efforts to point out that it's the story of a man who built a media empire out of nothing would have fallen on deaf ears.  It was best to avoid conflicts with her whenever possible.

 

Even if I had convinced her that the book wasn't the filth that she had believed it to be, this fold-out poster on the first page would not have helped.  Despite being clearly tongue-in-cheek, it probably doesn't age well, and I think that Howard Stern would be the first person to admit that fact.  He's mellowed out a lot as he's gotten older, and that's not a bad thing.  Truth be told, his sexual content really didn't strike a chord with me in the first place, even when I was a hormonal teenager.  My favorite parts of his show were always the interviews (Howard is one of the greatest interviewers of all time), the news with Robin Quivers, and when they would just sit around talking about their lives and the world around them at the start of the show.

If your only experience with Howard Stern is the criticism he gets from others, the Private Parts film is a good starting point.  It's available for streaming on HBO Max.

Fifty Years Of The Pennsylvania Lottery

20th Anniversary Bonus
Pennsylvania Lottery (1992)
The Pennsylvania Lottery sold its first tickets 50 years ago this week.  The 20th anniversary was commemorated with this Instant Lottery ticket back in 1992.

Saint Patrick's Sub

Reuben Sub
Wegmans Market Cafe - Wilkes-Barre, PA

For a brief time when I was in college, I worked at the Sub Shop in the Wegmans Market Cafe.  It wasn't my favorite job if I'm being honest.  The people were nice, and the work was easy enough, but the food prep area had me feeling pretty claustrophobic for most of the day.  Just too many co-workers in too small of an area.  However, one of the good parts about working there was the fact that I could have a hoagie every day for lunch.  Wegmans hoagies are incredible!  The bread is outstanding, the ingredients are all of the highest quality, and they stuff them to the gills with meat, cheese and veggies.

My favorite kind of sandwich, and one of my favorite foods of any kind to eat, is a reuben.  Wegmans didn't make one when I worked there, but they've got one now for a limited time.

It's not the same as a traditional reuben sandwich that you'll find at a good roadside diner, but it's still very good.  I won't say that it's the best tasting reuben that I've ever had, but it's probably a lot healthier than any of the others.

I'm not sure how long they'll be making these, but judging by the shamrocks on the sign, it's a safe bet that they'll have them until St. Patrick's Day.  If you've got a Wegmans nearby, they're worth a try.

Flying Robots, Skull Ghosts, and Flesh-Eating Land Sharks

Kid Chameleon
Sega Genesis (1992)

There are few video games in existence that scream early 90's as loudly as Kid Chameleon.  The Sega Genesis classic was released 30 years ago this month.

The story of the game is centered around a new arcade machine called Wild Side.  It's a self-contained room within the arcade that's similar to the Holodeck on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Every kid in town played it, but the main boss became sentient and began capturing the kids who couldn't beat the game.  There's one video game master in town who could not be beat, and that kid is you - Lucas Barton, er... I mean, Kid Chameleon.

Kid Chameleon is a platformer that was programmed by a team that included Mark Cerny (Marble Madness, Shanghai, Sonic The Hedgehog 2) and Steve Woita (Taz, Quadrun, Sonic Spinball).  It has been included on a number of Sega compilations over the years, including the Sega Genesis Mini and Sega Genesis Classics on the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One and Steam.  It's a lot of fun, and a perfect example of 16-bit gaming from the early 90's.

Putting The Honor Back In ROH

March 13, 2008 - Dover, NJ

I started watching professional wrestling before I started kindergarten, but my interest in it over the past 30 years or so has come in ebbs and flows.  With the nosedive in the quality in nationally televised wrestling after 2001, I had almost stopped watching entirely.  However, there was one company that was doing things in the industry that had never been done in the United States before and it opened the door for me into a world of incredible pro wrestling.  That company is Ring Of Honor.

August 11, 2007 - Philadelphia, PA

The first ROH show that I attended was on October 2nd, 2005 in Philadelphia.  The company was owned by a very cool man named Carey Silkin at the time, and the incredible atmosphere and excellent shows that he and the rest of the company built kept me coming back to every show in the tri-state area for a couple of years before returning to college.

By the time I graduated, Ring Of Honor had been purchased by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.  Quite frankly, I think Sinclair is a horrible organization with propaganda efforts that make Fox News look rational in comparison.  Their shows didn't have the same massive drop in quality as the Stamford promotion, but it was clear that the glory days of the promotion were behind them.  The few shows that I attended in the Sinclair era were not nearly as well attended.  The matches themselves were still very good, but the writing had sharply declined, and the atmosphere that I had fallen in love with was all but gone.  These factors, combined with the business practices of their parent company made ROH a pretty easy company for me to avoid spending a lot of time or money on for the past ten years.

I'm very happy to be able to say that as of March 2nd, 2022, the Sinclair era of Ring Of Honor has ended.

AEW owner Tony Khan was scheduled to make a big announcement on last night's episode of Dynamite on TBS.  Fans have been speculating all week about what it might be.

I could not be happier about what he had to say.

 

This is incredible news!  Ring Of Honor is once again owned by a respectable man who has a genuine love for pro wrestling, and the fact that the promotion and its 20 year tape library has been purchased by the co-owner of All Elite Wrestling opens up a world of possibilities.  I don't know if he's going to operate it as a separate promotion, or if this will be the start of an inter-promotional storyline with legacy ROH talent feuding with rest of the AEW roster, or if he's going to use the ROH video archive as content to launch an AEW streaming service.

Whatever directions Mr. Khan decides to go, the world of pro wrestling has just become a lot more interesting.

Long John Silver Sails Off Into The Sunset

Long John Silver's
548 Susquehanna Blvd - Hazleton, PA

The closure of Bonanza Steakhouse on Rt. 93 in Hazleton is unfortunate, but it's not something that bothers me too much.  However, the recent closure of the Long John Silver's down the street from Bonanza is a different story.  They closed their doors on January 30th, 2022 and if I'm being completely honest, I'm pretty sad about it.  I know that must sound ridiculous, so let me explain.

This photo was taken in 1986.  Every year, my family would get seafood from Long John Silver's for our Christmas Eve dinner.  I was trying to get a picture of the pirates on the box, and since it was taken long before the days of cell phone cameras, I had no way of knowing how off-center and out of focus it was until we got the film developed.  However, I really don't need a photo to remember having fish and shrimp from Long John's for Christmas Eve.  It's been such a consistent tradition that their food has become synonymous with the holiday season in my mind.

December 24, 2016

When I was very young, I used to go to this Long John's with my grandfather to pick up our holiday dinner.  It was always busy on Christmas Eve back then.  We usually had to wait in line for at least 20 minutes to a half hour before we got up to the counter to place our order.  In some years, the line actually stretched out the front door.

Standing in line to pick up fast food fish isn't generally seen as an exciting experience, but it was for me.  In my family, we all got together at my grandparents house on Christmas Eve.  We'd eat dinner, then go out to the living room to open presents, and then come back to the kitchen to have dessert.  Waiting in line to pick up the fish felt to me like the unofficial start to Christmas.

December 24, 2021

Going to this particular Long John's to pick up dinner on Christmas Eve is a tradition that has stuck with me throughout my life.  With the exception of a few years in the early to mid 90's when I lived in South Florida, and a year or two in the early 2000's when my grandmother tried to make her own fish, we went there every year.  My wife and I have kept the tradition going after my grandparents passed away.  I'm not sure if there are any other traditions in my life that go back this far into my childhood, but since I can't think of any other Long John's in our part of Pennsylvania, it looks like 2021 is the last year that we kept it going. 

Trust me, I know how ridiculous it is to get sentimental about the closing of a fast food restaurant.  As I'm writing this, I'm just picturing strangers from around the world reading this and thinking "dear god, what kind of goof reminisces about a place that sells greasy breaded fish in a box".  What can I tell you.  I'm 41 years old, so if I haven't figured out how to be normal by now, it's just not gonna happen.

With that in mind, here's a few pictures from recent Christmas Eve's to show what the restaurant looked like when it was open compared to what it looks like today, and a few additional photos of the building as it looked on February 27th, 2022.  For all I know, it might stay exactly like this for the foreseeable future.  There's a Ground Round restaurant outside the Laurel Mall in Hazleton that has been closed for at least 15 years now and it looks pretty much the same from the outside as it did when the place was still in business.  Then again, they tore down the old Friendly's restaurant very shortly after it closed to build a Popeye's Chicken, so you never now.  Well, anyway, I took a bunch of pictures and here they are.

December 24, 2021

February 27, 2022

December 24, 2021

December 24, 2018

February 27, 2022

December 24, 2018

February 27, 2022

December 24, 2017

February 27, 2022

The rest of these photos were taken on February 27th, 2022.

And with that, my bizarre tribute to a fast food restaurant that shut down in a small Northeast PA city that nobody has ever heard of has come to a close.

Bonanza Rides Off Into The Sunset

Bonanza Steakhouse
574 Susquehanna Blvd - Hazleton, PA

After nearly three decades, the Bonanza Steakhouse across the street from the Laurel Mall in Hazleton has closed its doors as of November 2021.

June 2019 (TripAdvisor)

February 27, 2022

The restaurant is still pretty similar to the way that it looked when it was still in operation.  There are no banners advertising the specials, and they have removed the outdoor benches and the name of the restaurant from the awning and above the front door, but the highway sign is still on the pole, and the letter board presently has a message thanking the community for 27 years of patronage.

June 2019 (TripAdvisor)

October 2019 (TripAdvisor)

There was a time when this was one of my favorite places to eat.  This is mostly because of the Endless Steak promotion that they ran from time to time.  I think it was only $7.99 back when I graduated from high school.  The waiters and waitresses were probably supposed to bring you one at a time, but when I ate here, they brought me as many as three steaks at once.  I didn't even ask them to - they offered and I was glad to accept.  They were kind of small steaks, and I'm sure they weren't Gordon Ramsay quality, but they were perfect for this 18 year old boy.

This was where I was headed back in the summer of 1999 when a pick up truck ran a red light doing about 80 miles a hour and t-boned into the passenger side of my car (no steak pun intended).  I was on my way across Rt. 924 to pick up my girlfriend at the time for a dinner and movie date.  It's a good thing that the truck hit me before I picked her up, or else there's a pretty good chance that there would have been a fatality.  I had stitches in the right hand side of my head from what was left of the passenger door.  I still remember that when I regained consciousness on the side of the road, there was a parametric who was holding my neck in place.  I looked up at him and said "damn, I guess this means I'm going to miss out on all-you-can-eat steak at Bonanza".  The hospital food wasn't nearly as good.

January 2018 (TripAdvisor)

I'm not sure if every Bonanza has them, but ours had a pretty decent sized all-you-can-eat buffet.  It was a couple bucks to add to any dinner, but there was so many different things to eat that it was worth going to if you just ordered the buffet by itself without an entree.  Sometimes it was very good, but it went steadily downhill when I was in my 20's.  I'm not at all a difficult person to please with food, but there were times that I ate here where the food on the buffet was literally frozen in the middle.  That's no hyperbole - I mean that the middle of the food was a chunk of ice.  Not little ice chips, mind you.  I mean a fist-sized slab of frozen food.

I understand that chain restaurants keep things like carrots and mashed potatoes in a deep freezer before prepping them.  That's fine - it's how businesses like this operate and keep costs down.  However, when I dish out food that is literally frozen solid in the center, it means that whoever was responsible for prepping it hadn't even stirred it when it came out of the oven, let alone kept an honest temperature log for food safety.  Anybody can make a mistake, so I could have overlooked this if it happened once, but I had this experience three different times.  Maybe they turned things around at some point, but I stopped going there at least fifteen years ago.

 

Despite the unpleasant experiences, I'm still a little bummed out to see the place close.  From what I read, it didn't go out of business - it closed because the owner has retired.  With the way that the pandemic has impacted the restaurant business, I can understand why this might be a good time to call it a career.  With any luck, they'll find a buyer pretty quickly and we'll have a new restaurant open up at this location.

My Demons Don't Get Out That Much

The Tipping Point
Tears For Fears (2022)

When I pre-ordered this record back in October of last year, I made the decision to avoid the singles and other clips that were available from the various streaming services so that I would hear these songs for the first time in order, front to back, from a vinyl pressing.  Maybe that comes across as sounding hipsterish, but that's not my intention.  I figure it this way: how many more chances am I going to have in my life to listen to new music from a band that I loved in the 80's the same way I would have listened to it when I was a little kid back in the 80's playing my mother's records and hearing those songs for the first time?

The album came in the mail yesterday.  As luck would have it, I couldn't sleep, so I sat next to my record player at 2:30 in the morning doing exactly what I had set out to do.

I began writing this just a few minutes after the tenth and final song finished playing, and I feel like I've come down from floating on a cloud.  This is a beautiful album that breaks your heart and comforts you at the same time.  It's powerful and peaceful; full of rage, sorrow, and confusion, but acceptance.  This is not the work of a band that is trying to be young again and imitate who they were.  This is the music from artists who have captured the moment in a way that only they could.  It is incredible for everything that it is, and for everything that it refuses to try to be.

Tears For Fears are touring in the US this summer.  I was looking forward to seeing them for what will be the third time before I heard The Tipping Point.  Now that I've heard it, I'll be counting down the days until I can hear some of these songs performed live.

The record ends with a song called Stay that was originally released five years ago on Rule The World: The Greatest Hits.  I never listened to the Greatest Hits album, so just like the songs that came before, this was my first time hearing it.

Stay

Tears For Fears (2017)

Speak, don't speak

Go, don't go

Damned if I do, damned if I know 

Wait. don't linger   

Wait, down, slow

Stay for the open hand

Or let it all go

Young enough

To play the game

Old enough to know

It's all or nothing

Stay. don't stay

Go, don't go

Stay. don't stay

Go, don't go

Dust to dust

We all fall down

Run for the hills

Until we're safe and sound

Are we young enough

To play the game?

Old enough to know

It's all or nothing?

Stay. don't stay

Go, don't go

Stay. don't stay

Go, don't go

It's all or nothing