Perchance to Dream

Last night, I dreamed that my car was in for service, and the technician told me that the gas tank was leaking. That meant that the car was not drivable. He then told me that the cost to repair it would be $40,000. Since that was more than the cost of buying a new car, obviously I would not be getting the repair done.

But I thought I had a fail-safe. I also have a recurring dream that some years back, I had bought a spare car. It was a white Acura, and in the dream I’d had it parked on the street and never used it. Literally never, since the day I drove it home from the dealer. I wanted to keep it new. It wasn’t parked on the street where I live, rather it was on the street where I grew up. Whenever I had that dream, I would look for the spare car in the street, but I could never find it. In last night’s variant, I never even got to the point where I couldn’t find the car, because I couldn’t find the keys.

So at the end of the dream, I realized that I was carless.

I don’t know what this dreams means, if anything. It made me think of my very first blog post, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Car.”

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Pop-Tarts Splitz

I saw a commercial on TV last night for a new product called “Pop-Tarts Splitz”. Two flavors in one Pop-Tart. The left side is one flavor, and the right side is another flavor. The Pop-Tart I remember seeing in the commercial was Frosted Strawberry on the left side and Drizzled Cheesecake on the right side. They also have Drizzled Sugar Cookie/Frosted Brownie Batter. On the same Pop-Tart! I know, right?

This immediately got my attention! What a great idea! I have a long history of enjoying the combination of two flavors. I remember as a kid, I would snack after school with potato chips and chocolate. One potato chip. One bite of chocolate. Repeat. When I have fondue, I always order the Yin & Yang for dessert, which includes a bowl of chocolate fondue, for dipping, that is white chocolate on one side and dark chocolate on the other side. Whenever I go to The Old Spaghetti Factory, I like to order what they call “The Manager’s Favorite”. (In Canada, it’s called “The Manager’s Favourite”.) You choose two separate spaghetti toppings, and half the plate uses one topping, and the other half uses the other topping. I always choose Mizithra Cheese & Browned Butter on one side and Marinara Sauce on the other side. One time I went to The Old Spaghetti Factory with a friend, and he ordered the same thing that I ordered. Before he even took a bite, he mixed the two sides into one glob of Mizithra Cheese & Browned Butter and Marinara Sauce. All I could think was, “What’s wrong with him?”

I started to imagine how I might eat a Pop-Tart Splitz. There are many ways one could eat it. I saw myself taking one bite from the left side, one bite from the right side, and then alternating successive bites.

I decided that I needed to research the topic, and I went to my computer to learn more. Apparently, this is not a new product. Pop-Tarts Splitz came out a few years ago (where have I been?!), was removed from the market, and is now back. And it’s back only for a limited time, before it will be gone again. That reminds me, I need to go get my fix of McRib before it is gone again too!

The Ephemeral Flame

Cold cash
Cold comfort
Calm
Comfortable
Content

Dark days
Devoid desire
Dull
De-stressed
Detached

And then one day she reappeared
And there was warmth and light and love
It was as he remembered
And thought would never be again

Too hot
Ouch!
And as suddenly as she appeared
She was gone

Scorched
Saddened
Secluded
Serene
Safe

bibelot—noun: a small household ornament or decorative object

I’ve been reading a book called “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine”. I don’t mean that literally. Literally, I’ve been reading a digital version of the book on the Kindle app on my iPad Mini.

Today I picked up the “book” and decided to read chapter seventeen. I like reading in the Kindle app, because it’s easy to look up words I don’t know. I don’t have to grab a dictionary. I can just highlight the word with a long press of my finger, and a definition will pop up.

While reading chapter seventeen, I came across this sentence.

“I stood for several minutes examining the bibelots and objets which she had artfully placed around the room.”

I had never seen this word before, “bibelot”, and I had to look it up. Oh, a tchotchke! Got it!

I finished the chapter and put down my iPad. I like to read one chapter at a time. I picked up my phone to check my email. There was a message in my inbox from Cabrillo Playhouse in San Clemente. A play called “Buyer & Cellar” opens tomorrow. The play is about the shopkeeper for the pretend shopping mall in the basement of Barbra Streisand’s house.

This sounded intriguing, so I looked for a review online. I found one from the New York Times, from 2016, when the play first opened in the New York area. The review was very positive, and the play sounded interesting and funny. I might go see it.

But what made my day was when I came across this sentence in the review.

“Inspired by the full-size replicas of 19th-century shops exhibited at Winterthur, the wonderful museum of American decorative arts near Wilmington, Del., Ms. Streisand installed her prize bibelots in a group of simulated shops in her basement.”

Wow! Literally within five minutes of looking up the word “bibelot”, I came across the word for the second time in my life.

This reminded me: When I get home, I need to round up some bibelots and make a trip to the Goodwill store with a donation.

The New Red Lion

I visit my father in Philadelphia once a year. He lives in the same house where I grew up, and I get to sleep in my old bedroom, in the same bed.

This is the same house where my family watched Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs on TV in 1973. As I write this blog post, I’m sitting on the couch in the living room in the same spot watching the TV, which is in the same spot.

Whenever I visit, we go out to dinner at New England Pizza, on Bustleton Avenue. New England is one of my father’s favorite restaurants. We’ve been going to this particular New England since we moved into the Bustleton house in the early 70s. Before that, when we lived in Rhawnhurst, we went to a different New England, in the older Oxford Circle neighborhood, also on Bustleton Ave.

During my visit, which usually lasts about a week, we go to New England a few times. We might have pizza, a Philly cheese steak, or a delicious chicken parm grinder. (A grinder is a sandwich on a long roll, similar to a sub or a hoagie.)

We headed over to the Bustleton New England on Sunday night. The bad news is that they were closed, apparently for good. There was a sign on the window, posted in April, from the city saying it had to shut down the restaurant because it violated building codes. I felt sad. I felt like you can only go home for a limited time. Everything changes. Everything comes to an end.

The good news, that more than makes up for it, is that we went to the Red Lion Diner tonight. We used to go to the old Red Lion Diner, on Bustleton Ave and Red Lion Road, until they closed in the early 80s. I recently learned that there is a “new” Red Lion Diner on County Line Road and Easton Road in Horsham. Horsham is ten miles away, but it’s a 35 minute drive, because of traffic, red lights, and the fact that County Line Road is one lane in each direction for most of the way. We took a chance and went there, hoping it would have some relation to the old Red Lion Diner, and hoping that the food would be good.

When we went to the old Red Lion Diner, I would often get the veal parm and spaghetti platter. I had a fantasy that I would have the same dish tonight, and it would be the same as the one I had in 1980 at the old Red Lion Diner. (My apologies to the PETA people. I don’t eat veal often. This is the first time I’ve had it in almost forty years.)

We arrived and got the menus, and my favorite dish of the 1970s was on the menu. Yes, veal parm and spaghetti. But now I could substitute another pasta, and I got the pencil points. (Pencil points are what is known elsewhere as penne.)

The food was excellent, and this was the best diner I’d been to in years. After we ate, I talked with the owner, and he said that they “used to have one on Bustleton Avenue about thirty-five years ago”. He said the old one was run by his brother, and he worked there for four years. So yes, it was the same diner with the same owners, in a new location.

They say you can never go home again. But tonight, I was home. And back in 1980.

Do Not Noisily Unwrap Candy Wrappers

I went to the Costa Mesa Playhouse today for the first time, with a good friend. It is a nice place to see a play. Only six rows. Not a bad seat in the house.

I saw this sign in the lobby and had to take a photo of it. I have to say the part about not noisily unwrapping candy wrappers is very much appreciated!

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of movies, since I got my MoviePass. And what I’ve noticed is that I don’t especially like the movie theater experience. I much prefer to watch movies at home.

What is it that I don’t like? I have to say it’s the people. Either a giant decides to sit in front of me, or someone behind me decides to put her feet up. (I’m not being sexist. Thus far, it’s always been women who put their feet up behind me. When a man does it, I’ll be sure to give him credit.) Or someone decides to sit in the seat right next to me (the horror!), when there are perfectly good other seats down the row. I can usually avoid this by sitting in the aisle seat, as opposed to a seat in the center. People like the center. At worst, I’ll have one person sitting next to me.

Another annoying thing about the movie theater experience is the young couple sitting right in front of me and making out. Don’t they realize that they are right in my prime vomit range? I won’t even mention the couple that brings their crying baby. But it seems that the thing that really gets me is the noise. Popcorn is supposed to be quiet, but people can make a lot of noise reaching into the paper bag for each bite. This can go on for the first hour of the movie! And, finally getting to the subject of this post, I hate the noisy candy unwrappers! So annoying, and they usually have a bucketful of individually wrapped candies. Combine that with the fact that you can’t rewind the movie like you can at home, and often critical dialog is missed!

Funny thing. Everyone at the play today obeyed the sign. No cell phones, no flash photography, no noisy candy unwrapping. But the sign didn’t say “No Talking”, and sure enough, someone starting talking! He was immediately shushed by many people. He talked again, and he was shushed again. Well, too bad I have to go out to a playhouse to see a play. They won’t perform one just for me in my living room. Huh!

You’re probably wondering about the play. It was called “Next to Normal” and was about a family struggling with mental illness of the matriarch. It was highly acclaimed. When on Broadway, it won four Tony Awards and a Pulitzer prize. The acting was excellent. It was a musical, and the songs were good, and the singing was excellent. Nothing memorable, though. It wasn’t Grease. Was it entertaining? Well, not really. It was extremely serious and heavy, and a little depressing. I was expecting something light and humorous, like Silver Linings Playbook. This play made me feel bad for each character in the family, as it was supposed to.

I’m glad I went, because I usually like movies and plays about mental illness. And it wasn’t unwatchable. I did enjoy a lot of it, just not as much as I had hoped. It made me think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, and which was mentioned by one of the characters before she went for her shock treatment. And I know what you’re thinking! One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about as serious and heavy and depressing as they come! Why the inconsistency in my entertainment between this play and that movie? Don’t know. Cuckoo’s Nest had Jack. I always like Jack.

 

I Used To Be A Heart Beating For Someone

“I used to be a heart beating for someone.” In case you don’t recognize this line, it’s a lyric from Elton John’s song, Philadelphia Freedom. I must have listened to this song hundreds of times since Elton wrote it in 1975 for his friend Billie Jean King, in honor of her tennis team, the Philadelphia Freedoms. But today was the first time that I really noticed this line and what it might mean.

On the surface, this is a song about the city of Philadelphia. 1975 was the year before the nation’s bicentennial. So, freedom and Philadelphia were on people’s minds, and the song fit right in. But the song is also about relationships.

I used to be a heart beating for someone
But the times have changed

It’s pretty obvious this line is about lost love.

Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom

How many times have you felt like you were free after the end of a relationship? I know that I’ve been guilty of that multiple times.

Oh Philadelphia freedom, shine on me, I love you
Shine the light, through the eyes of the ones left behind

And if you’re not convinced that the freedom that he loves is the freedom derived from walking away from bad relationships, here are some more lyrics.

If you choose to you can live your life alone
I like living easy without family ties

But the freedom is an illusion. Or freedom doesn’t imply happiness, as Elton so eloquently states later in the song.

I like living easy without family ties (living easy)
Till the whippoorwill* of freedom zapped me
Right between the eyes

Philadelphia Freedom
Songwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton John
Philadelphia Freedom lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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* A whippoorwill is a North American songbird. It is known for its singing and its camouflage.