True Tales Of Survival, Part II

The television situation in this hotel room is fairly disappointing. First, the remote doesn't work, forcing me to flip through the channels with the crappy buttons on the tv itself. Secondly, HBO is showing Big Love, a critically acclaimed show I have no interest in watching, rather than any number of crappy movies that I would prefer to be watching at this time. Fortunately I've started drinking, which can only improve things. Also, Space Cowboys is on AMC, which is also a possible improvement. Clint Eastwood is making out with some old woman in a garage.



Things don't seem to be much worse outside.

I ate lunch today at storied Southern chicken sandwich joint Chick-fil-A. In the Midwest Chick-fil-A is usually in malls or airports, but are rarely freestanding stores. This means that a great deal of the Chick-fil-A experience elides the Midwestern diner, as the design of the franchise's restaurants neatly splice traditional fast-food design tropes with a healthy dose of self-mythologizing. Specifically, all the decarations prominently feature the life story and musings of 88 year old Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy who is credited with inventing the chicken sandwich, insomuch as the decision to put a specific type of meat into a sandwich can be termed an "invention." Cathy is a noted evangelical Baptist who has authored several motivational books and an autobiography, which are available for sale in a combo pack for twenty bucks at Chick-fil-A. One of Cathy's stipulations to his francisees is that all Chick-fil-A restaurants be closed for buisiness on Sundays so employees can attend church services with their families; this policy is explained in detail on a board near the restaurant entrance. At the location I ate at, there was a large box near the napkins and ketchup marked 'prayer requests'. The story of how Cathy and his brother started selling chicken sandwiches at a jointly owned restaurant that was the precursor to Chick-fil-A is lovingly detailed on wall posters. Strangely, what happened to the brother subsequently is not mentioned.

The experience isn't so much a bad one - the food is really quite good- just strange. Most fast food places try to appeal broadly through bland, market tested pleasantries. Chick-fil-A centers itself on the charm of a geriatric man-of-faith, which would probably be considered marketing suicide anywhere else, but in the context of a semirural area in the South, it fits. I've spent a lot of time in rural areas, but there's a different atmosphere in the South that feels like it would take some getting used to.

Role Models is on HBO now, maybe I'll watch that again instead of finishing Space Cowboys.




A view of my quarters...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone