In this series, Blast from the Past, I’m linking to popular old entries of mine in an effort to make sure that pages don’t get lost in my move to a different blogging tool and URL.
Today’s Blast from the Past is titled The Star Spangled Banner and Anal Sovereignty, a story that explains how the accordion saved my ass — literally — from U.S. Customs. It’s bum-clenchingly good!
I’m surprised that a city like Accordion City, in which an unusually large number of people use bicycles (at least for a North American city), doesn’t have more stylized bike posts like the one below. I saw it on the north side of Queen Street West, a stone’s throw east of Roncesvalles while biking home from work:
Here’s the bike post, as seen from the street side…
[Photo taken by Joey deVilla]
…and here it is, as seen from the sidewalk side
[Photo taken by Joey deVilla]
Ex-pat Texan A.G. Pasquella, whom I’ve known since 1992 (we went to Crazy Go Nuts University together) is searching Accordion City for the perfect burger — “the burger of his youth”. He’s visiting burger places and writing reviews at his new blog, Burger Quest.
In his introductory post, he writes:
I’ve got a craving for a hamburger, and not just any hamburger: the Texas-style hamburger of my rapidly receeding youth. There’s a line in the movie Barcelona about “this delicious hamburger of memory,” and that’s exactly what I want. It might be intangible– it might be impossible– but over the course of one summer I will scour the streets of Toronto on a Quest for that elusive Perfect Burger. I will leave no burger unturned: chain restaurant burgers, gourmet burgers, burgers from the greasiest of the greasy spoons… I will try them all, hoping to catch a taste– just a taste– of my Texas Childhood.
If blogging by Texans living away from home seeking the food of their youth appeals to you, check out the Homesick Texan, whose blog I pointed to in my earlier entry about chicken fried steak.
Here’s a combination gum disposal and ashtray I saw just outside the CHIN building in Accordion City’s Little Italy neighbourhood
[Photo taken by Joey deVilla]
“White Spred-‘N-Fil But-R-Creme™” is a would be an even more apt name if the last bit was spelled “Butt-R-Creme”:
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Click the photo to see a higher-quality version at full size. It would make a decent desktop background image. Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.