Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Reader's Eye on Television

Mean people's rice pilaf is a terrible disgrace. At Kaiser Vanduzer's Brathaus and World War One Memorial, get the wiener sandwich and wheat beer, but tell the bright-eyed frau in lederhosen to keep that damn rice. You're going to want to do that before it's scooped onto your metal tray. After that it's too late. That vulture of a woman will see to that. The part of the Memorial Museum I ate in was also the all-terrain vehicle motor pool and grease pit. My waitress was head mechanic. Uninspired cook staff don't wash their hands, and white rice shows transmission-oil fingerprints all too well.

It's that bad.

"Yavol! Zee r-r-r-rice iz on your plate. You vill eat it!" the dye-job and blue-eye-makeup harpy barked at me.

"Look," I said. "I'm sure you're all very nice people and everything. It wasn't you. I know that. You didn't start those wars. Sure, it was your great grandparents and all; you're all sorted out. But, this rice can't be eaten, and that's how that goes."

"Za wars? Vat do za wars have to do wit zhis rice?" the blonde behemoth spat. She was furious and her face flushed from pale to hot pink in seconds. "Victory vill still be ours someday!" she shouted and then slammed her spatula and socket-wrench set on the table.

"I've had about enough of your--" I was interrupted by two quick raps to the mouth from the hag. The dirty-penny taste of blood mingled with the schnitzel grease on my lips.

I am not a big man; chubby, sure, but not long-limbed or wide, more of a squishy shrimp. This terrible beast of a waitress had hands that were easily twice the size of mine, and her shoulders stood out from her leather suspenders like wooden beams under fluffy sleeves. My fight was ended before it began. I tried reason.

"I know you've gotten a lot of bad press," I said. "The TV reporters cast a harsh light on your treatment of the Serbs. What's a little border skirmish between neighbors? And Archduke Ferdinand--"

Sponsored
Sponsored

She answered me with another belt across the bratwurst hole.

"Someday vee vill be shown as the noble and sturdy people vee truly are on your American television," she said. "But until zhen you vill eat vat I serve you and you vill like it!"

What could I do? I picked at my rice with a set of slip-joint pliers and smiled.

Thursday, August 30 NASA Connect ITVS 9:00 a.m. I've figured out what's kept me from joining the space program: clunky magnetic boots. Now that I've lined my ceiling in steel and affixed a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars with refrigerator poetry, I'm all set for my training. Zero-gravity, shmeer-o gravity.

Lobster Wars Discovery 9:00 p.m. Lobster WARS! Time to pick sides, and I'm with the lobsters! Come feel my pink pincher of doom as it snips your windpipe like wire cutters through a drinking straw. Finally, our day has come, my crustacean comrades. Our day has come.

Friday, August 31 Speed FX 8:00 p.m. There's a bomb located in Ted Theodore Logan's facial expression, and if he shows emotion or a sign of acting ability, it goes off. Two hours of Keanu's blank stare later and we're all left with the vague feeling that our buttcracks have been steel-wooled. Way to go, FX. Thanks for replaying this winner.

Saturday, September 1 Babar NBC 9:00 a.m. What kind of horrid child would watch the very polite world of effete schoolchildren elephants instead of Transformers ? The kind of kid who grows up to wear a beret, that's who. Put away your art pencils and kiss Optimus Prime's chrome trailer hitch, Frenchie. Time to toughen up.

Wheel of Fortune NBC 7:00 p.m. Pat Sajak's knee sweat and Vanna White's discarded mustache wax form a team of superheroes with special powers and crime-fighting abilities. When whomping an arch nemesis they shout inspirational phrases from the show, such as, "I'd like to buy a vowel!" Bang! Zoom!

Sunday, September 2 Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even (1992) MyTV 8:00 p.m. My friend, Althea, has elephantisis of the extremities. Her feet are the size of tennis rackets. She's embarrassed by it, but I'm going to see if the added surface area will let her walk on water like a ninja. Watch out, feudal Japanese warlords, my friend Althea will cross your moat like death in the night.

Monday, September 3 The Mask of Zorro Telemundo 8:00 p.m. My Lone Ranger mask is twice as cool as Zorro's. Because I'm a cowboy with bright blue fringe that flaps in the prairie breeze instead of a wine-swilling, rose-chomping Nancy boy. No, I don't need to learn to tango, thankyouverymuch. I've got a silver pistol and a horse, and you can sashay out of this town, sissy.

Tuesday, September 4 The Biggest Loser NBC 9:00 p.m. Shoot your boyfriend. It's the latest weight-loss craze. Two-hundred pounds of unwanted bulk stinking up your couch with its sweat and oil? Get tips on staying divinely thin in county jail from Paris, Nicole, and Lindsay. They've all done it; now you should, too!

Wednesday, September 5 America's Next Top Model CW 8:00 p.m. Sarajevo's Next Top Chicken Plucker is by far the more entertaining show. Armpit hair distracts from the bikini contest, but that can be overlooked. Challenges include burlap-sack dressmaking and a barefoot snow hike to the International Relief Station -- sponsored by Khrushchev Lard and Ball Bearings.

Thursday, September 6 Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown ABC 8:00 p.m. Swapping. That's what they're talking about. Nobody wants to say so, but Charles Schultz was a swinger, and his cartoons reflect this deviance. Detestable the way he attributes his own prurient devices to these cartoon children, but sometimes art isn't pretty.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

3 Tips for Creating a Cozy and Inviting Living Room in San Diego

Next Article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta

Mean people's rice pilaf is a terrible disgrace. At Kaiser Vanduzer's Brathaus and World War One Memorial, get the wiener sandwich and wheat beer, but tell the bright-eyed frau in lederhosen to keep that damn rice. You're going to want to do that before it's scooped onto your metal tray. After that it's too late. That vulture of a woman will see to that. The part of the Memorial Museum I ate in was also the all-terrain vehicle motor pool and grease pit. My waitress was head mechanic. Uninspired cook staff don't wash their hands, and white rice shows transmission-oil fingerprints all too well.

It's that bad.

"Yavol! Zee r-r-r-rice iz on your plate. You vill eat it!" the dye-job and blue-eye-makeup harpy barked at me.

"Look," I said. "I'm sure you're all very nice people and everything. It wasn't you. I know that. You didn't start those wars. Sure, it was your great grandparents and all; you're all sorted out. But, this rice can't be eaten, and that's how that goes."

"Za wars? Vat do za wars have to do wit zhis rice?" the blonde behemoth spat. She was furious and her face flushed from pale to hot pink in seconds. "Victory vill still be ours someday!" she shouted and then slammed her spatula and socket-wrench set on the table.

"I've had about enough of your--" I was interrupted by two quick raps to the mouth from the hag. The dirty-penny taste of blood mingled with the schnitzel grease on my lips.

I am not a big man; chubby, sure, but not long-limbed or wide, more of a squishy shrimp. This terrible beast of a waitress had hands that were easily twice the size of mine, and her shoulders stood out from her leather suspenders like wooden beams under fluffy sleeves. My fight was ended before it began. I tried reason.

"I know you've gotten a lot of bad press," I said. "The TV reporters cast a harsh light on your treatment of the Serbs. What's a little border skirmish between neighbors? And Archduke Ferdinand--"

Sponsored
Sponsored

She answered me with another belt across the bratwurst hole.

"Someday vee vill be shown as the noble and sturdy people vee truly are on your American television," she said. "But until zhen you vill eat vat I serve you and you vill like it!"

What could I do? I picked at my rice with a set of slip-joint pliers and smiled.

Thursday, August 30 NASA Connect ITVS 9:00 a.m. I've figured out what's kept me from joining the space program: clunky magnetic boots. Now that I've lined my ceiling in steel and affixed a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars with refrigerator poetry, I'm all set for my training. Zero-gravity, shmeer-o gravity.

Lobster Wars Discovery 9:00 p.m. Lobster WARS! Time to pick sides, and I'm with the lobsters! Come feel my pink pincher of doom as it snips your windpipe like wire cutters through a drinking straw. Finally, our day has come, my crustacean comrades. Our day has come.

Friday, August 31 Speed FX 8:00 p.m. There's a bomb located in Ted Theodore Logan's facial expression, and if he shows emotion or a sign of acting ability, it goes off. Two hours of Keanu's blank stare later and we're all left with the vague feeling that our buttcracks have been steel-wooled. Way to go, FX. Thanks for replaying this winner.

Saturday, September 1 Babar NBC 9:00 a.m. What kind of horrid child would watch the very polite world of effete schoolchildren elephants instead of Transformers ? The kind of kid who grows up to wear a beret, that's who. Put away your art pencils and kiss Optimus Prime's chrome trailer hitch, Frenchie. Time to toughen up.

Wheel of Fortune NBC 7:00 p.m. Pat Sajak's knee sweat and Vanna White's discarded mustache wax form a team of superheroes with special powers and crime-fighting abilities. When whomping an arch nemesis they shout inspirational phrases from the show, such as, "I'd like to buy a vowel!" Bang! Zoom!

Sunday, September 2 Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even (1992) MyTV 8:00 p.m. My friend, Althea, has elephantisis of the extremities. Her feet are the size of tennis rackets. She's embarrassed by it, but I'm going to see if the added surface area will let her walk on water like a ninja. Watch out, feudal Japanese warlords, my friend Althea will cross your moat like death in the night.

Monday, September 3 The Mask of Zorro Telemundo 8:00 p.m. My Lone Ranger mask is twice as cool as Zorro's. Because I'm a cowboy with bright blue fringe that flaps in the prairie breeze instead of a wine-swilling, rose-chomping Nancy boy. No, I don't need to learn to tango, thankyouverymuch. I've got a silver pistol and a horse, and you can sashay out of this town, sissy.

Tuesday, September 4 The Biggest Loser NBC 9:00 p.m. Shoot your boyfriend. It's the latest weight-loss craze. Two-hundred pounds of unwanted bulk stinking up your couch with its sweat and oil? Get tips on staying divinely thin in county jail from Paris, Nicole, and Lindsay. They've all done it; now you should, too!

Wednesday, September 5 America's Next Top Model CW 8:00 p.m. Sarajevo's Next Top Chicken Plucker is by far the more entertaining show. Armpit hair distracts from the bikini contest, but that can be overlooked. Challenges include burlap-sack dressmaking and a barefoot snow hike to the International Relief Station -- sponsored by Khrushchev Lard and Ball Bearings.

Thursday, September 6 Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown ABC 8:00 p.m. Swapping. That's what they're talking about. Nobody wants to say so, but Charles Schultz was a swinger, and his cartoons reflect this deviance. Detestable the way he attributes his own prurient devices to these cartoon children, but sometimes art isn't pretty.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Too $hort & DJ Symphony, Peppermint Beach Club, Holidays at the Zoo

Events December 19-December 21, 2024
Next Article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader