Today, went to work in the morning, then spent the afternoon doing some demolishing and cleaning. Some people are good with a surgical laser, others with a watchmaker's set of screwdrivers. Me? I'm quite good with a recip saw. Not too bad for a Saturday.
Was a bit of a long day, so we grabbed a pizza to bring home. We stopped by the local Godfather's, which for a change actually had some people in it. The management was so happy by this turn of events that they didn't charge me for the Coors I had while I waited. Sometimes timing is everything.
I don't know why this Godfather's never has anyone patronizing them, because they make a pretty good pizza, for a chain place. Which brings me to the 'audience participation' part of the show.
I come to the place where you live. I want the best local pizza. Where do I go? It could be a franchise, or a locally owned establishment, or your own homemade. What's the 'best around'? Mind that I'm not really a pizza connoiseur-it's got to be truly awful before I'll turn it down.
A couple of places that are 'the pizza place of renown' around my stomping grounds aren't necessarily my favorites. They aren't 'bad', but they just aren't my favorites. In the QC's, Harris Pizza is consistently voted 'best in the area'. I can take it or leave it-every one I've ever had has been a bit lacking. I find it too conventional to be a signature effort. Again-I won't turn it down. But I won't make a trip to buy one, either.
The place back in Savanna, where I grew up, was Manny's. He makes a thin crust, which I like. It has enough grease in it to lube a car or fuel an oil lamp, which I can do without. Manny's is, hmm, renowned? for their speed. Most of you readers are Australian. If you called Manny's, ordered up, got on the plane, took the 19 hour flight to Chicago, then drove the three hours to Savanna, you'd probably only have to wait about an hour and a half after that to get your pizza. Fast ain't their strong suit. I believe the strategy is 'Come on in and order up. While you're here, have a pitcher of beer.' Nothing wrong with that. Just don't be particularly hungry.
That's our local pizza joints of note. What's yours?
Hmm. Didn't like the previous music? Well, that's all right. Maybe this tune from the summer of 1966 will sit better in your ears. I love the original, but a Boston band should be singing a song about that Dirty Water along the banks of the River Charles:
Better? Lovely.
Finally, a few vehicle pics that caught my eye:
All this juice tanker needs is an escort by Mad Max's customized Falcon. This semi is in Russia, but it'd look good cruising the interstate in Montana or out in the open spaces of New South Wales.
Speaking of Russia, this is a reproduction of a Lebednovo Tank from the WWI era. The thought was that the giant front wheels would allow the tank to easily cross trenches. What actually happened was that the powered rear wheel got stuck and the powertrain wasn't powerful enough to lift it out. Not to mention that said wheels are exposed for everyone with a rifle, grenade, or howitzer to take a shot at. It would look mighty damn cool fighting a Martian tripod, though!
I've heard it said that guns, artillery, rockets, and the like, are some sort of phallic symbol in the recesses of our psyches. If that's true, then some Soviet designer back in the 1950s had some serious issues going on. These self propelled pieces are mounting 420mm guns-or around 16 inches (!). That's the size of a battleship's main gun! A damn big piece of artillery to be trying to drive around. Story is that the nuclear weapons designers in the USSR were having a hard time trying to build a warhead small enough to fit a rocket. Hence putting a monster gun on an overloaded chassis. The vehicle would have had terrible mobility over anything other than a flat paved road, and one would think that the recoil would knock it over on its side. I believe these were later sold to Japan, where they were used in the Godzilla Campaign of 1957.
This car looks like the perfect vehicle to ride around the streets of the Manhattan Island prison, or drive headlong into a horde of zombies with, or scrounge a post-apocalyptic desert for a quart of gas, a few cans of beans, and that last issue of Playboy.
It's a tank! It's a motorcycle! It's a Kettenkrad tracked motorcycle from World War II, used by the Germans on all fronts. It has decent cross-country capability, thanks to its tracks. I'd like to ride one of these someday.
Finally, someone built this electric-powered replica of Luke Skywalker's landspeeder from Star Wars. Call me a nerd, but this would be awesome to drive around in! Think how much fun this would be if you got pulled over or stopped at a roadblock:
Officer: Do you know how fast you were going?
Driver (performs a peculiar motion with his fingers): I'm not the speeder you're looking for.
Officer (perplexed): You're not the speeder we were looking for.
Driver: We can go about our business now.
Officer: You can go about your business.
Driver: Move along.
Officer: Move along! Move along!
I bet you could get out of a lot of tickets if you had your own landspeeder.
yankeedog out.
Pizza joints - there's bloody nowhere in Dunedin - but the pizza caffe at the Uni of Queensland in Brisbane does excellent work.
ReplyDeleteThere's a place in Brisbane (still?) called Earth and Sea. They made alright pizzas. I used to make a mean one at the cafe I worked at till the boss reined those in. They were popular too. I stacked the toppings on.
ReplyDeleteAlways wanted to try one of your "New York" pizzas. About the size of a table, one.
There was a movie made in NZ called "Battletruck" where that truck above looks like it came from. I loved the movie as a kid, but I just had a look at IMDB and it's rated at about 4.2/10. LOL HEATHENS, it was great, for a 1982 movie.
It's called the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe. Voted the best for 5 years in it's little corner of the world. I haven't been there in about 7 years before it got it's big votes, but it was and is fabulous fabulous. We used to drive from Colton to Yucaipa for this pizza, about a 20 minute drive. Always worth it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't found a good Pizza shop out this way yet. Liparri at the old place was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteDoc-When the student union does the best pizza around, there's a definite lack of good establishments.
ReplyDeleteMoko-My restaurant experience (as an employee) has been that if you're generous, the boss gets upset. I remember making hamburger patties and getting chewed by my boss for making them too thick. I think he wanted to be able to read through them!
Earth and Sea. Check.
I'm not a huge fan of super thick pizzas. Might as well have lasagna if you're going to do that.
Wildstorm-Gourmet Pizza Shoppe, Yucaipa. If I get out to Cal, I'm there.
Bangar-No problem. Liparri it is.
Nah it's one of the most competitive pizza areas in the city - Earth and Sea are about 5 mins away from UQ along with a bunch of other places - but this place is a Brisbane institution. Not really run by the student union, though they get the profits.
ReplyDeleteEarth and Sea started down in Byron Bay as I recall.
Couple of all-right ones in Broome town. Had a nice thin-crust spicy one at Carlottas, the Italian joint the other night, complete with bona-fide ring-of-fire experience the next morning. Well worth it. But my fave is at the mango farm/winery, 12 miles out of town. They do their own wood-fired jobbies very well, especially the Meaty Mango, which goes oh so well with a couple of Mango ales from the local brewery.
ReplyDeleteDrej-A wood-fired thin crust pizza with Mango Ale, hmm? I may have to get tickets on Qantas-sounds darn good!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBest Pizza Byron Bay
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