Thursday, March 31, 2005

Today's Political Rant

I awoke this morning to the news that — and I quote from the AP story — "...America's spy agencies were 'dead wrong' in most of their judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war and that the United States knows 'disturbingly little' about the threats posed by many of the nation's most dangerous adversaries." Also, Terri Schiavo died. Guess which one the news channels are giving almost non-stop coverage. (Hint: It's the one that will be the subject of a live 3-hour CNN special tonight hosted by Larry King.)

I'm sorry about Ms. Schiavo, just as I'm sorry when anyone dies. I felt there was something wrong with allowing her to go the way she did, though I was at a loss to explain why she mattered any more than anyone else, nor could I disagree that the real tragedy in that life occurred fifteen years ago. I just heard someone on one of the news channels say that it "demeans the concept of life" to not have done everything humanly possible to save Terri's life. I wish the interviewer had asked — not to be argumentative but because I would have liked to hear the explanation — why folks who feel that way seem so unconcerned about all the other preventable deaths that occur every day in this country. I'd sure be on the side of the so-called "Culture of Life" if I saw more being done under its auspices to help more people. I also think it demeans the concept of life to define it down to merely having a pulse.

In the meantime, we're learning more and more that the entities that led us into war and which continue to lead the War on Terror were and continue to be largely inept and uninformed. I think, if we're going to care about the sanctity of human life, that ought to be the bigger story. I'll bet most people think that. But Larry's still doing the 3-hour special on the Schiavo matter.

• Posted at 10:01 AM · LINK

Piece Offering

Guess I'm on a kick of recalling near-defunct restaurant chains. I was thinking today about Piece O' Pizza, a string of eateries that once decorated the Southern California landscape...an amazing reach considering the awfulness of their signature product. Do you like pizza where the crust tastes like matzo, the toppings have the thickness of carbon paper and you can't decide whether to eat the pizza or the box it came in? If you do, you'd have loved Piece O' Pizza pizza. Just awful. What kept them in business, it seemed to me, was their great, racy slogan ("Had a piece lately?") and the fact that there then weren't a lot of other places where one could grab a fast pizza to take home.

Also, they served a decent meatball sandwich and a more-than-decent (and very cheap) spaghetti plate. Many of the Piece O' Pizza stands were in "Skid Row" style areas, and I bet that spaghetti plate kept a lot of homeless people alive.

Like I said, they were all over L.A. There was one on Pico just east of Sepulveda. The building's still there but now it's a Numero Uno. All the other ones I know of were torn down completely. There was one at Beverly and Fairfax, another on La Brea just south of Hollywood, another on La Cienega near Airdrome...and (I'm guessing) at least 200 more. As far as I know, there's only one remaining. It's down on Venice Boulevard about a half-mile west of Sepulveda. A year or two ago, I was in the neighborhood and in need of rapid lunch, so I decided to go in and have the spaghetti plate, just to see if it was still the same. Since there is no parent company now to supply the preparations, I was expecting totally different cuisine...but the meat sauce was more or less what I recalled, or at least it seemed to have evolved from the same recipe.

I probably won't go back since I now have better places to eat. I suspect that's what killed off the Piece O' Pizza chain in or around the late eighties. As Numero Uno and Pizza Hut and even Domino's spread, everyone had a better place to get a quick pizza or to have one brought to their door. Speculating further, I'd guess that too many of their stands were located in depressed areas, which made it difficult for them to upgrade their product. It would have been awkward to simultaneously improve their menu (making most items more expensive), advertise that they'd done this...but still service the crowd that just wanted the cheapest-possible plate of pasta.

I don't exactly miss the places since they weren't that good. On the other hand, I've been to fancy Italian restaurants where I enjoyed a $20 entree a lot less than I liked the Piece O' Pizza spaghetti plate. Even in the early eighties, it didn't cost much over two dollars...and that included garlic bread.

• Posted at 1:09 AM · LINK