37 Comments

Imagine three Zugs quietly reading in the living room when suddenly I yell “OH MY GOD!” at the straw-in-the-nose scene. 🤢 Forget the earworm, I’m never going to not imagine what that feels like! 😂

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This has been one of my favourite reads in weeks. We would have been good, good friends as teens.

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Ha! I bet we would have been! I can't imagine going through high school with the internet, cell-phones, streaming everything and legalized pot. I'm grateful to have spend those formative years before all that stuff.

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So much of the above I wasn't.....and, so much to relate to! Never smoked, and was never Jewish, although my sis-in-law is Jewish, my family's best friends (the Fred & Ethel Rubinowitz to Mom and Dad's Lucy & Ricky) were Jewish, and I went to Hebrew High--well, that's what the LARGE Jewish student body at early '70s Bellaire High in SW Houston called it! (still a large Jewish population in that general area, I read recently). They also called it Bethlehem on the Bayou! So, I feel as if I'm one of the chosen Chosen....or, at least an early-round draft pick.

Your stoned Jewish Teen Boy exploits remind me of nothing of my loner (late '60s-early '70s) teen-hood spent huddled in my room listening to endless vinyl, reading liner notes and rock mags, and at nights going either to a free rock concert (thanks, Daddy!) or an Astros game in the Dome (thanks, Daddy!).

BUT, in the late '80s-early '90s (I was 35 in '90, for point of reference), during my days as a pro youth minister at two Lutheran churches (with a B.A. and certification), my high school youth groupers were madcap sponges for all the classic rock I could feed them (and were eager to hear my stories from the decade before--that I'm now writing about here on the 'Stack!!) Our church was in Cerritos (southern L.A. country for non-Angelenos), just above Orange County....every year, we'd get annual passes to both Disneyland AND Knott's Berry Farm! 'Twas an embarrassment of riches! We'd go to one of them every summer day.

We'd go to Carl's Jr. every Wednesday night after Youth Night ended at 9. They were "typical teens," I suppose, but unfailingly nice, and certainly thoughtful and kind. A couple, I suspect, might've smoked, but certainly nowhere near me. These were the guys who were skaters in '88 or so, and after I discovered I could skate (by borrowing one of their boards), I took 3 of them with me to have them help me pick out components for my own board! They LOVED doing that!!! I told them money was no object (hey, expense account!). We'd go to skate parks during the day, and one would bring his video camera so as to make our own skate vids, and we'd skate empty parking garages at night!!

After cooping myself up in my room during MY teens (so I could have something to write about NOW......here), I finally lived out my teenhood in my 30s with those kiddos! Thank you, Jon, Joe, Jason, Scott, a couple of Brians, and the whole bunch!

And, thank you, Steve!

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You may not be Jewish, but it sounds like you are an Honorary Mensch. :--)

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Plus, I was taught all the new-to-me Yiddish words, too, and have attended my share of seder dinners (including with my youth groupers)! My Houston Astros-branded yarmulke is on its way! Mazel Tov!

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I'm picturing 30-year-old Brad doing bubble flips and frontside bigspins. I just looked up skater moves online. There are hundreds of them. My favorite might be the "Fakie Backside Pop Shove-it."

Just so you know, we Jewish stoner teens did love our music, and would gather at one of our houses to play The Clash' Combat Rock or INXS' Shabooh Shobaah.

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Good thing you mentioned the tricks. Once I discovered I wasn't gonna break my neck just riding the dang thing, I never wanted to push my luck (or my Vision board!). So, kick-flips, ollies, or anything else that would count for "showing off," I wasn't the least bit interested in. I was more than satisfied to just go straight and surprisingly fast! I was proud of my newest me.....Braddy Hawk!

And, I'm well aware of the rabid musical appetite for stoners of all ages, stripes, and denominations!

A skateboard trick you may have missed: The ole "Right-Side 360 Flip-Kick Shove-Off Ramp-breaker Side-splittin' Whatchu-talkin' 'Bout Willis"! I never mastered it.

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I honestly don't remember Das Racist at all. But the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut track sounds pretty funny.

Now, having grown up in San Diego, headquarters to the Jack in the Box empire, I'll take exception to the sullying of its name. Meaning: There's a long-standing mythos surrounding the JITB taco. Nobody has ever discovered or revealed its contents, but the deep-fried mystery shell was was the go-to filler for the 2 a.m. munchie run. Same with the 15-cent White Castle belly-bomber when I was a teen.

Thankfully, like you, I have forsaken all fast foods for the last five years. My digestive system has been forever thankful.

Keep 'em coming, Steve!

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Thanks for reading, Jim!

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Thanks for the shout-out Steve!

I also love how on Das Racist's mixtape, the song immediately after Combination continues the joke with "I'm at the White Castle (I don't see you dawg)" 😂

You also brought back a memory that my mom used to work at the rare "Red Olive" in Flagler Beach, Florida for awhile, which was a combination Red Lobster Olive Garden - https://www.eater.com/2012/7/16/6564785/yes-mutant-red-lobster-olive-garden-hybrids-exist

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What......no Lobster Garden?

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That does sound a lot better. And maybe the reason they didn't succeeed - they chose the wrong words for the new name!

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can't imagine why American seafood and Tuscan cuisine smashed together didn't work!

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I never heard the original mixtape from Das Racist. Just started listening to LAFANDAR and am really digging it. And I never knew about Red Olive! My parents are huge chain restaurant goers -- Chili's and CPK are their faves -- but I'm guessing the Red Olive never made it to the west coast.

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There's a combination A&W and Long John Silver's nearby... seems like the weirdest mashup to me.

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Coupla those in Austin!

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I think of these mashup chains as mini food courts. They are still out there -- I see them in the strip malls on the sides of highways where no other places exist. Usually there's a Subway involved from what I can tell.

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I haven't seen one of these combos in years! There were also a lot of combos involving Subway inside of truck stops for awhile too. Closest thing left is a McDonalds that shares the same space with a Stop & Go near me.

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The three of them are owned by the same company, which also makes the preferred soft drink there, Pepsi. It's all tied together.

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Yeah, I want to think it's about being friends and sharing, but reading the articles about dual and (triple) branding, it was almost always because they had the same parent company. Though not always. Some companies were happy to not be "on the lease" but get co-billing.

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I haven't thought about this song in YEARS and now it's going to live in my head all week. :D

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thats been my personal battle over the last week.

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You're welcome. And I'm sorry!:)

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Unironically a genius piece of art

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That's one of the benefits of being a stoner -- it dulls the irony muscles.

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Here in Winnipeg, Taco Bell is in combination with Kentucky Fried Chicken (in at least one location).

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Locally we have a combination KFC / A&W

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Where are you, Nick? Washington? Washington D.C.? Or is the (WA) after your name your unique gender pronoun? 😀

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I would try to share the view from my morning bike commute to work (from a few days ago), but I see that (unlike Notes) there isn't a way to add a photo to comment.

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Washington State -- the lovely pacific Northwest.

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Love it there. I lived on Vancouver Island for a year, and my sister-in-law (and family) live in Seattle, so we got up there every couple years.

Regarding photos in Notes, I have suggested that one to TPTB several months ago. I wonder if it's kept out because of either server space or to limit potential spamming.

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I just found out recently that you can upload photos to notes (I don't know if there's a size limit), which is why I was curious to try it in comments.

But, preventing that is probably a wise idea for controlling comment spam.

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Yeah, I meant comments, not notes. Too many different tools going on...I was just trying to send someone a direct message via the Chat tab like it said in the email notification and I couldn't figure it out. I saw no button to send a direct message. Don't know if I'm a luddite or I have to upgrade something.

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Aha! That combo makes more sense to me. Canadians make more sense to me.

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