There are many occasions when I miss good potato pancakes. Or “latkes” for those of you who are in the know. There is quite a significant Jewish population in Ithaca, which spawned the ever-greasy and delightful Hal’s Deli, where I had my first taste of their mini potato latkes and fell in love. Of course I also fell in love with the fact that Hal’s Deli would deliver breakfast in LESS than 10 minutes on any given weekend morning. Less than 10 minutes from the time you put the phone down, hot, crispy potato-ey latkes with a fresh cup of diner coffee and a bagel sandwich would be at your door. Oh, the goodness. Recently I was reminded of this during our trip to Birmingham. If you recall, our intended breakfast place was closed on Sundays (a brilliant marketing strategy for a breakfast joint) so we ended up going to an Original Pancake House instead. Now, heed the logic, folks: when you go to an Original Pancake House, get the pancakes. Don’t try to get all fancy and order something else. The good news is that I was so hungry after driving around looking for somewhere to eat that I ordered two breakfasts and a side of home fries. The bad news is I got all excited seeing potato latkes on the menu, remembered the good times at Hal’s, and ordered them. Oh, dear. Why did I not remember I was in an Original Pancake House in Birmingham, Alabama? These are factors to consider when ordering. Fortunately the plate of buttermilk pancakes and the side of home fries managed to console me.

Loyal readers will remember that I have this habit of ordering the wrong thing at restaurants. Like I will order the pasta at a barbeque place, or the burger at a seafood place. It’s not because I’m picky, it’s just because I am capricious. I want whatever I have an urge for at that moment. Also, I dislike ordering what everyone else is ordering, so I eschew going to a certain place just to order whatever people rave about. And finally, it’s my opinion that if a dining establishment is going to put an item on the menu, they should be able to do it well. Otherwise, take it off the damn menu. All that nonsense about pleasing picky customers is ridiculous. Hey, picky eaters! Yeah, you! Try something new and be open-minded about food.

I should follow my own advice. The last time Dice offered me escargot I declined. I mean, slimy! Yeah.

It’s raining again today, and the forecast calls for heavy winds as well. It’s all-too-familiar much too soon after Friday’s tornado. I’m not worried it’s going to happen again, I’m just worried about all the huge trees that were dislodged from the tornado, not all the way, but just enough so that a strong wind would blow them over. Up north, I never worried about trees falling. Because they never did. Here, trees fall for no reason and any reason. And they usually take property, sidewalks and sometimes people with them.