"In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined." ~Thomas Szasz
"...obviously this is the sushi-or-hamburger restaurant, not the sushi-or-hamburger-with-fries restaurant and normal people would have known that without asking." lol
A young lady recently told me a similar tale about the Middle Branch Store in East Randolph, recently purchased by an out-of-stater who says she "wants to make it like a city store." The girl told me the prices are so high she can't afford anything.
My mom and her dad shopped at this little General Store in East Randolph in the 1940s, and it has always been there. But now it is weird... Perhaps enough rich people have moved to Transdolph to support it, but I am doubtful -- this side of the ridge (East Randolph, Brookfield and Chelsea) still has some native (not very wealthy) Vermonters who just can't afford it.
As to the foreign food -- I love it. I could eat Indian cuisine every day, all day long -- but I still have to be able to afford it. Our culture is being "systemically" dismantled, at great peril. This is not Martha's Vineyard, and when the world economy implodes, a lot of these elites think we owe them food when they can't even boil an egg and think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.... :)
Oh, but Josh, haven't you heard? Diversity is our strength! Just like in "the workplace" - when you mash together disparate things or people, they always achieve perfect harmony, and everyone feels super nourished and empowered! What, are you suggesting that someone or something might actually BELONG to a rooted place, time, and cultural context? How gross and antiquated of you! ;)
Are hipsters still a thing? Because this sounds very hipster. If they're anything like the ones here, the restaurant will be closed in 6-9 months when they realize you have to actually work to make it successful.
My local CVS drugstore now plays a soundtrack of “threatening birds, screeching” over loudspeakers in the parking lot to discourage homeless people from trying to pitch tents there. It’s another of those things one knows to be not normal; to be actively weird, and yet…needs must accept on some level.
Shocking that hasn't been stopped on the grounds of noise pollution, or more likely the feelz for the poor tent dwellers. That CVS franchisee must have political pull.
I know you're trying to simply describe what's happening, but this is hysterically ironic. And on a sitcom that would make fun of ridiculous things, it would be hilarious. The fact that it's reality is disturbing.
The high prices are just the Bidenflation. That's everywhere now.
For the weirdness, just a guess: During the Covid Atrocities, many people evacuated New York City for less deranged jurisdictions. The restaurant you described sounds like what would happen if a Brooklyn trust fund hipster, with all the mental acuity that role implies, moved to rural Vermont and bought a diner with daddy's money.
Wanna get away from that sort of weirdness, go visit Ohio or anywhere else in the flyover. It's still America there.
In the late 90s there was a bit of a renaissance here in the Midwest of former chain breakfast restaurant buildings that had closed and were re-opened with Greek ownership. They still served the breakfast and lunch favorites but also Greek food. Two of my favorite things. At the cashier it was baklava and apple pie. Those restaurants are gone now too.
What disturbs me most is that it all sounds so…forced (or enforced). None of this sounds like a natural evolution of population, culture or cuisine. Is this what is going to happen when the older generations of small businesses die out and the ‘baskets of deplorables’ disappear?
Just came back from a road trip through part of the South and Midwest, where there is also some fusion of tastes but it’s not this weird and forced and is far more polite, tolerant and reality based across cultures. I’m this close to relocating. - 59 yo. NJ to CA resident.
Reminds me of a place in Calgary back in the 80s called ‘Goldstein and Chan’s Wok and Bagel Emporium’. That had the benefit of being hilarious with its gloriously ‘offensive’ racial caricatures of the owners: buck teeth, rice picker hat and sidelocks anyone? God I miss the 70s - 90s.
Since studying the so-called barbarian invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries, I've sometimes wondered how this fundamental demographic change--i.e., Europe becoming white--was felt by Roman citizens on the ground: the cultural clashes being experienced by local populations as they are today along both the southern border and cities across the country. I imagine the regular Roman citizen felt put upon and vulnerable and ignored by the Empire. The main difference between now and the fall of Rome and the western Roman Empire in 476 was the dominance of the Church in creating a cohesive cultural whole during the following centuries, beginning with Emperor Charlemagne in 800 and culminating in creation of the Holy Roman Empire in the early sixteenth century and its destruction by Napoleon in 1806. I don't know if it all felt very weird to them then, but one of the reasons, I believe, why we're especially vulnerable to that feeling now is that there is no cultural cohesion in the emergent church of diversity, only culture wars among the various tribes for dominance. I'm not a Christian or a churchgoer, but being under the umbrella of collective belief was clearly much more helpful than most Americans realize and, so, the free-floating fear elicited by the absence today of at least one shared truth.
Famed atheist Richard Dawkins recently said he considers himself a "cultural Christian" for basically the reason you mention here: religion gives a society cohesion and some kind of foundation. Many Christians gleefully reposted his statement, as Christians do whenever an atheist says anything short of religion bashing. In truth, what he said boils down to "churches and cathedrals are pretty, and Christmas gives me the warm fuzzies." Still, even non-religious people are feeling a deep sense of unease at just how unsettling it is when all sense of stability has been chipped away.
He's very irritating, Dawkins, liking Christian churches but disavowing the Christians who built them. But, yes, all in all, I'm one of those who appreciated his stating of the obvious.
I live in rural southern California, where one has to travel many miles to get anything but Mexican food. Don't get me wrong, I love Mexican food, but it is pretty much all that's available in my area. A McDonald's opened recently in the nearest town, and there are lines around the block there, day and night. People with kids are delighted, but I don't consider that to be food. We have pop up restaurants and food trucks, most entirely illegal, selling homemade Mexican food, but also things like Mexican style sushi. People complain that it's a food desert here, but its really just a cultural takeover. We are 35 miles from the border, so what do you expect?
It’s so funny to me to realize that this is coming from you Josh, a guy who makes his bread and butter by being up to his eyeballs dealing with the weirdest stuff in the world.
Your criticisms are still valid. But I’m tempted to think that you would say that it’s so good to be dealing with tolerable weird stuff for a change.
"In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined." ~Thomas Szasz
I love this. Spot on.
Ohh I love me some soft serve but I guess no dips, huh? LOL
"...obviously this is the sushi-or-hamburger restaurant, not the sushi-or-hamburger-with-fries restaurant and normal people would have known that without asking." lol
A young lady recently told me a similar tale about the Middle Branch Store in East Randolph, recently purchased by an out-of-stater who says she "wants to make it like a city store." The girl told me the prices are so high she can't afford anything.
My mom and her dad shopped at this little General Store in East Randolph in the 1940s, and it has always been there. But now it is weird... Perhaps enough rich people have moved to Transdolph to support it, but I am doubtful -- this side of the ridge (East Randolph, Brookfield and Chelsea) still has some native (not very wealthy) Vermonters who just can't afford it.
As to the foreign food -- I love it. I could eat Indian cuisine every day, all day long -- but I still have to be able to afford it. Our culture is being "systemically" dismantled, at great peril. This is not Martha's Vineyard, and when the world economy implodes, a lot of these elites think we owe them food when they can't even boil an egg and think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.... :)
It's nice to see you here, John. I'm glad you're part of Vermont politics.
Oh, but Josh, haven't you heard? Diversity is our strength! Just like in "the workplace" - when you mash together disparate things or people, they always achieve perfect harmony, and everyone feels super nourished and empowered! What, are you suggesting that someone or something might actually BELONG to a rooted place, time, and cultural context? How gross and antiquated of you! ;)
I admire first class sarcasm.👍
Are hipsters still a thing? Because this sounds very hipster. If they're anything like the ones here, the restaurant will be closed in 6-9 months when they realize you have to actually work to make it successful.
Yup, in my college town, they come and go like clockwork.
My local CVS drugstore now plays a soundtrack of “threatening birds, screeching” over loudspeakers in the parking lot to discourage homeless people from trying to pitch tents there. It’s another of those things one knows to be not normal; to be actively weird, and yet…needs must accept on some level.
Shocking that hasn't been stopped on the grounds of noise pollution, or more likely the feelz for the poor tent dwellers. That CVS franchisee must have political pull.
It’s a mystery, and it’s weird, walking in there to get my anti-anxiety medication to the sounds of “CAW! CAW!”
And for heaven's sake, don't watch the film The Birds prior to or shortly after a trip to your CVS
Absolutely, watched it in a theater when was a teenager, almost had me under the seat. Still scary by today's standards.
I know you're trying to simply describe what's happening, but this is hysterically ironic. And on a sitcom that would make fun of ridiculous things, it would be hilarious. The fact that it's reality is disturbing.
Mine has VERY LOUD church organ music…and it’s working…
Do people have to pay for the merchandise or can they just help themselves and then walk out?
You should ask the CVS manager if they considered playing Lawrence Welk music tracks in the parking lot before resorting to screeching birds.
I know places that use classical music to drive unwanted loiterers away. It works, sadly, because so many people hate classical music.
The high prices are just the Bidenflation. That's everywhere now.
For the weirdness, just a guess: During the Covid Atrocities, many people evacuated New York City for less deranged jurisdictions. The restaurant you described sounds like what would happen if a Brooklyn trust fund hipster, with all the mental acuity that role implies, moved to rural Vermont and bought a diner with daddy's money.
Wanna get away from that sort of weirdness, go visit Ohio or anywhere else in the flyover. It's still America there.
I’m planning a trip to Ohio this summer - the prices to fly into Columbus are outrageous!
Just wait til you see the price of a rental car. Last time I visited, the car cost significantly more than the air ticket.
CAW!
Love your perspective on the origins of such a restaurant in rural Vermont, Gracchus
I always hate to come to the end of one of your essays, Josh.
In the late 90s there was a bit of a renaissance here in the Midwest of former chain breakfast restaurant buildings that had closed and were re-opened with Greek ownership. They still served the breakfast and lunch favorites but also Greek food. Two of my favorite things. At the cashier it was baklava and apple pie. Those restaurants are gone now too.
What disturbs me most is that it all sounds so…forced (or enforced). None of this sounds like a natural evolution of population, culture or cuisine. Is this what is going to happen when the older generations of small businesses die out and the ‘baskets of deplorables’ disappear?
Just came back from a road trip through part of the South and Midwest, where there is also some fusion of tastes but it’s not this weird and forced and is far more polite, tolerant and reality based across cultures. I’m this close to relocating. - 59 yo. NJ to CA resident.
Reminds me of a place in Calgary back in the 80s called ‘Goldstein and Chan’s Wok and Bagel Emporium’. That had the benefit of being hilarious with its gloriously ‘offensive’ racial caricatures of the owners: buck teeth, rice picker hat and sidelocks anyone? God I miss the 70s - 90s.
Nature of the Beast...seriously.
If fries are in doubt, better ask if the hamburger comes with a bun. And "for the sake of it" see the Japanese side of the menu.
Since studying the so-called barbarian invasions of the fourth and fifth centuries, I've sometimes wondered how this fundamental demographic change--i.e., Europe becoming white--was felt by Roman citizens on the ground: the cultural clashes being experienced by local populations as they are today along both the southern border and cities across the country. I imagine the regular Roman citizen felt put upon and vulnerable and ignored by the Empire. The main difference between now and the fall of Rome and the western Roman Empire in 476 was the dominance of the Church in creating a cohesive cultural whole during the following centuries, beginning with Emperor Charlemagne in 800 and culminating in creation of the Holy Roman Empire in the early sixteenth century and its destruction by Napoleon in 1806. I don't know if it all felt very weird to them then, but one of the reasons, I believe, why we're especially vulnerable to that feeling now is that there is no cultural cohesion in the emergent church of diversity, only culture wars among the various tribes for dominance. I'm not a Christian or a churchgoer, but being under the umbrella of collective belief was clearly much more helpful than most Americans realize and, so, the free-floating fear elicited by the absence today of at least one shared truth.
Famed atheist Richard Dawkins recently said he considers himself a "cultural Christian" for basically the reason you mention here: religion gives a society cohesion and some kind of foundation. Many Christians gleefully reposted his statement, as Christians do whenever an atheist says anything short of religion bashing. In truth, what he said boils down to "churches and cathedrals are pretty, and Christmas gives me the warm fuzzies." Still, even non-religious people are feeling a deep sense of unease at just how unsettling it is when all sense of stability has been chipped away.
He's very irritating, Dawkins, liking Christian churches but disavowing the Christians who built them. But, yes, all in all, I'm one of those who appreciated his stating of the obvious.
I live in rural southern California, where one has to travel many miles to get anything but Mexican food. Don't get me wrong, I love Mexican food, but it is pretty much all that's available in my area. A McDonald's opened recently in the nearest town, and there are lines around the block there, day and night. People with kids are delighted, but I don't consider that to be food. We have pop up restaurants and food trucks, most entirely illegal, selling homemade Mexican food, but also things like Mexican style sushi. People complain that it's a food desert here, but its really just a cultural takeover. We are 35 miles from the border, so what do you expect?
It’s so funny to me to realize that this is coming from you Josh, a guy who makes his bread and butter by being up to his eyeballs dealing with the weirdest stuff in the world.
Your criticisms are still valid. But I’m tempted to think that you would say that it’s so good to be dealing with tolerable weird stuff for a change.