Use Your Time Wisely

Down on Route 6 in Wareham is a great little roadside restaurant called the Kool Kone. While it would never be considered fine dining, the Kone's big attraction are its blue plate specials, where you can get two hotdogs, two hamburgers or two cheeseburgers (or any combination of those you feel like making), fries and a drink for cheap money. Considering the price, the food is actually very good. The downside is that this establishment is popular, therefore usually very crowded and the service is not what you would call 'swift'. It's totally worth the wait, though, because no place is going to be perfect. As you would expect, when I was down the beach last week I went for dinner one night to the Kool Kone. After placing my order I stood off to the side and began to engage in one of my favorite activities, which is people watching. I quickly noticed one of the more annoying things that can happen when you are at one of these roadside fast food places - the people who are never ready to order when it is their turn.

There was a group consisting of a mom, a grandmother and 6 other girls who were probably in their early teens. While they were waiting to approach the ordering window they stood around and began solving all of the problems of the world. However, the one subject they never approached was what everyone was going to have for dinner. Only when it was finally their turn did they think to look at the giant menu that had been hanging over their heads this entire time. Judging by how unprepared they were for this moment, I speculate that they were surprised that this was what was waiting for them at the end of this line they had gotten into. Perhaps they thought this was some sort of pre-ordering station. At this point came the discussions that should have been taking place this entire time: who wanted what, did two of them want to share a blue plate special, who wants onion rings instead of fries, what is everyone having to drink, should we just get a big order and everyone share? On and on this went, while the man who was only going to be ordering for himself stood silently behind them, giving off the vibe that he would rather pull his eyebrows off than be near these people anymore.

It was a fascinating thing to watch, made better by the fact that I had ordered well before them. Now, I'm not to the level of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi but c'mon, people - you have to at least be somewhat ready when it is your turn. Think about it this way - if you don't save a little conversation for when you are waiting for your food to be ready, what are you going to talk about during the rest of dinner? Ration out the conversation and be ready when it is your turn to order. These are not unreasonable requests. I, and the rest of the population that go any kind of fast food restaurant, will thank you for it.

-This week BlockBuster online came through with some good movies in the mail: Sherlock Holmes and Avatar. Now, I had seen Holmes in the theatres, but in addition to just wanting to see it again because it was a good movie, I was curious as to any special features it may have had. After all, that is the main point to renting DVDs - alternate endings, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes features. But, it turns out there weren't any on the DVD. While bummed, I figured that the Avatar DVD must be jam-packed with special features of James Cameron talking about how important he and this movie are. But, alas, no special features on the Avatar DVD either. I really hope this isn't a new trend of putting all the special features on a second DVD that doesn't come along with the rental, because that is really an inconvenient move. Also, it's not smart for Blockbuster, because if they're not going to include the special features then a lot of movies wouldn't even be worth a rental the first time around.