Not Quite Winners

About a month after me son Charlie mustered out of the Army, as we sat anticipating some waste of time on TV one night, we decided we wanted pizza. As we drove to the pizza parlor we came across dozens, maybe a hundred, small pieces of paper strewn across the street. "What are they?" Charlie wondered allowed.

"They look like lottery slips," I responded. While Michigan like many other states still has scratch offs, many lottery tickets by then were printed by computer and had bar code identification.

My son asked, "Want to pick them up?" I knew what he thinking, because I was curious about the same thing. But I said, "They've gotta be losers or they wouldn't be all over the street." Still, an overlooked small winner might pay for our food, and lottery tickets are bearer items. Maybe we might luck up.

I pulled over the van and we began collecting what were indeed lottery slips. And there were several dozen. Once gathered, we went to a nearby party store to check them out.

Fortunately, with the bar codes, we were able to check the tickets at a scanner rather than be pests to the clerk. With each scanned paper I think Charlie and I both held our breaths slightly, hoping for some bit of good news, our anticipation oddly building with every loser. Perhaps the next would be the one! Sadly, there were no major or minor winners. Our effort was for nil.

Still, the thought that maybe we had passed up on some small windfall would have haunted me, and maybe my son, until this day. I'm glad we at least tried. And we did get all that litter off the street. 

A Memo From the Department of Obvious

I wrote last month, in a rather sarcastic vein (it's my superpower), that food packaging can be incredibly obvious. It was when I had discovered that tea could be served in a cup. I know! Who would have thought it?

Well, that sort of universe expanding knowledge goes beyond hot leaf beverages, let me tell you.  In recent years I've took to keeping pepperoni on hand because it livens up a sandwich. Ham and swiss on rye? Toss on a few pepperoni. Even good old bologna on white bread becomes a party of tastiness with it added. In fact, pepperoni might be right up there with bacon as a garnish. You can even snack on it too. I'm not sure there's a meal it would not enhance.

Yesterday as I was making lunch, I grabbed pepperoni to add to the ham and provolone cheese on wheat sandwich I was intent upon. It was then that I saw, in bold print right on the front of the package, in capital letters and with an exclamation point for added emphasis, that pepperoni was GREAT ON PIZZA!

Pepperoni pizza? Are you kidding me? I can put that on pizza? 

Mind. Blown. I wish I'd have thought about it before. Why doesn't somebody tell me these things? 

Not Just For Pizza Anymore

Ah, pepperoni. Who doesn't love you? Along with bacon, you go with anything.

Everyone is familiar with the classic cheese and pepperoni pizza. But I keep pepperoni around for my sandwiches. A few on a simple ham and cheese or even a plain old bologna sandwich give lunch a neat little kick. And now that I'm exclusively using whole wheat bread, it's healthy too.

Whenever I'm in Hessel in Michigan's glorious Upper Peninsula, I like to eat at an Italian restaurant called Ang-Gio's in nearby Cedarville. They have among other menu offerings one great cheese and pepperoni pizza themselves. But I love their all you can eat soup and salad bar, because it has more than vegetables. Along with black olives, and it's hard to go wrong with black olives, friends, their salad bar always has pepperoni, with which you can pile onto, er, top off your salad. Plus it's salad, so it's healthy, right?

Bacon? Absolutely. Give some thought to pepperoni too. 

Audia's

As I made my way down I-75 early today on my way to Springfield, Ohio and the Electric Eel plant, I passed the Clark Street exit. Now, I don't know about you, but for me the Clark Street exit does, has, and always will mean one thing.

Audia's Pizza.

You took the Clark exit to Junction, then a right on Junction to Porter and there you were: Audia's. We got our pizza from them for years. It had thick, gooey cheese and those little pepperonis which curled up when the baked, letting the oils pool inside them. In other words, real pepperoni. And the pizzas always came in those large brown wax paper bags. Okay, one would be in a box, and the one in the paper would sit on that.

Whenever I was the one sent to pick them up, then 12 minute ride home was almost torture, waiting to sink my teeth into that pizza. Maybe it just tastes so good in my memory because I'm sentimental, but man, it was good.

Audia's was a mom and pop place and they were both disappointed that, when they decided to retire, none of their seven kids wanted to take it over. They were swell people as well as great pizza makers.

I never pass the Clark exit without thinking about them. And their pizza.