I'm not tryin' to be your hero

There's this commercial that made enough of a presence for me to notice it: an extremely elderly man is in a hospital bed, on every machine, gasping his final breaths, and the Grim Reaper opens the door. But he gets a phone call: it's a couple of White Castle burgers. He protests he's kind of busy with something here, but the burgers insist on continuing to exist. The Grim Reaper gives in, and leaves; the man recovers. The commercial warns that you must obey the craving for White Castle burgers. In the tag, on line at a White Castle a guy ahead of the Grim Reaper orders a case of ten, which the Grim Reaper tells him is a good choice. (Note: this is not the Grim Reaper as seen in Billy and Mandy, more's the pity.

Now, I like White Castle burgers. Part of that's the taste. Part of that's the personal associations: my father, and my grandfather, used to take me to this White Castle near my grandfather's place and you can't beat that sort of lingering happy memory. It makes a great impression on a six-year-old when he's allowed to order four whole hamburgers and eat the entire thing. (White Castle burgers, I should explain for those from territories which don't have them, are small things, in footprint smaller than a Post-It Note, and four burgers is close to about as much food as one Whopper Junior would be.) And the chocolate milkshakes they provide are wonderful things, thick and chocolate and as good as you can get without going to those places that put a quart of ice cream and a glass of milk in a blender and froth it up.

I'm just not comfortable with giving the White Castle corporation the implicit power over life and death, is all. I don't want any fast food restaurant chain having that kind of authority, even if they would presumably see to the protection of their loyal customers. Besides, Crow T Robot called dibs on that power long ago. If other customers are similarly reluctant maybe White Castle Master Command has heard -- I've seen that commercial less the past week, and more one in which the continued existence of White Castle burgers prompts a guy to abandon his job of dropping mannequins. I don't have any strong feelings about mannequin-droppers.

Trivia: Rhode Island's ratifying convention voted to adopt the Constitution of the United States by 34 to 32, with the note that representatives were to seek eighteen amendments for preserving civil liberties. Source: Rhode Island: A History, William G McLoughlin.

Currently Reading: Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists, Stephen Bach.