And the piano, it sounds like a carnival

[austin_dern]

Describing everything that bunny_hugger and I did would involve a lot of writing about diners, because we did a lot of stopping at them. That's not that we were stuffing ourselves, just that we'd often be, say, driving back from an amusement pier after midnight and the options for eating would be White Castle or a 24-hour diner. White Castle might be fine for me (I don't think I've ever been to one after midnight), but she's vegetarian, so better to be somewhere that grilled-cheese sandwiches or French toast or cheese omelettes are convenient options.

And there'd be a lot of sitting and talking and wondering if this is a diner with free refills --- we were always a touch dehydrated --- or not, and sometimes noticing what was on the TV or what was drifting into the radio. At one point it was even Billy Joel's ``Piano Man'', a song I can't help noticing. But mostly we talked, and quite a bit of it turned to things like my stumbling ineptly over the basic ideas of philosophy.

See, while I did take philosophy courses to pass my non-science course requirements as an undergraduate, I did it the way Physics/Mathematics double majors traditionally do: take a Philosophy Of Science course in which we learn, about Thales and Descartes and end up with nearly mathematics-free reviews of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, all of which we knew by about age nine at latest.

So I enjoyed modest introductions to more philosophy stuff I didn't actually know, and I think managed to approach but not actually hit one of the dumb things science majors stuck in required philosophy courses often hit on, the use of the word Quantum as a magic wand for avoiding every question about determinism and, for that matter, for evading every philosophical question that doesn't come about from deriving the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contractions. I do believe strongly in the underlying randomness of very many things, but I also know the Law of Large Numbers, that this randomness is itself highly predictable, you see. But I do feel like I should have taken philosophy courses as seriously as I took my history requirements.

Trivia: In his treatise on elixirs, Nostradamus recommended sugared almonds as delicious foods which should be enjoyed daily rather than used as medicines. Source: Sweets: A History of Temptation, Tim Richardson.

Currently Reading: Spectrum, Edited by Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest. I picked this up mostly because it had ``The Midas Plague'' as the leadoff story, which I'd somehow never read. But I kept on reading since it went into Clifford Simak and Algis Budrys and Robert Sheckley and then William Tenn's ``Null-P''. It's tough having a modest taste for Tenn.

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Billy Joel with refills!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, sure. Would you prefer Billy Joel without refills?

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I've forgotten which diner we were at when we heard "Piano Man." Was it at the Ocean Queen?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

No, the Ocean Queen was the one we went to after the baseball game. If I'm reading my maps correctly I believe the one we heard ``Piano Man'' at, at the end of the day in Seaside Heights, was the Toms River Diner, on Route 37 East.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

And here I was thinking that we went to the Regent again that night. I think the time we spent at diners is beginning to blend together in my mind. Which is all right, really, because it's all happy in the same way.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I realized I was having trouble remembering where it was we ate on Friday night, but your mention of the Ocean Queen made that make sense. I think we could fit together the roster of restaurants, now. ... Ahm .... Monday night, Regent Diner; Tuesday morning, Jersey Mike's; Tuesday evening, Burger King; Wednesday Morning, Corner Post Diner; Wednesday Evening, Toms River Diner; Thursday Morning, other Jersey Mike's, Thursday Evening, Regent Diner; Friday morning, Rainbow Diner; Friday evening, Ocean Queen; Saturday morning, Jackson Diner.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

That matches up with my recollection too, now that you've laid it out. My main problem was that I knew we'd gone back to the Regent and I couldn't remember which night that happened.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I had to think out whether it was Thursday or Friday too, but in hindsight I can see how the directions of the days were mapped out and that makes it easier to sort.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Billy Joel of late, seems to be enjoying his refills a bit too much.

Also, I visit White Castle far more in the midnight-noon period than in the noon-midnight period.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

You know, I just don't think I've ever been at a White Castle that late. I suppose it's my personality, which tends to feel that I ought to be getting homewards by the time it's sunset and that it should be something exceptional getting me out after midnight. Mere food doesn't cut it.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Mm. Well, White castles are more a off-in-the-distance food for me, coupled with my usual sleep schedules of "2am is about bedtime." Midnight food isn't that late for me. Hmm, just to confirm... The three times of White Castle visit on my recent trip were midnight, 7am, and 1:30pm. The midnight one made special by the entry of two young Asian gentlemen just as I sat down with my half-dozen hamburgers.

That said, that's usually something i can manage from materials in the house, so it doesn't happen often.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I think of them as off a while, but that's because my parents managed to find a home that's 20 minutes away from everything. Still, while my bedtime is late enough it takes strong influence to make me think to go out after about 7 pm.