FSB and No Buffy

No Buffy for me tonight. I've been watching an hour a night, but I haven't been getting any writing done, and I've been staying up too late. Hopefully, I can get a scene or two written tonight.

I picked up my express mail package today. Two Feel So Bad cds -- "Virtual Vacation" and "Be-Bop Cafe". FSB is a Japanese metal band, and I order these cds from an online Japanese cd/dvd/etc. site, http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/. Cheaper than buying imports over here, and the service is pretty good. Anyway, a little over two years ago FSB did 12 cds in one year, one a month, and I've been collecting them, about 2 every month or so. These two are months 11 and 12... I have 8 of the 12 now, 4 still to go, and I don't own all of FSB's older cds yet either, but a lot of those aren't available at the moment.

When I'm at work, all I want to do is go home and sleep. When I get home, I want to do anything BUT sleeep...


Ah. I've discovered that when you don't have a default picture, no picture displays. I thought it would grab one at random, but noooo, I have to choose one myself!

LJ Bad! Writing Good!

Bleah. Now I've played around for 2 hours on LJ and didn't write anything. AGAIN.


Mind you, I used to spend as much time on various Everquest and guild EZBoards... but both of my guilds are doa now... or nearly so.

Blah

I was going to sleep another hour... I really could use it... but there's a high-pitched whine, VERY LOUD, coming from the apartment just outside my bedroom window. It's kind of like a smoke detector alarm I guess, but I don't really think that's what it is. And it's been going for a good ten minutes now and nobody seems to care.

Hmmm... it's coming from the window directly opposite from mine. No smoke visible, but the window is open... haven't heard any sirens either.

Sigh. How annoying.

But this sort of thing does make you think... what if my apartment were on fire? What if I had to leave now, and lost everything? Is there anything I'd want to try and save?

They tell you not to do that, of course. But the things I'd most want to save are what's on my computer (no chance to save that) and my cd/dvd collection (I'll just grab 2000 cds on the way out... lol). So I probably would leave, and lose everything, if the whole house burned down. Barring the whole house burning down, my cds would survive smoke and water but not heat, of course...

And the other thought is, if I'm awakened from sleep (like I was today) would I be able to grab enough clothing so that I didn't look like an idiot or freeze to death as my house burned down?

^_^

Sheesh. It's still going... still no sign of smoke or any other activity...

Okay, someone has finally done something... it's not as loud, or else they turned it off and I'm hearing other smoke detectors from other rooms/apartments? But there's still no smoke visible, and no firetrucks have shown up. Anyway, that only lasted 40 minutes or so....

It keeps coming back and going away, as if someone's carrying around a noise maker and occasionally pointing it at my window.

I can see someone in the apartment window now. Someone big, with light blue jeans and a large red sweatshirt over some other shirt. They're doing something by the window... that must be where the noise is coming from.

I guess the apartment isn't burning down. Maybe they're robbing the place and I'm hearing the apartment alarm?

Why do I feel like I'm in a Hitchcock movie?


Okay, now I hear a cop car or firetruck nearby. Didn't hear any sirens, but I can hear talking over a radio or something. And there's several loud voices, I think people are well aware of the problem now and trying to solve it. Some woman yelled "Delmar!" several times. And doors are opening and closing... but the whine still hasn't gone away.

The woman in the red sweatshirt just saw me and closed the window. She's on the phone. How annoying, this has been keeping me up for an hour, and it STILL hasn't stopped.

Pancakes

I made pancakes for lunch. Mrs. Butterworth's syrup still comes in the shape of Mrs. Butterworth, and I can't remember, is she supposed to be white or black? She looks black.

Making pancakes made me think of Sambo's the restaurant chain that I remember from when I was a kid. Their theme was based around the children's story, "Little Black Sambo", about a black kid who loves pancakes and outwits some tigers, who run around until they turn into butter.

When the Sambo's chain failed (there were two in Salem that I remember), I always assumed it was because of the negative connotations attached to the name and Sambo image. Curious, I decided to do a little web research.

The book was written in 1899 by a Scottish woman.

It's set in India, but the boy always looked African.

"Sambo" is short for Samuel, just like "Jimbo" is short for Jim. It used to be just another name.

Originally, "Little Black Sambo" wasn't meant as a racial slur. It seems that it became one in the thirties and forties because of the popularity of the book, and that in turn doomed the book. In the sixties they started banning it from libraries. Various attempts have been made to revive the story, including giving the characters authentic Indian names.

The story itself doesn't seem racist. People both white and black come down on both sides of the issue -- older people, both black and white, remember the book fondly. But elements of the book are pretty out of step with modern times, and the name itself, "Little Black Sambo" has been associated with racial stereotyping and discrimination for a long time now.

The restaurant was started in 1957 by two men, Sam Battistone and Newell "Bo" Bohnett. The name and image seemed obvious, and pancakes were their specialty.

At one time the chain numbered 1,200 stores coast to coast. The reason it failed (according to them) was that they expanded too quickly.

One of the original restaurants survives to this day, the first one in Santa Barbara. The owner, a grandson of the original Sam, wants to expand again to it's original glory, but he doesn't want to change the name. That's a problem.

Anyway, that satisfies my curiosity about that old restaurant chain. Personally, I think the guy should just change the name, and let the past remain the past.