Business Insider – The Rise And Fall Of The American Diner
An evening pause: This remains the place that Americans go to after church.
Enjoy the weekend. And find a great diner to eat at!
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An evening pause: This remains the place that Americans go to after church.
Enjoy the weekend. And find a great diner to eat at!
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Had an after-hours job for four months at Ft Monmouth, NJ. Only place open when we took lunch around 2100 was a diner. After a month, we’d ordered everything on the menu. Started making up off-menu dishes. Staff was accommodating; good food, and decent portions. A comfortable place to go.
COVID lockdowns and DC Council idiocy have just been brutal on restaurants here in DC – I believe we are on track to see 100 closed for good since 2020.
And that includes some great diners, alas, including my favorite, Tastee in downtown Silver Spring. It was open 24/7, filled with Art Deco vibes, and those milkshakes… But the owner had enough finally and closed it and sold the property to a developer last year. Nothing has emerged to fill that void, and I doubt anything will, with things as they are now.
“Bangor man who made “Coffee Pot” sandwiches for decades has died”
News Center Maine (December 24, 2024)
https://youtu.be/Sz6tUu6NO6w
6:37
Francis “Skip” Rist (1937-2024) worked at his sandwich shop on State Street for nearly 60 years before he retired in 2009.
(Ironically, no coffee, just sandwiches…)
I remember Tastee Diner! Used to eat there when I lived in Wheaton. Also loved Gifford’s Ice Cream when I was a kid.
Wayne:
That Coffee Pot story was my next pause suggestion, its a good one, made me hungry.
Edward Hopper “Nighthawks” (1942
Animation: A. Zakharov
https://youtu.be/pfc5AH0V3EM
(0:37)
Suzanne Vega
“Tom’s Diner” (Live A Cappella) (BBC TV 1994)
https://youtu.be/DkYPge6ZKSQ
(3:58)
(Toms Restaurant, 112th street & Broadway, NYC.)
To Richard M
I know the default setting here is to roll one’s eyes when someone mentions income disparity—still, in the past when America still had factories that paid well—you saw more nice eateries.
The boss might go to Bright Star in Bessemer, but folks on HWY 280 could afford Lloyd’s.
Birmingham’s gridded streets (something Atlanta doesn’t comprehend) were laid down by well-to-do folks who were more civic minded than the very few tech-bros.
Wealthy folks wanted a lot of good destinations, and tipped well. (Marxists are the worst tippers, BTW).
The whole idea of a nice neighborhood has gone the way of the dodo—and it isn’t just gangstas resentful of urban flight, like my neighbors (sigh).
America became a service economy. I think China knew that, thus COVID—aimed right at what few Mom-and-Pops we had left.
Your old boss made sure streets got paved, because he had to drive on them too.
The Bezosification effect is such that he can live out to sea—which means he won’t cry if your neighborhood diner shuts down, or if your car gets eaten by a sinkhole.
Libertarians, like Greens, are zealots first and human beings second.
A coal miner gets put out of work, the Green won’t care—he’s just a polluter. A big manufacturer shuts down, the tech-bro won’t care either.
When people are desperate, they don’t make good decisions….like killing Czars. But if that Czar was the only one who ate well, it is naive to think the public will do the great and the good the favor of starving without protest. That’s as dumb as mask mandates or the dynamiting of dams that eco-freaks think is so great.
There can be no sense of community if we all hate one another.
China understood that better than Russia ever did.
Is there a diner in Starbase,?
https://vavoza.com/a-tesla-diner-is-coming-to-starbase/
A return to the automat would fit there.
Harder to pilfer.
I wonder how long this will last:
https://www.al.com/news/2025/10/free-grocery-store-opens-at-huffman-middle-school-for-students-families.html
I watched this AMAZING documentary on the Automat done by Mel Brooks . . . here is a trailer as I cannot find the entire program online. It is very worth watching if you can.
https://youtu.be/pbCev3JLoQk
Speaking of the automat..
Concerto for Horn and Hardart, PDQ Bach
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NT6bxlnS1Is
One of my favorite YouTubers, Robert Murray-Smith, has taken his own life:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GhramXiUrY4
This one really hurts.
He never got over the loss of his wife, and was losing the ability to walk.
JW:
I saw that Michael Murray Smith last video: https://youtu.be/_RSiVrCsVH4?si=GXmHO_Bcsf1ND6ul
And thought at the time it was a bit asymmetrical given his activities over the years, but he apparently thought his Youtube time was over, he was bored.
And I (And no one else) did not understand the actual relevance of his wife’s picture on the wall as he told everyone that this would be his last video.
He looked and sounded fine, but you never know what pain, physical and emotional lurks behind a smile.
You just never know.
I thought he was a good man.
here is a trailer as I cannot find the entire program online.
I have a button to buy or rent from the trailer.
No thanks. It looks dreadful. Old people in rose-colored glasses reminiscing about stale food served from PO boxes.
Andi:
That may be about the most oblique pop-culture automat reference possible. Still dusting off from the rabbit-holes. I had another take on the ‘hardart’ term: the various solo part devices used in the service of the composition were ‘hard art’. Interesting that the ‘hardart’ mechanism (instrument) was built as a transposing instrument, requiring the performer to transpose on sight. Sight-reading is necessary to the musician, but sight-transposition is an entirely different ballgame.
At the Automat
Scene from “Easy Living” (1937)
https://youtu.be/pFgJw5akxzQ
8:08