Simpson’s Nuclear Power Plant

For most of the 90s, the Simpsons was my go to show. It was smart, well written and you still found new things to laugh about after multiple viewings. When the family went to Universal Studio LA recently and I found out that I could go to a real-life Springfield, I was psyched.

The recreation of the nuclear power plant is fantastic…

…but there’s just something about Lard Lad that is so quintessentially Simpsons and really nails the feel of being in Springfield.

The Big Chicken

This giant, god-awful, ugly-ass chicken is actually a KFC near Atlanta (Marietta really). The Atlanta metropolitan area is massive and yet the amazing thing is that all directions are still given in relation to the Big Chicken… This is one of those really stupid things that amuses me way more than is healthy!

Not to be outdone by the big chicken, Altanta also has a big fish (Atlanta Fish Market)…

And since we’re supersizing our sculptures, lest we forget the grand-daddy of them all, Stone Mountain.

Atlanta is a weird place. It’s in the pretty deep South but it is still a very large and cosmopolitan city with a lot of transplants and and doesn’t feel as redneck as a lot of the rest of the state. The traffic was shit but the people were really nice and I had a great time for the year I spent on a consulting project there.

Benini Sculpture Ranch

I was driving from Austin back to the Bay Area when I came across this totally random sculpture plopped on the side of the road. Turns out, it was a marker for the Benini Sculpture Ranch. Definitely recommend you check it out next time you are in Middle of Nowhere, TX.

That reminds me of this classic Far Side cartoon which does the best job of summing up East Texas.

The Grassland Cocktail Lounge

This is a little bar on Kearny Street in San Francisco between Chinatown and the Financial District. I used to pass by it every day on the way to work and this awning always made me smile.

I’ve gotten into many a debate – is this classic Engrish or is this a purposeful attempt to be funny?

I mean finding examples of Engrish is obviously not difficult, it’s just finding it in the US which is what really surprises me. Now, I mentioned this was near Chinatown, but even from extensive trolling through the heart of Chinatown (and Japan-town and the Mission and every other ethnic area of San Francisco) I haven’t seen any other examples of this. Now I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised, it’s not like Engrish is exclusive to outside the US, this is from my car repair shop in Austin but overall, it is very much the exception.

Especially in such a well trafficked place as Kearny Street. This bar was 2 doors down from the House of Nanking. This place always has lines out he door so it got plenty of visibility.

I lived in the city until about 2005. Sadly when I went by there in in 2012, the awning has gone.

Moreover, it had been renamed Grasslands plural.

A small piece of San Francisco has died in my heart today.

From the Google Maps history, looks like the awning was torn down sometime between Jul 2009 and Jan 2011 and the sign was replaced between April 2011 and May 2012.