Brownies Recipe Fried Chicken

Who remembers Brownies Chicken? I Do! While growing up I remember Brownies Chicken restaurants being everywhere. In my mind there may have been more of them than there were Kentucky Fried Chicken locations. I see from the back of this menu that there were at least 18 locations that I could have visited on a pretty regular basis growing up! The location that I remember the most is not even listed on this menu which is from 1989. The particular location I remember was one of the last ones to close. Back then I remember thinking that the Brownies Chicken restaurants were probably closing due to the 'political corectness' that was becoming a big thing in the world at the time. I had heard about the same sort of thing happening to the Sambo's restaurants many years before and figured that was probably what was going on with Brownies. But who knows, maybe they just weren't that popular to anyone but me.
What you see here is a near mint Brownies Recipe Fried Chicken menu that my wife found while helping her mother clean out her home recently. Of all the stuff my wife brought home, this is the one item that I was really excited about. Obviously one persons trash, is MY treasure!

Disneyland & California Adventure Guide Maps

 This past Christmas we visited Disneyland for the first time in years! We spend 9 glorious days in Anaheim and spend at least part of ever day at the Disney parks. As you may know, I love collecting ephemera, and Disneyland guide maps are a favorite collectible of mine. As a bit of trivia, these free guides have been provided free of charge courtesy of Kodak since opening day of Disneyland back in 1955. With the bankruptcy of Kodak, these will be the last to be provided compliments of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Every time I visit Disneyland, I come home with piles of guide maps, always with the hope of trading them with other Disneyland fans. That has been my hope for over 25 years, and I have never managed to trade even one of them. I thought I had a chance last year when I attended the North West Mouse Meet. With so many Disneyland fans in one place, I thought I had a chance. But, alas, I didn't contact the Mouse Meet organizer soon enough to get others to bring their extras to the show for trading. Then again, I don't know for sure anyone would care. So, I have now decided to try using the Internet to see if anyone wants to trade.
I have lots of both of the Disneyland and Disney California Adventure guide maps and entertainment guides from our Christmas 2012 visit, as shown above. I also have lots from our trips back between 1988 and 2001. If you have any from before 1988, or from 2001 to today that you either want to trade, or just send my way, please contact me. You can find my email address at the top right of this page.

Disneyland Gate Flyers

A coworker recently went to Disneyland. Knowing that I am a huge Disneyland fan, he asked if there was anything I would like him to bring back for me. Although there is probably thousands of dollars worth of park items I would love him to drag home for me, I really can't afford that (and I'm sure his luggage would not fit all my wants)! So instead, I asked for what I always ask for which is the park gate flyers that you receive as you enter the park. They have a map of the park inside and a listing of all the attractions, dinning, shows etc. Its a nice way to see how things change in the park over the years. In the past they used to have a new gate flyer each week and they were dated at the top. As the parks try to keep things 'cheap', they have gone to a more generic gate flyer which can last for months at a time. Here I present the the Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure gate flyers for the month of February 2007. The covers feature the promotional artwork for the new Rockin' Space Mountain and Rockin' California Screaming, which takes the two rides and adds music from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to them while you ride. You will notice that the Disneyland flyer is mint, but the California Adventure flyer has been bent and creased. I found that kind of funny, as DCA is always considered to be a substandard version of a Disney park. Disneyland is always considered to be kept so clean and pristine, while DCA is thought of as not being kept up to the standards of Disneyland... now it seems the gate flyers are following the trend ;-)

Some Swell Greeting Cards

I wish it was my birthday, so that I could send myself some of these neato birthday cards I found at a thrift store a few years ago. I am guessing that some little old lady decided to get rid of her box of cards under the bed. These are some great old vintage cards with some really nice artwork. There is no date on the cards, a few of them do have the "Wishing Well Greetings" logo on the back as well as "Made it USA".
I originally bought these as gag cards that I was going to send to my friends for birthdays etc. In the end I liked them so much, that I never ended up giving any of them away!

Playland at the PNE

I have been collecting promotional flyers and brochures for as long as I can remember. I'm always happy to add a new promo brochure to my collection. Today I picked up the new 2006 Playland brochure. Playland is the amusement area at the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition).

Playland is your basic exhibition midway with the usual assortment of rides, with one exception. Playland's signature attraction the large wooden coaster named "The Coaster" was designed by Carl Phare and built in 1958, is an ACE Coaster Classic. If you are a fan of coasters, this is a 'must ride'.
As a child, I would always visit the PNE during the summer. It was worth the admission price for 3 things; The Coaster, The Smash Up Derby, and "Those Mini Donuts". The PNE has undergone many changes over the years, which for me have made the experience less appealing. The number one being the elimination of the smash up derby - I'm guessing because of environmental concerns (watching the smoke belch out of those cars was half the fun!). Nowadays, I wait until the last few weeks of Playland sometime at the end of September, and I go first thing in the morning on a Sunday. I usually have the place to myself and am able to ride most of the rides as many times in a row as I like before moving on to the next. Last time I went, I spent about 1 hour on the bumper cars, having fun as they brought me a fresh batch of victims every 5 minutes!

The One That Got Away... Almost

Last Saturday night I read over on The Cult of Mac Blog about a great 14 page Mac OS X ad insert in several prominent magazines, including the current issue of Entertainment Weekly.

I planned on going to my local magazine shop to pick it up on Sunday. As luck would have it, I was out with my wife and son all day, and we didn't make it to the magazine shop until just a few minutes before it closed. When I asked the shop owner for a copy of Entertainment Weekly, he told me he did not carry E. W. magazine. So then I planned on going after work today (Monday) to my local Chapters book store to pick it up. Again it was another busy day, and by the time I got there, it was around 9 pm. I quickly perused the magazines looking for the issue in question. To my disappointment, I found the next weeks issue had been put out earlier today and the issue I wanted had been returned. I talked with one of the bookstore staff and she told me that they usually just rip off the covers to send them back and then the magazines are recycled. I told her I was only looking for the ad in the magazine, and she said she would have a look in the back to see if she might be able to find it and pull the ad out for me. She returned to let me know that unfortunately everything was already gone. Undaunted, I returned home tonight and visited eBay, the place where you can always find IT! and sure enough, there were a few copies of last weeks Entertainment Weekly magazine up for auction.
Kind of a long story for an ad in a magazine, but I have been collecting Mac ads for about 18 years now and when I saw this 14 page ad, I knew I just had to have it!
Now I have to keep my fingers crossed that in 14 hours and 13 minutes, I am the proud owner of Entertainment Weekly issue 895/896 with the prized 14 page Mac OS X insert.

FOX-O-RAMA

Back in 1994, the 8 year old Fox network brought the world FOX-O-RAMA, a 2 day event filled with all kinds of new television innovations including 3-D, Aroma-Vision, Grumble-Vision and Sheneneh-Vision. 7-11 stores all across the US sold the FOX-O-RAMA kits for just 33¢ plus tax. Each kit contained everything you needed to experience FOX-O-RAMA; 1 pair of 3-D glasses, 2 Living Single scratch 'n Sniff cards and 4 Nerds IV: Nerds in Love scratch 'n sniff cards.
Schedule of Events: Sunday, May 8, 1994: Martin (Sheneneh-Vision) [I have no idea what Sheneneh-Vision was], Living Single (Aroma-Vision), Married... With Children (3-D), and The George Carlin Show (Grumble-Vision). Monday, May 9: Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (Aroma Vision and 3-D scenes).
Being a huge fan of Married... With Children since the very beginning, I was very excited that the eighth season episode "Assault and Batteries" (May 8, 1994) was going to be in 3-D. Since they were not selling the kits here in Canada, I had to drive down across the boarder to pick up my kit (and a pile of extras for all my friends). The episode was pretty good, but the 3-D was just OK. The end credits featured Al and Peg wearing 3-D glasses and looking at the names scrolling by on a screen, and Peg says "I don't get it." The George Carlin Show featured GRUMBLE-VISION, which was nothing more than George reading some of his fans gripes on the air at the end of the episode. I also watched the Nerds movie which had a few 3-D scenes in it, as well as 4 AROMA-VISION scenes. The cards said, enclosed are 8 AROMA-VISION cards. You will be able to experience smells as they happen on TV! Just have your cards ready during Living Single & the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love movie. During the programs, a circle with a number will appear in the lower left corner of your TV screen. Find the matching card, scratch the circle and you will experience AROMA-VISION!!! Remember, don't scratch until you see the number on your TV!
I still have a bunch of unopened FOX-O-RAMA kits and I plan on having a FOX-O-RAMA party some time in the not to distant future. Hopefully the cards haven't lost their Aroma!

Riverboat Club member

Continuing with yesterdays restaurant theme, I found my Captain George's Riverboat Club card from the 70's. The two things I remember about the Captain George's Family Restaurant was; 1) the outside of the restaurant looked like a big pink paddlewheeler ship, and 2) they had a "make it yourself" desert bar where you could dispense your own soft serve ice cream and then add all the toppings to your hearts content - a pretty amazing treat for a 7 year old kid back then! This membership card certified that I, Ronnie, was a member of Capt. George's Riverboat Club, and entitled to a free Sport Cola, Rooti Root Beer, Bubble Up, or C+ Orange anytime I bought a sandwich, snack or platter at any Captain George's Family restaurant, and was valid until 1980. The Captain George's restaurant that we went to, closed some time in the early 80's, and the building remained unused for many years, leaving just the shell of a large pink paddlewheeler to drive by everyday. The building has since been converted into a 7-11, but I'll always remember the big pink boat and the all you can eat ice cream!