A waffle house is not a waffle home by Sam M. '07

Okay, so tonight we were at Allison’s house and I didn’t take any pictures but I’ll steal some later from Allison’s xanga. Stealing is wrong and if you ever stole anything in your life, you should confess now, because Marilee Jones has magical glasses that can see into people’s souls and she won’t admit unrepentant thieves to MIT.

So, anyway, we wanted to watch a movie from Mike’s massive DVD collection, but there were six of us there and each of us preferred a different movie. So, we each made our choices and organized them into a bracket:

Allison: I Heart Huckabees
Ben: Hero
Matt: The Hebrew Hammer
Mike: Wet Hot American Summer
Sam: “Strangers With Candy”, Season 1
Shana: A Mighty Wind
Allison’s Dad: The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music went up against a bye in the first round of the bracket and unanimously lost to it. Sorry, Julie Andrews fans, but I was Captain Von Trapp in high school and after a hundred hours around screaming little children in matching floral print liederhosen, the whole do-mi-mi, mi-so-so business starts to lose a little of its charm.

In the end, it came down to A Mighty Wind and Hebrew Hammer, with Hebrew Hammer just slightly edging out the folk-rock-mockumentary because all my friends are Jewish. Then we decided to watch Hero instead. I don’t know exactly how the runner-up ended up winning so thoroughly, but I could never miss an opportunity to allude to Clay Aiken on my blog.

Hero was beloved by all, even though we did end up going a little MST3K on it (the secret twentieth character for sword really does look a little like a giraffe kicking an octopus). Later, we reenacted it in Allison’s bedroom using My Little Ponies while Allison played emo covers of Paula Abdul hits in the background. It was just then that I realized that although I am probably the biggest American Idol fan at MIT, I couldn’t sing you a Paula Abdul song if my life depended on it. I hang my head in shame.

You know what though? My friends are pretty cool, but they really don’t matter, because I had the greatest dinner ever tonight. I keep wondering why every time I come home, Sam’s Mom always makes stuffed peppers. Turns out that she thought stuffed peppers were my favorite meal. NO WAY. My favorite meal is a Pennsylvania Dutch classic: chicken and waffles.

Oh, wow, it’s the best dinner ever:

Sam’s Mom’s Hand pours the waffle batter. Sorry if the picture’s a little blurry; the camera was trembling because I was so excited.

And for dessert, peanut butter pie! Shana gave me a ride over to Allison’s, so I thanked her with a piece while we watched the season 3 finale of The Amazing Race. As you can see, she finds it bewilderingly delicious.

Let me know if you want the recipe; but don’t tell Sam’s Mom or she might get mad. I think it’s a family secret. Anyway, she stopped reading this blog for fear I’d break my arm and not tell her, so I’m not too worried.

ENTRY TITLE EXPLANATION: In my high school years, I never really met a lot of people outside of Pennsylvania, so I was in for quite a shock when I started meeting people from other parts of the country who did bizarre things like call carbonated beverages “pop” or walk around with their collars up or say “y’all.” Anyway, after meeting every undergrad at MIT, I decided that the entire nation can basically be separated into two categories–people who have a Waffle House in their hometown and people who have a Starbucks in their hometown.

Well, within the past five years, I’ve seen the construction of both a Waffle House and a Starbucks within five minutes of my home in Harrisburg, PA. The Waffle House came about three years earlier, so I guess I must ally myself with the South rather than Seattle, but still… you guys in the South might have Waffle Houses, but thanks to Sam’s Mom, I have truly got a Waffle Home.

I guess it could also be a pun on Simmons.