Secrets of the City

I’ve long seen Hobo Soup on the shelf and always wanted to try it — I guess I was waiting for some hard times to hit before I bought a can. It’s not cheap, BTW.

I got Courtney to true it a few months ago, after much cajoling (I can’t eat it because I am a vegetarian). She loved it.

I’m sold! I’ll true it next week….

I’m sold! I’ll true it next week….

Instead of buying Hobo Soup in a can you could go to Britt, Iowa next month and enjoy the real thing at the National Hobo Convention and Hobo Days
then again, maybe not

I can’t eat it because I am a vegetarian

Don’t worry, max, it doesn’t actually contain any hobos.

Or does it? That would take care of the “agressive panhandling” issue, I guess. Reminds of a real newspaper headine I saw from the June 19 Fairmont Sentinel: “Special turns people to ethanol”

Yikes! Shades of Solent Green!

Consider the picture of the carefree, happy-looking hobo on the can.

Singapore used to have a toothpaste called Darkie, with a grinning character who looked like he came from a minstral show. They changed the name to Darlie which is meaningless, and made the Darlie man a dapper, tux-wearing fellow.

Any parallels there? What’s it doing to the image of homeless people?

In Indianapolis, there was a hot dog chain with the name “Gay Dan’s” with a cartoon mascot wearing a wild plaid coat (popular in the 1890s). They changed it to “Mr. Dan’s,” and toned down his look, but the damage was done. Once hugely popular (the food was great — dogs as good as Nathans in NYC or Uncle Frankies in NE Mpls), only one Mr. Dan’s remains open today.

I bet per capita owership of wild plaid coats is higher among MNSpeakers than the general population (but not indicative of sexual orientation).

Plus, they’re mucho-fabulous!!

I would say they are macho fabulous.

He doesn’t look that gay to me:

He looks insanely chipper though.

That’s the “toned down” Mr. Dan.

“Gay Dan” was completely over-the-top (complete with rosey cheeks and rudy lips that made him look like he wore makeup ala Joan Crawford).

Yes, The Rat is probably right about those plaid coats.

What do they say. . . about the length of a man’s bowtie being an indication of?

(This character could also be called “No-nose Dan”.)

Does anyone remember SAMBO’s out on Hwy 65 and Osborne road in Fridley?

It was across the street from Great Skate where I learned how to become a Macho, Macho Man.

Wow. “Ironically” they were sued for discrimination. Imagine that…

There was a Sambos in St. Louis Park as well, and, I think, Minnetonka. They had gotten rid of the racist imagery by the time I ate there as a boy, and left nothing but smiling lions.

There’s still a Sambo’s in Santa Barbara CA (or there was a few months back, when I was out there..), complete with racist imagery.
I couldn’t believe it.

I remember going there as a kid. It was kind of a Perkins/Denny’s type of place. Family restaurant. I remember getting a coloring book from them – with the tiger and the boy. If I hadn’t ruined its value by actually coloring on it…

Better not try to sell anything called “Hobo Stew” in St. Paul – The Man and his Department of Hurt Feelings will come down on you hard.

It came to (W.H. Tyrone Terrill’s) attention – how, we don’t know – that DeGidio’s has a “hot dago’ sandwich on the menu.

” ‘Dago’ is a highly offensive, derogatory and disparaging term that denotes an ethnic slur to individuals of Italian ancestry and origin,’ Terrill wrote to the restaurant, ordering them to remove the word from the menu and to cease and desist all use of the word in its advertising.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855818/posts

The nerve of Terrill – letting his moralistic ideology and though police stomp a family restaurant. He must’ve been appointed by Alberto Gonzales or sumpthin’