L.I. endorsed: The Cheddar Bo Biscuit

Those of you who've never been to eastern North Carolina are missing out on one of the world's great culinary wonders: The Cheddar Bo Biscuit from Bojangles.

It's just a biscuit made with cheddar cheese, but it is freaking fantastic. It's kind of like the cheese biscuits at Red Lobster, except with less garlic, a little more butter and I'd guess about 70 times more cheese. It looks like this:

**You can't get Cheddar Bo's west of Clinton, N.C. Believe me, I've tried.

This is because only franchises owned by Tands Inc. carry them.

The cheese biscuit is an eastern North Carolina delicacy, and pretty much unique to the region, at least in this part of the United States. I've had amazing cheese biscuits in gas stations and other quality establishments in several cities, and can tell you the Cheddar Bo is not the best cheese biscuit ever made, but it is consistent, available nearly 50 places and unstoppable.

A few weeks ago I was out with my fiancee, and we got to talking about what we'd like to name our children, should we be so blessed. I suggested that, if we have a boy, we name him "Cheddar Bo."

So ... yeah. Because Lucid Idiocy strives to provide utility, I contacted Bojangles' corporate office in Charlotte, then Tands Inc. in Kinston. They gave me a list of restaurant addresses where the Cheddar Bo Biscuit is available. And I give you the Cheddar Bo Biscuit locator map.

I suggest that, the next time you're cruising up I-95 through North Carolina and Virginia, you make time for a stop at Bojangles.



By the way, I made this map using MapAList, which I also endorse. I don't think you can turn a list of addresses into a Google map straight up, but MapAList made it easy.

**Update: There are a couple of reports of Cheddar Bo sightings west of Clinton in the comments. I don't doubt them, but I haven't confirmed them. A buddy of mine says you can get a Cheddar Bo in Athens, Georgia, now, and my brother says they're available at one Bojangles in Northwest metro Atlanta.

L.I. endorsed: Groupon

I've never been a believer in coupons, but my wonderful wife-to-be got me interested in Groupon a while back, and I think it's worth your time. You sign up and they email you once a day with a deal in your area, usually half off or more.

You end up learning about places you'd never heard of. The last two months we got a cheap membership to one of those indoor rock climbing gyms, half off tours at a local brewery, and a state-required emissions inspection for half price. Next month I'm taking an hour long helicopter lesson for $90.

Consider it. I get some kind of commission if you click the ad below and sign up ... or maybe if you buy something. I don't really know, and I'm sure it's pennies. But I recommend this product. Plus, they told google to stick it last week, so they've got that going for them.

Portraits in Awesome: Joe Namath

From Namath: A Biography, by Mark Kriegel:

Several men are alleged to have visited Bryant atop his tower: Governor Wallace, Dr. Frank Rose, the university president, Happy Campbell, the baseball coach; and a comedian from Mississippi in whom Bryant took great delight. But these sightings are difficult to confirm. More certain are the fact concerning Namath's arrival at the practice field. There is no shortage of witnesses, all of whom recount with awe the moment when Joe Namath became the first and only player to ascend.

"Everybody was just shocked," says Hicks, the manager. "Joe was up there thirty, forty minutes, and Coach Bryant talked the whole time. Joe said he could only understand one word: 'stud.' The whole time, 'stud' is the only word he could understand."

Tells the story of Namath's life through January of 2004.








Image: SI.


And, yes, I'm writing book reports now, mother.

Endorsed: Hopsecutioner

Generally we have a "you don't need to tell people about Terrapin beer" policy here. But, at $10 a six pack here in North Carolina, the "Hopsecutioner" IPA feels like the best value in my grocery cart.



Though I did buy a whole chicken today for $3.63.

Inshallah

It means "God willing."

From Three Cups of Tea, the story of an American whose near death in the Himalayas led him to build schools in remote parts of Pakistan:

In October 1996, Bergman had been traveling in Pakistan with a group of friends who chartered a huge Russian MI-17 helicopter out of Skardu in hopes of getting a glimpse of K2. On the way back the pilot asked if they wanted to visit a typical village. They happened to land just below Korphe, and when local boys learned Bergman was American they took her hand and led her to see a curious new tourist attraction — a sturdy yellow school built by another American, which stood where none had ever been before, in a small village called Korphe.

"I looked at a sign in front of the school and saw that it had been donated by Jean Hoerni, my cousin Jennifer's husband," Bergman says. "Jennifer told me Jean had been trying to build a school somewhere in the Himalaya, but to land in that exact spot in a range that stretches thousands of miles felt like more than a coincidence. I'm not a religious person," Bergman says, "but I felt I'd been brought here for a reason and I couldn't stop crying."

A few months later, at Hoerni's memorial service, Bergman introduced herself to Mortenson. "I was there!" she said, wrapping the startled man she'd just met in a bruising hug. "I saw the school!"

"You're the blonde in the helicopter," Mortenson said, shaking his head in amazement. "I heard a foreign woman had been in the village but I didn't believe it!"

"There's a message here. This is meant to be," Julia Bergman said. "I want to help. Is there anything I can do?"

"Well, I want to collect books and create a library for the Korphe school," Mortenson said.

Bergman felt the same sense of predestination she'd encountered that day in Korphe. "I'm a librarian," she said.

L.I. endorsed: The Flying Melon

If you find yourself on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina's Outer Banks, I recommend the Flying Melon Cafe.

L.I. endorsed: 30 for 30

The Two Escobars, like many of ESPN's 30 for 30 movies, is very good.


Though it's long, and the Spanish isn't translated perfectly.

The documentary included footage of the single most ridiculous thing I've ever seen a soccer player do. It's called the "scorpion kick."


Useful. Goalie Rene Higuita would miss the 1994 World Cup for visiting a drug lord in the drug lord's fake prison.

"I don't believe you. You're a liar."

It's kind of like watching Rock n' Roll realize it doesn't have to crawl anymore, it can walk.


1966, Manchester Free Trade Hall.

Lucid Idiocy endorsed: Cholula

It's generally better than anything you can put it on. Everything in life should be so easy.


Also, the new Chili Lime sauce, which I'm pretty sure you can just drink right out of the bottle.

Charlie Day: Uncontrollable laughter

This is from the second season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The payoff comes at the end, and it's worth it.


Thursday nights at 10 p.m. on FX.

Note: These hulu videos cycle off.

Chick-fil-A peach shakes going away this month

I am sorry to report that the limited-time-only peach milkshakes at Chick-fil-A will be phased out starting this weekend.


Restaurants will keep making them until they run out of materials, so you might be able to find one for a few days after that, according to a company spokesman.



Said spokesman Mark Baldwin:

"We've introduced limited-time milkshake flavors for the past couple of years in an effort to promote our entire line of milkshakes. These seasonal flavors are not intended to remain on the menu permanently, but we use these special flavors to maintain interest among our existing milkshake fans and also to help raise awareness of our milkshakes to new customers. We of course will consider re-introducing extremely popular flavors, but we can't make any promises about the return of the Peach flavor at this point."

UPDATE: Craig Craddock, who owns two Macon area Chick-fil-A's, said he anticipates running out of peach milkshake ingredients "around the early part of September."

Nike, those are the good ones

The Nike puppet commercials are really good. The virtual EA Sports basketball breakdown needs more puppets.

"You enjoy your bunion surgery."

A-Team episodes available on Hulu

In what may well be the greatest advancement on the Internet since someone said, "Hey, I bet we could put porn on this thing," episodes of "The A-Team" are now available from Hulu.

And I mean a lot of them. Maybe all of them. Starting with Season 1, Episode 1, when some guy I never heard of was playing Face and the first jeep flipped doing 50 miles an hour but nobody was hurt.


I love it when the Internet comes together.

Fast and Foolish: Lucid Idiocy endorses Saturday's Soap Box Derby in Atlanta

I have Auburn related commitments this Saturday, but for anyone looking for something else to do, I reccomend the Atlanta Downhill Challenge.

Basically you drink and watch adults hurt themselves.

It runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Starlight Drive-In, located at 2000 Moreland Ave. in Atlanta. I shot video of last year's race, but it was the first video I ever edited, so I didn't know how to shorten the song. When the screen goes black, that's it, except for Molly Hatchet.


Fast and Foolish.

Three awesome Georgia things

Words nearly fail me on this first one. Though "Someone buy me this," sounds about right. Stadium history + mascot line =


Available from Ballies Art Center in Augusta.

Then there's the Bulldog clock:





"Awesome" is now officially a time. From this guy, but it might be an older link. I'm checking to see if there are any left. If you buy the last one before I have a chance I will kill a Georgia tech family that attends your church.


Finally, I guess this was a short-lived blog back in 2006. The slogan says it all: "A blog devoted to analyzing Georgia football in painful detail while disparaging Georgia tech mercilessly."

Yes, yes, and yes. I think this post, about the often ridiculous Fifth Quarter call-in show, was my favorite:

Dantzler: “Dr. Football, you’re on the air.”

Dr. Football: “Oh, uhhhhh…. Coach Eason, uhhh… well, I noticed today that you had the receivers in cover 2, and I just can’t figure out why you wouldn’t use the nickel package.”

Eason: [Confused] “I’m not sure I understand the question.”

Dr. Football: “Well, I’ll tell you right now that if you keep lining the receivers up in a stunt there ain’t no way we’re going to beat Tennessee next month. See last year in the semi-finals of the Habersham County Rec. Department 8 and under football tournament I put my receivers in press coverage and…” [call abruptly ended by technicians]

Dantzler: “Let’s move on to the next caller."

Nobody called anybody a jive turkey

I immediately recommend the movie Semi-Pro.