One Million Moms to Olive Garden: Stop Siding With Satan!

[Shoobydoo]

Ditto the confusion at Applebee's continued existence. There's a couple dishes at Friday's I actually like-- can't say the same for Applebees...

 

Chik-fil-a: I f******* LOVE their chicken nuggets, but I haven't eaten there for years. Going to a school were literally 80% of my friends were some variety of LGBT or A just makes it feel gross. Ditto for Hobby Lobby, even though they have the best wrapping paper. I will never give up my beloved rooster shaped soap dispenser, though. 

Cracker Barrel: I crave Cracker Barrel when I want to eat a giant pile of salty starch and some meat. Sometimes I do genuinely want that. Luckily, I think the closest one is in Albert Lea or something.

OG, OCB, TB-- Haven't eaten at any of them in years. 

Sadly, we almost always get Dominoes because it is dirt cheap, but we might try Sarpino's next time. We had some at a friend's and I liked it.

Most of our restaurant money goes to local, independent places because we live in a fairly large city and we'd have to drive into the burbs to find most chain restaurants. I'm lucky to live in a place that's kind of a foodie paradise, so there's lots of good options around here. Except for cajun. Can't get good cajun.

 

Speaking of chik-fil-a, I just remembered a friend I had in high school. She was some really odd stripe of fundie-- ankle length skirts only, and they didn't believe in cutting their hair, but she also went to public school and got a job at chil-fil-a. I don't actually know what her denomination was, but looking at the fundies we talk about now it's an interesting contrast.

[AnywhereButHere]

3 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

I hate chains so much, and especially Darden Corporation chains, so you'll not see me in an OG. Also, I think the food is gross, and as a former employee, I just can't. 

I really despise the rise of chains, and the fact that they are moving in to my area. We got our first OG a few years ago, and people (presumably people who, like me, moved from another state) went crazy for it. It seemed so bizarre. We have so many nice, local places to eat. Places that give money back to the community. Places that aren't just microwaving overly salty bags of "food" and putting it on plates. But more than the quality of the food and the terrible way they treat staff, its about unique experiences for me. I HATE that i can go just about anywhere in the US and get the same dish at OG or Applebees or Lonestar or a hundred other places that I can get back home. I dislike the homogenization of the US. 

Mostly I agree. It's always great to travel and experience new foods, local restaurants and experiment a little (or a lot!).

sometimes, though the familiar is a welcome sight. After a very long day of traveling, flight delays, missing luggage, we finally get to our hotel on our first trip to Hawaii. We were so hungry and tired that we had no energy left for scouting out a restaurant. Yup. Here we are in Hawaii, and our first meal was at Red Lobster.   Not exactly high cuisine, but we knew exactly what we were getting, took all the guesswork out of it. We ate, went to sleep and woke up to eat again another day. 

[PennySycamore]

@EmCatlyn, Dominos is no longer owned by Tom Monaghan although he does own the land where the headquarters of the chain are. Monaghan sold Dominos to Bain Capital in 1998 and it is now publicly owned.  

[twinmama]

20 hours ago, 19 cats and counting said:

Is that the same brilliant dude who trolled Target when they stopped gendering toys?

Not the point of this post but, what exactly did Target change? The aisles at all of the local Targets near me are still bright ass pink and the toys still segregated into what is clearly "boy toys" and "girl toys." Did they just remove some itty bitty "boy" and "girl" sign someplace?

[19 cats and counting]

@twinmama I think they just removed the labels girl and boy, well at least the Target near me did.  Barbies and Matchbox Cars are not in the same aisle, Barbies are with other girly things (Disney Princesses, etc) and Matchbox with action figures, etc. 

But yes the one near me is still gendered, but I don't think it actually says boy and girl anymore.

[slickcat79]

41 minutes ago, twinmama said:

Not the point of this post but, what exactly did Target change? The aisles at all of the local Targets near me are still bright ass pink and the toys still segregated into what is clearly "boy toys" and "girl toys." Did they just remove some itty bitty "boy" and "girl" sign someplace?

Kind of. They used to have signs that would literally say "Building Sets" and "Girls Building Sets", in case you couldn't tell the ones that were vomiting pink and purple all over the place. Now the signage should just say "Building Sets", and I think the goal is to remove some of the obvious pink and blue decoration in favor of more neutral colors. 

It really wasn't much of a change, although I give them some props for acknowledging an issue that some people found problematic and making some steps. From the fundie reaction, though, you would have thought they were going to force girls to wear boxers and boys to wear skirts and everything was going to devolve into some sort of transgender chaos. And really, if gender roles were as biologically and socially defined as fundies always insist they are, why would they need signs to tell the difference between boy and girl toys?

[December]

20 minutes ago, slickcat79 said:

And really, if gender roles were as biologically and socially defined as fundies always insist they are, why would they need signs to tell the difference between boy and girl toys?

Because the signs weren't for fundies or their children. It's more of a PSA for people like me, who played with the "wrong" gender toys as a child, and would let her hypothetical future children do the same if they wanted! 

[Maggie Mae]

I don't think toys were marketed toward specific genders until I was a teen/pre-teen. It's all just marketing and advertising. United States is a consumer culture and we all buy into it, some more than others. And if you try to "opt out" it's virtually impossible to do so completely. 

 

[Trynn]

I really enjoy the drinks at Applebees. I am not a fan of their food. When my friends and I go out, we always eat somewhere else and then get drinks afterward at Applebees.

I like to eat at local restaurants too, if I can, but most of those aren't open early in the morning when I eat out before work.

When traveling, I usually am going to rural areas that don't really have much besides chain restaurants. Or if they do I don't know about them, I just need to eat for 30 minutes before getting back in the car and driving 6 more hours.

Chain restaurants here that I like are ihop, Red Robin, and I'm not a fan of subway but sometimes there's no choice.

I don't go to Olive Garden by myself. That was me and J's thing.

[docmom]

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 1:38 PM, Mercer said:

Dear One Million Moms,

It's a just a show. Settle down and enjoy your breadsticks.

Sincerely, Mercer

The thing is these folks don't understand this.  They really don't.   They live in a world of make-believe and they can't tell the difference between fiction and reality.  That's why they think Harry Potter is a real and present danger.  It's why they believe Faux News and think that the government is coming to take away their guns and stop them attending church.

When you've based your life on a literal interpretation of a book which contains some pretty unbelievable stuff, it can be difficult to separate reality from fiction.

Note:  to Christians on FJ, I did say literal interpretation. I think you can get a lot out of the Bible without taking it all literally and remain firmly rooted in reality.

[Black Aliss]

On 1/30/2016 at 11:08 AM, Mercer said:

I haven't eaten at a Chick-Fil-A in years because giving them money would be against my morals, but on the rare occasions I drive by one I can't help but feel a little temptation to compromise myself for some nuggets and lemonade.  

It's okay, Mercer. I occasionally shop at IKEA and, yes, I feel guilty for supporting Ingvar Kamprad's racism and fascism, but unless I were to suddenly acquire an aptitude for woodcrafting, there aren't many options.

17 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

I don't think toys were marketed toward specific genders until I was a teen/pre-teen. It's all just marketing and advertising. United States is a consumer culture and we all buy into it, some more than others. And if you try to "opt out" it's virtually impossible to do so completely. 

 

hahahahaha. I grew up in the 50's and you better believe gender-based marketing flourished back then. Vision Forum catalogs have nothing on the Sears and Wards mail order catalogs with their separate sections for boys toys and girls toys. While "Doctor" kits were for boys, girls could have the "Nurse" kit. I forget just what the difference was, I think little doctors could give injections and nurses could apply bandaids. Anything to do with construction--Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Erector sets--were absolutely boy toys. Chemistry set? Don't even THINK about buying one of those for your daughter.

[Mrsaztx]

I typically eat at local places when I'm home, and try to find the good local places when I go to cities I frequent, but sometimes (especially in small towns) going local is just such a roll of the dice. If I'm hungry and I go to a local place and it's garbage I'm crabby for at least 2 days because I wasted that time and that money on shitty food. The town I just moved from had literally 1 good restaurant. It infuriated me. how do you have 25 restaurants in town and one of them is good? And no one there had ever heard of urban spoon or Yelp, so you had to ask the locals, most of whom had never traveled more than one town over so they were unaware that their local cuisine was a steaming pile of hot garbage and grease. Vegetables, people, do you know them?! I'm so happy to be back in my home town where there are great places to eat (and the transient population doesn't know about them so they keep all their rowdy nonsense to Olive Garden and BWW)

[Maggie Mae]

19 minutes ago, Black Aliss said:

hahahahaha. I grew up in the 50's and you better believe gender-based marketing flourished back then. Vision Forum catalogs have nothing on the Sears and Wards mail order catalogs with their separate sections for boys toys and girls toys. While "Doctor" kits were for boys, girls could have the "Nurse" kit. I forget just what the difference was, I think little doctors could give injections and nurses could apply bandaids. Anything to do with construction--Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Erector sets--were absolutely boy toys. Chemistry set? Don't even THINK about buying one of those for your daughter.

I didn't grow up in the 50s, I grew up in the 80s, and I had chemistry sets and lincoln logs and a doctor kit. I went to Toys R Us to look for a doctor kit the other day and non existent other than toddler toys and in pink. Mostly, I remember the marketing revolving around TV shows and themed shit.  I remember going to look at baby stuff for gifts and they had yellows and greens for a gender neutral option. 

I think there was push in the 70s to stop being weird about gender, and then in the 80s, big businesses took over. The 90s brought us "girl power" and shit, and the marketing companies ate that up and now we are stuck with the PINK = GIRL  for everything. 

Honestly though, I'd be so happy to find toys that aren't plastic and shitty. 

[PennySycamore]

24 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

I didn't grow up in the 50s, I grew up in the 80s, and I had chemistry sets and lincoln logs and a doctor kit. I went to Toys R Us to look for a doctor kit the other day and non existent other than toddler toys and in pink. Mostly, I remember the marketing revolving around TV shows and themed shit.  I remember going to look at baby stuff for gifts and they had yellows and greens for a gender neutral option. 

I think there was push in the 70s to stop being weird about gender, and then in the 80s, big businesses took over. The 90s brought us "girl power" and shit, and the marketing companies ate that up and now we are stuck with the PINK = GIRL  for everything. 

Honestly though, I'd be so happy to find toys that aren't plastic and shitty. 

@Black Aliss, the nurse kits from back in the 50s and 60s had nurse caps and blue capes along with the other things.  I had one of those nurse kits,  I think doctor's kits came with a doctor's smock, but I'm not sure.  

@Maggie Mae, you're right about there being a push for gender neutral toys in the 70s.  It was part of feminism. Then we went backwards in the 80s.  I don't like how everything targeted to girls got so damn pink.

When my second daughter went through her wanting to be a doctor phase around age 3, I got her a little scrub suit from the uniform shop at the end of our street and a real stethoscope.  I'll admit the scrub suit was pink, but it was a real one.  I may still have it somewhere.  She was the only preschooler I knew who watched reruns of St Elsewhere.

[Cheetah]

On January 30, 2016 at 8:23 AM, withaj said:

I am! Been here two weeks and here for one more before I head to Prague. And I don't really eat pork, so... it's spinach or lentil pierogis for me, all the time! I'm starting to eye the occasional KFC storefront with envy. 

When you get to Prague, go to the Choco Cafe.  Their "hot chocolate" (which comes in a number of flavors) is actually a warm chocolate pudding.  So delicious.  

[salsa]

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 10:33 AM, princessmahina said:

I don't know why, but I now have the strongest craving for some of those fluffy breadsticks... *chuckle*

Me, too. *wink* *smile*

[PennySycamore]

Not eating Olive Garden, but I am watching Lucifer ATM. 

[Mercer]

I actually wasn't very aware of this show till One Million Moms made it a thing. I watched X-Files but I was messing around on my phone during the commercials so the Lucifer ads apparently didn't really register. Now I'm thinking it sounds interesting enough to at least give it a try. Well played, One Million Moms.

As always, the best solution to an unwanted television program is simply to turn off your TV or find another channel.

[klynn]

I LOVE Little Caesars Pizza, and I'm super angry they've done away with the pretzel crust pizza again.  I send them emails on how disappointed I am each time they end the promotion. 

Anywhooo, yeah, thanks OMM!  I had no idea this show existed until you morons freaked out about it.  Now I will watch it.  Possibly while eating OG takeout.  Looks like I'm going to hell. 

[PennySycamore]

8 hours ago, Mercer said:

I actually wasn't very aware of this show till One Million Moms made it a thing. I watched X-Files but I was messing around on my phone during the commercials so the Lucifer ads apparently didn't really register. Now I'm thinking it sounds interesting enough to at least give it a try. Well played, One Million Moms.

As always, the best solution to an unwanted television program is simply to turn off your TV or find another channel.

I liked how at the very beginning of the second episode Lucifer runs into some street preacher preaching about the Devil and Lucifer quickly discovers the man is a fraud.  Lucifer decided to show the man the real face of the Devil.  It was great!  Lucifer tells that guy he does't like liars.

[FJismyheadship]

Ate Olive Garden Saturday and will probably eat it again today. 

I always sit with my favorite Jewish lesbian waitress and tip her really well. My daughter adores her because she brings extra grapes. 

On a non related note, she is the same waitress who waited onBen and Jessa last year before Jessa  Spurgeon.  She laughed at the irony of having them seated in her section and said the hostess was cackling the whole way. They did tip, but not well and Ben was an ass.

Anyway one million moms can suck it. 

[twinmama]

On 2/1/2016 at 0:55 PM, Maggie Mae said:

Honestly though, I'd be so happy to find toys that aren't plastic and shitty. 

Melissa and Doug! Good quality toys and non-gendered. My sons have a broom/mop/dustpan etc cleaning set from them, totally non-gendered. And they have a vacuum, same thing. Plus a zillion puzzles and blocks and none of it was in a blue or pink box.

Funny timing on reading this though, one of my boys is currently wearing his Elsa dress (which just means it's daytime bc he pretty much wears it all day, everyday).

[PennySycamore]

2 hours ago, twinmama said:

Melissa and Doug! Good quality toys and non-gendered. My sons have a broom/mop/dustpan etc cleaning set from them, totally non-gendered. And they have a vacuum, same thing. Plus a zillion puzzles and blocks and none of it was in a blue or pink box.

Funny timing on reading this though, one of my boys is currently wearing his Elsa dress (which just means it's daytime bc he pretty much wears it all day, everyday).

I was looking for a toy wok for my granddaughter and Melissa and Doug make one.  They have such great toys.

[twinmama]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

I was looking for a toy wok for my granddaughter and Melissa and Doug make one.  They have such great toys.

I know! They make a metal pot and pan set that I want to buy every time I see it! Plus tons of wooden play food.