Tam has this theory regarding buffets and the elderly. She claims, when you reach a certain age limit, your taste buds start to decline, and you are unable to taste as well as you could in your younger years. She also claims that this is the reason the elderly enjoy overly stinky cheeses. She gives arguments that the elderly are more money conscious and lean towards frugality as apposed to the younger generations inability to maintain a bank account in the positive numbers. This inability to taste as well as they used to, and a penchant towards stinginess, creates an affinity towards buffets. Where else can a person obtain access to hot tray after hot tray of foods for $7.95 ($6.95 with coupon). Sure, it all taste like cardboard soaked in butter, but to the palletly disabled this is not an issue.

We took Tam's father out for his birthday this weekend. "We can go any place you want", Tam said. I never really thought of her father as elderly. He's probably twice as active as I am. This weekend that all changed as I looked out the window of his car to see a huge sign with the words <Golden Corral> imprinted on it. For the uninitiated, the Golden Corral is a buffet. It's not just any buffet. It's the grand daddy of buffets. It houses acres of hot tables containing all sorts of meats, casseroles and macaroni and/or cheeses. It's the buffet of the future. The hosts wear radio headset so they can communicate to the rest of the staff. "Table of five", one shouted into his headset, and a second later a pimple faced boy ran up and corralled the herd of five in front of us to their table. I was half expecting to be shocked by a cattle prod as we where rustled to our table. They must prod hundreds of cheap overweight people a day in and out of this place. They've become the modern day version of the cattle rustler. Giddy up not so li'l doggy.

A little slice of Americana. Well, a huge slice, with whipped cream.