Fizzle-Pop Eats: Red Robin

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

-Dr. Seuss

According to Jon Sayer’s article over at Crosscut.com, that phrase was printed out on a sheet taped to the door of the soon-to-close original Red Robin restaurant, next to the University Bridge here in Seattle. It’s a nice piece about memory and nostalgia, and ultimately what’s important, according to Sayer. His take is that when the location finally closes on March 21, it’s ok, because what it once was, it isn’t now. The local chain has evolved into a big business burger franchise with locations throughout the US and while significant for being the first, this original location has lost the thing that made it special, which is OK. Sayer’s stance is that our tendency to want to hold on to our sense of history is misplaced, because these historic locations aren’t what we remember them as anymore. Those memories are of places that no longer exist and we can let them go and move on from them.

I’m sure we all have those places in our past that we’ll always have fond memories of, those establishments that were present in many of our memories. I’m not from Seattle, but Sayer is and he writes about how Red Robin was a part of his childhood growing up in this area. He ends the article with “I'll still remember the simple pleasure of downing a tower of onion rings with my siblings in a family restaurant with crayons and kid's menus. The wooden walls may be gone, but the memories remain.”

What places have/had this impact on you? How would you feel if they were gone (if they aren’t already?)

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November…

Happy 5th of November, everybody! Tonight in the UK it’s Guy Fawkes Night. From Wikipedia:

Guy Fawkes Night marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament, in London, United Kingdom.

Apparently back in the day, Guy and his buddies weren’t happy about the Protestants being in charge, so they decided to let everybody know by blowing stuff up and killing important people. Good times!

In the UK, this event is commemorated with fireworks and food, but we here in the States don’t really treat today any differently. Guy’s legacy has, however, made its way into our culture by way of the “Guy Fawkes Mask”, which you might recognize from the graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and its movie adaptation. The iconic mask has also become an identifier for an interesting group of folks who call themselves Anonymous.

Anonymous is a semi-organized collective of folks who were mostly originally members of the very not work safe 4Chan website/forum. Essentially troublemakers and pranksters, they’re known mostly for their ongoing war  with the Church of Scientology (“Project Chanology”) which involves both above board tactics like protests as well as some shadier methods of dissent like denial of service attacks on the Scientology website, rendering it unusable.

What started out as a loose group of folks looking to cause trouble has turned into a serious effort at disruption. The Church of Scientology has called Anonymous everything from intolerant activists to criminals to terrorists, all of which are probably somewhat legitimate descriptions of the group, but looking at the conflict as a whole, it’s a fascinating peek into what modern rebellion looks like, using tools like the internet and pranks instead of bombs and guns. Wired recently had a great article that covered Anonymous’ origins and activities and it’s well worth the read.

I’m not sure what it would take for me to attend protests wearing a slightly sinister mask, much less engage in cyberwarfare, but I’ve never been much of an activist to begin with. What about you?