Thursday, January 11, 2007

Something in the air

You never know what your day will bring. I surprised myself this morning be eschewing my usual breakfast of a pint of coffee and 40 cigarettes in favor of actually cooking myself some eggs*, fakon (fake bacon, you know) an English muffin and some juice.

Plus the pint of coffee and the 40 cigarettes. Because some things don't change accidentally.

When I was in England in October, I didn't see a single English muffin my whole time there. Maybe they call them something else. Although we call American cheese American cheese, so who knows?

After eating, I began to install the new internal DVD burner which arrived this morning. The old one died this weekend, and I have projects due soon, so I had no choice but to buy a new one. As with every time I've had to crack open the case of my desktop machine, I have to doff my cap to Apple for making things intuitive and easy. The word "cinch" comes to mind.

While none of the activities I have described were preplanned parts of my day, this is not the surprise I had in mind when I began this post.

Some sort of construction began in front of my home this morning at around nine. There was a lot of noise, and a jackhammer was involved, but I was able to ignore it until mid-afternoon. Noise and construction aren't exactly unusual around my place. I was on the phone with a friend when I found myself saying "What is that smell?" out loud. My friend, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn't know the answer to my query. He seemed to think it was off-topic.

Like the narrator of Twas the Night Before Xmas, I rushed to the window to see what was the matter. There was only one truck on the street in front of my building, with small traffic cones creating a safety zone around it. The truck was from Chicago's Water Department.

Guess what the smell was. Go on, guess!**

*Yes, I was singing Julia Buckley's "Egg Song."

**Hint #1: it wasn't water. Hint #2: it's gross.

8 comments:

Hera said...

Can I just say Ewwww.

I think here English muffins are just called muffins, and so are the American variety i.e. the cakey ones with chocolate and 'blueberries' in. In fact I think we've decided to forgo our muffins in favour of your far superior ones. I suggest the US do the same with that stuff that claims to be cheese. Hope the day gets better.

BFN.

Sundry said...

Choose me! Choose me! [Hand in the air like it has been every damn day since kindergarten, I just can't help myself.] I know this one!

In England, an English muffin is a crumpet! Don't believe me? Type crumpet into the Google images search.

Okay. I feel better now. A little embarrassed, but better. I think I know the other answer, but I'm not sure what words are socially acceptable.

The Moon Topples said...

Hera: Yeah. I can't stand American cheese.

Sundry: I thought it might be crumpets as well. I seem to recall telling folks that before i left. No one ever offered me one, though, so I had no direct proof. Also, a lot fewer chimney sweeps and toffee than you might imagine.

Nikki Neurotic said...

Construction and bad smells are NEVER good.

Unknown said...

I've just tagged you with The Thinking Meme... because I'm mean like that, lol. Check out my blog for all of the details.

Hera said...

Oh I hate to be a stickler and I have resisted leaving this comment, but us Brits are nothing if not pedantic.

An English muffin is not a crumpet although I can see from google images it's hard to tell the difference, and in fairness there's not a lot.

Muffins are similar to bread and often eaten with eggs e.g. eggs benedict. Crumpets are a lot chewier and filled with holes and eaten with butter, cheese or jam. We brits are very protective about crumpets (maybe why an attractive man is called a bit of crumpet) and couldn't give a toss about muffins really.

Julia Buckley said...

Oh wow - I missed this earlier. You sang the egg song! Good for you, it's a life-changer isn't it?

Funnily enough I had an American muffin yesterday. I'm sure you will agree that this is very spooky and undeniable evidence of the existence of forces that science cannot begin to explain.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I was sure they were called "crumpets' in England, and had always surmised that the word was too tricky and, you know, foreign, for the American mind to grasp.

I do not know "The Egg Song." I'm glad.