And Just Like That, It's Time to Come Home

It’s great going away for two whole weeks. In comic land two means four comics. In blog land it’s “I wrote about traveling last week, what the hell am I gonna write about this week?” Coming home. For some, that’s a tough transition. For me, it’ back to my tv remotes which only I can understand (sometimes), my chair, my food (I mean, how many nights in a row can you eat tapas?). But you also want to show your friends and family some cool stuff you can only buy over there. And maybe buy some cool stuff as presents to give out. So, imagine getting something over there that you could easily buy over here. That occurred to John as he was walking through a Spanish sardine store. You want sardines in oil, sardines in tomato sauce, sea bass and sea bream in olive oil you got it. He and his wife were in there trying to buy something exotic to bring home. So, when he asked the counter girl and got a response that they had an additional store in Times Square, he had a laugh and we had European Trip, part 3. Sometimes we make up stories (most of the time) and then sometimes they write themselves.

But speaking about exotic presents that aren’t in fact exotic, I remember a time when a friend of my mother’s, who fancied himself a bon vivant, came over to our apartment and brought over this amazing ice cream he brought back all the way from Denmark. It was called Haagen Dazs. Now this was the late 1960’s and we’d never heard of it before. It was also the best coffee ice cream I ever tasted in my then young life. The fact that he said he bought ice cream back all the way from Denmark should have been a clue that he was not who he seemed to be, but I was too busy eating that ice cream to care. It surely would have melted somewhere over the Atlantic. But the truth is Haagen Dazs was then and is still today made in Brooklyn.

The point is (is there a point?) that we all like stuff that’s different, that’s not from where we live. Levi jeans are cool in Europe, Armani jeans are cool over here. You just don’t have to go all the way to Italy to get them.

So have a great weekend and enjoy a plate of sardines. You can even eat the bones. They’re filled with calcium and are healthy for you. If you don’t know where to find them, have we got a store for you.

Andy and John