Huckleberries Online

OTV: Flying J Cuisine Mediocre

Posted by DFO

May 4, 2009 9:11 a.m. • 11 comments

Before our arrival, we were possibly a little caught up in the enigma, the classic Americana of the 24-hour truck stop diner. We wanted glossy cakes and pies displayed in bright pastry cases. White-and-cherry-red porcelain tiles on the countertops and floors, stainless steel fixtures in the kitchen. Beehived waitresses hopped up on strong coffee, flying around and acting sassy like Flo from Mel’s Diner: “Kiss my Grits!” The only part of our little retro fantasy to come true were the telephones at every table, for the modern-day Flying J restaurant has absolutely zero kitsch factor and is done up in morose dark greens and boring beiges with lighting like a funeral home/Patrick Jacobs, Flying J. More here.

Question: Did OrangeTV nail his review of the Flying J restaurant? Or was he too harsh?

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Sisyphus on May 04 at 9:31 a.m.
“Question: Did OrangeTV nail his review of the Flying J restaurant? Or was he too harsh?”—fortunately I will never know.
JBelle on May 04 at 9:33 a.m.
No! He nailed it!
OrangeTV on May 04 at 9:36 a.m.
Too harsh? My beloved editors cut out all the nice parts and kept the mean ones when they hatcheted…um, I mean “edited” it for print yesterday. They seriously cut it in about half and still barely squeezed it in next to the gardening lady. Once again, readers can get the FULL uncut version on my blog.
toadman on May 04 at 9:41 a.m.
“Flying J restaurant has absolutely zero kitsch factor and is done up in morose dark greens and boring beiges with lighting like a funeral home”

What, Orange, you don’t like eating at funeral homes?

;-)
DFO on May 04 at 9:53 a.m.
>Once again, readers can get the FULL uncut version on my blog — OTV<

OTV; I hope that you noticed that I used your blog link rather than the paper link?
OrangeTV on May 04 at 11:39 a.m.
DFO, yes I did indeed notice that and thank you velly much I do appreciate that.

I thought maybe they were trying to give me a hint so the column I turned into them for next weekend is about half as long as usual. I’m hoping that may keep it intact for the print version at least.

I can understand the need to edit a bit for space, but its very frustrating to work on a piece for hours and hours only to find it randomly hacked to bits in final form. This last one barely made sense by the time they were done. It wasn’t even the “harsh stuff” that they chose to cut. Is that normal lately? They usually don’t do that. I’d prefer they allow me to create a shorter version myself…

//Whining and complaining officially over…now.

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.