{"id":184,"date":"2008-04-16T23:50:36","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T04:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kevinomara.com\/2008\/04\/16\/its-about-time-i-continued-the-list-of-reasons-why-i-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-x-right\/"},"modified":"2008-04-16T23:50:36","modified_gmt":"2008-04-17T04:50:36","slug":"its-about-time-i-continued-the-list-of-reasons-why-i-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-x-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/?p=184","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s about time I continued the list of reasons Why I Shouldn&#8217;t Be Allowed To [X], right?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, let me preface this by saying this is all the fault of Gabe and Tycho over at Penny-Arcade.  They brought the knowledge of this monstrosity to me (<A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.penny-arcade.com\/comic\/2008\/4\/16\/\">comic<\/A>, <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.penny-arcade.com\/2008\/4\/16\/\">associated newspost<\/A>) whereas if they had not I might never have heard of it, as I try not to watch the teevees and therefore missed whatever commercials may be associated with this.<\/p>\n<p>I am, of course, speaking of Burger King&#8217;s <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.bk.com\/#menu=2,79,-1\">Loaded Steakhouse Burger<\/A> (as mentioned in my last blog post).  Let me quote to you directly from their insidious marketing: &#8220;The New Loaded Steakhouse Burger from BK is just that, loaded up with crispy onions, baked potato topping, A.1. Thick &#038; Hearty Steak Sauce and a slice of American Cheese on top of a 100% Angus beef patty.&#8221; They will tell you it looks like this:<\/p>\n<p><CENTER><IMG SRC=\"http:\/\/kevinomara.com\/images\/steakhouseburger.jpg\" WIDTH=\"400\" HEIGHT=\"240\"><\/CENTER><\/p>\n<p>Now of COURSE we know it doesn&#8217;t look like that.  It <I>can&#8217;t<\/I> look like that.  Nature won&#8217;t allow it.  There is at least one other blog fully dedicated to comparing the visual nature of products as advertised versus as delivered, and that&#8217;s not my goal here.<\/p>\n<p>Though there is, later on, my picture of the beast.<\/p>\n<p>But back to the story.<\/p>\n<p>I went to Burger King, my heart heavy in my chest, with the knowledge that I must vanquish this leaden foe.  There had been some discussion in the office regarding &#8220;baked potato topping&#8221; and what truly that entailed.  Eventually we decided that it must be basically mashed potatoes.  Couldn&#8217;t think of anything else it <I>could<\/I> be.  Not topping <I>for<\/I> potatoes but topping <I>of<\/I> potatoes.<\/p>\n<p>I walked up to the counter with no wait.  A late teenage girl stepped up and said hi.  She had a moderate Southern accent and was tall and thin, and looked like she&#8217;d just gracefully transitioned from that gawky adolescent state into the woman that she would become.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;May I take your order?&#8221; or somesuch pleasantry, and delivered with a mostly genuine smile even.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t believe I&#8217;m going to do this,&#8221; I sighed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tell me, have you had this Loaded Steakhouse Burger?&#8221; I inquired, already knowing the answer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Um &#8230; no.  No, I&#8217;ve had the <I>regular<\/I> Steakhouse Burger and it was good.  But that one?  No.&#8221;  She looked perhaps simultaneously conspiratorial and taken aback, as if she had been instructed by her dark masters not to reveal her consumption habits, yet she never thought she would actually be interrogated.<\/p>\n<p>A young man of moderate height stepped into view.  He looked as if he had been taken fresh from the pages of some lower-rent catalog that was trying to look like a good alternative to Abercrombie &#038; Fitch, price-wise.  Perhaps that was just the effect of him having to wear a BK uniform.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had both and it&#8217;s better without,&#8221; he opined, unasked, and with a quite genuine smile.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Are you sure?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, yeah, the <I>regular<\/I> Steakhouse Burger is great.  The other one &#8230;&#8221; his voice trailed off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, damn.  I told my friends I would eat the <I>Loaded<\/I> Steakhouse Burger,&#8221; I sighed.<\/p>\n<p>With great glee the young lady said, &#8220;Okay!  One Loaded Steakhouse Burger!  You want to make that a meal?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yes.  Yes I did.  But I wanted it <I>small<\/I>, &#8217;cause I knew that this was a bad idea.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What &#8230; what <I>is<\/I> the &#8216;baked potato topping&#8217; anyway?&#8221; I inquired, a futile gesture as I was already condemned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s like a loaded baked potato &#8211; sour cream, cheese, bacon, you know, all that.  And the potato.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Good lord.<\/p>\n<p>In short time I received my order and walked that long slow walk of the damned back across the restaurant, to the farthest darkest corner.<\/p>\n<p>I will torture you no longer and now reveal the horrifying image of what was given to me.<\/p>\n<p><CENTER><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kevinomara\/2419715259\/\" title=\"It's ... por Brother O'Mara, en Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2109\/2419715259_9220fdd46a_m.jpg\" width=\"217\" height=\"240\" alt=\"It's ...\" \/><\/a><\/CENTER><\/p>\n<p>Like any Lovecraftian protagonist I can hardly tell you what transpired past this point, as if the journey past the apex and the ensuing descent into madness left my eyes clouded and my memories clean, my inability to truly process the horror transforming me a dry useless husk.<\/p>\n<p>Except that&#8217;s not really true, as I can remember much of the short story I was reading for Spanish Lit class, but very little about the burger itself.  I <I>can<\/I> verify that it does hang over the edge of the bun, as pictured.  It did have all the listed ingredients.  The barbeque sauce was a bit too strong for the sandwich.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to stop halfway through.<\/p>\n<p>I ended up stopping at three-quarters.  It was just &#8230; something in my brain overrode my arms.  I found this out when I tried to turn the page and nothing happened.  There was a tiny coup d&#8217;etat and until my arms and hands agreed to a declaration of cease-fire there was to be no more physical activity.<\/p>\n<p>I feel a worse man for having undergone this.<\/p>\n<p>But you, my friends, are better off, for you may live vicariously through me, and you may learn from my mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Or should you not, then may God have mercy on your soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, let me preface this by saying this is all the fault of Gabe and Tycho over at Penny-Arcade. They brought the knowledge of this monstrosity to me (comic, associated newspost) whereas if they had not I might never have heard of it, as I try not to watch the teevees and therefore missed whatever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tidbit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kevinomara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}