I have over the past month, through some combination of obsession and a lazy palate, found myself conducting the Greater Chattanooga Chicken Fingers Experiment, ordering tenders at nearly every restaurant I visit.
I don't know why this has happened. Perhaps it's because chicken fingers were the only decent item on the Covenant College menu, and I now remember them as comforting. Perhaps I am turning into my father, who throughout my youth would order a filet mignon at any decent restaurant, then sadly and without fail remark that it did not compare to the dish created at a certain Miami steakhouse.
As a good postmodern, I have no such objective standard of comparison, and yet I remain disappointed: the chicken fingers at the Northshore Grille, the Mudpie, Taco Mac and Big River (where they are billed, with great pretension, as "chicken tenderloins") are all dreadful, and the servings at Durty Nelly's aren't as satisfying as they used to be. Somehow this bothers me.
Why am I telling you this? Tomorrow's Pulse still isn't ready for its final edits, and I've already smoked my cigarette.
****
The Simon, an online magazine, today published my 1,000-word essay on Jude Law. This is my first time being published nationally. I'm excited.
Posted by mesh at December 13, 2004 08:54 PM | TrackBackNice job Mesh. I think you are the first critic to accurately portray the heterosexual man-crush. On Peter Saarsgard. You really like that guy, don't you?
Posted by: John T at December 13, 2004 10:35 PMGreat essay!
Posted by: Debby at December 13, 2004 11:27 PMCongrats, Mesh. Nice article. And I'm a huge fan of Saarsgard, too.
Posted by: KornSt@r at December 14, 2004 12:18 PMThat is an excellent article. Glad to see you "go public" with your journalistic style. I may be a little jaded but I think you are the most talented young writer around (note: PJ O'rouke gets my vote on the older side).
R. Mesh
Posted by: Ronald Mesh at December 14, 2004 02:04 PMThanks. If I'm any good, you deserve a lot of the credit for that. Good genes. Nature and nurture and all that. :)
Posted by: mesh at December 14, 2004 02:07 PMAberdeen, mesh? Insomnia. Props to you for the shout out to Pete, he's money. Hey, you still looking for a boarder? Word on the street is that come April Mipers is leaving me out on my ear.
Posted by: jes at December 14, 2004 03:48 PMDoesn't anyone think Sarsgaard always looks stoned?
Posted by: Tommy Jolly at December 14, 2004 07:16 PM