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First off, about chip huts. DQ reader Tim Lesnick sent in this:Ah, chip huts. You're making me really homesick. Fergie's Fries was the best one in Pembroke. You haven't lived until you've stood in sub-zero temperatures to get a cardboard container of those fresh hot french fries… with vinegar, though I wouldn't expect you Southerners to understand that.
Hmmm, perhaps part of the attraction of the vinegar was that we could actually smell and taste it in the cold. Nah, it just tastes good.
When we first moved to the states, we had fries in a restaurant, and asked our waiter if he had some vinegar. He got a puzzled expression on his face, and said that they had a big jug in the kitchen. I'll never forget his expression of horror when we told him why we wanted the vinegar.
Then there's this from Kent:
Another popular Canadian treat that some of these chip huts carry is poutine. Poutine is a beautiful combination of french fries, covered with cheese curds (usually white, not orange), smothered with gravy (usually beef, not mushroom). Poutine seems to have orginated in Quebec, but is very popular here in British Columbia as well. I don't think I've ever seen poutine offered anywhere south of the border.
That is incredibly disturbing. Just don't ask me about grits.
Here's a funny story from Mark Lahren about Freebird:
Funny you should mention Freebird, as I just three days ago received from Amazon my first-ever Lynyrd Skynyrd CD (Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd), which I believe is their first record. This is the remastered CD, with 5 bonus tracks, one of which is the demo version of Freebird.
According to the liner notes, studio time was expensive, so they did it in one take, with everybody playing. And it sounds good.
Except, right at the beginning of the climactic guitar solo, the guitarist (Allen Collins) broke a string. You can hear it when it happens. So what do they do? The rest of the band just keeps on playing, while Collins quickly restrings his guitar. This takes something like 2 or 3 minutes (I didn't time it). Then, suddenly, restrung, Collins leaps right back in there and picks up the solo just like nothing happened. It's absolutely hilarious, and reminded me exactly of something that Spinal Tap would do. It's the first time I've ever laughed out loud while listening to music. A nine minute song was turned into nearly twelve minutes. This is what they sent off to the record company, since they didn't have enough money for a second take.
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