LOOK AT THE SANDWICH!

Teddy Roosevelt, strongly disapproving man of a Dutch Calvinist bent (that creed being a dominant cultural inheritance among descendants of the New Amsterdam Dutch), and a distant relative of this blogger, backed restrictive laws on alcohol, as part of his love of law and order. Which, more or less, brought about New York's once strictly enforced rule that a meal had to be available to the booze hound. Hence bizarre "sandwiches" in bars.

Severe regulation, intended to limit drunkenness.
Keep the poor from enjoying life.
Sandwiches.

Queer and distressing.


A quote from an atlas Obscura article about all that: "New York City at the time was home to some 8,000 saloons. The seediest among them were “dimly lit, foul-smelling, rickety-chaired, stale-beer dives” that catered to “vagrants, shipless sailors, incompetent thieves, [and] aging streetwalkers,” Richard Zacks writes in Island of Vice, his book-length account of Roosevelt’s reform campaign."
End cite.

The loophole was lodging, and a complete meal: The Raines Sandwich.
Stale bread, mummified meats and cheeses.

Or even a brick in between two slices: Raines Law - Wikipedia

I'm not sure about all the details -- the wrangling between the grim Puritan dillwads and realistic people continued for decades, with many strange turns and codicils -- but the result was a 'sandwich' that could be recycled for each drinker. Okay, you've seen the 'sandwich' and rejected it, now we'll let someone else look at the 'sandwich'.

It might as well have been Vegan, for all the appetisement.


As is well known, Vegan kibble goes down better with whiskey, if it goes down at all. Which is doubtful. Puritanic Protestant self-mortification.



Dimly lit, foul-smelling, rickety-chaired, stale-beer dives catering to vagrants, shipless sailors, incompetent thieves, and aging streetwalkers.

Yeah, you know, that sounds like a little slice of heaven. Especially when compared to the company of Vegans and other religious fanatics.

And their sandwiches.


The typical sandwich in the United States, although sometimes (rarely) a masterpiece of culinary artistry, is far too often a frightful composite of miserable greasy "sandwich meats" (including corn-derivative chemicals and sundry wet substances) on spongy bread (it's wondrous!) with scant condiment, and a repulsive layer of nasty limp buggery lettuce.


That lettuce does NOT make it healthy eating!
Stop fooling yourselves with that.
It's bloody awful.
Protestant.



* This essay brought to you by The Crusade Against Lettuce©
Which can be found here.




POST SCRIPTUM: The Crusade Against Lettuce© is planning to have himself a decent lunch today, after eating crap at work over the weekend. Don't know what yet, probably at a 'tea-restaurant' (茶餐廳 'chaa chan teng') in Chinatown. Something with gobs of animal protein, a pile of rice, chili sauce, and a caffeinated beverage. No buggery lettuce.




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