Lately, all of my posts have been fairly serious. I've decided to post something a bit lighter in nature.

Teriyaki restaurants are pretty popular around here. Most are "mom and pop" establishments. They tend to have names that, obviously, are literal, "word for word" translations of oriental names. (In the phrase, the best possible English word is substituted for an oriental word. ... The downside is that sometimes the meaning of the phrase is obscured by the choice of words.)

Let me illustrate what I mean: Asahi beer is, to the Japanese, what Bud or Miller Genuine Draft is to our culture. In the early '90s, I had found a restaurant in El Paso, TX that had fairly close ties to Japan. The labels on their Asahi were some of the first types exported to the US. The slogan under the trademark symbol was, according to the hostess, a literal, "word for word" translation. The slogan was: "Real beer for live people". Which, of course, knowing me, launched an entire discourse that started with the question: "Does this mean that there is fake beer for dead people?"

So, back to my recent past, here in the Pacific Northwest: My nephew, Brandon, has spent a considerable amount of time with my wife and I, recently. While driving around, looking at the places we see, several conversations have been sparked by the names of the local Teriyaki restaurants. The one that sparked the most conversation was called: "Happy Teriyaki". Given my experience with Asahi beer, you can imagine what path those conversations took. ("Does this mean there is a 'Sad Teriyaki' nearby?" ... "How about a 'So-so Teriyaki'?" ... etc.)

This all led to me sharing some observations I made while I was stationed at Fort Sill, OK, right outside of Lawton, OK. ...

Lawton and Fort Sill, both, have obvious feral cat populations. So much so that I was part of a conversation with the Garrison Commander of Fort Sill (the guy that is in charge of the administration of the post ... everything from building maintenance, to running the museums, to trash pickup, etc.) about how most of his hours at work, at the time, were spent dealing with problems caused by the large feral cat population on post.

Lawton, also, has several all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets. There was one that was the largest (in terms of food selection), the best (in terms of food quality), and the best price. We ate there on a regular basis. It was nice.

It was interesting, though. There were large, open fields near the restaurant, and a couple of housing subdivisions. I never noticed any feral cats in the fields. AND, when I asked people that I knew that lived there, I found that the area around the restaurant did not seem to suffer from the feral cat infestation that most of the rest of the Lawton/Fort Sill area suffered.

About this same time, I noticed that what were labeled "Chicken Wings" on the buffet seemed awful small for normal chickens.

I'm not saying ... well, anything, ... However, you put 2 and 2 together often enough, and even the dumbest redneck will, eventually, get 4.

So, after relating this to my nephew, he started the entire "feral cat" discussion EVERY time we drove by a Chinese buffet. This went on ... and on ... (and on, and on ... you get the idea).

Then, we drove by a place called "Toto Teriyaki".

(There's no place like home. ... There's no place like home. ...)