Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Please note that "the bagel post" has been reposted and is now accepting comments. I can’t believe the unrest waiting for me after returning from work. The people wanna talk about the bagels!!!

Oh, and while I’m here, please let me mention that yes, everything and cinammon raisin don’t really belong on the list… not really… but everything bagels are too good to exclude, and they do contain all the "right" thing, just in higher density and greater combination. Let us also add egg bagels to the list.

To review, the correct bagel types are plain, sesame, poppy, salt, onion, garlic, and egg. Other less traditional yet acceptable types are everything, pumpernickel, and rye.

Cinammon raisin was the first flavored bagel I recall being added to the bagel lineup. It’s an option, but it will not impress anyone. It’s the bagel you get for your kid who thinks bagels seem "weird." Kind of like the drumstick of the chicken.

And my opinion stands on wheat, blueberry, chocolate chip, cranberry orange, spinach, asiago, and all the rest of that bullshit. I’m also standing firm on my cream cheese position: plain or lox. No strawberry, no walnut, no "veggie," or any of the rest of it. In the past, I’ve stopped into the dark side a few times with roasted red pepper, artichoke, and olive, but I knew at the time that it was, in fact, an incorrect choice. It was palatable, but not the real deal.

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Growing up, I would often end up in a restaurant with my dad, and he would tell me, "This is the right thing to order here." My most specific memory was on Oxford Road in Atlanta, right next to the main entrance to Emory. There was a sandwich shop there. I think it was in that building with the silly top; the one that’s been a Dominoes and a million other things. I don’t know if it’s still there or not.

Anyway, he said that I should order turkey and cole slaw with Russian Dressing on Rye. He said that was the right thing to order, and the people working there would know I knew something about sandwiches. I remember feeling like a little bit of a badass ordering that. I was probably in the range of 12 years old.

So today, on AskMetafilter (a site I adore), someone is asking about good bagels in London. And someone posted this comment:

Correct bagel types:

• Plain
• Sesame
• Poppy
• Salt
• Onion
• Everything
• Cinnamon Raisin

Incorrect bagel types:

• Sun-dried tomato
• Blueberry
• Jalapeno
• Pesto
• Anything not listed under "Correct bagel types"

Another person pointed out the obvious exclusion of Garlic, another important bagel flavor.

Does it make me a snob that I am *so* with this person on this point?

I grew up eating bagels at The Royal Bagel at Ansley Mall in Atlanta, GA. It was owned by a Jewish woman from New York named Rose and her husband. It was there my whole life, and I have never had a bagel that good since.

Over time, The Royal Bagel became a fascinating cultural institution. It was where people in my neighborhood went on weekend mornings. It was a Jewish place, and because of its location, it was a gay place (for gay men, not gay women… that was Decatur).

I remember that over the years, the employees changed from being my friend Molly’s two older sisters (kind of a family atmosphere) to a really hopping gay Mecca, with a full expansion into the next shop’s space. The guys working there at the end of its royal reign wore t-shirts that said something like "Bagels fit for a Queen." Excellent! And Rose was always still around. She probably didn’t know me, but I knew her.

The bagel flavors there were the ones mentioned in the correct list (including garlic), and the cream cheese flavors were plain and lox. It was perfect. There was no way to perfect that combination.

The Royal Bagel isn’t there anymore. Instead, there’s an Einstein’s up the hill. It’s a sad replacement, and yet, when in Atlanta, that’s kind of where we end up… trying to reclaim those wonderful bagel moments of the past.

By the way, I’m not the only one who remembers the Royal Bagel. And here’s another description from Creative Loafing, the local Atlanta rag:

Royal Bagel — Now that bagel franchises blanket the city, it’s tough to imagine loyal customers driving halfway across town to line up at this small Ansley Mall bakery that was among the first to offer the breakfast staple when it opened in 1974. Hung on until 1997.

The take-home message? Shop locally, and order the correct bagels… PLEASE! No wheat, no blueberry chocolate chip, no walnut spread, no bagel pizzas, and no bagel sandwiches with lettuce and turkey and other wrong things. Please, people. It’s not snobbery. It’s being cultured!!
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Update: I’m reposting this hoping that the comments will miraculously work. If you wanted to post before but couldn’t, try again.

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del.icio.us

Are you all using del.icio.us? It’s so cool! I’m just throwing all my bookmarks in there. I can access them from anywhere, they are organized by tags, and I get to see other people’s bookmarks, too. It’s seriously fun! Why did it take me so long to figure out what the hell this did? I’ve been seeing it around for ages!
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Update: The non-Abby, plain del.icio.us link was problematic, and I’ve repaired it. Sorry ’bout that.

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Some info I’ve learned:

• Memphis has the highest infant mortality rate among the nation’s 60 largest cities, with babies dying at twice the rate of the national average. Link.
• Memphis was ranked second among the 100 "most challenging places to live for asthmatics" in a national study. Link 1. Link 2.
• According to Men’s Fitness Magazine, Memphis is the 4th fattest city in the nation, and we got an F rating in the categories of Exercise/Sports Participation, TV Watching, Overweight/Sedentary, and Air Quality. Link 1. Link 2.
• The percentage of school-aged children is really high. Link.
• Sperling’s Best Places says Memphis is the second worst large city for crime (after Tuscon, Arizona… apparently Jo Jo left there for some California grass). Link.
• Out of 200 cities rated, Self Magazine ranked Memphis 200th for Healthiest Places for Women. Link.
• Not to mention the gang problems in the schools, the fact that we have an extremely high percentage of children in our population that we can’t afford, and the "inevitable" earthquake.

I don’t usually use my blog to seek out opinions, but tell me this… What happened here? What’s your theory? Is it the legacy of MLK being shot here? Is it related to its location on the Mississippi? Did freed slaves get stuck here? I mean really… I’d love to know what you think, because things here are statistically quite bad – way worse than average.

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Abby is thinking. Maggie is napping.

This is me, now, thinking and surfing. It’s kind of my spot. If I’m wearing away at any furniture in my apartment, it’s this chair I’m in now. I just did a whole sink full of dishes (and there is another full sinkload to go), and I got to thinking about thinking….

Today was my seminar with the psychiatry residents at the outpatient clinic I’m working in this rotation period. We did some reading about the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. I realized that, as always, I have a lot to say in seminars (or any type of class, really). My brain is chock full of content about this and that: a little here, a smidgen there. “Oh hey, that reminds me of Victor Frankl’s search for meaning in the concentration camp… But isn’t that the same as such-and-such’s theory of this-and-that?” The residents frequently comment on my wide knowledge of the topics we discuss, but I’m not even very educated in these areas, and I’m wondering where they get this idea!

There have honestly been times during school that I have made the active choice NOT to do the reading because I usually have too much to say already without even having the reading material under my belt! Some professors don’t like the chatty student, and sometimes it’s just easier to keep quiet if I only have tangential or pre-existing thoughts available. Once I hear something, if I’ve been paying attention, I know it. And I take in a lot, as is evidence by my wide breadth of knowledge about little things all over the web. I have breadth coming out my ears, but depth? Now that’s another matter. Of course I have depth in certain areas, but by nature, I’m a breadth woman. I can take in massive amounts of limited information on a wide variety of topics. This means I am very resourceful; very good at linking people with information they might be interested in.

OK, so I’ve said all that, but here’s the flip side. So I’m doing dishes, and I’m getting really worried about this job interview I have in a couple of weeks. I know I’m really perfect for the position, and if they hire me, they will be happy with me being there, but I really doubt my ability to impress them in the interview. Why? I always have this fear that someone will say, “Tell me everything you’ve learned about Topic X.” I completely suck at that kind of recall? If I am not cued, I’m sunk. It’s like there is something terribly wrong with my memory. I frequently forget what I’m saying, or basic things… For example, even though I’ve written my dissertation, I’m really afraid that at my defense, someone will ask something basic like, “What is validity?” and I will just freeze. While I’m great at using these ideas in context, if you take away the context, I’m lost at sea. Seriously.

I’ve done very well in school. I learn what I need to know. I’m a good teacher, too. I’m good at responding to people. At picking up on what people do and don’t know, and filling in the holes. I’m good at leading discussion. Lecturing? I need an outline. Put me in front of a group of people and tell me to talk about a subject I know well, and without a pre-sketched outline, there is tumbleweed in my head.

I know this all may sound a bit strange. A mix of extreme confidence and extreme insecurity, but it’s kind of neither. The truth is I have extreme strengths and extreme weaknesses. I don’t feel too bad or good about either. They just ARE. They are what I have. I just hope the format of the interview plays to my strengths. I could really use the security of knowing I have a job to go to when internship is over.

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