I'm disowning my sister. This was the last straw.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

Her away message on AIM:

"olive garden & the movies with my sweetie pie"

[YellowRubberDuckie]

1. LOL

We went to lunch there the other day. The linguine Alfredo was great!!
Duckie

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Yeah, but we're in Jersey.

There's no excuse at all here.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. They should have taken some kids and a carton of smokes with them.

Maybe a PSP with Grand Theft Auto and a sack full of M80s, let the kids shoot them off while playing the game. Then they could have gone caroling.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. Yeah, she could have borrowed my cousin's kids.

Five and seven is the perfect age to start them on violent video games and explosives.

[Telly Savalas]

14. There was a caroling flame war?

Ah, man, that had to have been good.

[ghostsofgiants]

15. Not really a flame war per se, just someone complaining about how they hate religious carols.

I thought it was silly. Should be floating around here somewhere. I'd dig up the link, but I'm feeling extra lazy.

[Telly Savalas]

17. I stumbled into it.

There was decent potential there for a no holds barred flame war, but it seems to have fizzled out. What can you do?

[ghostsofgiants]

18. My contributions could have been flamewar fuel, but I'm too lazy for that shit...

Plus I think internet flamewars kill brain cells.

[WindRavenX]

5. if anyone in NJ or NY or Boston goes there...

...they suck.

[bigwillq]

6. Or CT

there are plenty of other, and in my opinion, better places to go than the OG.

[WindRavenX]

7. word

I forgot CT has some good places. My CT friends say the pizza is sorta NY/Boston hybrid.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. Unless you're in Stonington, CT, then it's just shit.

[bigwillq]

11. Never ate pizza in Stonington.

Come to New Haven, East Haven, the Haven area.

Some good shit.

[Fuzz]

21. Pepe's, Sally's, Modern's

Yum.

[bigwillq]

22. Yes indeed!

:bounce:

Modern is my fave! YUM-O!

[Fuzz]

23. I love Modern's too!

The clam casino pie is great.

I'm in NJ now and miss it.

Say, you know that church across the street, kind of across, but more like to the right a bit as you walk out of the place? Yeah, my dad used to preach at that church when it was First Assemblies of God. So I was very familiar with Modern's. :D

[MassLiberal]

29. Dayton St. in Westville

Yum!

[Fuzz]

32. Never been, never even heard of it.

Been out of CT for almost 13 years now. Have to remember that for my next trip back. :)

[bigwillq]

10. It's better than Boston, imo.

And it runs close to NYC.

Yes, the pizza places in CT rock! :bounce:

But there are other places too and not those chains like OG....

like down-home Italian....,etc.....

New Haven has a lot of Thai, Indian places to that are amazing.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Yeah, pretty much.

She's kind of okay sometimes, though.

[bullwinkle428]

25. Hell, if they're in Cedar Rapids, IA, they still have no taste. Biaggi's is like

1000 times better!!

http://www.biaggis.com/index.html

[Montauk6]

12. Well, Haruka, you may not have a sister to disown if she's going to the OG

http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-41,GGLD:en&ncl=1112022572&hl=en

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. Well, she went to the one in Rockaway, NJ.

At least she didn't eat at a NJ Taco Bell. Now, those are pretty deadly.

[Montauk6]

16. You know, if them guys keep eliminating ingredients as THE CULPRIT,

we're gonna see some reeeeeeeally skillful marketing of empty taco shells (assuming that THEY'RE not found to be tainted as well!).

[Kali]

31. Genetically modified corn.

[uppityperson]

19. I missed the OG flames, but keep seeing references.

brief history please.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

24. Here:

A few months ago, a DUer asked where he should go to eat during his upcoming trip to NYC. Another poster suggested visting the Olive Garden in Times Square, just like she did during her own NYC trip.

Other posters went nuts, wondering why she went to such a generic chain restaurant when she was in a food mecca like NYC.

And hence, a legend was born. :D

[uppityperson]

26. That is what the OG is about? Thanks.

I thought it had something to do with red/blue company something but "just" a chain works too. Thank you. Got in on the tail end of cornflakes and during the "L" posting craze.

[Radio_Lady]

27. I am immortalized by my response in June 2006. I think I'll put it on my tombstone:

Hissyspit asked a simple question about restaurants in New York City, and then I was the first one who suggested a meal at the Olive Garden at Times Square.

And I lived long enough to regret it.

In peace,

Radio_Lady in Oregon

Read it and weep:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=5279955

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=5284729

PS. Come to think of it, I'm going to be a cadaver donor at Oregon Health Sciences University, and when the medical student is done with me, I'll be cremated.
Maybe some kind DUer will sprinkle me on... ONE OF THOSE GOD AWFUL PIZZAS FROM THE OLIVER GARDEN! And they'll call me PEPPER!!!!

:sarcasm:

[uppityperson]

28. ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh, it was YOU!

Well, I asked why we call christmas trees christmas trees in GD. Probably be remembered for that one for a while.

ps "because" is not an answer.

[RoyGBiv]

30. I'd never eaten at OG ...

But after that nonsense, I made a point of going there.

It was delicious. Way too expensive for what it was, but delicious.

Of course I'm just a redneck Okie, and thus a heathen, so what do I know? ;-)

[Radio_Lady]

33. Hey, People of DU! You have another target now! I'm officially resigning my post as

designated Olive Garden punching bag.

Sorry it was so expensive, Roy. I think they charged us $11.95 AT LUNCH for all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks. That was in the theater area where prices are out of sight. It was more at dinner, but then you can do a lunch order (half order) at dinnertime, at least at the OG in Utah. But not on the unlimited stuff...

[RoyGBiv]

34. Heh ...

HIT ME! I'll take the heat. :-)

I once spent two weeks in New Orleans, savored the local cuisine, and by the end of my trip, all I wanted was a baked potato. Not a microwaved potato. Not a potato that had been cut up, had all this crap mixed in with it, then heated in an oven or a pot or the microwave. I wanted a friggin' potato, wrapped in foil, straight out of the oven, and I wanted a potato bar from which I could choose my garnishments. This doesn't mean I didn't like the local flavor (I in fact loved it), but damnit, what my appetite wanted eventually, they could not give me. And so when I returned to Oklahoma, the first stop I made after getting off the plane was a chain restaurant about half a mile from the airport that serves real baked potatoes. And I enjoyed it. And I'm not sorry.

Expensive is relative. Everything in Oklahoma is fairly cheap. "Local flavor" here is County Line BBQ, at which you can feed a party of four for under $40. I spent that much at OG on just my daughter and me. It was worth it, though. What I had really was very good.

And here's a weird thing. After that, I took a vacation to Branson, MO with my daughter, one of her friends, and my mother. (My mom has always loved the place. I dislike it, but I like some of the surrounding areas ... caves, historical sites, etc. so it was cool.) In the Branson of today, finding "local" food is not easy. Chains have sprouted everywhere. We did find a few local places in the non-tourist areas, ate there, and found them underwhelming. It was sorta like eating Sunday dinner at Grandma's on a day that Grandma was having a bad day. In the middle of the week, after visiting an attraction, we decided just to eat at a Denny's and pray for our stomachs. It was horrible, but filling, and for the four of us, it cost about $50. At Denny's. Choke and puke to the world cost over $10 per plate. The next day we were driving around and saw an OG. My daughter, who had fallen in love with the place from our dinner back in Oklahoma, asked if we could eat there, so we did. For the four of us, I spent about $45, tip included.

Now what kind of sense does that make? Denny's more expensive than OG and the OG in Branson less expensive than the one in OKC? I'm clueless.

I'll stop rambling now ... I think I'm hungry.

[otherlander]

20. Dude.

That's not healthy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16223079/

Updated: 7:51 p.m. ET Dec 15, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS - More than 300 people say they became ill, and at least three have been hospitalized, after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant last weekend, health officials said Friday.

The restaurant has been closed while health officials and the company investigate what caused customers to complain of nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea, a company spokesman said.

Steve Coe, a spokesman for the Orlando, Fla.-based chain of Italian restaurants, said health officials are focusing on an employee who had flu-like symptoms similar to those patrons complained of.

[LostinVA]

35. Even 12 hours later, I'm still shocked by this

And, I don't care what you say: I'd still insist on a DNA test being done.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

36. We look like we're related though.

We're both obviously micks.

[LostinVA]

37. Stranger things have happened....

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

38. That's true, it is *MY* family.

Quite frankly, one of them could rip off their face and reveal an alien underneath, and most of us would just say, "Oh, that's nice. Real nice."

[LostinVA]

39. My point exactly