COnfessions of a MAD Antique Dealer

Upside-Down House (Syzmbark, Poland)
This upside down design seems totally nonsensical–but that is exactly the message the Polish philanthropist and designer, Daniel Czapiewski, was trying to send. The unstable and backward construction was built as a social commentary on Poland’s former Communist era. The monument is worth a trip be it for a lesson in history or balance.

There is a lot of news into nights media blizt...but before I go there....I want to tell you all about my trip to South Jersey.....to buy fabulous things for the store...A certain fabulous custom maker of reproduction antiques is leaving America......and we are trying to buy them out....well, at least of their best stuff. I am not going to lsit all the great things until they are IN THE STORE....but the best part of the day, was eating in a FAMILY STYLE TRUCK STOP.  Now, I do not know what kind of family they had in mind.  The people in there really all were unique...and I curse myself for forgetting my camera..for it would have been one hell of a blog tonight..IT LOOKED LIKE THE BAR in the First Star Wars Movie...when young HArrison FORD sat down to have a drink.....and all the creatures in the bar were from other planets....and had three eyes and a nose on top of their heads...and some were green , or purple.....well if you don't remember look it up on you tube.   And then there was JABBA the HUT who followed. Well, I think Jabba the HUTS  cousins were there tonight...along with the GREAT PUMPKIN. One man, with a stomach that must have been a size 75(no exaggeration) more than twice my waist....maybe even 100 inches....came in wearing AN ORANGE TEE SHIRT. WHEN YOU LOOK LIKE A FUCKING PUMPKIN YOU DO NOT WEAR ORANGE.......... i DIDNT LAUGH, BUT TOLD ERIC, just turn around, the GREAT PUMPKIN IS HERE.....and he did....and his eyes almost popped out of his head and he put his hands over his mouth.....and to add a little color to this pix, he was wearing cut off short pants and a BLUE TOOTH phone. in his ear.

 Then there were a few TRUCKERS who were over 60 years old with long hair down to their shoulders...or longer.....almost everyone had a pronounced pot belly....There was one young trucker,, very fat.....with cut off slevers and short...who was quite loud..he was telling another guy at the next table the story of his life...how he got a girl pregnant and she was to have twins....and then she was in an accident and the twins died, and she killed herself....and then he ran away...to the "open road" I swear I was expecting a country singer to come out of the wood work with his guitar and start putting his tragedy to music.......One truck looked like a grey haired Charles Manson...with "those eyes"  Our Waitress and the other waitress were both chewing yellow bubble gum, clicking as they chewed and occasionally blowing bubbles.  I commented to Eddie what bad waitress they were  and how low class....when he reminded me, "What do you expect, you are in a truck stop.

THE FOOD.  The hot rolls came out....cold, but were covered with stickey HONEY...something I never had before, but I have heard of HONEY BUNS....I ordered sirloin steak, medium rare...super sized..which meant, that for 4.99 you get a second steak,,,the first one was 10.99 or around there..The potatoes and corn were cold and not very good, but to my surprise the steak came out perfect....and extremely tender, no fat, good size and had great seasoning on it...  For dessert I tried their home style apple pie.... I was shocked to get a piece of pie that was not home style. it was HOME MADE.. Fresh apples, not over cooked and not too sweet. and for a mere 1.99 and if I wanted....ice cream was only 50cents more. 

The menu had a Southern flare....Hillbilly...I guess it was 140 miles from Bergen COUNTY..and the get lots of Southern and Western Truckers.... they even had scrapple on the menu...scrapple is.Scrapple is a savory mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour. The mush is formed into a loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then fried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, too small to be used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste. Scrapple is best known as a regional food of Delaware, South Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland There are parts of the animal you just wouldn't eat...ears, snouts, ass holes, fat, and other nasty parts...but by the time they get done with it, and add this and that and spices,, its supposed to be very good. I will taste it next time, and if I survive , I will give you all a report.

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