Mulled Marc

My sources (an employee at the 54th street SONIC, nothing nefarious) say that the SONIC on Alpine should be open in the next couple of weeks. Still no word on the rumored Rockford Meijer.

Jen is blogging about our vacation over on The Stoufer Family blog. To see where we’re at (within a couple of days), what we’re doing and some pictures of cute kids, head on over.

Monday April 27, 2009 7:02AM – Stall 13
Super SONIC Burrito, Tater Tots, Route 44 Coke (Add Cranberry)
Delicious

The Grand Rapids Press reports that the first West Michigan SONIC Drive-In, on Clyde Park in Wyoming, MI, is finally going to open by May 2009. The article also mentions that a second SONIC is in the planning stages and will be built at 3955 Alpine Ave. I’m guessing here, but based on the other addresses in that area of Alpine that may be in front of Wal-Mart.

The Alpine SONIC is working through zoning issues which put a serious delay on the Wyoming SONIC, but hopefully the Alpine issues are resolved quickly. With a slight adjustment to my route, this location could easily be on my way to work, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

Argh!!! SONIC just keeps inching closer….slowly. According to this article in the Grand Rapids Press, the Grand Rapids area SONIC has received it’s approval for a drive-through, but now it isn’t planned to open until spring. The article also mentions that an Alpine Ave location is being planned, which would be minutes from my work – I guess deciding where to eat lunch would get a lot easier.

On a positive, albeit frustrating, note: This article from the Kalamazoo Gazette says that a SONIC will be opened in Portage, MI by Christmas. This is about half the distance of the previously closest location in South Bend, which I suppose is progress.

CNN has a commentary from Penn Jillette on what he’s looking for in a presidential candidate.

“The choice shouldn’t be which lesser of two evils should have the enormous power of our modern presidents. The question should be, who would do less as president? Who would leave us alone?”

The commentary is cynical and sarcastic, but so is Penn every time I’ve ever seen him on TV…and he is a comedian/magician, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be right.

The inability to detect humor and the defense of big government in the public comments section on CNN would be frightening if one didn’t expect such a knee-jerk reaction. It’s clear that we’re way past what the founders intended for the federal government. A true candidate of “change” that wanted to limit the federal government to it’s constitutional role would be revolutionary at this point. All we get are choices between which evolutionary change we want that grows the federal government one step closer to taking care of us and telling us what to think and do.

After months with no word about where in West Michigan we can expect SONIC to pop up, the Grand Rapids Press has new information. According to a July 16 news article the planned location for the first West Michigan location (supposedly the East side of the state beat us to the first Michigan location) is just off 54th Street and Clyde Park. For those familiar with the area, it would be near the Stake and Shake that is in front of Menards. It’s also across the street from the first Meijer I worked at when I moved to Michigan.

So, now we wait again. In the meantime, the nearest SONIC to West Michigan is now in South Bend, IN. It’s just under two hours, and if you’re heading to Chicago it doesn’t add significantly to the trip (or round-trip if you need to stop twice). Not saying we’ve done this, but I will say that I have a very patient and understanding wife. If you stop, bring me back a SuperSONIC Breakfast Burrito and a Cranberry Coke (it may sound weird, but I’m sure Cherry Coke sounded weird when it was first invented).

This is a post from Gizmodo that Marc ran across on his RSS reader. He thought was interesting enough to share, but couldn’t be bothered to write actual content about it.

view post at Gizmodo