Sunday, January 04, 2009

Scrapple

Last Friday morning, I spent close to two and half hours talking, face to face, with two people, who before that Friday, I only knew from blogging.

I had the pleasure of meeting Bogart From P Town and his fiance Claire. They were in the Philly area doing some sightseeing and they took time to actually drive out to meet with me for coffee. I enjoyed my breakfast with Bogart and Claire. It was like seeing and hanging out with old friends. They are both brilliant people with such genuine personalities there was never an awkward moment (At least not for me. Maybe for Claire, when I mentioned the vibrating testicle). Since they were in town and they like to try new foods I suggested they try some Scrapple. I love Scrapple and I knew it was a regional "thing". I always understood that Scrapple came from "SCRAPS" of the pig.

I do not think I said or did anything embarrassing. What I mean is that I did not feel embarrassed, that is, until I got home.

Bogart emailed me a month or so ago letting me know he was going to be in the area. I knew Lauren was due to have the baby on the days Bogart was to be in town and I told him I would have to play it by ear. It turns out, that Friday morning was perfect for both of us. Once the time and place was set for the blogger meet up I realized I only had two hours to get ready. Normally 20 minutes would be all the time I would need to get ready but I have been growing a full beard and I needed to clean it up a little. I had a Charlie Manson like beard going. I did not want Bogart and Claire to think that they were meeting Ted Kaczynski or Rupert from Survivor so I decided to trim the unruly beard.

One problem: My beard trimmer was out of power and it takes a couple of hours to charge up. I did the best I could under the circumstances. I trimmed as much as I could until the battery went dead and then I let the trimmer charge for a bit more. I trimmed some more of my beard and the trimmer would die and I would have to wait another 15 minutes or so. Once you are committed to trimming your beard you have to do it all. I could not go out with only half of my face trim and clean. Also, I am in the middle of re-doing my bathroom and I clipped my beard without a mirror.

After about an hour and several jokes from Lauren about my "Man date" I decided the beard was good and I let it be. I left to go meet Bogart.

After the meeting I got home and I looked in the mirror and I realized that I did such a horrible job with the beard trimmer. There were stragglers everywhere. Long, white, unruly hairs that seemed to have a life of their own. I could only imagine what Bogart and his fiance thought. The worst part, how do I explain this, when one has a moustache, one does not need to worry too much about grooming the hairs in ones nostrils because they kinda blend in. Now if one decides to trim the moustache and forgets to trim the nose hairs...well it looks kinda of weird.


Crazy chin hairs that were three times longer than the rest of the hair on my face. I will spare you ugly picture of my nose hair and just show you a somewhat tame one below.

This is Bogart and Claire before they tried the scrapple. I have sent Bogart a few emails since we met and I have not heard back from him. Maybe he figured out that you can't spell Scrapple without the word "crap".


Bogart has a great blog and you should check it out.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

you didnt TELL them what the scrapple was made of before they ate it, did you?????

i love scrapple too, and have to disconnect my brain when i eat it nowadays.

Anonymous said...

So why was the beard so bad that you had to trim it at all?

Scrapple sounds yummy, sort of like menudo (please don't tell me what is in that)!

Bogart said...

The Scrapple was good, but not as good as Bill's beautiful eyelashes! I might have developed a full-blown man-crush if it weren't for the lingering nose hair...I just thought it was a booger.

for a different kind of girl said...

This weekend my husband decided he was going to blow out the goatee and try on the full beard for the first time ever. I'm going to print this post out and save it for him. I'm just not yet sure if I should label it as a warning or as a tip sheet!

Ern said...

hahahahahahaha

reest

Cat said...

Heh. Rupert from Survivor... Oh no! You didn't wear tie-dye, did you?! Regardless, I still think you look like Billy Joel. And he's a six-time Grammy winner, so there you go.

Also, scrapple? Winning friends and influencing people, eh, William?

Anonymous said...

Living in Maryland I am one of the few who does not partake of the "DelMarVa Delight". My husband grew up here and he adores the stuff. Bleh. I've tried it a million ways, thick, thin, crispy, but I just can't get used to the pasty texture. I love all other forms of pork, just not this one.

Anonymous said...

Thank God you trimmed your beard. You would have made an awesome and frightening spectacle as a birth coach with a full-on, mountain-man beard.

Cat said...

William, your email address isn't working. My email bounced back.

Anonymous said...

Bogart in Beard Town. Now that is funny.

Rachel said...

I've never heard of scrapple ... sounds kind of interesting ... it looks like big blocks of fried cheese in that picture ...

MMM ... fried cheese ...

Schell Family said...

As a good friend of Bogart, I am both jealous of your visit and horrified about the scrapple! Thanks for showing him a good time - he's raved about you for a long time!

JP said...

Srapple??? So many other good Philly foods to try and you suggested scrapple?

Anonymous said...

Ugh... Bogart- you'd better check Claire's chest for hair now... do you know what's in that stuff?

Unknown said...

scrapple-ugh! The beard wasn't awful! How cool to meet bloggers, perhaps one day!

~AirmanMom returning to her blog...

Fulton Quads said...

SO 2 1/2 hours.. apparently no baby yet!? I can not wait for that post. I think that is SO cool that you met up with them. Being a "people person" like myself, I think meeting a person I have been blogging with & felt I knew would be a fun adventure!
Cathy

Practically Joe said...

I love Bogart's BLOG.
I wish he and Claire would adopt me and take me places.

inklenaomi said...

Aaah Scrapple, it's worth delurking. Did you remember to recommend the horseradish? I like a dry white myself.

Naomi
Scrapple-less in Minnesota

Jr. said...

of any interest what you call Scrapple in PA we call Grits in west central Ohio just the ingredients differ by pinoats instead of cornmeal. Fried up and served as German Catholic peasant fare located in Region of NW ohio on the Indiana borders.