San Jose to Repair Smelly Sewage Line

Fri Sep 30, 7:39 AM ET
It's no longer going to smell like ammonia and rotten eggs on one suburban street.
The area's main sewage line — a handmade brick pipe — was installed in the late 1890s, before Teddy Roosevelt was president. It's been collecting sewage and stench ever since.
"Sometimes, it's just overwhelming," accountant Nikki Warner said of the intersection of Zanker and Trimble. "Sometimes you go outside and, ugh."
Residents soon will be able to breath easier with the recent installation of reinforced concrete pipes. Filters also have been installed to move air out of the sewers and disperse the odor.
Within a short time, the area will no longer be, as Warner calls it, "the most smelly street in San Jose."
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press.

Having spent 4 years working in an office on this very corner I can confirm that it is in fact the smelliest corner in the Bay Area.

Several coffee shops, delis, and hot dog stands have tried and failed in this location.

I would like to nominate 2 other locations for consideration in this category:

• The corner of Coronado and Florida streets in Hayward- A kid named Justin lived there when I was in 3rd grade and he’s a poopy head.
• The corner of Catalina and Lakeside in Paulden. There’s something going on there at the quonset huts that just ain’t right. By the way- there isn't a lake at or near Lakeside and that in itself needs investigating.

Good Eats from the Killing Fields

Welcome to the killing fields cafe...
By Ek Madra Fri Sep 30,10:18 AM ET
A new Cambodian cafe is offering diners a slice of life under the Khmer Rouge, with a menu featuring rice-water and leaves, and waitresses dressed in the black fatigues worn by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas.

Newly opened across the road from Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng "S-21" Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center, the cafe is meant to remind Cambodians of the 1975-1979 genocide in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.

But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.
"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."

"We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," she said.
Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia, the waitresses are barefoot and clad in the black pajamas and red-white scarves of the guerrillas.

Speakers blare out tunes celebrating the 1975 toppling of U.S.-backed president General Lon Nol and the walls are adorned with the baskets, hoes and spades Pol Pot hoped would power his jungle-clad south-east Asian homeland to communist prosperity.
Recognizing that many tourists might not be able to stomach such a close brush with the Killing Fields, the "Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe" is also promoting itself to those wishing to shed a few pounds.

"It's good for me to slim down," said Tan, a 40-year-old Malaysian visitor.
For some who survived Pol Pot's rule, the cafe served up too many chilling reminders of one of 20th century history's darkest chapters.

"My mother visited me here once, saw the Khmer Rouge style and has never come back again," Hakpry Agnchealy said.
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.


In a related story, The 9/11 Bar and Grill will be opening soon in Paulden, AZ and will feature fine Middle Eastern cuisine. Hostess Almalkjhisrbfgibubr Zurhlzekjhfiaurbfa shown (left) and lead waitress Aurghojudhgsiuern Sherlskjdfhgnowufeghn (right) show off the new menu which will include the ever popular soft boiled egg as shown below.

To further immerse customers in the theme waiters will throw paper airplanes at diners heads and crash dessert carts into tables.

From the shoe box

An old photo I really like