Friday, February 27, 2009

The Baltimorean version of the Japanese version of Seven-Eleven



Last night I was insomniac. The overcharge of boredom, irritation, meaningless idle time with nothing to distract me from myself made me think a comparison of the ethical principles and consequences of me writing this blog and emptying out my bowels. Well, the value and meaning of the things I put down in both occasions are about the same. The difference is that what I put down in the bathroom goes to nevermore with the flush. Here at BaltimoreEvermore what I put down will stay around, stinking up everything and coming back to haunt me forever.

OK. Enough of Ethics and high moral Philosophy. Let's talk about "Services General", the coolest Laundromat in the World (They call themselves "Prepaid Services center"). That is where Cafe Justo is (Don't panic. I won't talk again about the divine macaroon they sell. I've talked enough about it in the last blog). ...

Wow! I just found out that "Service General" is actually a chain and has a website...



No surprise there, though. If even someone like me is allowed to have a blog, anything is morally possible.

So, "Service General" is really cool. It has Cafe Justo and its macaroon (oops! I talked about it again), a huge laundromat. You can buy a huge variety of snacks there, cash checks, buy money orders, play lottery, make a call on a pay phone (Does anybody still knows what a payphone is?), consult a lawyer (!!!! :O), and the most incredible of everything, you can play in the last surviving Pac-man machine in the whole planet. Yes, they have a Pac-man machine and etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

That place reminds me very much of Seven-eleven stores in Japan where you can buy anything and a little bit more. Tokyo alone has around 1,600 of them. And Japan has 1/3 of all seven-eleven stores in the world, more than the US. I have to remind you that Japan is slightly smaller than California. Now, you see, here in the US you can't spit out from inside your car without hitting a Seven-Eleven. In Japan, I imagine, everybody lives in a Seven-Eleven because all buildings are Seven-Eleven.

Incredibly, two things you can't find in a Japanese Seven-eleven are Slurpees (!!!) and Big Gulp (because the Japanese think humans should drink soda, not swim in it).

OK. Enough. This blog is boring my eyeballs off today. But, you should go to General Services on 501 S. Broadway in Fells Point. Even if it is just to see pre-historic devices that your ancestors couldn't live without: payphones and Pac-man machines...

...or just go for Cafe Justo's macaroons.

I am sorry again. Hopefully, I won't keep writing this blog for too long for the sake of your sanity.

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