Blog-Wagons

By Bill Griffith ("Zippy:)

News that Ben Stiller has directed, and starred in, a new film adaptation of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," put me in mind of another Thurber story: "A Couple of Hamburgers," from Let Your Mind Alone! (full text on archive.org). Here's the beginning:

IT HAD BEEN RAINING FOR A LONG TIME, A SLOW, COLD RAIN 
falling out of iron-colored clouds. They had been driving 
since morning and they still had a hundred and thirty miles 
to go. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. "I'm getting 
hungry," she said. He took his eyes off the wet, winding road 
for a fraction of a second and said, "We'll stop at a dog- 
wagon." She shifted her position irritably. "I wish you 
wouldn't call them dog-wagons," she said. He pressed the 
klaxon button and went around a slow car. "That's what 
they are," he said. "Dog-wagons." She waited a few seconds. 
"Decent people call them diners? she told him, and added, 
"Even if you call them diners, I don't like them." He speeded 
up a hill. "They have better stuff than most restaurants," he 
said. "Anyway, I want to get home before dark and it takes 
too long in a restaurant. We can stay our stomachs with a 
couple hamburgers."

There have been a couple of dog wagons on this New England trip. The stand out so far is Ricky's in Bridgton, Maine.