Here we all are.  Part 3 of my road trip to Tallhassee to visit my blogging brother Carlin Trammel of Nerd Lunch.  After experiencing the religious experience that is the Tallhassee Auto Museum, we decided that while our spiritual selves are full, our physical selves are now empty.  What do we do to replenish our famished bodies?

I’ll tell you what we do.  We go to KFC and dine like victorious gladiators on Double Downs.  Tonight, we dine IN HELL!!! (or a ghetto KFC; 6 of one, half a dozen of another)

You should know, right before this trip, I found out KFC has started offering a 64 ounce (one half gallon) Mega Jug of soda.  So, being the bad ass that I am, I decided I needed to drink one.  And since I was going to be at KFC anyway I needed to order a Double Down in order to have something the 64 ounces of soda could wash down into my gullet.  So Carlin and I swagger into KFC like gunfighters prepared to place our manly orders in very loud voices so everyone would know that some sh*t was about to go down.  Maybe they might want to evacuate the women and children.

I cooly glance up at the menu for dramatic effect, and I don’t see either the Double Down or the Mega Jug.  What?  No Double Down?  Holy balls.  I am going to have to burn this joint TO THE GROUND.  Que Wolverine Berzerker Rage.  Right before I start tossing tables and bustin’ skulls, Carlin suggests I just ask if they have it.  I struggle to comprehend what Carlin means by his crazy talk.  Why would that work?  So I ask the lady if they still have the Double Down and Mega Jug soda fully expecting to punch her in the face when she denies me.

She says yes, narrowly escaping the Five Fingers of Doom, heads into the back for like 5 minutes and when she comes back she hands me the biggest cup I’ve ever seen in my life.  I pay for my goods and try to put soda into what can only be described as a bucket.

Check this out. The Mega Jug takes up THREE SPOTS on the soda fountain.  That would make getting a suicide easier.  So, I sit there for about 10 minutes while I fill the bucket up with Diet Pepsi.  Then I become concerned because I’m not entirely sure a human bladder is designed to house 64ozs of Diet Pepsi.

Here I am trying to drink the Mega Jug.  It was like trying to drink out of a bird bath.

So our order finally showed up. Carlin got a Double Down. I got a Double Down. Along with the Double Down I also ordered a Doublicious sandwich (because I’m a man).  And the aforementioned sh*t is no longer going down, it’s GONE.

So, how was it? The Double Down is pretty awesome as a sandwich. Greasy as all hell, but good. I love the idea that there is no bun on this, however, after eating one, I wish there was a bun on it. It’s really hard to eat with no bun. Plus, the paper wrapping gets all wet and soggy from the grease and sometimes, if you aren’t careful, you’ll chewing a wad of paper wondering why this bite tastes like a school notebook.

I also ate a Doublicious sandwich.  The Doublicious is essentially the same as the Double Down, but take away 1 chicken patty and add a bun.  I enjoyed eating the Doublicious more than the Double Down because of the bun, but the experience of eating a Double Down was more exciting than the Doublicious.  And the Mega Jug?  It’s a lot of goddam soda.  A LOT.  I finished it, but not without going to the bathroom every 15 minutes for like 3 hours.

So, overall, this KFC trip was a grand success.  I had good food, great company, great conversation.  Carlin and I talked about Star Wars, Star Trek, movies, comics, being married, having kids…you name it, we covered it.  It was a blast.  I’m really glad I made the trip out to West Florida to meet him.

So that’s it for my trip out to Tallahassee.  As you can see, we made the most of the day.  Hopefully I can make it back out there someday.  Maybe this time Carlin can bring his wife and kids and we can all hang out together.  Or he and his family can come to Jacksonville and hang out with the Holleys there.

Regardless, I hope you guys have enjoyed reading about our exploits. Carlin and I have discussed doing more projects together. I’ll let you guys know when our plans are more finalized.

In the meantime, check out Nerd Lunch for some more pictures from our trip.

Have a great weekend.

I’ve talked about fast food collector glasses before. But that article covered collector glasses made of actual GLASS.  There are also a plethora of plastic collector cups.  A few weeks ago Nerd Lunch talked about super hero cups.   So, I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring and talk about a few of my favorite collector cups that have been given away at movie theaters and fast food chains.

I have each of these cups in my collection right now.

This is the Capt America The First Avenger Tri-Color Coolatta Cup.  My boy CT from Nerd Lunch discussed this back in July.  There are three sides/sections.  Each section holds the red (cherry), white (vanilla) and blue (raspberry) flavors of Dunkin Donuts Coolattas.  You can see the second side here and the third side is here.  The cup is sitting next to the stars and stripes donut that also promoted the Capt America movie.  They were both good, but I won’t lie, after consuming both for breakfast it felt like Cap and the Howling Commandos were fighting World War II in my colon.

This was the collector cup given out at movie theaters in 2000 to promote the first Singer X-Men movie. I like the tapered base of this cup so it fits in your cup holder. Many cups now don’t do that.  And check out the web address of the movie with all of those dashes.  http://www.x-men-the-movie.com.  Hello late ’90s.

Everyone remembers the Star Wars cup toppers from 1999 during the whole Episode I merchandising frenzy. There were 12 cups and figure toppers you could collect from KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Well, those toppers were based on an earlier promotion for the Star Wars Special Edition in 1996-97.  It was a set of 4 and featured C3PO, R2D2, Vader and a Stormtrooper.  There were two versions of this set.  Above left you can see the set that came from the Las Vegas FAO Schwartz store.  They had setup their own version of the Mos Eisley Cantina including themed ICEE drinks (like Jabba Juice).  I had visited Vegas in 1998 and was able to buy these at the store.  Click the image to see it bigger and to see the commemortive FAO Cantina cup.  The other version of this set on the right came from Pizza Hut and Taco Bell stores overseas (I don’t believe they were offered in the US).  The toppers were exactly the same but instead of the FAO cup it had a blue cup with a picture of the character on it (see the Stormtrooper above). You can see how these influenced the Episode I cup toppers. For obvious reasons, only the R2D2 was reused in the 1999 Episode I promotion.

This was the LARGE cup AMC used to promote Tron Legacy back in Fall 2010. It’s HUGE.  It barely fits in my kitchen cabinet.  I used it for drinking water after my long Saturday runs when I was training for my marathon.

Here is a cup promoting the Green Lantern movie. These were from Subway. However good the movie was or wasn’t, these cups are pretty nice.

This is another AMC theater cup. This time promoting Cowboys & Aliens. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I don’t hear just wonderful things about it. Mostly I hear “missed opportunities”.

Taco Bell had a set of 4 Batman cups for the release of Burton’s 1989 movie.  They had no images from the movie, the pictures on the cups look like paintings or cartoons.  But they were still pretty cool.  The cups included Batman, Batwing, Batmobile and Gotham City.  See the commercial which did use footage from the movie here.

These are hands down some of my favorite collector cups. I was a huge NBA fan in the 80s and 90s. So I was a freak for the 1992 Dream Team and, consequently, I spent months eating at McDonald’s every chance I got to collect the entire set of these cups.  The picture above only shows 10, but there were 12 cups.  The final two players, Clyde Drexler and Christian Laettner, were added to the team late, so their cups were added very late and they became extremely hard to track down.

We have a new episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast.  In this episode we discuss fast food mascots. And to help us with this discussion we welcome our special guest, Nick from DudeFoods.com.

DudeFoods.com is a pretty awesome food website where Nick explores and creates all kinds of awesome foods. Some of his best stuff is the stuff he creates like the deep fried Lean Pockets or the Poutine Burger made with the awesome gravy/cheese curd fries that are like a national dish in Canada.  Nick helps us have a very lively discussion about some of our favorite fast food mascots and ad campaigns. Download and listen to us on iTunes or Feedburner. Or, listen in your browser here at Nerd Lunch.

Also, I want to mention that today is my son’s 1st birthday.  I can’t believe it’s finally here and I know it’s going to be all downhill and time is just going to fly from here on out.  I can’t wait to watch him grow up, but I don’t want it to happen at the same time.

Happy Birthday, buddy.

When I visited Paris, France with my wife back in 2007, one of the more awesome fast food places I found was called Quick Hamburger Restaurant (or just Quick). It was all over the city, including this nice two floor version next to the famous Moulin Rouge.

At the time, they were offering these awesome Double Effect sandwiches. It was two different sandwiches fused into one. Like this fish sandwich melded to a chicken sandwich.

It looked like these two sandwiches were making out.  GET A ROOM, GUYS!  Anyway, they also had sandwiches that melded burgers and fish and burgers and chicken. It was a spectacular idea that I’m sad to say never caught on here in the States.

Well, Quick is trying to do it again.  They currently have a promotion for the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D release in a few weeks.  They have released three new burgers with a Star Wars theme.  Here are some ads via MovieLine.

In this ad on the left you see the Dark Burger accompanied by the awesome Darth Maul.  It looks like 2 burger patties, a special sauce, lettuce and maybe some spicy pepper cheese.  On the right you see the Jedi burger alongside the ever wise Yoda.  This burger also has two patties, maybe some regular cheese and what I believe are cheese curds (also used on awesome as f**k poutine).

In this second ad you see the Jedi Burger again.  No different than the last ad.  On the left, though, is the money shot.  The Dark Vador.  It looks similar to the regular Dark Burger, maybe just some red peppers have been added on top of the lettuce, but the buns ARE BLACK!  BLACK BUNS!  It makes the burger look burned.  Burned like Anakin Skywalker’s scarred visage at the end of Revenge of the Sith!  I love everything about this.  I’m willing to overlook the fact that this promotion would probably be more appropriate for the release of Revenge of the Sith 3D in 2014 as Darth Vader is only a child in The Phantom Menace.  But that’s neither here nor there because I want this burger in me RIGHT NOW.

I love when fast food joints think outside the box for fun and creative promotions like this.  It just sucks when I can’t try them.  ROAD TRIP!

I predict that you will listen to the 67th episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast and nearly crap yourself when you hear us talk about pop culture predictions. That’s right, in this episode, for the new year, we are making predictions. Predictions about movies, TV shows, fast food and soda. We even try to predict who’s going to die.

To help us with these predictions we are joined again by Doug Frye from the Schlock Treatment podcast.  So download the episode to your listening device and hear us make completely unfounded predictions about pop culture.  And fully expect that at the end of 2013, we will revisit this topic to see how we did.  Right now, I can tell you that one of my predictions is already untrue.  That’s just how this whole game is played.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online here.

For this, our 83rd episode, we are joined again by Steve from the Food Junk blog to discuss movies and fast food menus.

Yes, with the release earlier this year of Denny’s Hobbit Menu, we were inspired to take matters into our own hands and imagine what would happen if other restaurants took the same marketing approach and created specialized menus for movies. Imagine Red Lobster creating a menu for a serial killer. What would a Buckaroo Banzai menu look like at a place known mostly for desserts? And would you eat at Olive Garden regardless of the movie it created a menu for?

All these things and more are answered in this week’s Nerd Lunch Podcast.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online here.

Btw, I just realized that this is my 700th post.

Episode 113 of the podcast has dropped. This week we are joined again by food blogger extraordinaire Jasmin Fine from 1 Fine Cooke.com. And this week, with the return of the Denny’s The Hobbit menu, we are also returning to a topic inspired by that menu, Movie Menus. Which we did back in episode 83.

We all assign other people the restaurants and movies and then we create the menus and themes found within. Expect to see the movies Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Princess Bride as well as the restaurants PF Chang’s and In-n-Out Burger. Lots of awesome stuff lies within.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online here.

This past weekend the members of the Nerd Lunch Podcast and the Cult Film Club podcast descended on Atlanta for a meetup.  This was the first time several of us had seen each other in real life.  Here are some photos commemorating this historic nerdy and cultish event.

The first place we all went together was, of course, The World of Coke.

Here I am at the entrance to the World of Coke getting photobombed by CT.

The entire Nerd Lunch podcast crew. Together again for the first time.  And on a Coke sofa.

The entire Cult Film Club crew together in the gift shop at The World of Coke.

Surprisingly, the museum actually had a small display dedicated to New Coke, of which you know I’m obsessed.

Being the noted bear slayer that I am, I had to refrain from killing every Coke Polar Bear in sight.

Sharing a drink with Coke’s creator, and epic beard wearer, Doc Pemberton.

The whole crew ate corn dogs and poutine at Palookaville! in a literal “nerd lunch”.

Check out my epic corn dog, called Fryinstein because it’s three hot dogs in one, and my side of Poutine.

We discovered a mythical Chick-fil-a Dwarf House not 5 minutes from our hotel. So, of course, we ate there.

CT exiting Chick-fil-a through the tiny Dwarf House door.

Final Nerd Lunch pic of the trip right before I had to leave to return to real life.

After leaving the boys to drive home to Jacksonville, I made a pit stop in Marietta to see the KFC Big Chicken.

A better pic of the Marietta KFC Big Chicken.

And located right next door to the Big Chicken KFC, is Big Chicken Pawn. This pawn shop needs a reality show. STAT.

This week we have a double header of shows coming right at your ear holes.  And we’ll be talking about stuff that you put in your mouth holes.

First up, on Nerd Lunch Episode 137, we were visited by all four hosts of the awesome Nosh Show Podcast. Yep, the fourth chair this week is occupied by foodie luminaries Marvo, Ryan, Eric and former Nerd Lunch guest, Dubba.  A veritable hall of fame of food bloggers.

This week the seven of us have a fast food fantasy draft where we pick a menu of five items (beef, chicken, side, drink, wildcard) from the menus of the top 20 fast/quick serve restaurants in the US.  It was a lot of fun and after you’ve heard the show head on over to Poll Daddy to vote on who selected the best menu.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner.  Or listen to it in the online player right here.

And yes, I mentioned this week was a double header, so if you want to hear more of the seven of us talking, check out Episode 32 of The Nosh Show and you can hear CT, Jeeg and I talk about stuff like Sbarro frozen pizzas, cronuts, Sriracha pizza and movie tie in food promotions with the Nosh Show hosts over on their show.  It’s a marathon of awesomeness.

Check out Nerd Lunch over on the Nosh show in iTunes or listen to the online player right here.

This week we are joined by perennial foodie favorites Nick from Dude Foods and Jess from Burger Mary and we let the food experts take a ride on one of our favorite topics, Movie Menus. This is Part 3 of the Movie Menus.

We are all assigned movies and restaurants by someone else and we have to come up with a themed menu to go with that movie using the existing menu of our restaurant.

Lots of fun movie menu choices including movies like The Goonies and Karate Kid Part II as well as restaurants like McDonalds and Outback Steakhouse.  So download this episode, sit back and let us take you on a trip for both your ear holes AND your mouth holes.  Trust me, you’re mouth will be watering by the end.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.