#...It'll also live on in my purchase history

[royalarchivist]

Technoblade and Phil were the reason I started watching MCYT content (and streamers in general). Their friendship, stories, and sense of humor never fail to make me smile, even now. I'll always have a soft-spot for them.

Techno's memory will always live on in my heart. 🐷👑

[ruakichan]

So I tried out Tokyo Debunker. tl;dr: LOL that's how much?

I'm not really into otome/joseimuke cause I don't dig the self-insert/dating/tropey cast of boy characters aspect, so I appreciate that this game allows you to set a name for the heroine that isn't your IGN. Allowed me to enjoy the story as its own thing. And the story is about the most positive thing I can say.

It's basically TWST but with horror, and where I had bounced hard off TWST's story and cast, the world presented here is interesting and most of the characters are charming. ...Although some are gratuitous expies of characters from other franchises. The blond screaming kid is basically that blond screaming kid from KNY, and he even has the same voice actor lol (edit: nope the guy just sounds like shimono) I keep expecting him to break out with some amazing power when he's asleep, and it'll have some of the best art in the game lol. But ignoring the ...homages..., I really enjoyed TD's tale, and that's what's keeping me going. There's also some fujobait teasing between the various boys; I straight up lol'd at a card you can get in VIP that is of two of them having a cigarette kiss.

The game looks mediocre and out of date, even by my lenient standards, though it's fully voice acted with a talented cast (JP) and story beats are highlighted by manga-esque cut scenes to supplement the talking heads VN visuals. But the character art is crude and simple (probably to make the live2d easier), most of the designs uninspired, and the GUI a confusing mess.

Battle system is just a chibi battler with some music stages (lol), but I appreciate you can skip battles straight from the get-go, which is probably why they didn't bother with the graphics. The game also has an idle clicker base (though without the clicking), which is where you do the majority of your leveling and mat grinding (ie: it's done passively). There's (not live) PVP, but it's like pvp in dressup games. Looks like there's a guild raid boss open during certain times of the day. Guild system itself is eh. There just really is no actual, engaging gameplay.

The monetization is fucking hilarious. I am not one who flinches at spending, but holy hell this game is disgustingly offensive in not only the bazillion ways they monetize, but the cost. They have numerous USD100+ packages, things costing thousands of the diamond currency for progress (locked behind their own gacha), and a mixed summon pool that is less than half characters, with a total 1% ssr rate to pull gear cards or character cards--with gear having higher individual pull rates (you will be more likely to pull gear than a character). Pity for a character is 500, no banner carry over. Absolutely bonkers in this day and age. The ways to spend also include a VIP, sub VIP, weekly and monthly passes, tiered purchases, timed purchases, repeat purchases, rebate purchases... just LOL. I've played f2p games for over a decade, and I've never seen such an egregious amount of microtransactions.

Absolute cash grab. The moment I can't progress in the story due to paywall is when I'll uninstall. Really too bad since I am enjoying the story, and I'd like to know more about the cast (I regret getting the one who visually appealed to me as my starter card cause this pure, earnestly dense kid is smashing me in the face with his moe).

Anywho. Try, but don't spend. If you already play TWST, this is TWST at home but with demons and ghosts. Its troubled development history really shows, and I'd be shocked if it lasts a year. Would make a fun, brainless anime or manga though.

[qdwriting]

Tues, 27 Feb 2024

So, back in Dec, I went to Pittsburgh with barely enough money to get there and back because I'd purchased tickets to Mariah's Xmas concert when I had money. It just so happened that I'd wound up unemployed for over a month by the time I was to make the trip. Thankfully, I was frugal throughout my unemployment, I was determined to make that concert. Thanks to a brief gig I did in NYC, I showed up in Pittsburgh with a check for $200. As fate would have it, the local bank I used in New Hampshire had no branches I could make a deposit at. To add insult to injury, I'd lost my wallet on a trip to Boston, so I was resigned to using Google Pay and cash. Seeing as the check was issued through a Chase account, I trekked over to the nearest branch during my Pittsburgh trip, cashed the check, and opened an account with $100. I know my financial history, so when the banker asked me if I wanted to apply for a line of credit as well, I politely declined. "I have bad credit" is a phrase that I'm not proud of, but I'm also not ashamed of using honesty. To my surprise, I was told that my credit was actually on a positive trajectory. My steady efforts of the last 3 years of paying bills and keeping inquiries off my credit had paid off well enough to get me approved for a $500 line of credit. That $500 got me through my Pittsburgh trip.

I'm still unemployed. The occasional odd job is keeping me me afloat. I'm still living frugally, but every purchase I have to make goes on the credit card, and I only use my checking account to pay my credit card. That tactic has me racking up reward points. Eventually, I'd like to save those points for travel or gifts, but today, I was able to trade 20,000 points for $200 cash back. The points would have potentially gone further had I used them on a purchase, but that $200 will be a great help in getting me to my next cash source. It'll put me really close to caught up. The way I continue to make something out of nothing never ceases to amaze me.

[shamelessrabbithole]

About the last post about Noel's career and financial status:

You always summarize things perfectly or very understandable, I like that a lot about you. Now my clumsy thoughts put together lol: We should also not forget, that successfull actors get paid in a short time much more than most of us "normies" in 5 or 10 years. An average working family can live in a house too, plus have kids+pets. So isn't it pretty standard to have a house in America? Maybe he bought it, when he was at his peak with shameless and now he only has to pay for his monthly fixed costs like gas, electricity, insurance plus some grocieres. I don't think, that the house was exorbitant expensive. And as i said in a comment before, he doesn't live in a exclusive celebritie area, it's a normal neighbourhood. And as i said in a comment before, he doesn't live in a exclusive celebritie area, it's a normal neighbourhood, at least this is what i know from other sources.

He and Layla doesn't look like people who spend hundreds of dollars on new clothes monthly and I doubt, that they go out a lot at fancy restaurants. Maybe Layla wouldn't mind a more fancy lifestyle, if the opportunity was given, but I think Noel is a very simple man and he is just happy with his coffee and a good book or maybe some good inexpensive Mexican food. I understand that you are worried about him, because he is taking an obviously long break and whatever Layla does (sorry, I'm still not her bestie), but I don't worry too much about them anymore. Hell, if I would earn 204,000 per year, I would take a long break too. I don't even have half of this per year and i live a pretty good life too! We really shouldn't worry or pity actors too much for financial reasons lol, they are fine, they earn much more than most of us. Is he waisting talent and precious years of his youth, because he is such a good actor and we all want to see him work again? Yes. Do we want him to be more active on social media, even if he just posts nonsense or doing handstands or reading a book in his stupid backyard? Yes. Am i getting too emotional again, because he obviously doesn't care what we, his fans, want or think? Yes 😂 That's all for now 🤣

Thank you for the compliment. 😊 He does live in a relatively modest house that he purchased years ago, and I also don't recall him spending big bucks on renovations. Also, even though this quote is very old, he talks about how he's been driving the same car since 2002. https://noelfisherfans.com/fun-stuff-about-noel/

Not every actor in LA is earning money hand over fist. And many do have to work multiple jobs in order to stay afloat while they keep auditioning. But Noel has 70 IMDB listings to his name. Some were probably low-paying, some much higher, but Shameless in particular earned several of the actors up to $250k-$350k per episode (Emmy and Bill). This wasn't a low-budget indie show and it lasted 11 seasons, which is the longest-running show in Showtime's history. Somehow I doubt Noel was shortchanged salary-wise, especially at the end when the show needed him and Cameron to keep it from being canceled after Emmy's departure.

I don't think Noel is wasting his talent or his youth. I just feel it's not as easy to book roles as people seem to think. I was listening to one of Cam's friends, Madisen Beaty, do a TikTok live a few months ago in which she said that even before the actor and writer's strikes, a lot of Hollywood TV and film production was on pause because everyone knew the strikes were coming. So there's been a longer lull than even most people realize.

I also wish he'd post literally anything just to give us something to cling to. It sucks that he doesn't. He's turning 40 soon. Hopefully, it'll be a big enough reason for him to get out of hibernation and make some noise about it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[pyro-hairedguy]

I should post more train stuff.

I'm currently working on building a Fairbanks Morse H10-44 by Cary Locomotive Works for the club I'm in. The shell clocks in at 12oz, and should be around a pound by the time I've added the chassis.

The kit was new old stock, unassembled, so I'm putting in the effort to build and solder the hand rails using Tichy wire. It didn't include enough stanchions to complete the wrap around nose hand rail, so I bent one around before learning I could get more.

I'll need about 10 more stanchions to complete the hand rails and add the coupler lift bar. It looks like I can just buy pre bent bars, so I'll get that instead of bending it myself.

Then I just need to finish the end rails and figure out how I want to build the add on rails from the prototype.

This FM is planned to be stationed at our future coal mine, which will be running heavy live loads. The heavy shell will boost the pulling power, as the Walthers model I have was incapable of pulling our existing fake load coal train on flat table.

The real locomotive that inspired the build is the only H10-44 Peabody Coal Company owned. PCCX 274 was purchased from the Frisco, where it was assigned the same number. I plan to paint this unit to match the mixed scheme Peabody gave 274 during their ownership, then patch cab numbers, and possibly hood lettering, using the club's shade of blue as backing. It will be as though our railroad purchased it from Peabody after the 70s.

It's going to be a real ugly duckling, but it'll pull a house down and put history into the scenes on the layout, while also calling out to my contribution and choice of railroad.

[someonelookingpraediti]

Subscription Box Comparison - 2023

This year, for my annual book box comparison (it’s happened two years in a row, that makes it annual) I’m comparing five subscription boxes: FairyLoot, OwlCrate, Illumicrate, Rainbow Crate, and A Year of Sanderson. I also received two book-only shipments, and a bonus box to share with you, which isn’t a book subscription: Witch Casket!

Let’s start with some of the boxes I didn’t include this year.  One of the companies I featured last year (Book Box Club) has gone out of business - this is something I predicted, because they weren’t any good. Other boxes I’m not including: The Bookish Box - I think this box looks really good, and I’d love to try it, but they don’t ship to the UK. I could use a third party courier, but it would be very expensive. Fox & Wit - this only comes with one item, so I’m not that invested in trying it, I prefer full boxes. And their website is really quite terribly designed - it’s difficult to navigate, and there never seems to be anything available on their UK site. LitJoy - I’ve tried the occasional one-off purchase from LitJoy, and I can’t deny their quality is amazing. But they persist in clinging to their infatuation to H*rryP*tt*r, which makes me very uncomfortable. They say that they support trans rights, and don’t condone the author’s actions, but their worship of the series says otherwise. In this case, actions really do speak louder than words. But even if they sorted that out - their products are just too expensive. Yes, they’re good quality, but they are incredibly overpriced. FaeCrate - I will never, never order from FaeCrate again. I ordered one box - it was over three months late to arrive, which is apparently very common, and their customer service was not just bad, but they were genuinely rude. When the box finally did arrive, it was just absolute tat, and the entire lot went in the bin. Even the book was uncustomised. And on top of that, there was an item that they’d not included, and a note saying that this item would be sent on to me later. I never heard from them again.

Keep scrolling for my comparison! I've updated my scorecard for this year, which I'm using to rate the books out of 20. Click the Box Name to see a full unboxing for each.

FairyLoot Theme: Eternal Featured Book: Seven Faceless Saints - M.K. Lobb Price (before shipping): £27.50 / $35.90 Total number of items: 4 Items I actually liked: 3 Book Customisation Rating: 12/20 Overall: This is usually one of my favourite boxes - but this month's was quite disappointing. FairyLoot is normally really good, but I have seen a drop in quality recently.

OwlCrate Theme: Let's Rewrite History Featured Book: Midnight Strikes - Zeba Shahnaz Price (before shipping): £29.08 / $35.99 Total number of items: 4 Items I actually liked: 3 Book Customisation Rating: 08/20 Overall: This box has improved massively since my last comparison, last year I was considering dropping this box, but now they're consistently good!

Illumicrate Theme: Live Like Legends Featured Book: Lies We Sing to the Sea - Sarah Underwood Price (before shipping): £27.00 / $35.00 Total number of items: 4 Items I actually liked: 3 Book Customisation Rating: 13/20 Overall: I switched to book-only for half the year, but I went back to the full box as their item quality improved. They're still hit and miss, but vastly improved on last year.

Rainbow Crate Theme: Protect Your Own Featured Books: Ravensong - Cayla Fay and I am Not Your Chosen One - Evelyn Benvie Price (before shipping): £37.95 / $46.97 Total number of items: 2 Items I actually liked: 0 Book #1 Rating: 01/20 Book #2 Rating: 10/20 Overall: This is the first time I'm trying this box, and it'll be the last. Although you get two books, only one is properly customised. And there are only two items, neither of which were much good.

A Year of Sanderson Theme: Cytoverse Featured Book: none Price (before shipping): £32.32 / $40.00 Total number of items: 3 Items I actually liked: 1 Book Customisation Rating: N/A Overall: This one-off Yearly subscription was a complete rip off, and it's made me lose faith in one of my favourite authors. This box comes with either a book or box, and the quality is vastly lacking. It's hugely overpriced, and I've been nothing but disappointed.

This year there are also two upcoming subscriptions that I’m eager to try. There’s a sucker born every minute and, apparently, that sucker is me. One is the new OwlCrate Adult subscription that they’re currently working on. The shipping to the UK makes OwlCrate expensive for me, but I'll definitely try getting both boxes for a while, if I can afford it. The appeal of this is that it's a full box, unlike the FairyLoot Adult subscription, which is book-only. The other is the new Illumicrate Horror subscription. I’m keen to try something other than a Fantasy book subscription, and usually the only options are Romance or Spice, neither of which I’m interested in. This is book only, which is disappointing, but it’s a quarterly subscription, which is more manageable!

The two book-only options I received this month are FairyLoot Adult, and a three-month delayed Sanderson book from January.

FairyLoot Adult Theme: Rotten Opulence Featured Book: The Foxglove King - Hannah Whitten Price (before shipping): £20.00 / $28.00 Book Customisation Rating: 13/20 Overall: I've started skipping months for this subscription, and will probably end up dropping it soon. The books are nice, but they come faster than I can read them, and it doesn't seem as good value without the items, even though it's cheaper.

A Year of Sanderson Theme: Secret Project #1 Featured Book: Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson Price (before shipping): £32.32 / $40.00 Book Customisation Rating: 03/20 Overall: I've made my thoughts quite clear on the overpricing of this subscription. For this month, we only received a book with no items. It was advertised as a "premium" hardback, which it absolutely is not. It's nice, but not worth the amount they've charged.

The last box I'm going to share isn't a book subscription at all! But honestly, it's so thoughtfully put together, and such good value for money, that I had to include it in this comparison post!

The box is "Witch Casket", and as the title suggests, it's a witch-themed subscription box. I've tried boxes with similar themes before, and always been disappointed, but this one blew me away so much that I've decided to make it a regular subscription!

It had an incredible twelve items, all of them exclusives, rather than the wholesale purchase stuff I've received in previous witchy boxes. You often get spell ingredients, candles, crystals, enamel pins, tea blends, incense. Such brilliant value for money - if this also included a book, it would be a perfect box!

[unlikely-ualentine]

Oh my God I love antiquing so much

YESSSS I wont say Im particularly good at it, Im still getting the technical know-how like dating things (which for me, in terms of clothing, often extends to simply looking up the company or, if it's a well-known store/company, looking up the history of the tag design. I was able to date LL Bean pants to the 70s, a k-mart shirt to the 70s, and a fruit of the loom shirt to the 60s bc a japanse antiqueing blog had a guide showing the logo transformations over time)

I will say I've gotten good enough at cleaning stuff to at least give advice to other store-goers lol, if you've got fabrics Retro Clean is the shit and has never failed me, I dont know how good it is on severe stains like wine or blood but that stuff brightens it and basically eradicates most/all water stains and just general aging to the fabric. I rlly need to learn how to sew tho (one of my 60s dresses has a tear and another 2 need zippers replaced, and one I got today has the arm hem a little ripped up) and dish soap + warm water and scrubbing for grimy metals/plastics

also cook books! I've taken to getting cookbooks of all kinds from a range of eras (1940s-1980s is the range of all mine I think) and try how out the recipes of the time and make adjustments to it. I made some pretty good stuff using a 1940s cookie book as a base (the ones inside were...very dry, and not rlly flavorful, at least to me). And the magazines! True Stories, Confessions, Good Housekeeping, old copies of Better Homes and Gardens...it's a heavily idealized view of the time, but it gives a really good peek into the thoughts of people at the time (and their...questionable lifestyle practices, man they loved douching)

ultimately too...I just enjoy the thought that this object is old, possibly very old. Who knows how many hands this has been through? Was this dress hand-sewn by a penny-wise mother? Did a kid carefully save up his allowance in this mailbox-themed piggy bank to get a toy? Was this pair of shoes purchased as a girls day out at the mall? idk, I just like the idea that these objects have some immortality to them rather than being junked, and all the people who owned it before me are still living on in that way. Maybe the tiny white little sundress some lady in the 50s made that I lovingly washed and scrubbed out stains on, replaced rusting metal buttons, re-attaching the zipper on, and fixing up the hems on will end up right back in that store and it'll be someone else's super cool find. maybe I'll live on in that way

[jaywrites101]

Thank you for waiting! In honor of Black History Month, The Wingman's publication date has been set to February 1st, 2022! I hope you'll all join me and The Wingman in celebrating not only the lives of this fictional world but also the real lives of black men and women in America. As mentioned, The Wingman is being published by IngramSpark, this means that The Wingman is available globally! Anyone from anywhere can purchase it, and pre-orders are already live! Available wherever you prefer to buy books. (Including B&N! (MUCH hype!)) As per the industry standards, it will be released in glossy paperback and ebook formats. And speaking of glossy, LOOK AT THIS COVER:

Emily Hartman has done literal magic with this cover! It's absolutely brilliant! I cannot express how happy I am that this will be my cover art. Like... I can barely draw a realistic square! I am in tears over how far above my expectations this image is. Starting now, I'm going to be focused on my Book Launch campaign. There are several ways for you to help me with this—and I'll go over each of them in more detail later. But for now, every like fills my sense of personal satisfaction, and every reblog spreads my reach online. Getting this post over the 1,000 notes hurdle feels like a tall order for me to ask, but you all surprise me sometimes. I have no doubt that if this story resonates with you as much as it does with me, it'll blast apart any of my expectations.

[the-gone-ton]

This is the full story of the Dempsey's chain of restaurants. It's a long one, but one I felt should be told. Pictures Will be at the end.

Phillip Rowe Jr. was given a big gift by his grandfather in 1948: a restaurant in Shillington, Pennsylvania called Dempsey's American Kitchen. A homey, 24-hour diner serving up authentic homestyle meals, the restaurant was an especially popular hangout for teenagers who enjoyed crashing at the diner at all hours of the night, after seeing movies or whatever.

The restaurant with the red-orange roof eventually expanded its presence, especially in the 70s and 80s, by buying or building a number of new restaurants spanning eastern and central Pennsylvania, with each location staying true to the Dempsey's model of cooking from scratch. Many locations had in-house bakeries, and the chain had a lot of fame for its strawberry pies and "mile-high" coconut cream pies.

Kathy Lauer-Williams of the Morning Call recounts, "With the chubby, barefoot 'Dutch boy' out front and homemade soups and meals inside, Dempsey's was like going home." And that was exactly the strategy. The company refrained from promoting the Dempsey's name in favor of developing a reputation for quality at every individual restaurant among the community.

Starting in the 80s, the chain sought to diversify. Dempsey's purchased two upscale bar & grill type restaurants, which served a full menu including broiled seafood.

Dempsey's reached a record high of 14 restaurants in consecutive operation in 1985, when the Morning Call reported on the chain's purchase of the City Vu Diner in Whitehall, wedged in between the Whitehall Mall and the Lehigh Valley Mall. Philip Rowe Jr., then the President of Dempsey's Restaurants, Incorporated, sat for an interview in the lounge of his newest acquisition, telling the Morning Call that he had been interested in buying this restaurant for almost a decade, as it sits at the corner of two main roads with the malls drawing traffic. Rowe had been eager to secure his chain's place "at the corner of main and main," as he put it.

He predicted that the newest Dempsey's would have a competitive edge over rivals such as Friendly's, due to the discretion that Dempsey's restaurant managers have over the menu and decor - and of course, due to the chain's rejection of pre-prepared food products.

Rowe stated that he was amazed at the reception Dempsey's has received in Whitehall during its first half a year or so in business there, even going so far as to say that "If we get what we should get when the weather breaks, it'll be one of our top four or five stores."

Capping off the interview, Morning Call reporter Tom Moylan wrote "Ever since his grandfather gave him a diner 38 years ago, Rowe says, the Dempsey's concept has succeeded. Today, each store does between $850,000 and $1.5 million in sales. Some Dempsey's have been closed because of lost leases or changing markets, but Rowe says none has ever failed financially."

But that was when they would indeed begin failing financially. After just 6 years in business at Philip Rowe's long-sought Whitehall restaurant, Dempsey's closed that location. The experimental bar & grill restaurants were also among the first to go. The 90s saw a huge reduction in Dempsey's locations. Unfortunately, the exact dates of many of the closures and indeed even many of the restaurant locations are virtually lost to history. However, at least two Dempsey's restaurants chugged on into the 2000s: the original Dempsey's American Kitchen in Shillington and a Dempsey's restaurant in Bethlehem, at the ailing Westgate Mall.

Then in 2005, without any notice, the Bethlehem restaurant took down its signage, locked the doors, and meekly hung a cardboard sign thanking customers. Again, the Morning Call reported on the end of the era. Mark Baranowski, the auctioneer who was handling the sale of all the equipment left in the Bethlehem Dempsey's said that there were a lot of disappointed customers. He stated, "They served the community real well and fed a lot of people, but now the times are changing. The food wasn't wrong, they had good food - the page just turned."

19 years after he sat in the lounge of his 14th restaurant talking about the future of his expanding chain to the Morning Call, Philip Rowe Jr., now an aging restauranteur in his mid-70s, did not return calls from the Morning Call to talk about the closure of his second-to-last diner.

Two years later, in 2007, Dempsey's American Kitchen in Shillington - the first and the last of a small empire - shut its doors after 59 years of operation under Philip D. Rowe, Jr. Aside from the difficulty of staffing 24-hour restaurants, no explanation has ever been made for the collapse of the beloved restaurant chain. Perhaps it's as simple as cooking from scratch becoming too expensive to maintain. Philip Rowe himself still lives in Reading, Pennsylvania, not far from where the heart of his restaurant chain was located, at the age of 92. What follows are pictures from every former Dempsey's restaurant I could find.

Image credit: Google Street View, Berks Nostalgia. This was the original Dempsey's American Kitchen. It is unknown when it opened, but it operated under Rowe from 1948-2007. Most Dempsey's restaurants were purchased by the chain rather than built by it. However, those that were outright built by Dempsey's shared the original restaurant's red-orange roof. After 11 years of vacancy, this Dempsey's was demolished in 2018 to make way for a Sheetz.

Images: public domain. This is the City Vu Diner in Whitehall that Dempsey's purchased from the family that founded it. City Vu had gone bankrupt in the end, which is how Dempsey's got a hold of it in 1985. Despite Rowe's statements suggesting that the restaurant would be a top performer that could out-compete other chains in the area such as Friendly's, the restaurant was a Dempsey's only for 6 years, and no pictures seem to exist of the restaurant during this time. Today the restaurant operates as the New City View Diner. As a point of interest, the Friendly's restaurant that Rowe mentioned by name in his 1986 interview ended up outliving Dempsey's by quite some time, but it did in fact close its doors as well in December of 2018.

Image credits: Judy Palladino. This was a Dempsey's in Pottstown. That picture was taken to show the damages of Hurricane Agnes in 1972. If you look closely, you can see the sign in the window advertising their famous strawberry pie. The restaurant was later operated as the VIP Family Restaurant, the High Street Diner, the New VIP Diner, until finally reopening as the Potts & Penn Family Diner. The diner today is supposedly mostly the same as it was back then, and the owner of the restaurant, Manny Vlastos, has said that 9 out of 10 stories he's told by customers are about the Dempsey's days - a legacy he says he's honored to carry on.

Image credits: me. Bethlehem's Dempsey's outlived most of the chain when it closed in 2005. Opened in 1973 along with the Westgate Mall, this restaurant was one of the few that were built, rather than merely purchased, by Dempsey's. This is why it sports the red roof, as well as a basement bakery. This place was a favorite of my grandfather's, because they were the only restaurant that still made mashed potatoes the real way, not from powder mix. Despite redevelopment plans being adopted in 2017, the restaurant stands abandoned to this day.

Image: public domain. The Plain & Fancy Diner on Hamilton Street, Allentown became a Dempsey's in 1968 and remained one until 1993. It now operates as the Hamilton Family Restaurant, or as it is lovingly called, the Ham Fam.

Image: tripadvisor. Dempsey's owned this restaurant in Easton, but it is unknown when it began operating as a Dempsey's. It closed in the early to mid 90s, and is today the Tic Toc Family Restaurant.

Image: Queen City Family Restaurant. This restaurant in Reading, today operating as the Queen City Family Restaurant, claims on its website that it was originally a Dempsey's. Assuming that's true, then I suspect it became a Howard Johnson's franchise afterwards, which would explain the blue paint on some of the roof fixtures.

Additionally, Dempsey's operated Leed's Bar & Grill Ltd. in Harrisburg starting in 1982 as well as the 1760 House Bar & Grill in Trexlertown starting in 1989. These were the experimental upscale bar & grill restaurants that Dempsey's bought. At the time, the manager of 1760 said that he expected all the difficult-to-staff 24-hour diners would be replaced by these upscale alternatives. However, Dempsey's would only end up owning 1760 for 3 years before selling it off. It is unknown when they sold Leed's. Having been purchased in 1989, the 1760 House Bar & Grill appears to have been the last acquisition ever made by Dempsey's Restaurants, Inc. Leed's Ltd. And the 1760 Pub ~N~ Grille, as they're now known, operate to this day.

There were over 15 Dempsey's restaurants in total. The nine here are those which I have been able to identify; the rest have eluded me.

[georgiefemme]

Leather is not a by-product of the meat industry, it's a co-product. Leather can actually make up a majority of the sale value of an animal, meaning it does drive demand for more animals to be raised and slaughtered. But even if your leather was ultimately going to be thrown away after using the meat, that doesn't mean it's ethical. Purchasing the by-product of an unethical practice doesn't suddenly make it ethical, that animal has still gone through mistreatment and abuse, likely castration, branding, and de-horning, and the stress of slaughter to deliver that product to you. (Also, most leather is produced on China where animal welfare laws are functionally non-existent.)

The environmental impacts of leather also aren't insignificant. It obviously has to be treated otherwise it'll decompose. These processes use various substances (including fossil fuels) which are hazardous to the health of the workers, as well as surrounding residents and the environment. Some commonly used chemicals include formaldehyde, cyanide, arsenic, and chromium. There are many cases of increased cancer incidences nearby to tanneries and a history of waste contaminating waterways and other environmental structures. This is all on top of the existing environmental impacts of raising cattle which is a huge contributor to C02 emissions, water and land use, and deforestation. Fun fact: the EAP has confirmed that animal agriculture is responsible for 70% of water pollution in the US.

Finally, these days there are plenty of materials and products that are 100% plant based, free of plastics, and completely biodegradable. I own bags and shoes made from renewable felt, suede, and leather alternatives, all of which are extremely durable.

So no, your leather was not rescued from a dumpster and made into shoes with no environmental impact. It contributed to the demand for livestock, required the slaughter of a living being which used an incredible amount of resources to raise, and used chemicals and fissile fuels which are potential pollutants and health risks.

Disclaimer: I strongly advocate for reuse, so if you have animal products already in your possession or manage to thrift a great pair of boots, I'm not coming for you. Heck, I own a pair of docs that my dad bought in the 80s. Regardless of how I feel about leather, getting rid of those and replacing them (regardless of how sustainable or cruelty free the material) would be a waste of resources. Also, my issue with animals for fashion is the same as my issue with all animal agriculture; mass production and industrialization. So if people are going to hunt animals as a means to eschew meat and textile industries, that's preferable to me. Obviously that includes indigenous communities.

I understand why people dislike leather and animal products. But leather is such a good resource? Like… My mom bought a sturdy leather coat in 1989. I’m in my 20’s and I now wear that coat. That’s a 30 year old coat? 30 years, two generations, one coat. Versus, like… A plastic one, that rips and gets thrown out, or releases bits into the ecosystem every time it’s washed, takes a billion years to decompose, lasts maybe a decade if you’re super duper careful, and uses oil products in it’s construction. Like, yeah leather is expensive and comes from a living animal, and I’m not saying that you should go out and buy fifty fur and leather products for the he’ll of it, but like… Maybe the compromise is worth it? One animal product, valued and respected and worn down for generations, versus like… Six plastic products that will never ever go away?

idk, I could be wrong.