Felony Franks and other restaurants help ex-cons help you

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If nobody hires ex-cons, then we shouldn’t be shocked when they return to lives of crime. So, for the good of Chicago, go pick up a couple of hotdogs at Felony Franks. James Andrews, who owns the West Side dog joint, makes it a point to hire people who have done time, seeing it as a service to a community that’s been struggling with crime for quite a while. There has been some pushback from the community, but Andrews stands by his mission.

The menu is pretty straightforward: hotdogs, sausages, steak sandwiches and French fries – the real deal, from raw potatoes. Orders are take from behind bulletproof glass (common in the neighborhood, unfortunately), but in the spirit of fun, customers are asked, “Are you ready to plead your case?” Also, an adaptation f the Miranda warning hangs on the wall, proclaiming your “right to remain hungry” – as if you’d want to!

If you’re jonesing for a “Misdemeanor Wiener” but don’t live in Chicago, there are restaurants around the country that help the recently released start fresh.

West Coast
Delancey Street: this San Francisco eatery is run by a foundation that helps ex-cons, drug addicts and the homeless get back on their feet.

East Coast
Mates Inn: the Trenton, New Jersey joint is on the state corrections department’s campus.

Andrews must be doing something right. Since opening, sales have reached $30,000 a month, and more than a thousand former inmates have applied for jobs.

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Photo of the Day (10-14-09)

by Jamie Rhein on

This photo of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco is a reminder to look at a subject from various angles in order to find that unusual shot. This building demands notice like a several-tiered wedding cake with florets, fluting and flower petals that have been hand rendered from rich butter cream frosting.

What I enjoy about jrodmanjr’s angle is the way that the two female statues are the main subjects. They look as if they are gazing down at whatever is going on beneath them–and no matter what the action might be, they will remain calm and interested– possibly forever.

If you have a shot to share, please send it our way at Gadling’s Flickr Photo Pool. It might be chosen as a Photo of the Day. We always love looking at the world through your viewpoint.

Moon Monterey & Carmel Giveaway

by Brenda Yun on

If you’ve been following my recent posts on the latest happenings around Monterey and Carmel (a.k.a. read my posts about the scenic Monterey coastline or taking a tour of Carmel’s wine country), then it shouldn’t come as a huge shock to you that I’ve fallen in love all over again with coastal California this summer. I guess I’m not alone — and that I don’t have to be, either!

In celebration of the release of its six new and fully updated California guidebooks (Coastal California , Tahoe, Monterey & Carmel, Northern California, Southern California and California Beaches), Moon Handbooks is giving away a copy of its Moon Monterey & Carmel, along with four tickets (admission for two adults and two children) to the world-class Monterey Bay Aquarium. That means you and three friends can enjoy a full day of fun in Monterey. Of course, if you’re there, you might as well make a weekend of it, right?

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is submit your full name, mailing address, and phone number (for shipping purposes only) to giveaway@moon.com by midnight on October 18th. One winner will be selected at random and announced on the staff blog the week of October 19th.

In addition to the giveaway, California trip ideas, and guest blog posts by Liz Hamill Scott, the author of several of Moon’s California guides, can be found this week on the site.

Party with Hef at the Playboy Mansion for Halloween

by Katie Hammel on

If haunted houses, ghost hunts, cemetery tours, zombie pub crawls and other usual Halloween attractions just aren’t sexy enough to make your holiday complete, if you want more girls and less gore, and if you’ve got $1000 to drop, make plans now to attend the Kandy Halloween Party at the Playboy Mansion.

I was always under the impression that you had to be an invited guest (or a lowly “Tunnel of Love” ride attendant as my husband was for the party in 1999) to attend. That’s not the case. A $1000 ticket and a costume (which is mandatory) will get you access to “1,000 of the sexiest girls in the world”, plus Hef and some Bunny-loving celebrities.

The party will be held on October 24th and tickets cost $1000-$2000 per person, unless you want to roll in some serious style. Then you’ll need to shell out about $10,000 for a table or cabana, table service, Crystal, seating for 8-10 people, and a Kabana girl to attend to your every need.

I wonder if November’s cover girl, Marge Simpson, will be there.

[via Jaunted]

The best haunted houses and other haunted jaunts

by Jamie Rhein on

What makes a great haunted house? Gothic architecture? Unexpected things that go bump in the night? Chain saws? Thunder and lightening? Screams, shrieks and wails that pierce through fog? Dripping red goo that looks a lot like blood? Cockroaches on walls and mice that scurry across the floor? A hand that comes out of a box to grab you when you pass? How about a severed head surrounded by garnish served up on a platter?

From California to Pennsylvania and states in between, there are 12 haunted hot spots that have been picked by the staff at Digital City as being the best of the haunted house bounty in the United States. From their descriptions, it seems as if these attractions have most of the above and more–much more.

Interestingly, only one of the picks–the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is an actual house. The rest range from a movie set to prisons. One, the Haunted School House and Lab in Akron, Ohio, is in a former elementary school.

No matter the venue, each haunted attraction is guaranteed to make you shriek. There’s a reason why.

What seems to be the common denominator among them is the amount of time and professional power it takes to create thrills and chills. For example, 13th Gate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the number one pick for two years in a row by Haunted Magazine, is created by a bevy of professional carpenters, technicians and scenery artists–many who have worked in Hollywood. It takes them months to redo this attraction so that each year is different. Before the opening, 100 professional actors know exactly what to do to scare the daylights out of anyone brave enough to make his or her way through the 13 indoor and outdoor sections.

For more worth heading to haunted jaunts, check out Tom’s post on five haunted attractions in the world. The ghost tours of old Orlando, Florida caught my attention in particular. I love real places with real stories behind them.

There are other prisons that offer haunted tours–some of them year round.

One of the ones I have a hankering to go to this year since I missed it last year is the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. I’ve only been there during the day and only on the outside. Even that creeped me out. The warden shot himself in the head in his office at this place. Oh, wait a minute. That scene happened in the movie The Shawshank Redemption which was filmed at this prison Still, the place is supposed to be haunted and I’ve heard rave reviews about the reformatory’s haunted tours.