The old drivers had out-sized left legs from working that clutch on a non-synchro transmission, and that handle on the steering wheel provided more leverage when turning at low speeds.

I don’t think Denny stops at two chicken-fried steaks. But he probably stops at truck stops. Hey, I’ve done it myself in my meat-eating days, and would do it again even now… truck stop buffets have plenty of veggies with plenty of calories in them. (There’s one particularly memorable place about 50 miles outside of Little Rock… but that was in 1981; I don’t know if it’s still there. It gave new meaning to the phrase “all you can eat.”)

I’ve worked with PhD nutritionists on several different pieces of nutrition-related software (including the USDA and US Army food survey s/w), and have found nutritionists are, by and large, frustrated preachers, who found their calling elsewhere than the pulpit. I know I’m perpetuating a stereotype, but there’s more than a grain of truth in it, perhaps a 50-lb. rice sack of truth.

The lunch special that day was a dish best described, from bottom to top, as consisting of: two biscuits, butter, gravy, chicken fried steak with a breaded crust, gravy, a heap of mashed potatoes, butter, gravy, and more biscuits and gravy on the side.

Can’t recall the name they gave it. Should have been “Colesterol Concentrate” or maybe “Towering Tachycardia.”