Chicken on the Roof
This is the sad, sad story of the Chicken on the Roof.
There is a restaurant called Chicken on the Roof in Joppa, MD (I had to check that this Joppa WAS in Americaland and not the one in Israel – in fact, I found out that there are several ‘Joppas’ in the USA – seven to be precise! And there are three in the UK – well I never!)
Anyway, this restaurant is called Chicken on a Roof because…..it has a large, ugly, blown up, plastic chicken on the roof.
The chicken on the roof at the Chicken on the Roof restaurant
This is also a chicken on a roof, but it is not the restaurant to which I refer…although live chickens might actually be preferable, even though they would be sitting on the roof watching their brothers and sisters being cooked inside….so maybe that’s not feasible (or humane)…..
The sad story is that there have been complaints about the chicken feature on the roof. People think it’s ugly and an eyesore. Well, it is, to be fair. But….the restaurant is called Chicken on the Roof. If there chicken were to be taken down, what would they then call the restaurant? Perhaps they could put it in the yard and then it could be called ‘Chicken in the Yard’, or maybe get a pick up truck for the front and call it ‘Chicken in the Pick Up Truck’? I’m just trying to think of helpful alternatives 😉
Anyway, that is the sad, sad story of the ugly Chicken on the Roof.
Counting out American pennies
Today I achieved something monumentous in the USA.
I counted out 77 cents in coins at the checkout in lickety-split time.
I told the cashier that I’d only just got my head round the USA coinage after 16 months and that I had pleasantly surprised myself in doing this, but she really could not have given a toss about my British expat ramblings.
The coins, as I’ve whittered on about before, are the wrong size for the denominations – honestly, they are! 16 months…yes really, it took me that long! Go ahead, mock me as you wish!
However, I was chuffed to bits with my silly British self. Hoorah for me!
Dimes, nickels, quarters and other stuff
(PS. This was in Starbucks, and I made a conscious effort to ask for HOT TEA when making my purchase, so as not to confuse the poor lass any further.)
ukdesperatehousewifeusa 
Ive been here since 2000 and I still have trouble with the coins for the very reason you explained.
😉
How “wrong size”? Is it because both the penny and the nickel, worth 5 cents, is bigger than the dime, worth 10? Because there is a similar anomaly here in the UK — the 10p piece is bigger than the 20p piece! Granted, the 20p has straight sides (I forget what you call that) and the 10p is completely round. And the pound coin is smaller in diameter than some of the smaller valued coins.
Our pennies are the same size as yours (let’s not start about OLD pennies), quarters bigger than the preceding, half dollars are even bigger (I think). Hardly anyone uses the dollar coins (which I admit look too much like quarters).
Yup, size matters!
(I’d forgotten about our odd little 20p piece!)