Coffee and a Hamburger Sandwich

Okay. I finally switched this blog over to Google (Ben, this is why I wasn't blogging--I didn't feel like hassling. But I did it.)

Speaking of Ben, this is a shout-out that he will understand: yesterday I got a big cup of coffee (from Starbucks, where else?) and a single hamburger (no cheese, everything no mayonnaise no onion) from Wendy's. Yum-yum-yum. Then I recalled that I was eating a "coffee and a hamburger sandwich", which was a staple meal for Paul Drake, Perry Mason's private eye. Perry was always eating steaks and drinking cocktails with Della Street (could there be a more fabulous female? Doubtful.), but Paul was stuck with his coffee and "hamburger sandwich". (Since when did people not eat hamburgers in a "sandwich"?).

Whenever I end up eating these two foods together, I think of the summer I spent watching the old Perry Mason TV series in the morning, and a later summer that I read nearly all the books. I had a "Della Street" dress and "Della Street" shoes. A couple of years ago I got the book I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason, whose main character reminded me so much of (great-) Aunt Marylin. Aunt M. was the Vice President of the Raymond Burr Society, and she left a black-and-white glossy publicity photo of Burr (not, sadly, in character) that hangs on my wall.

You know the song, with its dramatic opening. Wikipedia says it's called Park Avenue Beat" by Fred Steiner. And apparently it just came out on DVD last summer--hurrah! Must run over to Amazon...