A Neighborhood Walk To Italy Pasta & Pizza Thinking About My Bad Luck With Black-Eyed Peas

After a drive too far on Sunday I did not feel like any sort of drive anywhere today, on this first Monday of October.

So, I took a walk in my neighborhood, with Alberstons as the destination, with acquiring the Ink Edition of DFW.com as the goal.

On the way to Albertsons I walked by the newly moved ITALY Pasta & Pizza restaurant. The move was a short distance from this restaurant's old location in the strip mall in which Albertsons is the anchor.

When I first moved to my current location the now ITALY Pasta & Pizza restaurant was a Black-Eyed Pea.

When I visited Texas in May of 1998 to check out if I would be agreeable to moving here I was taken to a Black-Eyed Pea. I recollect asking the waitress why the restaurant was called Black-Eyed Pea.

By the time I had a turkey dinner at the Black-Eyed Pea across the street from my new abode I knew the reason for the name.

In one of his more memorably memorable odd questions, at some point in time, earlier in this century, around the start of a new year, Gar the Texan asked me if I had any trouble finding my black-eyed peas this year.

Huh? Said I. Why would I be looking for black-eyed peas? Gar the Texan then verbalized astonishment that eating black-eyed peas was not a new year tradition up north in Yankee-land. It was then I learned that in the Deep South one ingests black-eyed peas at the start of a new year so as to insure that one will have good luck during the coming year.

I have yet to eat a single black-eyed pea since I have been in Texas. And I have had nothing but bad luck. I probably should embrace the superstition.

Back to my former Black-Eyed Pea restaurant. I was not too long at my current location when that restaurant closed. I don't remember how long it was before it re-opened as the Super Asia Buffet.

The Super Asia Buffet quickly became my favorite Chinese buffet, partly due to the fact it was just a short walk from my abode. Around the time the Super Bowl came to Arlington, the Super Asia Buffet, in what I am sure they thought was an extremely clever marketing move, changed their name to the Super Bowl Buffet.

Sushi was added to the menu, which had me liking it even more.

And then the Deep Recession came in 2008. The Super Bowl Buffet lasted a couple years into the recession, with noticeably fewer cars in the parking lot. And then it closed.

I mourned the Super Bowl Buffet's closing.

None of the Chinese buffets I frequented pre-2008 have survived the Great Recession.

They probably should have had black-eyed peas on the menu.....

Quit Giving Money To Fort Worth Vagrants Including Panhandlers & Beggars

Today I did not feel like driving anywhere for my daily walkabout.

So, I walked about my neighborhood.

Walking about my neighborhood took  me by Albertsons. In the the Albertsons strip mall there is an Italian restaurant appropriately named Italy Pasta & Pizza.

I have never had pasta or pizza at Italy Pasta & Pizza. Italy Pasta & Pizza is closed on Sunday. This gave me the opportunity to look at the menu that is posted in the window next to the entry door, without being gawked at by the diners inside the restaurant, sitting right by the menu in the window.

Near the menu in the window I saw a sign I'd not noticed before, that being the sign you see above.

The sign says....

PLEASE DO NOT GIVE MONEY 

TO THE VAGRANTS

(panhandlers and beggars  included)

MOST OF THEM ARE PROFESSIONAL CON ARTISTS, THE OTHERS ARE ADDICTS THAT WILL USE YOUR MONEY TO BUY DRUGS AND LIQUOR.

IF YOU WISH TO DONATE MONEY FOR THOSE THAT
ARE TRULY NEEDY, WE RECOMMEND:

The "WE RECOMMEND" is followed by a list of 4 locations in Fort Worth where one can donate money to the truly needy.

Now, I either drive by, or walk  by, Italy Pasta & Pizza at least once a day. I have never seen anyone looking like a vagrant or a panhandler or a beggar. I have never had anyone ask me for money at this location.

How does this restaurant know that most of these vagrants, panhandlers and beggars, which I have never seen, are professional con artists, with those who are not vagrant, panhandling or begging being addicts finagling for money to buy booze and drugs?

I often see Fort Worth police cars parked at Italy Pasta & Pizza. More than once I've seen officers leaving this restaurant, looking well fed. This does not strike me as a prime location for someone wanting to swindle innocents out of their money.

So, why does this restaurant have this tacky sign in their window?

Very perplexing.