WHAT?? A 24-HOUR DENTIST next door to Good Time Charlie’s? How is it possible I never noticed THAT before? Probably because it’s actually a 24-HOUR RENT LIST. Guess it’s time to call John Gartner and see if it’s time for a new prescription. THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE, go you and I. It’ll be awhile before authorities determine the cause of the helicopter crash in San Diego Bay last week, but who among us hasn’t had a close call piloting a chopper off the aft end of our yacht? I BOUGHT ME A COUPLE of containers of microwavable macaroni and cheese at CVS the other day and tried one out. Easy Mac is what it says on the cover. Ready in 3 1/2 minutes! TRIPLE CHEESE. It actually took about 5 minutes in my ancient microwave and what I ended up with was sort of a macaroni and cheese soup. Being a guy, I didn’t exactly read the instructions carefully. Step #2 said “ADD WATER to fill-line in cup” not add water until the cup is filled. I think THAT step is the one that should have been printed in red, not “CAUTION: CUP AND CONTENTS WILL BE VERY HOT!! KEEP CUP UPRIGHT TO AVOID SPILLS.” Even I got that one right on my own. I DIDN’T CATCH HER NAME, partly because she asked if she’d reached the Pacific Beach Town Council. The next thing I knew, she was near tears and I was trying to calm her down and trying to get at the root of the problem. As near as I could reconstruct, she was a 1984 graduate of Mission Bay High School and had been a patron of Los Panchos on Garnet Avenue for as long as she could remember, largely because they had really good hot carrots. Apparently, she went over to enjoy the really good hot carrots and Los Panchos wasn’t there anymore. It had been replaced by another restaurant called Las Casas and now what was she going to do? I told her that life was filled with these little speed bumps and that I, too, thought that Los Panchos had really good hot carrots and, from a personal point of view, excellent cheese enchiladas. I tried to leave her with an inspirational talk about life going on under the worst of situations. “YOU APPLYING FOR A JOB?” I was studying the menu at Green Flash when food server Wesley interrupted my reverie. I looked at him strangely until the light bulb went on over my head. My Hawaiian shirt du jour was a very close match to the official Green Flash uniform. You may recall an earlier appearance in this column by Wesley on an occasion when management let me in the restaurant early. Over in the corner, Wesley had his Hawaiian shirt laid out on a table – and was ironing it with a carafe of piping hot water. NO-O-O-O-O-O-O!!!! Hooter’s is gone? When did THAT happen? I coasted to my usual Hollywood stop on Reed and Mission and actually hit the brakes when I noticed a remodel on the corner. Actually, I only made it down there twice. The second visit confirmed my opinion that the lovely young servers couldn’t make up for the really bad food. — John Fry may be reached at (858) 272-6655 or by e-mail at [email protected].