Frazz by Jef Mallett for February 17, 2023

Clever Enough!

Coming from the state that brought us Domino’s? I come from the state that brought you Old Forge pizza. PA has some great pizza, especially in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area and the Philadelphia area.

One Size Fits All. How can anyone thinks that’s good enough?

“Meh.” — Mediocrates

In Italy, no, people are not.

I ate my last pizza about 20 years ago, when the World’s greatest pizza chef, Tim Driscoll, retired. OK, now & then, I’ll help my wife finish her mediocre pizza.

I have had lots of excellent pizza, and I am NOT fine with Papa John’s.

Something to be said for being a connoisseur with the little things… as a recovering pizzaholic, i’m in the market for an edible keto pizza.

Who says we’re fine with bad pizza? #ugh

On the topic of “good enough”,Leslie Howard utters one of my all time favorite lines in “The Scarlet Pimpernel”. Being told that a jacket is “not so bad” he states that “There’s nothing in the world quite so bad as something that’s not so bad”.

It would seem we are united by cheese and carbs.

Who’s “fine with bad pizza”?

“It’s like pizzas and particle accelerators: Even the worst are still pretty good.” (Sheldon Cooper)

It’s context dependent. I would not eat Casey’s gas station pizza in Chicago, because there is a ton of much better pizza around here. I would, however, eat Casey’s gas station pizza in Iowa, where it is the best pizza around. And I’m not even running for president.

I just think that nearly all pizza is terrific. Some is obviously much better than others, but that doesn’t mean that the others aren’t also good. Reminds me of the man in a bar who was complaining, “I just had the worst sex of my life.” When someone asked him to describe it, he said, “It was pretty good.” There are truly bad pizzas, but nearly all of them are pretty good.

Unlike people, I never meet a pizza I didn’t like!

I have 5 excellent pizza places within 2 miles of me. I don’t understand why anyone buys from a chain when they can get a good local one.

There’s good pizza, bad pizza, great pizza, and then there is a category that most of us are okay with every now and then “good-bad pizza”. The take and bake pizza’s from Costco were a prime example. They were huge, relatively cheap, and while not spectacular, did the job.

Some of us are not fine bad pizza. Chicago sets the bar pretty high.

No bad pizza for me! Little Ceasar’s and Domino’s are the worst. Only eat local good pizza!

Cartoonist, heal thyself?

There IS such a thing as bad pizza. Defunct (thankfully) or natural selection… there was ’Shakeys" … here…

For most, the best pizza is what ever they grew up with. My favorite growing up was my mother’s pizza but she’s gone now so I’ll never get to taste that again.

My second favorite was Godfather’s Pizza. Not too bad for a chain, but I haven’t seen them in decades (I keep moving around…) so I don’t know if the quality has held up.

I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to pizza but Domino’s and Papa Johns are definitely on my do not buy list. I’m OK with Little Caesar’s, even though they get a bad rap from a lot of folks.

I grew in the suburbs south of Chicago and have occasionally gone back to visit so I’m real good with deep dish. I’ve visited New York a few times and their thin pizza ain’t bad at all. And I lived in Italia for a few years and will say their pizza is OK too, just not to my American taste… but then again, I never turned one down either 8^)

Sam’s Club frozen pizza, cooked in my own oven. It is probably not gourmet, but it is high on the scale as I need to get.

Apathetic.

Oh, but there are plenty of pizza snobs.

Domino’s is fine, honestly. I don’t know why they get so much hate. They’re like the McDonald’s of pizza - quick, efficient online ordering, and you know exactly what you’re going to get. But if you want really good pizza, my favorite is Cosetta’s in St Paul, Minnesota. They don’t just do pizza, either; it’s a full Italian restaurant. Get your food to go, or dine in, but if it’s dine-in, you can usually expect a wait to be seated. ;) (It’s worth it.)