Letters From The Loft
Stuff From The Desk Of Chuck Thornton
DAY THREE - PAGE 6
We met back up with Ben and decided it was time to eat. I'm a big fan of the Chicago-style pizza "pie"... the lethal kind where they stuff everything under a crust that covers the top of the pizza. So far I haven't found one near our home, but I asked my good friend Google if he could recommend a place in San Diego, and I was directed to Lefty's. While at last year's Con, we had tried to drop by Lefty's, but it was so crowded that we were told to give them an hour and a half for our pizza, and since Sam and Ben were already gnawing on their own limbs, we went somewhere else. This year, I had the foresight to have Lefty's number in the car, so our plan was to phone our order in ahead of time.
On our way back to the parking structure, while walking along the sidewalk that runs in front of the Convention Center, we saw a couple of interesting things.
First, I passed actor Matthew Gray Gubler, who was walking the other direction. Mr. Gubler plays a prominent role in the Criminal Minds TV series, and has also been the voice of Simon in the two recent Chipmunks movies. I could be wrong, but he seemed to be at CCI on strictly an attendee basis... he was certainly the only actor I rubbed shoulders with. I didn't actually talk to him; if I had stopped him there on the sidewalk, we would have both been pummeled to death by the other sidewalk traffic... or I might have received a pummeling from Mr. Gubler. But as I passed, I could tell he sensed my admiration for his portrayal of the most intellectual of the three singing rodents.
The other notable sight was a guy sitting in front of Hall H in handcuffs, surrounded by cops. We found out later that apparently there was a disagreement between this guy and another guy inside Hall H over seating arrangements; and this guy felt his point was best made by stabbing the other guy near the eye with a ballpoint pen. The victim was taken to the hospital at his own request to be checked out, but there was no serious injury, although he probably had to endure endless "dotting the eye" jokes from the EMTs and ER staff. More seriously, the programming in Hall H was delayed by 40 minutes. On the bright side, it did free up a couple of seats, which were quickly snatched up and listed on E-Bay.
The story quickly made the papers and local newscasts, but all were quick to point out that CCI has been surprisingly free of these kind of incidents, considering the high concentration of people. I'm thinking there are probably more altercations than actually get noticed or reported and many are probably nipped in the bud. Tempers might flare at Comic-Con, but if things elevate to a something potentially physical, by the time the aggrieved parties take off their capes and find someone they trust to hold their mint copy of Sea Devils #21, they've cooled off. When assaults actually do happen, I imagine not many people want to add to their self-esteem issues by being treated in the ER dressed up as a superhero, or enduring questioning by snickering police officers.
We made it to the car and called in our order to Lefty's. They told us to allow about an hour, and it took us less than 30 minutes to get there, so I decided to cruise the surrounding area. When I'm traveling, I like to look around, even in non-scenic areas. I inherited this from my dad, who would often take the "runaway truck" freeway ramps just to see where they led.
Lefty's was in a part of San Diego called "Normal Heights".
We didn't see a lot of folks with Comic-Con badges on; I assumed the name of the area kept them away. It didn't seem any more or less "normal" than any other town, but then again, maybe that's what makes it normal.
After looking around for a while, we headed back toward Lefty's. There's really no parking to speak of... we had to circle around the block and park in front of someone's house. Thankfully, they weren't charging the going rate for CCI attendees. Then we walked around the block to the corner that Lefty's occupied.
Only the corner of this building is occupied by Lefty's. As you can see, it's a pretty small place; due to a rare optical illusion phenomenon, it's even smaller on the inside than it looks from the outside. It's called Lefty's because you have to hang one arm out the window to fit into the place.
But the pizza was good, if you like that kind of pizza. When I opened up the boxes back at the hotel room, at first I thought they had mistakenly given us the more conventional deep-dish Chicago pizza without the top crust, but I quickly realized that the crust was there... it was just concealed with a slathering of pizza sauce. Ben and Sam weren't as impressed as I was. Of course, they had to listen to me express my enthusiasm after every bite, then listen to me groan in contentment until I passed out that night. They told me they had to use CPR on me twice during the night, but I don't remember that, and even if it's true, it won't stop me from going back next year. I'll just make sure I don't eat alone.