A number of readers have emailed me wondering why I haven’t weighed in on Joey Porter’s arrest in a Taco Bell parking lot yet. Since, as they’ve pointed out, it represents the intersection of sports and Taco Bell, it does seem like perfect TedQuarters fodder.
I’m not aiming to make light of DUI, though, nor am I willing to pass judgment on an arrest with such vaguely reported details: Conflicting online news stories have it that Porter was at the wheel of his car, at the wheel of a friend’s car, and in the passenger’s seat of a friend’s car when he slapped the police officer in question, and absolutely none of the reports I’ve read even specify whether or not Porter ate delicious Taco Bell, nor what he ordered if he did.
Regardless, since Porter will not face charges, he will certainly not face criticism here. Let he who has not been drunk and belligerent in a Taco Bell parking lot cast the first stone.
I will say this, though: There seems to be something about Fourthmeal that brings out the worst in humanity. I don’t really get it, either.
The town where I grew up maintains an inordinately stupid rule under which fast-food restaurants can not keep drive-thrus open past 11 p.m.
Taco Bell is the only fast-food restaurant in the town proper, and so to stay open for Fourthmeal, the Taco Bell must keep its dining room open until the wee hours of the morning. At some point around midnight, it becomes a downright terrifying place.
The solution, of course, is to drive right past that Taco Bell, to the much better Taco Bell in the next town over, where there is no stupid rule about closing drive-thrus at 11 p.m.
But if by some chance the people you’re with aren’t willing to go the (literal) extra mile, or they want the luxury or novelty of enjoying Taco Bell in Taco Bell at 1 a.m., you’re heading right into the damn Wild West. No joke.
To me, it makes no sense. We’re all here for tacos, right? And Taco Bell makes me happy, and puts me at peace with my surroundings, even if those surroundings are a dingy suburban fast-food dining room off Sunrise Highway in the middle of the night.
But it’s littered with lunatics. Not actual crazy people — this is Long Island, so they go to diners since there are no Denny’s around. I’m talking drunken, ‘roided-up madmen, who must be looking to Taco Bell for a late-night protein fix and as a good place to find some asses to kick.
Seriously, about 50% of the time you enter that Taco Bell, some meathead tries to pick a fight with you on your way in or out. It sucks. I’m here for Gorditas, guy, not an ass kicking.