ALTON BROWN REFRIGERATOR PIE

Here's a story from a newspaper, probably from 1999. Don't know the paper.

Ghostly presence is rumored to haunt the halls of Ballinger’s Texas Grill

By BRIAN BETHEL
Staff Writer


BALLINGER -- The interior of the Texas Grill is snug and cozy, a
collection of countertops and straight-backed chairs as familiar to
any small town Texan as springtime bluebonnets or a long, hot summer
day.


There are innumerable examples of such spots lining the state’s
roadways, a beacon to travelers and a place for locals to sit and swap
tales both old and new while enjoying a chicken-fried steak or a hot
cup of coffee.


But within this restaurant’s walls lies a storied history, stretching
back to the untamed days of gunfighters and outlaws. And within its
interior hallways resides a mostly silent observer, a mysterious
presence who sometimes in the dead of night -- or even the bold light
of day -- makes his occupancy known and then returns to silence.


The Texas Grill, you see, is haunted. Its owners freely admit the
fact, acknowledging beyond a doubt that their restaurant is
"occupied," even in the early hours when the place is shut up tight
against the darkness outside.


"You can only have so many strange things happen to so many people
before you decide that there has to be something here," said Joyce
Sikes, who along with her husband, Larry, have owned the restaurant
since 1991. "I never really believed in ghosts. Now I don’t have much
of a choice."


Fortunately, Norton, as the mostly unseen shade is called, is a
friendly spirit, given to small pranks and only slightly unnerving
disturbances.


"He hasn’t ever hurt anyone, and I don’t anticipate that he ever
will," she said. "If we’re going to have a ghost here, I suppose he’s
a good one to have around."


Norton’s legacy


No one knows exactly who or what stalks the restaurant, although the
"Norton" name has stuck fairly fast. In some versions of the story, he
is called "Shorty" because of an alleged communication with a former
cook.


The name comes from the testimony of a self-proclaimed psychic who may
or may not have tapped into the essence of the spirit.


"She told us that was his name and that he had lived here in a little
shack or cabin around or before this place was built," Sikes said. It
is popularly believed that Norton may have been an outlaw who was
gunned down by Texas Rangers or other law enforcement officials.


Whether Norton is really the name of the entity, the description seems
logical.


In Texas’ frontier days, Ballinger served as a waypoint for many
travelers to neighboring cities and was seat of several prominent
range wars. It was a typically rough-and-tumble Texas town, and the
building that now houses the Texas Grill was a combination
saloon/brothel.


Remnants of that former role can be seen in the many upstairs rooms,
some with only an individual sink and little else, and on the first
floor in features such as a bar trough meant to catch discarded liquor
and send it running into the dusty streets.


Even though those days are long gone, archival evidence is available
to support the thesis that there was an outlaw who was indeed gunned
down on the premises. Whether or not the outlaw in question was
"Norton" is something that cannot be easily determined.


No matter who he is, though, the vast majority of the current staff
and many others who have worked at the Grill believe he exists.


"There comes a time when you just have to believe that something is
here," said Roger Killingsworth, the restaurant’s manager. "I’m not a
person to go looking for something like this, but I’ve seen and heard
enough to know that Norton is probably around."


Playing pranks


Most of Norton’s manifestations are small, although he has genuinely
unnerved some of the restaurant’s denizens and employees from time to
time.


He seems to exhibit common poltergeist behavior for the most part,
moving small objects here and there, opening and closing refrigerator
doors, passing by unseen with the cloying scent of sweet-smelling
men’s cologne to mark his passage and making strange noises such as
bumps and raps.


All of the cooks, though, have seen something, shadowy forms or
flashes that seem to take on a human shape and move almost faster than
the eye can track.


"We’ve only had one little boy say he actually saw a man," Sikes said.
"But you will catch shadowy movements out of the corner of your eye
from time to time that look like a human figure. I’ve learned to
ignore it, for the most part."


The manifestations seem to be more prominent in a back dining area and
in the kitchen area of the establishment, although sounds such as
footsteps have been heard echoing from the closed-off area that was
the brothel.


Chillingly, these auditory manifestations

Around the same time that God created Earth, work began on a Nintendo 64 title called Earthworm Jim 3D. The Vis Interactive developed 3D platformer, based on Shiny's popular 16-bit worm mascot, has undergone thousands of redesigns during the course of man's evolution. Now, on the brink of the 21st century, with electricity popularized and the magic of "television" in millions of homes, the Scottish developer has finally wrapped up production on the game and publisher Rockstar Games has readied it for your enjoyment.

The good news for Nintendo 64 platform fans is that, unlike so many oft-delayed games that teeter on the edge of becoming vaporware, Jim has arrived in relatively good form with only a few drawbacks for the nitpickers -- us -- to complain about. Stuff to know about this game: •3D platformer
•Single-player
•Several huge worlds to explore inside Jim's mind
•Off-the-wall cast of characters
•More than 15 hilarious weapons and item pick-ups
•Humorous 3D environments and level themes
•First N64 to offer smell options
It's fairly standard stuff, really. One day while doing whatever it is that he does, Earthworm Jim is hit by a flying cow. This sends the superhero into a crazed coma. Jim awakens inside of his own mind to find, of course, that he has gone insane. The only way for the zany character to restore sanity to his own mind, it seems, is to "seek out the golden udders of lucidity that lie deep within his cow struck cranium." Make sense? Good. It's not supposed to. That said, the wacky background story for the game is the perfect indication of things to come. By the way, we realize that we've used the words 'zany' and 'wacky' in the same paragraph and damn it, we just don't care. We're kooky like that. In order to make you fully understand the gaming experience that is Earthworm Jim 3D, we're going to reach deep into our grand bag of cliche videogame review phrases for the terminology needed. Non-meanings such as "tried-and-true," and "standard mechanics," come to mind right off the bat, but let us dig even further. Perhaps nauseating press-release ready quotes like, "Earthworm Jim 3D brings the classic 2D formula of the franchise screaming into the third dimension," work better. Regardless of how we word it, though, all of the above is absolutely true. Earthworm Jim 3D plays exactly like its predecessors -- only in 3D. Go figure.

You might be wondering what, exactly, the point of the game is? Damn fine question. We're glad you asked it. Put simply, Jim must travel through each different world the title offers recovering his lost marbles (a delightful double-meaning to be sure) and seeking out golden udders. Through all of this, the worm will also fight dozens and dozens of enemies, solve puzzles, square off with bosses -- you know, the usual stuff.

Jim, our superhero, superego worm main character, is capable of everything from whipping the tail of his head out at enemies to firing off a wide arsenal of damaging weapons. The charismatic dirt-dweller can jump, crouch, climb, hang, roll, run, sneak, etc. -- he's got all of the moves associated with and expected of platformers plus more. Jim can helicopter hover in the air with the use of his head and he can super-jump by pressing a combination of buttons.

Control is surprisingly tight and intuitive. Jim is manipulated with the analog stick. He's a fast little worm, he is, moving effortlessly along with no sense of sluggishness whatsoever. A jumps, B crouches, C-Down head whips and Z-trigger shoots whatever weapon our mud-eating main character happens to be carrying at the time. It's simple. It's easy. It works just fine. Meanwhile, the remaining C-buttons serve to rotate the horrendous camera system (which we'll hammer on in due time) and the R button, like so many platformers before it, swings the ungodly viewpoint behind Jim's back -- in theory.

Levels are separated into portions of Jim's decaying mind. We've got four major worlds to contend with, including the likes of Memories, Happiness, Fear and Fantasy. They're all self-explanatory. Each world features its own sick brand of humor (which we quite like) and an accompanying cast of downright weird characters. The game has everything from Disco Zombies to classic updates to favorites Professor Monkey for a Head and the always desirable Evil the Cat.

Each world (or sub-level) has a series of tasks that must be accomplished, many of which make no particular sense. For example, Jim may be required to launch a group of space-bound refrigerators into the sky and then battle giant walking chickens and water-skipping pigs. We don't suggest trying to comprehend the thought process behind the game's design. Simply accept what you see and move on. None of the goals are terribly difficult, nor are the puzzles. Think dodging bullets and firing away at enemies. Think blowing away crates for secret goodies. Think devising ways past quicksand.