March 23, 2007
The official drink of the Highway Patrol
I'm old enough to remember watching Broderick Crawford in the B&W TV series, Highway Patrol. The bulldog-looking actor -- a notorious real-life booze-hound -- played the chain-smoking, hard-drinking Chief Dan Matthews. You just knew that he had a bottle of rotgut whiskey in his desk drawer.
Cops back then were tough guys, and they drank tough-guy drinks.
Today, not so much.
I was parked in my usual corner of the Starbucks when I saw this officer come in to do his paperwork. Being in uniform, a bottle of booze was out of the question, but I was sure he'd be nursing a piping-hot mug of java.
Instead, he sipped on a frothy, whipped-cream topped frozen concoction though a straw as he filled out his reports.
Broderick is spinning in his grave.
Yeah, I know, today's CHP officers are better trained, better educated and more professional than the cops of yesteryear, but still ... fedoras, stogies and hard liquor black coffee sure say "tough guy" in a way "half-caf, soy, lo-fat strawberry mocha-frappuccino" can't quite match.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by Mike Lief at March 23, 2007 12:30 AM
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Comments
This is a GREAT photo! I was laughing out loud when I saw it and your commentary. Even Ponch and John would be embarassed.
Posted by: JPC at March 23, 2007 04:18 AM