Look at this Iguana!

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

March 11, 2024: A marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is seen in Tortuga Bay at Santa Cruz Island, part of Ecuador's Galapagos archipelago. Greenpeace called for the creation of a high seas marine protected zone under a new UN treaty to secure a much wider area around Ecuador's famous Galapagos archipelago.

ERNESTO BENAVIDES, AFP via Getty Images

[clarencebunsen]

Just as I told Barb, "I learn something new every day." This appeared.

[Clipper]

petshun.com/article/do-iguanas-carry-salmonella

I did a refinishing job on a tavern in the North country that had an iquana in a large tank that he had recessed into the wall over a dining table in the eating area. The risk of salmonella from that 3 foot beast was the fact that when he recessed it into the bar room wall it was overhanging the sandwich and salad prep bar in the kitchen on two shelf brackets and he didn't keep the tank very clean. You could smell the iquana waste when you stood in front of the prep table.

He created a different problem for me. His damned check bounced. I called bank as well as calling the bar two or three times and he wouldn't call me back. My stepson at the time was a trooper so he took the check and stopped there one day. Needless to say I got paid. My stepson said he dug in his wallet, in the till, and even borrowed a bit from a cigar box that had money I assume was for a pool of some sort. Probably would have been much easier for us both if he had put the money in the bank BEFORE he wrote the check.

By the way. When his check bounced I made a point of calling and asking the health department how it was that they allowed him to keep that thing over a food prep area.

I used to see some shocking health offenses in restaurants. There was a restaurant down the valley kept a cat's litter box in the pantry area and had a cat that they let run at night to keep the mice under control. I used to clean their carpets after hours. I opened the door on one occasion and flipped on the lights in the kitchen and the cat scared the crap out of me. Note: The cat did not eat roaches. I was surprised that the roaches hadn't eaten the cat, haha.

[artsyone]

 I guana believe.

[BHU]

Mar 18, 2024 9:45:25 GMT -5 Clipper said:

petshun.com/article/do-iguanas-carry-salmonella

I did a refinishing job on a tavern in the North country that had an iquana in a large tank that he had recessed into the wall over a dining table in the eating area. The risk of salmonella from that 3 foot beast was the fact that when he recessed it into the bar room wall it was overhanging the sandwich and salad prep bar in the kitchen on two shelf brackets and he didn't keep the tank very clean. You could smell the iquana waste when you stood in front of the prep table.

He created a different problem for me. His damned check bounced. I called bank as well as calling the bar two or three times and he wouldn't call me back. My stepson at the time was a trooper so he took the check and stopped there one day. Needless to say I got paid. My stepson said he dug in his wallet, in the till, and even borrowed a bit from a cigar box that had money I assume was for a pool of some sort. Probably would have been much easier for us both if he had put the money in the bank BEFORE he wrote the check.

By the way. When his check bounced I made a point of calling and asking the health department how it was that they allowed him to keep that thing over a food prep area.

I used to see some shocking health offenses in restaurants. There was a restaurant down the valley kept a cat's litter box in the pantry area and had a cat that they let run at night to keep the mice under control. I used to clean their carpets after hours. I opened the door on one occasion and flipped on the lights in the kitchen and the cat scared the crap out of me. Note: The cat did not eat roaches. I was surprised that the roaches hadn't eaten the cat, haha.

You should have went up there & let the air out of his tires.

Speaking of restaurants. A few years back we ordered from Pizza Hut & breadsticks were included in the order. Imagine our disgust when we found roaches baked inside. Yep. I called the restaurant to complain & the godsmacking idiot manager actually accused of us of putting them in there. I kid you not. I can't repeat here what my response was but the next day I was on the phone with the O.C. Health Dept. That was the last time we ever ordered from that outfit.

[Clipper]

I was shocked when I first started cleaning commercial carpets in restaurants at night. Most restaurants had an accumulation of grease and dirt in the traffic area immediately outside the kitchen doors. With the fact in mind that the grease tracked out of the kitchen came from the food and food borne bacteria were breeding in it. In some cases the grease had accumulated to the point of us having to soak it with degreaser and scrape it from the carpet with a plastic putty knife before using the extractor and regular cleaning solution. In those cases WE would fill a mop pail with extremely hot water and OUR commercial grade detergent and bleach and mop the kitchen floors where someone had just swung a filthy and greasy mop around with dirty water and called the job done. We cleaned the kitchen floor only to protect the cleanliness of the freshly cleaned carpeting. In many cases I convinced the owner to rent rubber backed "walk off mats" for outside the kitchen door and have the service change them once a week. It saved them the additional cost of paying me to clean the entire dining area more often.

In many cases there were roaches present in the kitchens after the lights went out at closing time and they would scatter when you turned on the lights. You would be surprised to find that some of the most popular restaurants that look clean from the dining area have dirty kitchens and roaches or rodent bait stations tucked in inconspicuous places. I found myself eliminating a few of our favorite local restaurants from places that Kathy and I would eat.

.

[artsyone]

I love these stories: I used to visit this Chinese Restaurant In Daytona Beach when I lived there. They had the best food which was brought to you served in stainless steel bowls with lids, and wonderful, endless pots of green tea and the prices were fabulous, as was the food. The place was always jam packed and you had to wait for a table. They had picnic benches outside where potential diners could wait. They would bring you out fried wide noodles while you waited. There was only one problem: the place was filthy and I swear the waitresses hadn't bathed in years, upon entering you came in to an area with ancient tables from some roadside diner from a galaxy long, long ago and the floor was covered in what was once green astro turf, but had darkened over the years to a filthy scrum of black dirt and beach sand. I loved going there until the final denounment: The unwashed waitress brought my egg foo yung in the standard steel bowl and upon opening it, there on the lid, just saying hello there was a rather large brown roach, I mean not the largest I've ever seen being that it was Florida, but a pretty good size. "Hello", said the roach, "my name is Ambrose and I'll be your roach today.". I slowly and silently replaced the lid thinking I had sealed Ambrose to his doom and I called the waitress over. Not wanting to call attention to myself I silently motioned to her and opened the lid and there was Ambrose in his full roachyness!! He nonchantlatly flipped an antenna at me and crawled from the bowl onto the table... The unwashed waitress was totally nonplussed. "Oh, honey, that's just a roach"! and laughingly she brushed him off the table onto the floor where he silently scuttled into the nearest pile of dirt on the astroturf. "That ain't nothin' to be afraid of!!" I never paid for that meal and I never returned to that restaurant. And that, my friend, is the rest of the story.