How Silly Can You Get?

Silly baseball cap.

Last night I went out for dinner with my husband and son to a casual, affordable Portland restaurant on Munjoy Hill frequented by mostly locals. It's called Silly's, and they work hard to live up to the name, with plastic lunchboxes on each table holding the menus and brown paper napkins, an eclectic selection of odd dishes with silly names and descriptions, and an even sillier decor. But still it's a great place, and the food is dependably good, solidly American cuisine with strong Middle Eastern overtones.

"There's a lot of lamb on the menu," my carnivorous husband said with a smile when asked for his opinion. I opted for a Greek salad which turned out to be not quite Greek but merely Albanian or perhaps Serbian; still, it was tasty if wanting more feta cheese and a couple of green peppers. Our shared appetizer of fried pickles, accompanied by two delectable sauces, was beyond superb -- order those for sure. And the bar serves a mean Bloody Mary, chock full of stuff to eat besides the usual alcohol and tomato juice.

There's at lot to see while you're waiting for your food at Silly's in Portland.

Anyway, I like the place and one reason is the waitstaff, all chipper young people who are silly, each in their own way. Back when my son was a waiter he applied for a job there and instead of asking for a resume, they handed him a white paper plate and some art supplies and told him to decorate it. (He found that a bit too silly and did not work there.)

Among the staff on hand last night were several young women who were very up-to-the-minute and stylish, and quite attractive I thought. One in particular would have been a real standout except for two unfortunate balls of snot dripping from her nose. That was gross. Oh wait a minute, those were not balls of snot, they were balls of silver, and they were not going to go away when her cold was over. In fact she didn't have a cold at all, she had actually paid to have her nostrils pierced and have those balls installed permanently. (Or at least until she comes to her senses.)

Choosing to be ugly when you're born pretty: now that's silly.