I just spent some time in Southern California hanging out on the beach and in traffic jams. I also went to my first Dodgers game in about fifteen years. One of the reasons I went to the game was to experience firsthand their "all-you-can-eat pavilion," a special section of the stadium where your ticket gets you unlimited food.

It was everything I was hoping for, and more.

Right when you walk through the turnstile, you're greeted with a distinctly atypical concession stand; they don't have any prices, or lines (because you don't have to wait for the person in front of you to fumble around for a credit card). You just walk up and order food and they give it to you instantly, with a smile. (Non-alcoholic drinks are free as well.) The one downside was that the all-you-can-eat pavilion is basically caged off from the rest of the stadium; that way, no one else could come and take our food. You got the feeling that you were in a dog pound. The food selections were a bit limited; we didn't get Panda Express like the rest of the stadium, just Dodger Dogs, Nachos, Popcorn, and Peanuts.

I was expecting the other fans in this section to all be very large people, but there were lots of families and normal-looking fans who weren't too interested in eating until they were sick. That didn't make much sense to me, but whatever. The brilliance of the all-you-can-eat section, though, is that while the large people do tend to eat a lot, they tend to drink a lot too, and beers were 8 bucks. I think the Dodgers are probably doing very well with the promotion, and I hope it's still around the next time I get to Southern California.