Odd coastal pairings: Bowling and karaoke, and yes, Taylor Swift and UDel

I have this odd aversion to driving on Route 1, something that I’m sure is unique to me.  Nonetheless, I can’t leave home without it. 

To minimize my time on Route 1, I have adopted a “one and done” philosophy, using the benignly named Coastal Highway only when time and destination require it.

Similarly, on my trips north to the Philadelphia area, I try to avoid Interstate 95 and its progeny, 295 and 495, for as long as possible, taking state routes instead. 

Strip malls: The home of some of Delaware's oddest pairings

It was while traveling on Route 13 that I first became aware of the odd pairings that one encounters in mini-strip malls, where two or three quite different businesses are located in a single building.  One such example is on that state route in New Castle County, where, until recently, a New York Fried Chicken shared a structure with a hirsute, probably better described as hair suite, establishment named NB Hair.

I always felt sorry for this NYFC franchise location, one of Delaware’s answers to KFC, because after going to the trouble of plucking their chickens, there was always the danger they would be re-covered with cuttings from the salon next door. 

Alas, NB Hair is no more, at least as a commercial enterprise.  It’s spot was taken by Smokiez Smoke Shop.  In a sense, one might maintain that NB Hair had been vaporized, an instance of science fiction become fact, or, at the least, it had gone up in smoke.  In any case, how stable can strip mall businesses be if they lack a pizza parlor as an anchor?

Closer to home, we have Patty’s, which shares a building with the Liberty gas station on Savannah Road in Lewes. Its placement makes sense in that Patty’s extensive menu includes savory cheeses and charcuterie to complement the “sweet crude” oil products available next door.

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Donuts and ice cream, the perfect pairing?

Of course, the paired establishments described above are adjacent by chance, or, as Planning & Zoning often maintains, the structures are “serendipitously situated.” 

Sometimes, however, such placement is a deliberate marketing tool, as when the old Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins existed side by side under the same roof at multiple locations. This is a concept known in the business world as co-branding, although it often turns out to be more like codependency.

Such an arrangement was popularized by Yum! Brands, Inc. when they combined an A&W root beer store with a Pizza Hut, Pasta Bravo, Back Yard Burgers, or any other franchise they owned. These sons of Yum should not be confused with sons of gun, or the Shen Yun dancers for that matter.

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Golf, karaoke and, of course, bowling, all in one place

More complex than the pairings described above are those multifunctional couplings found in a single establishment like Lefty’s Alley & Eats on Route 1.

In addition to offering a comprehensive menu of food and drink, Lefty’s now houses a golf swing studio, a private karaoke room, bowling alleys, and an arcade.  In addition, there’s an axe throwing suite where, as they say, you can get “axe-cited."  All of which begs the question of what’s left for us righties?

Similarly, there’s the Good Earth Market in Ocean View, where pairings go far beyond the food and wine list.  There, you can enjoy a drink along with your meal at Melissa’s, shop in the market for unique organic and vegan products, watch a production in the Dicken’s Parlour Theatre, and even stay overnight at an Airbnb located under the market itself.

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And an even odder pairing, Taylor Swift and ... UDel?

Perhaps the oddest pairing of all is that of Taylor Swift, not with Travis Kelce of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, but with an eight-session data analytics workshop at the University of Delaware.  Ms. Swift is purportedly a singer-songwriter of some renown, and UDel is well enough known to rank an historically significant number 76 among best “national universities” in the U.S. of A. 

In any case, the workshop is titled “Data Enchanted,” a riff off a song composed and recorded by Taylor in 2010.  It — the course not the song — focuses on transforming numbers into knowledge and is one of the first to study Swift’s impact quantitatively, as opposed to musically, politically, or romantically. 

The workshop has proven to be extremely popular. Its instructor claims that Data Enhanced is helping struggling econometric students to organize and interpret large — wait for it — data sets.  And, in person or on the big screen, there are no larger or longer sets than the ones in Swift’s Eras Tour.

According to a newspaper account, one workshop student claimed that using Swift’s data made things “easier to understand,” and another added that “it’s a lot more interesting than analyzing the GDP of Scandinavia or something.”  Indeed.

Full disclosure:  Swift’s father went to the University of Delaware. He’s just your typical Blue Hen whose daughter happens to be a billionaire at age 34.

Mike Berger is a freelance writer and retired university administrator with a home in Lewes.  Contact him at edadvice@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Odd Delaware pairs: From bowling and karaoke to Taylor Swift and UDel