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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 1987)
SECTION B Thursday, September 3, 1987 BOTHER’S BOOKSTORES All A&M texts available at both locations 340 Jersey (across from Unlv. Police) 901 Harvey (Woodstone Center) Pizza man makes enjoyment, ntertainment, all from scratch ew York dough-tosser happy with new life in Sherman SHERMAN (AP) — Part potter, Hut masseuse, the pizza man pumps a pile ol dough with piston-like fin- ^vrs. kneading, pommeling, poking, pushing. 1 hen the fingers shape the lump, VXJAising a ( i ust\ ridge, circling the MBxderjust so. But the best part ends almost be- j fore it begins. ■ Cradling the flattened dough in ? B)th hands, the pizza man throws it high, high, high into the air. ■ Spinning carousel-slow, the thin, Irfkmd sheet seems to hang in the sky fdr a moment, like a pie-shaped sa- 0 33(^3 i' telfite. C ^ 5; i I hen it falls back onto the pizza 3 :r ? 3 C man's hand where he spins it fast, -* ». C ' j ast a yg rpm record, fast like an ■BA basketball. ■ Plopping the shell back on counter, the pizza man smiles. ■ “Flying the pizza, it’s called,” ftnny Deari, 26. “Pizza flying.” ■ Twist, twirl, a quick, final pat. ■ “I’ll tell you this: you can’t be lazy to fly a pizza,” he says. “You gotta ■ork to be a pizza man. You gotta be Bve.” ■ Deari learned the art of pizza fly- ilgas a 15-year-old, working at pizza places on the streets of Brooklyn, ■Ty. H Two years ago, feeling like a pi oneer, he packed bis pizza pans into ^^^^^^^■car and brought New York-style (3 3 : pi /a and pizza flying to Sherman. * Ur * Pizza flying, like the art of making Fine pizza, is not easily mastered, deari says. “It takes time,” he says. “You can’t just go in and do it. You’ve got to put in your time. But after awhile, it just “A pizza man will let it spin on his hand. Make that pizza fly and come out nice and even. That’s talent.” That’s what pizza flying is. Yeah, it’s a way for a pizza man to have fun. But it’s also entertainment for the customers, especially the kids. — Danny Deari, pizza flyer A 1 i £.«! 3 Q-i3: * Zl ; 3 -1 a c: T — G-3 ' *‘8 5 §. S ! 3 3 (0 the says (gill !§?Si e ’> a comes natural. After awhile, you’ll be making a pizza and you’ll start tossing it up in the air.” Deari owns the Italian Affair, a pizza shop in the food court at Mid way Mall. He said it took him about a year to fly his First pizza. (“No, I never put one on the ceiling or dropped one,” he says. “Poked my Fingers through a few, though.”) Pizza flying, he says, is one factor that separates a genuine pizza man from just another fast food pizza cook. “That’s what pizza flying is,” he says. “Yeah, it’s a way for a pizza man to have fun. But it’s also enter tainment for the customers, espe cially the kids. “It takes experience, see? Now, there are people who could just throw a pizza into the air and wait for it to come down. Throw it and grab it. Throw it and grab it —that’s not flying. There’s no trick to that. But to throw it and let it spin on your hand. That takes talent. Talent and pride are two factors often missing in modern-day pizza parlors, Dean says. When he was a teen-ager, Deari served as a sort of apprentice in Brooklyn under a master pizza man named Jimmy. “He was a pizza man all his life,” Deari says. “He knew what he was doing. He taught me how to do things the right way, what to do and what not to do. “Once, when I was about 17, I told him, ‘Jimmy, I don’t want to be a pizza man all my life.’ “He said, ‘Let me tell you some thing. What you do now, you’ll do later. You’ll make pizzas.’ “I said, ‘Nah, you’re crazy. But here I am, making pizzas. And I love it. “People working in these pizza franchises, they’re just people who want a job. They’ll do it for awhile, then move on. “But a pizza man is a pizza man for life.” By running his own pizza place, Deari says he can be sure that his product is made right: fresh ingre dients prepared just so. “There’s pride,” he says. “A big franchise, they all use the same roast beef, the same corn dog mix. The product tastes the same everywhere. “But with my pizza, you can’t get this taste everywhere. “Because I’m not everywhere. I’m here.” A person, he says, could do worse than to be a pizza man. “Look, I make something from scratch,” he says. “I put it out for people to see, sell it, get money for it,” he says. Then I get to watch people eat it. They say, ‘Aw, that’s great!’ And I get a feeling of immediate accomplishment. “Very few people get that from their jobs. You make socks, you make a car, you never know who’s going to wear them, who’s going to drive it. “But a pizza man gets to see peo ple eat his product. He gets to hear them say they like it. “That’s why I’d rather be a pizza man than, say, a chef. “A chef is back in the kitchen, away from the people. Here, I get to talk to the people, be around them, watch them watching the food being made. “When a kid sees a pizza tossed in the air, it puts a smile on his face. “And that makes a pizza man feel good.” It Doesn’t Take A Lot TbFeelGood. With the Honda Spree®, you’ll find out what feeling good is all about. The Spree is the most popular and most affordable scooter in Amenca^ It’s easy to ride, with push-button starting and no shifting. And it’s virtually maintenance free. So come see the Spree for yourself And get ready for the good times. HONDA. Twin City Honda 903 S. Main Bryan, TX 77803 823-0545 00 + T.T. & L Operolof usr only Always whu a helmet & rvr prrtroion. 'Basal.on a comparison of mamiiacnirers' suggested retail priong. Welcome Back Aggies! |lj| Life’s a three-ring circus for Barnum & Bailey’s priest ft 5 '■ a» a ac 5: «s ■ FOR I WORTH (AP) — Tigers and grizzly bears rolled by in cages, and elephants moved within crushing distance of the Rev. Jack Toner backstage at the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus. ■ The longtime Catholic priest didn’t budge an inch. Toner is a circus priest. ■ He smiled and waved at a showgirl atop one of the elephants just before the nation’s largest cir cus began a recent performance at the Tarrant County Convention Center on its current tour of Texas. “They say this is the greatest show on Earth, but I say these are the greatest people on Earth,” Toner says. He travels everywhere with the circus, counsel ing employees and conducting church services while wearing vestments decorated with a clown on one side and a circus ring on the other. Each day, he prays that trapeze artists, animal trainers and others performing dangerous acts will come through safely. He’s had to conduct one funeral for an aeri- alist who was killed in a fall. “I love the circus,” says the gray-haired 73- year-old priest as he watches the performers pa rade. “I never get tired of it. “This is like a typical parish, except it is on wheels. Our church services are ecumenical be cause there are many non-Catholics and even atheists that we minister to.” Circus life is grueling for the performers and also for the priest, Toner says. “I like the nomadic lifestyle,” he says. “If you don’t you couldn’t survive.” Quality film developing SPECIAL 12 EXP $ 15 exp 1.99 24 EXP $ OR 36 EXP 2.99 C-41 PROCESS-3V2X5 SINGLE PRINTS ONLY OFFER GOOD SEPT. 7 THROUGH SEPT. 14, 1987 PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE AT GOODWIN HALL & TEXAS A&M BOOKSTORE IN THE MSC Islsj s The Student’s World Highlighter- A Chronicle Subscription 1|; Special discount to Texas A&M students, faculty and staff for the fall semester. ji m pi ii‘ 3 H 0. pi News from around the world, the nation and the state. 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