Well I think you're all wrong. I believe the first 'chain' restaurant was Howard Johnson's. Which have pretty much gone away, but my parents told me how they were all over and a huge thing in the 50's, as they were a 'known' quantity when travelling cross country (which they did twice in the 50's and it evidentially was a huge undertaking, as I still hear about it.)

And marinerd and tim - there definitely is NO joy in baseball Bay Area today, but I'm definitely going to root for the Sox against the Devil's Spawn (Yankees). And the Cubs too. Hey, maybe the curse of the Bambino had a time limit? Who knew?