Wegman's Pizza of Raleigh, NC

Before yesterday I'd never been to a Wegmans, which is the nicest grocery store I've been to in my humble 40 years. They sell pizzas of every general variety. Nothing too crazy. I could loiter here all day, at Wegman's wonderful 'cafe' area, where you can buy most types of hot food. My slice had a ratio of 3cr/2ce/3ch.

The crust gets a 3 out of 5. Texturally it's very good, though a hair on the dry side. There isn't much flavor to it. The sauce gets a 4 out of 5. It's sweet and adequately thick, minding me of what I might get at Chuck E. Cheese's.

For style, I'll give Wegman's a 3 out of 5. It's a grocery store pizza, so I wouldn't expect them to do anything that stands out. I like that I can quickly buy my slice and sit wherever I want with nobody asking me to tip. I wish it was cheaper, since quantity-wise it's about the same value as a slice from 7-11. I give Wegman's a 5 out of 5 for quality. I figure the quality might falter if they were making a couple hundred pizzas to order every day, but they're not. And it seems like the nice old ladies making the pizzas have one very simple job to do and they do it well.

With an overall score of 75%, I likely will eat Wegman's again if Pizza is what I'm having and there's a less enticing option. I know Raleigh has pizzas galore, but I'm not sure where to find an old local staple.

* Let me explain my ratio system, regarding mass of standard Pizza Elements. Cr=Crust. Ce=Sauce. Ch=Cheese.

For CR (CRust), 1 is the equivalent of a transparent pizza in the New York style, or the rolled-out, crackery Saint Louis style. 3 would be a regular Domino's hand-tossed Pizza. 4 would be like a Pizza Hut Pan Pizza, and 5 would be like a Sicilian Pizza or some varieties of Deep Dish.

For Ce (sauCE), 1 would be a watery sauce with a thin spreading, no clumping and no oozing. In this cause, the sauce is an afterthought, more like oregano than a key ingredient. 3 would be what you'd expect from a Pizza Hut Pan Pizza. 5 would require a fork to eat.

For CH (CHeese), 1 would be a transparent layer, mostly existing to assure you that your pizza indeed Does have cheese on it. 3 would be a regular Domino's hand-tossed pizza. 4 would be what you get on a Pizza Hut Pan Pizza. And 5 would be what you get in a pizza that requires a fork to eat, like a respectable Deep Dish Pie.

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

This is the fourth book in the Dark Tower series. Roland and Jake need to be reunited, so they do some going between worlds again. There are some bad guys and action and cute creatures, leading me to think this was hoped to become an epic film series. I know they did a movie of the first Dark Tower, but I don't know if the whole thing can happen in King's lifetime. It wouldn't surprise me if we did get it someday, with some AI enhanced graphics to make it look like an 80s Spielberg feature. I'd be curious to see it.