Did somebody say McDougal's?

For a few years in the late 1970s most of the delis in New York City were selling a kind of a sandwich called "The McDougal." The Big Man's vices were considered excessive by even the Studio 54 crowd, which is saying quite a lot. Of course, in '70s New York that was exactly the kind of thing that would make one a celebrity. The sandwich was as excessive as the man whose name it bore. A whole Virginia ham was thin-sliced, topped with a full wheel of melted Stilton cheese (which stunk like sweaty feet), a whiskey-mushroom sauce and grilled Scotch Bonnet peppers, all of which was served between two family-sized chicken pot pies. The price was also excessive, averaging at $149.99. Most chose to split the cost and the sandwich among a large group because of the enormity of both, but not everybody would share. Elvis Presley particularly fond of The McDougal during the year preceding his death. Now, unless you knew of a deli that was truly disreputable, you couldn't get The McDougal prepared in what the in crowd considered the real way it should be served: topped with a generous mixture of cocaine and heroin. It was up to you to add that particular finishing touch. It is rumored in certain sandwich circles that it was actually an over-seasoned McDougal that took the life of John Belushi. I'm not sure I believe that though. Today it is impossible to find a deli that will even admit to knowing about The McDougal. Every once and a while I hear about some back alley deli in an unfashionable neighborhood that has put The McDougal back into production, but so far all have turned out to be mere rumors. It seems that kind of irresponsible sandwich-making died out with disco.