Thursday, March 22, 2012
'The best burgers'
A close friend in the restaurant business once told me, "Beware of the new restaurant owner who promises to sell the 'best burgers.'" I.e., If that's all he's promising, he's headed for trouble. Making good burgers simply isn't that difficult. It's the minimum customers expect and deserve. ... I thought of my friend's adage when reading this post about the alleged end of the gourmet burger trend. Good riddance.
A close friend in the restaurant business once told me, "Beware of the new restaurant owner who promises to sell the 'best burgers.'" I.e., If that's all he's promising, he's headed for trouble. Making good burgers simply isn't that difficult. It's the minimum customers expect and deserve. ... I thought of my friend's adage when reading this post about the alleged end of the gourmet burger trend. Good riddance.
The anti-smoking moralists
Questions: Are cigarettes sold at pharmacies somehow medically more dangerous to smokers and non-smokers than cigarettes sold at grocery stores, gas stations, liquor stores and other establishments? … If it’s “morally reprehensible” for health-care facilities like pharmacies to sell dangerous products and then sell products designed to treat the effects of those dangerous products, shouldn’t we also ban them from selling candy, sodas, potato chips and other junk foods that lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other major ailments impacting far more people? To be “morally” consistent, shouldn’t public-health officials state they’re also going after Target, Wal-mart and other major retail chains that have pharmacies and that also sell cigarettes and other harmful products? They are indeed going after Target and Walmart, right? Yes, no?
More questions: At its core, isn’t the ban-cigarettes-at-pharmacies campaign really about making it more difficult for smokers to buy cigarettes, i.e. it’s a deliberate policy of harassment by the government? If it isn't partly a deliberate form of harassment aimed at reducing smoking, what other purposes would a ban serve other than the claimed moral implications? And, the final question, flowing from the preceding question, when did public-health officials assume the power to act as our moral police on allegedly purely moral matters?
Questions: Are cigarettes sold at pharmacies somehow medically more dangerous to smokers and non-smokers than cigarettes sold at grocery stores, gas stations, liquor stores and other establishments? … If it’s “morally reprehensible” for health-care facilities like pharmacies to sell dangerous products and then sell products designed to treat the effects of those dangerous products, shouldn’t we also ban them from selling candy, sodas, potato chips and other junk foods that lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other major ailments impacting far more people? To be “morally” consistent, shouldn’t public-health officials state they’re also going after Target, Wal-mart and other major retail chains that have pharmacies and that also sell cigarettes and other harmful products? They are indeed going after Target and Walmart, right? Yes, no?
More questions: At its core, isn’t the ban-cigarettes-at-pharmacies campaign really about making it more difficult for smokers to buy cigarettes, i.e. it’s a deliberate policy of harassment by the government? If it isn't partly a deliberate form of harassment aimed at reducing smoking, what other purposes would a ban serve other than the claimed moral implications? And, the final question, flowing from the preceding question, when did public-health officials assume the power to act as our moral police on allegedly purely moral matters?
Tebow to the Jets: ‘All a Belichick mind game?’
Reader No. 1 was joking (I think) when he muttered the above Belichick line in reaction to the Jets’ acquisition of Tim Tebow. But you got to wonder about all those recent rumors that Timmy was headed to the Pats. Who started them? … Anyway, Bill Barnell thinks Tebow is probably going to be a disruptive force with the Jets:
Reader No. 1 was joking (I think) when he muttered the above Belichick line in reaction to the Jets’ acquisition of Tim Tebow. But you got to wonder about all those recent rumors that Timmy was headed to the Pats. Who started them? … Anyway, Bill Barnell thinks Tebow is probably going to be a disruptive force with the Jets:
As bad as Sanchez was, Jets fans knew that the team couldn't turn the job over to a 41-year-old who hadn't really played in three years. A Google search for "Brunell chants" and "Jets" returns five results right now. The fans might have booed, but they weren't saying "Bru-nell."
Now, they're going to chant, write, and otherwise clamor for Tebow. There are some who will say it in August at training camp. Some will say it the first time Sanchez throws an interception in September. Others will wait until the Jets invariably lose to a team below their station, a defeat usually accompanied by a dismal Sanchez performance.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Confirmed: Bounty-gate is far worse than Spy-gate
Yikes. The NFL just threw the book at the Saints for paying bonuses to players who knocked opponents out of games. I knew a punishment was going to be harsh -- and it should have been harsh. But a one-year suspension of the head coach, well, yikes. I'm impressed. ... And now maybe the NFL will also crack down on players who obnoxiously celebrate bone-crushing hits that lead to bone-crushing injuries.
Yikes. The NFL just threw the book at the Saints for paying bonuses to players who knocked opponents out of games. I knew a punishment was going to be harsh -- and it should have been harsh. But a one-year suspension of the head coach, well, yikes. I'm impressed. ... And now maybe the NFL will also crack down on players who obnoxiously celebrate bone-crushing hits that lead to bone-crushing injuries.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Goldman Sachs's worst PR day ever
From a PR standpoint, it can’t get worse than this for a company: A Goldman Sachs executive resigns. He announces his resignation in the New York Times as an op-ed. He blasts his employers as not caring about clients. Indeed, he accuses GS leaders of promoting a culture of “ripping their clients off.” He names names. He’s not angry per se. Worse, from a PR perspective: He comes across as sad, disappointed, rational. ...
Goldman Sachs is hitting back. But the damage is already great. … I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before. In politics, yes. In corporate America, the outgoing exec is usually showered with golden-parachute hush money.
From a PR standpoint, it can’t get worse than this for a company: A Goldman Sachs executive resigns. He announces his resignation in the New York Times as an op-ed. He blasts his employers as not caring about clients. Indeed, he accuses GS leaders of promoting a culture of “ripping their clients off.” He names names. He’s not angry per se. Worse, from a PR perspective: He comes across as sad, disappointed, rational. ...
Goldman Sachs is hitting back. But the damage is already great. … I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before. In politics, yes. In corporate America, the outgoing exec is usually showered with golden-parachute hush money.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
About that earth-shattering Breitbart scoop
You may have heard about one of Andrew Breitbart's last major scoops: The Obama Hugs The Radical Video. It was allegedly suppressed for years by the evil MSM. But ... never mind. ... But the evil PBS probably didn't show the actual hug! ... Wait, it did, at the 1:45 mark. ... And so it goes.
You may have heard about one of Andrew Breitbart's last major scoops: The Obama Hugs The Radical Video. It was allegedly suppressed for years by the evil MSM. But ... never mind. ... But the evil PBS probably didn't show the actual hug! ... Wait, it did, at the 1:45 mark. ... And so it goes.
'The Knicks stink again'
I'm tempted to say: Gotta love it. But I don't hate the Knicks -- nor, for that matter, the Giants and Mets -- like I do the Yankees and, to a lesser degree, the current Jets. It's good for the NBA to have a competitive Knicks team. Lin pumped life and excitement back into the franchise. But, boy oh boy, they've stunk the house out ever since Carmelo Anthony came back from an injury. From Lin-sanity to Carmelo Crash.
I'm tempted to say: Gotta love it. But I don't hate the Knicks -- nor, for that matter, the Giants and Mets -- like I do the Yankees and, to a lesser degree, the current Jets. It's good for the NBA to have a competitive Knicks team. Lin pumped life and excitement back into the franchise. But, boy oh boy, they've stunk the house out ever since Carmelo Anthony came back from an injury. From Lin-sanity to Carmelo Crash.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
'Somewhere Johnny Most is smiling'
From Reader No. 1:
Update -- Reader AM on the Rondo trade talks: "The Celts want to trade him but they can't get value in return ... GMs around the league just don't think he's all that good, and he's kind of a jerk, and look there's a reason he got left off the national team ... that's what I'm reading and hearing about Rondo now -- exactly the same things were said about Pierce a few years ago."
From Reader No. 1:
Somewhere Johnny Most is smiling. I can just imagine him calling today's Celts-Knicks game...Johnny was certainly having one of his better days in the link above.
"Stoudamire BLOCKED by BASS, OUT OF NOWHERE BRANDON BASS, now Rondo bringin' the ball back upcourt and Stoudamire is STILL back under the basket with his act yapping at the officials about that block..." (In fairness, we got away with that one.)
"Garnett HAMMERED on the arm by Shumpert ball out of bounds and THEY'RE GIVING IT TO THE KNICKS! THEY"RE GIVING IT TO NEW YORK when Garnett was absolutely pulvarized by Shumpert!" (In fairness, they got away with that one. The Knicks also got away with Lin's absurdly obvious travel on his layup cutting it to 95-92, why no one complained about that is a mystery).
And of course - "Jeremy Lin may be a Harvard graduate but today... Rondo ab-so-lutely took Lin to school this afternoon."
Update -- Reader AM on the Rondo trade talks: "The Celts want to trade him but they can't get value in return ... GMs around the league just don't think he's all that good, and he's kind of a jerk, and look there's a reason he got left off the national team ... that's what I'm reading and hearing about Rondo now -- exactly the same things were said about Pierce a few years ago."
Rondo just killed off all those trade-talk rumors
Unless Trader Danny is insane. ... What a game by Rondo (18 pts. 12 reb. 20 ass.) and Pierce (clutch). From Reader No. 1: "As I said to fellow fan Daughter #2, we won't see many performances like Rondo's and Pierce's in a single game... And we still barely won though of course beating the Knicks is always hugely satisfying in and of itself."
Unless Trader Danny is insane. ... What a game by Rondo (18 pts. 12 reb. 20 ass.) and Pierce (clutch). From Reader No. 1: "As I said to fellow fan Daughter #2, we won't see many performances like Rondo's and Pierce's in a single game... And we still barely won though of course beating the Knicks is always hugely satisfying in and of itself."
Saturday, March 03, 2012
‘It is not progress when you become what you hate’
Peggy Noonan has a nice piece on the sad death of Andrew Breitbart, who Noonan had tangled with before and yet later grew to respect. While noting Breitbart agreed with her about how politics can twist and deform a human’s soul, she leaves you thinking about Andrew’s political passions, and those of other political activists, left and right:
Peggy Noonan has a nice piece on the sad death of Andrew Breitbart, who Noonan had tangled with before and yet later grew to respect. While noting Breitbart agreed with her about how politics can twist and deform a human’s soul, she leaves you thinking about Andrew’s political passions, and those of other political activists, left and right:
In a way the argument between conservatives and progressives is that for the left, everything is about politics. Because they seek to harness government and the law in pursuit of what they see as just and desirable ends, everything becomes a political fight. Conservatives fought that narrow, constricted, soulless view of life: "We are not only political, we have other spheres, we are human beings."Via Reader No. 1
But in their fight against liberalism and its demands, too many conservatives have unconsciously come to ape the left. They too became all politics all the time. Friendships were based on it, friendships were lost over it. "You agree with me? You're in. You don't? You're out." They became as good at ousting, excluding and anathematizing as Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, as Jacobins. As self-righteous, too, and as adept at dehumanizing the enemy.
It is not progress when you become what you hate, when you take on its sickest aspect.
The Saints' Bounty-gate is worse than the Pats' Spy-gate
It certainly is. ... But let's not fool ourselves too much: Every week during NFL seasons, we all watch games in which players roar, give high-fives, flex their muscles, and even dance and prance for the cameras after delivering bone-crushing hits to opponents. The Saints took it a step farther: Actually paying bonus money for hits that caused injuries. They should be punished severely. This is worse than Spy-gate. But, like Spy-gate, the offense in Bounty-gate is an extension of pre-existing intentions and actions by players and coaches. The NFL would be wise to also address the excessive on-field glorification and celebration of devastating hits. Here's one schtick I'd love to see banned ASAP. ... ESPN link via Reader No. 1
It certainly is. ... But let's not fool ourselves too much: Every week during NFL seasons, we all watch games in which players roar, give high-fives, flex their muscles, and even dance and prance for the cameras after delivering bone-crushing hits to opponents. The Saints took it a step farther: Actually paying bonus money for hits that caused injuries. They should be punished severely. This is worse than Spy-gate. But, like Spy-gate, the offense in Bounty-gate is an extension of pre-existing intentions and actions by players and coaches. The NFL would be wise to also address the excessive on-field glorification and celebration of devastating hits. Here's one schtick I'd love to see banned ASAP. ... ESPN link via Reader No. 1
