The customer is always right

Except at Celia's, apparently.

Recently I was upset with a couple of my favorite dining establishments. First I wrote this email:

I have enjoyed eating at Fresh Choice for a long time. Recently I
found out that I have a number of food sensitivities, so I have come
to appreicate the allergen info posted by almost all of the food
items. However, it's disappointing that every single soup has soy. I
am wondering if you could have one or two soups at a time for those of
us who are sensitive to soy?

To which I got this reply:

Thank you for your visit to our Fresh Choice Restaurants and for taking the time (yadda yadda yadda) ...

To address your concern regarding soy content. I've posed the question to the company that manufactures our soup bases and challenged them develop bases w/out soy. It's been amazing the response we have received in providing the nutritional and allergen information on our signs. This information has truly been well received from our guest and allows you to make an educated choice as to what to put in your body. It has also allowed us to make necessary changes such as what you are suggesting.

Thank you for dining with us!!!

Sincerely,
Ingrid Walatka
Fresh Choice LLC.

Not too bad for a national chain! At least they're listening and thinking about trying to fulfill my request.

Then, I wrote this letter, which I had to actually mail with stamp and everything because there's no contact email on their web site:

Dear Celia's Manager:

Last night, Friday, Feb 5, my family and I had a very disappointing experience at your restaurant. We were seated in the back room, and after about 10 minutes, the mariachi band started playing to the table right next to us. They stayed there for the rest of our meal. It was very loud; we had to shout to speak to the other people at our table and our ears were ringing within about 20 minutes. I asked the hostess if the band could move or if we could move, and she told me that neither option was a possibility. We ate and left. As we were walking to our car, we saw that the band was moving to a different part of the restaurant.

It was very frustrating to have our experience ruined in this way. Two or three songs would have been nice, but at the decibel level they were playing at, it was unexpected and very unpleasant. I hope you and your staff and the band can be more considerate of diners in the future.

No response.

The moral? Eat at Fresh Choice, but not Celia's.

Blog Action Day

What do you know? Someone told me what to blog about today! Very convenient.

So, how does climate change relate to my blog? Well, one of the overriding themes of my blog is my irritation about people being ignorant and/or stupid. Which is the basic tenet of climate change-denial. Well, that plus greed and laziness.

What. Is wrong. With people. Seriously.

Yesterday we had yet another fabulous block party. There was

* a great band, featuring our neighbor, Greg;
* food and drink;
* stomp rocketing in the middle of the street;
* and best of all, our wonderful neighbors hanging out with us.

There were also

* at least two people yelling obscenities at us;
* at least one person honking in anger and speeding off;
* and one folding chair, with a "McGarvey Closed Ahead" sign taped to it, stolen.

All this anti-social behavior was from people who consider McGarvey Avenue to be their own personal freeway. They are so oblivous that they don't see it as the residential street where people live, work, sleep and play with their kids. Seriously, is everyone so keyed up that they can't accept the closure of one block of a moderately busy street on a major holiday? It's not like we're closing the Bay Bridge or something.

Those lousy community organizers

Oh, how I love this. During the campaign Palin was all about how Obama didn't really have any responsibility as a "community organizer," and now she's going on and on about how she doesn't need some silly title like "governor" to work for Alaska. If Republicans really think she is their great hope, they may as well go home.

Nowhere is the power of resentment to trump reason more flagrantly illustrated than in the incessant complaint by Palin and her troops that she is victimized by a double standard in the “mainstream media.” In truth, the commentators at ABC, NBC and CNN — often the same ones who judged Michelle Obama a drag on her husband — all tried to outdo each other in praise for Palin when she emerged at the Republican convention 10 months ago.

....

The Palinists’ bogus beefs about double standards reached farcical proportions at Fox News on the sleepy pre-Fourth Friday afternoon when word of her abdication hit the East. The fill-in anchor demanded that his token Democratic stooge name another female politician who had suffered such “disgraceful attacks” as Palin. When the obvious answer arrived — Hillary Clinton — the Fox host angrily protested that Clinton had never been attacked in “a sexual way” or “about her children.”

Americans have short memories, but it’s hardly ancient history that conservative magazines portrayed Hillary Clinton as both a dominatrix cracking a whip and a broomstick-riding witch. Or that Rush Limbaugh held up a picture of Chelsea Clinton on television to identify the “White House dog.” Or that Palin’s running mate, John McCain, told a sexual joke linking Hillary and Chelsea and Janet Reno. Yet the same conservative commentariat that vilified both Clintons 24/7 now whines that Palin is receiving “the kind of mauling” that the media “always reserve for conservative Republicans.” So said The Wall Street Journal editorial page last week. You’d never guess that The Journal had published six innuendo-laden books on real and imagined Clinton scandals, or that the Clintons had been a leading target of both Letterman and Leno monologues, not to mention many liberal editorial pages (including that of The Times), for much of a decade.

Oh for Pete's sake

Really? Someone's trying yet again to build something on the bay in Redwood City? Yeah, that's worked out so well in the past.

I'm not the only one creeped out by Redwood Shores, right? A former council member who lived in Redwood Shores called it "Stepford Shores."

What a bunch of spoiled babies

"We want to be able to get to Santa Monica fast, without emitting greenhouse gasses, but only if the yucky part is in the *sniff* East Bay."

How much do you want to bet that the Shallow Altans, if they get their way, will roll their eyes and sigh about how they would love to take the train instead of flying, except they would have to go over the bridge to *gasp* Fremont!

STILL more evidence the TSA is evil and wants to ruin flying for everyone

This is from a guy we know who does massive bike trips around the world with his wife:

If anyone on the mailing list has any contact with the TSA, I would
greatly appreciate any help you can give. My fuel bottle, and
incredibly difficult to find fuel pump for my MSR Whisperlite
International Stove, were removed by the TSA in San Francisco, without
us being paged (we were at the flight over four hours early),
and despite the fact that this fuel bottle and fuel pump have never
been used, and never contained any fuel within them (and thus are
completely safe for flying).

I'm not sure what we're going to be able to do. We're incredibly
beat after 40 hours of travel, and have no more internet time.
If anyone could help with this, I'd greatly, greatly appreciate it.

Here's some of the details:

Hello,

My name is Greg Kaiser. I flew Delta Flight 618 out of SFO on
Saturday, Feb. 14. I received notice that a fuel bottle was
removed from my luggage. I got then notice when I arrived at my
final destination, CPT (Cape Town, South Africa). According to the
card, this was done by Covenant Aviation Security, LLC,
Screener ID: 126374.

This fuel bottle has never been used, nor never contained any fuel
of any sort. Thus, it is not in violation of any TSA Safety Restrictions.
Furthermore, within this fuel bottle was the fuel pump for my Mountain
Safety Research (MSR) Whisperlite International Camp Stove. Like the
fuel bottle, this fuel pump has never been used, and never been exposed
to any fuel.

My wife and I now find ourselves in Cape Town, South Africa, about to
embark on a large scale bicycle tour
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bicycle-safari), and find ourselves
without the means to cook food, or without our backup source for
boiling water. We have all the other components of this piece of
equipment which is vital to our survival (including the stove itself,
which your agents correctly did not remove from our luggage, and an
entire field repair kit).

If you still have this fuel bottle and fuel pump in your possession,
we request that you immediately ship it to our hotel in Cape Town.
Time is very short, as Feb. 20 will be our last day in the hotel.
If you do not still have this fuel bottle and fuel pump in your
possession, we request that you immediately contact Mountain Safety
Research to get at least a replacement fuel pump to our hotel no
later than Feb. 20 to correct this mistake.

The hotel my wife (Mary Kelly) and I (Greg Kaiser) are at through
Feb. 20 is:

Best Western Cape Suites Hotel
Corner De Villiers & Constitution Street,
Cape Town 7925
South Africa

We have very limited internet access and are 7 to 10 hours time
difference from your officies. We hope you can resolve this
mistake immediately, as we put considerable effort into assuring
that all of our luggage meets TSA standards, and do not want our
once-in-a-lifetime trip, or our health and survival on this trip,
threatened by your mistake.

Thank you,

Greg Kaiser

I would cancel my HBO if it weren't for Flight of the Conchords

and Big Love.

Replacing Bob Costas with JOE BUCK?!? Just to clarify, HBO didn't fire Costas or anything -- if that were the case, I actually WOULD cancel HBO. He left to go to the new MLB network.

HBO executive: "Let's replace the Greatest Mind of Our Generation with a total tool."

Breathable air = fascism

There is so much hilarity in this Mercury News story, I envy the writer who had to work on Christmas Day to produce it.

Critics say the new law is government run amok.

Miller, the firewood seller, said he is particularly offended by the air district's complaint line, which allows people to report on neighbors. "That smacks of Marxism,'' he said.

...

Vince Noack, a retired contractor from Santa Clara, said: "I think this damn law is absolutely criminal. It's going to put hundreds of firewood people out of business at a time when the economy is already falling apart.''

As a young man in the U.S. Army, Noack said, he landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and helped liberate two Nazi death camps. "And now I can't even light my fireplace when I want,'' Noack, 86, said with a sigh.

Galen Mitrzyk, a Palo Alto resident, said he agrees with Noack. "This man put his life on the line fighting fascism,'' said Mitrzyk, 53. "He has a right to burn a fire.''

Mitrzyk, who once worked in marketing for Hewlett-Packard, has been battling the air district, arguing that the new law is unconstitutional because fire is a key part of pagan rituals.

Mitrzyk, a neo-pagan pantheist, performs a fire-gazing ritual in his backyard in which he builds a small fire in a chiminea, a freestanding fireplace. He said the day he performs the ritual is based in part on the full moon, and if the lunar calendar happens to conflict with a Spare the Air alert he's going to start the fire whether the district likes it or not.

Cub = moron

Apparently you have to have an IQ lower than the president's to be on the Cubs.

"Maybe we underestimated how prepared you have to be, how ready you have to be, especially in a five-game series," Dempster said. "It's like a short heavyweight bout. Ding, the bell is ringing, you've got to go."

So, did they not know that it was a five game series? That they had to win three whole games, or, more importantly, not lose that many? The year after being swept in the playoffs?

I don't want to hear any more effing excuses out of these losers. Thank you.

Well, this is just silly

So the Yes on 8 people are bitching and moaning because the No on 8 people are calling for boycotts of their businesses. Um, so? When they made donations to Yes on 8, they should have known those donations would become part of the public record. If they didn't know that, too bad for them. Witchhunt? Um, no. Boycotts are a totally legitimate political tool.

And, as always, I am tired or hearing the anti-gay-marriage people try to explain how they don't hate gay people, they just don't want them to be happy.

Top Five Friday; late because I'm bitter and angry

Random tidbits from the debate:

5) Joe Biden spends a lot of time at Home Depot.

4) Apparently one doesn't need to know the causes of a problem in order to solve it.

3) Bosniaks.

2) O'Biden

1) "Yooo betcha!"

For some actual analysis of debate, see this post and this one by Josh Richman.

Dumb and dumber

According to two of the popular stories on the New York Times web site, teenagers don't know much about his-tor-ee and our president -- yes the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- appeared on a game show hosted by Howie Mandel.

You mean, it really wasn't Bartman's fault?

Thanks, Moises, for clearing that up.

I can't believe we're still talking about this.

And apparently Bartman isn't the only one who wants to move on. Says Aramis Ramirez:

"Like I've said before, he probably had a shot to make a play, but the ball was in the stands," Ramirez said. "Any other fan in that situation would have done the same thing because they all do that, every time. I don't know if [Alou] was going to make the play or not, but he had a shot to make it."

Why are we still talking about this? Oh, that's right, because it's the closest the Cubs have come to getting in to the World Series in 63 years, except for the time when Leon Durham pulled a Bill Buckner two years before Bill Buckner did it...

"Automatically becomes portable when carried."

That was the statement printed on the cardboard surrounding a CD case we saw today at Big Lots. I really should have taken a picture.

One in five Americans...

can't point out the U.S. on a world map? I know a kindergartener who can name all seven continents!

TSA missing thousands of badges

Yeah, this is a little old. But can they really keep us safe if they can't keep track of their own badges (not to mention a guy with TB who's on the no-fly list)?

Security theater

That's what my husband calls it. He's right, of course. Those folks with the TSA badge-patches are actors (albeit surly bullies of actors who couldn't get actual jobs as rent-a-cops) in a play portraying safer skies.

The TSA must be operating under the assumption that the average person equates hassle with safety. "The more of a pain it is to get on a plane, the harder it must be to hijack/blow up/fly into a building!" So far, the effect on me is that they've unrepentantly stolen one of my son's shoes and confiscated a 4 ounce travel bottle half full of sunscreen.

Two words: Box turtle

Santorum in talks to become Philly Inquirer op-ed columnist


Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum says his talks with the Inquirer are "informal" and the column "may or may not happen." Publisher Brian Tierney confirms "low-level discussions" with Santorum, but puts the chances of the politico's column ever appearing at "one out of 1,000. We'd probably be more likely to have Dan Rather write a column for us. Seriously. And I'm not being facetious."

More dumb abstinence stuff

The administration also has budgeted another $241.5 million for abstinence-only programs in 2007. Kirby compared California and Texas, two states he said were similarly populous and were home to many Hispanics, a group whose teen pregnancy rates are high.

"California took a very progressive approach," he said. "Texas pushed abstinence and made it a little more difficult for teens to receive contraceptives. Pregnancy did go down between 1991 and 2004, but Texas had the second-lowest decline of all states, 19 percent. California had the second-greatest decrease, 46 percent.

"What's really sad is that Bush is trying to take some of the policies that didn't work in Texas and implement them nationwide."

...

Claire Brindis, a professor of pediatrics and health policy at UCSF ... believes comprehensive sex education should be required, rather than merely permitted, by the state.

"Because there are so many myths out there," Brindis said, and teens grow up in a culture dense with sexualized mass media.

"One myth I've heard is that a person can't get pregnant the first time, and by the way, 20 percent of teens do. I've heard that if your boyfriend drinks Mountain Dew you won't get pregnant, or if you have sex standing up. Or if you sit on a cold sidewalk after you have sex -- I heard that in Southern California.

"I see in my work how early childbearing is both a result of poverty and how it contributes to an endless cycle of poverty. There's a lot of people who believe knowledge is dangerous, that if you give kids more information about condoms they'll go out and have sex.

"But isn't it better," Brindis asked, "to give young people and our large immigrant population the tools to plan? I can't think of anything more moral."