Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Policy Statement

The anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. This weblog shall show its respect for the tragedy of that day by not doing a single thing here to exploit its memory to sway public opinion or raise money. Thank you.

• Posted at 7:27 PM · LINK

Today's Hamburger Report

Consumer Reports rated fast food burgers and here's what they and their readers decided. In-N-Out and Five Guys tied for first place followed closely by Fuddruckers and a couple of places I've never tried. McDonald's fared especially poorly, finishing well behind even Jack-in-the-Box, Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Jr and White Castle.

Not that anyone's opinion matters but yours on a topic like this but I much prefer Five Guys to In-N-Out. I used to really like In-N-Out but my last half-dozen visits have all been disappointing and I've been wondering if they've changed or I have. Since their sales seem to be higher than ever, I'm guessing it's me. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's except that there are times, especially at airports, when they're just plain dependable and convenient...and maybe unavoidable. I still prefer them to Burger King and Jack-in-the-Box by a wide margin...and the last two times I went to Carl's Jr were the last two times I'll ever go to Carl's Jr. I like Wendy's, and White Castle struck me as a fun place to eat...once. (In light of McDonald's low rating, I assume none of the voters were factoring french fries into their evaluations. Five Guys really leaves In-N-Out in the dust if you're taking fries into account.)

By the way: If you do have to eat at a McDonald's, the best hamburger I've found there is the Quarter Pounder without cheese. This requires a bit of explanation. Once upon a time, you could go to a McDonald's and order a Quarter Pounder with or without cheese and they had both ready-made and rarin' to go...and probably sitting there for five or ten minutes before you ordered. At some point, they stopped pre-making them without cheese so now it's a special order and if you're lucky, they'll grill up a fresh (i.e., frozen) patty just for you. Any McDonald's hamburger has its shortcomings but they're all a lot better in the unlikely event you get them hot off the grill.

Thanks to Vince Waldron for letting me know about this survey. The gesture of my friend Vince is all the more touching when I consider that he's a vegetarian.

• Posted at 12:01 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here...meet my pal Colleen Doran, a very talented artist with an uncommon hunk of business acumen. Those two skills do not always go together, which is why you too often hear of creative folks who fear they won't be able to continue writing or drawing once their electricity is turned off. Or some of them do understand the "money stuff" but in any struggle between their creative impulses and common sense of livelihood, the latter loses out. (And what's really sad is when neglect of the contract or deal terms ends up wounding the work. I'm getting tearful calls now from an artist friend who's not only not being paid properly for his work, he's discovering he gave the publisher permission to destroy its integrity in a dozen different ways.)

So here's Colleen, who doesn't make such mistakes...and who is generously outspoken in advising others not to...

• Posted at 9:38 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Hendrik Hertzberg on the price of the Iraq War.

The last time here I wondered aloud about what the war had accomplished, I received two long e-mails from servicemen — one still in Iraq, one now over in Afghanistan, explaining Iraq from their viewpoints. They seemed to have been fighting completely different wars for different purposes and with different results.

• Posted at 9:36 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

I'm linking to this in large part because so many of you have sent me the link. TV scribe Fred S. Fox wrote the famous episode of Happy Days wherein Fonzie water-ski jumped over a shark. This triggered, years later, a phrase that entered popular speech — "jumped the shark." Mr. Fox is right that folks are misremembering if they think that scenario marked the demise of the series.

• Posted at 1:31 AM · LINK