Monthly Archives: March 2017

The sad/annoying thing about Trump's speech last night to Congress is that people are praising it because he didn't sound like too much of a know-nothing demagogue. The bar has been set so low for a Trump speech that he's considered "presidential" if he gets through it with only minor lies and brags. Here are some links…

• Jeff Shesol explains why what Trump said in the speech he wants to do is not in sync with the directions in which his administration is actually heading.
• Trump says he wants to increase the defense budget by $54 billion. Kevin Drum explains why that's not possible under the rules. So my question is that when Trump announced his plan, did no one tell him that it's not as easy as he thinks? Does he think he has a way around the rules? Or a way to attract Democratic support? Or is this maybe a bluff to be sacrificed in service of some other, possible goal? Beats me.
• The Yemen raid last month is the kind of thing that, had it occurred under a Democratic administration, would have caused Republicans to immediately hold Benghazi-style hearings — and lots of them. They'd be out there arguing that the recklessness of the President had gotten a good, loyal American soldier killed needlessly. But Democrats don't have that ability to gin up outrage and didn't even when they had control of Congress. Daniel Larison is shocked that Trump will probably get away with it and maybe be equally reckless in the future.
• As Jonathan Chait notes, the new plan is to try and pass an Obamacare replacement so quickly that no one will really get an idea of what's in it or what it would do. There's only one reason our lawmakers ever do that.

Stephen Colbert's live show last night following the Trump speech was amazingly good, given how little time he and his writers had to assemble the monologue and desk spot. I'm not sure every bit of it was live but the parts that obviously were were really sharp and they felt truly connected to the day's events. Wish he'd do more of that.

Okay, forget Trump. It's March 1 so there are two more important topics. One, of course, is that the month of March is when the Souplantation restaurant chain — known in some areas as Sweet Tomatoes — offers their Classic Creamy Tomato Soup. This is my favorite soup so I'll be dining at those places often during the next thirty days.  If you'd like to do the same, you can find out if there's one in your area on this page.

A few years ago, I had a relentless campaign going on this blog to persuade the company to make this soup a part of their regular lineup. I spoke to many people at the company. I blogged. I even indirectly caused Souplantation to be mentioned on the TV shows, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. The company thanked me with a lot of passes for free meals but did they heed my pleas and make my favorite soup available the other eleven months of the year? Nooooo.

Then in October of 2016, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and announced the closure of 20-30 restaurants and a few months later…

San Diego-based Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which owns the Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, will sell its assets to a New York private investment firm as part of its bankruptcy restructuring plan. The sale, which was approved in bankruptcy court on Monday, is expected to be completed by late January. Garden Fresh said that that once it emerges from Chapter 11 later this month, the restaurants remaining will total between 90 and 104.

I'm not saying the bankruptcy could have been avoided if they'd listened to me but the bankruptcy could have been avoided if they'd listened to me.

Actually, I haven't set foot in a Souplantation since last March. After being a steady customer — even during those dreary months when they didn't offer my soup — I found that all three of the ones I was frequenting had gone way, way down in quality. Maybe that had something to do with the changeover in ownership and maybe it was only temporary. I'll find out when I venture back into one in the next day or so.

I'm hoping they'll be back to their old standard so I can become a regular again. If not, I'll just send my assistant over for the rest of this month to get "to go" orders of the soup. And if they're really bad — like, so bad they make me sick — I'm ready for that because of the other important March topic. Tomorrow, I turn 65 and as of today, I'm on Medicare.

Today on Stu's Show, Stu Shostak welcomes actor Jon Provost and his wife, author-historian Laurie Jacobson. Jon, of course, is best remembered for his years playing Timmy on the TV series, Lassie. There, he did the near-impossible. He was a kid on television I didn't want to slap for making kids look stupid. When I was young, I couldn't stand most actors my age. It was pretty much just Provost and Ron Howard. Anyway, he'll be discussing what happened to his life and career after he left Lassie, while Laurie will be sharing great stories from her books on Hollywood history. Oughta be a good show.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there and then. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond. Then shortly after a show concludes, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a bargain 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. They're great to listen to if you're ever trapped in a well.