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The last line is what got me. I'm just imagining an old fashioned water wheel that spins around when you pee on it. You could make it like the carnival game where you hit the base with a hammer to see if you can hit the bell. Sales of FloMax would skyrocket!

I saw the Yale study and had the same initial thought - why did they get those results? It's not the latter explanation, by the way, 2/3rds of people got more than their prior income in unemployment benefits ($600 federal plus the normal state benefit), and the result was statistically significant, meaning 2/3rds would have been irrational in the short term. I think what they're actually seeing is people thinking longer term combined with states that threatened to withdraw benefits if people didn't return to work. Anecdotally, servers and others locally are absolutely making the rational, short-term decision to stay home and accept more money. I've spoken to several restaurant owners that are dealing with this - I should add that most completely sympathize with the servers, who would see their actual earnings when they return plummet not just from the benefit level but even from their actual earnings prior to Covid. My guess is that they'll have to return in the absence of a benefit extension and we'll see a second leg down in consumer spending. I haven't heard this about cooks, though, interestingly. Perhaps it's the tips (and previously higher take home pay) that make the difference? I do think though that it's important to remember that all this behavior is exactly why experts argued for larger unemployment benefits - to incentivize people to stay home to flatten the curve. Framing benefits as a percentage of prior earnings would have worked at a lower cost, but the unemployment systems simply didn't allow for it. Sometimes policies are whatever works and is implementable rather than what's the absolute best way to accomplish something.

OK - so I'm going to wade into this discussion with a slight variant - best Bagel Sandwich. Call Your Mother just opened up a trolley in Bethesda (so that us MoCo people never have to leave the county) and I suggested my wife and daughter pick up bagels to start their road trip to NOLA for junior year. The next few hours were full of random texts about the best bagel sandwich ever and how they literally stopped driving so that they could completely enjoy it. The sandwich was the Sun City Bagel - everything bagel with eggs, bacon, cheddar, American cheese and spicy honey. Well - with those raves, I just had to try this bad boy out. Two weeks (and three bagel sandwiches later), I'm going to jump on the bandwagon. Damn. That's an amazing sandwich. I want to be a pig on the farm where they get that bacon. I'm just imagining those pigs chilling in mud hot tubs with twice daily massages or something. Ditto for the cheddar. The American cheese actually works well with the rest too. It's a belly bomb and is not helping me drop the Covid 19, but I consider my indulgences restrained based on how good this bagel was. There's a variant with pastrami instead of bacon but my bad Jew gene kept me fixated on the bacon. I'll let you know if I ever try the pastrami before I move. I did try the Banyan Tree, which is herbed cream cheese with bacon, jalapeño and red cabbage. Good, but nothing like the Sun City, which should be placed on top of a trophy case somewhere. We also tried the bagels (3 everything, 3 zaatar, 3 sesame and 3 plain) but we usually freeze ours to eat over the course of a couple weeks and we found that they tended to burn when you defrost and toast them before the insides were totally warmed. I'm sure that's not how Consumer Reports would test bagels, but it's how we actually eat them so we'll probably stick with Bethesda Bagels because what's the other option? Leave MoCo?

Back from our few nights in Shepherdstown. Nothing to report on the Bavarian Inn. We stayed there, but it was PACKED and a number of guests weren't exactly wearing masks so we just didn't feel comfortable dining there at all. Dinners were at Hecho en Mexico, which was decent American Mexican food, and the Press Room. A couple really good dishes - the Pork Milanese and our two salads (wedge and burrata over arugula). Maria's Taqueria was probably the best meal we had there - grabbed lunch and it was just a really solid taco place. Not horribly authentic (lettuce, cheese and tomato come on the tacos), but the meats were all so wonderfully cooked that it still hit the spot completely. As an aside, Harper's Ferry was a ghost town. I can't imagine the permanent pain this is going to cause to the surrounding communities. We went for a hike in the park, which was delightful. For some reason, though, the Parks Service has closed most of the parking lots so many of the best hikes are basically off limits unless you're really willing to work for it. I'm completely unclear what closing an unmanned parking lot accomplishes besides encouraging people not to get out and exercise in a responsible manner.

And all of the above was appreciated as I'm considering a couple nights there next week!

There's going to be a bloodbath at the regional and local bank level if rental rates reset lower (and I have a hunch that this is absolutely correct - I know many firms that are absolutely rethinking their office plans now that WFH has been proven effective). Regional banks can basically only compete in commercial real estate. It almost killed them during the GFC (and did kill those most exposed to construction) and will be even worse if the core portfolios take a hit. Cap rates are absurdly low right now but when the numerator goes down, that's what hurts.

The chef was cooking French classics well. I believe there was a death in the family (and restaurant management). Have to imagine that's hard to recover from even before Covid. We'll miss this chef and his work.

Cici's goes down next. As an aside, my wife and daughter had the bagel sandwiches from the Call Your Mother trolley and were raving.

This is the best state by state breakout of daily new cases I've seen. It's what comes up if you google 'coronavirus map'.

I still enjoy it. It's theater, but fun to see what great chefs can do when thrown a curveball. Even better when they just say - cook a great meal. I have to say that by the final five or so, I kept thinking how great the remaining contestants were as people (and I'd throw Eric from DC in this group as well). In other seasons, there were always a few jerks who you actively rooted against. Who goes on national tv and presents themselves that way?

Tortilla chips - crappy, industrial tortilla chips. Oh - and Popeyes. I've never had Beluga caviar, actually, so can't make any comparison there.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree here. While I do - on occasion - eat a McDonald's cheeseburger, it is not something I welcome or enjoy in any way. I would put any number of things light years ahead of MickeyDs. Forget some exquisite taste from Annabelle or Minibar or P&P, I mean even the simple stuff. I do agree that simple tastes can be just as pleasurable as the truly transcendent ones, though. They're just different.

they actually announced a change yesterday.

Veering between sharing your reaction and about to explode. Forget the crazy political and social views for a second, who thinks that treating employees like this is remotely acceptable? What made them stick around for so long? Not blaming the victims, but we've got to do better teaching people to out this early and often.

Sign of the apocalypse #245: The only decent place in this shopping center to eat goes down before Cici's and TGI Fridays.

OK - not sure I can help locally.

If the apps are having a hard time making money in the current environment, the business isn't sustainable. Adding a cool, scalable tech platform to a low-margin, manual business doesn't really change the core business. What do they say about solving negative gross margins with higher sales? As to discriminatory pricing, it absolutely does exist. Here's an article that's more comprehensive, but does include some discussion of that. There are other, trickier ways to get at the same thing. Popeye's, for example will include specials for in store that aren't available on their app for pickup or delivery.

Would the person need to be local?

I've encountered them in Malaysia as well.

Honestly, Cava would get my vote. Sweetgreen is good as well, but you somehow end up paying $18 for a salad, which seems absurd. Barrel & Crow has a good beet salad, but it's a smaller portion. Persimmon has a wedge salad that's not remotely healthy but tastes really good. Maybe Jaleo, where you could assemble some good tapas and call it a salad? Endives with goat cheese, Catalan spinach, and the Sauteed cauliflower with dates and olives are all good. The first is actually really easy to make at home. Good luck.

P.F. Chang's is vile. So, no.

Just had that awful moment where a restaurant that's been a big part of my life here in DC will have to close permanently if things don't turn around in the next week or two. I work in finance, I know this is all real in the abstract, but hearing it from a family favorite really was just a heart wrenching moment. What makes this even tougher is that this is a place that does delivery and carryout - and they're still just weeks from the end. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh.

Clone Wars is a bit more violent than Airbender - there's actual (cartoon) deaths. They're of clone troopers, usually, but I don't think that's really a distinction that the 6 year old mind can make. Our son watched it at age 7-8 and was totally fine, but it scared his slightly older friend so your mileage may vary. For what it's worth he - at age 11 - basically took the day off after school ended to finish watching Season 4 on May 4th - the day the last episode was released - so it made an impression.

I've had two really bad experiences and two really good ones. The two bad ones were at higher volume places. The first really good one was at Barrel & Crow, which is using a pared down menu, allowed wine purchases with a discount, and included a thank you note. Little Beast Bistro was also a good experience - totally contactless and on time. The higher volume places were essentially trying to do their normal menu, including customizations, with no adjustments for the reduced kitchen crew. I was given times (that were more than an hour out) but ended up standing outside for 45-90 minutes at each place. Not really convenient. I'd like to see more restaurants do dishes that take away the prep work, but are more family sized. Make me a great lasagna that I can heat up for four people or a taco kit with all the ingredients prepared and stored separately. That has to save time and effort on the restaurant's side as well.

Yes it is - that was my dinner last night (CSNY).