jayandstacey

Yeah, that works. No argument here and yes, I used to DJ down in the bars, so direct drive was for me - belts were just things that could break and make my night sad, while noise was what I was being paid to generate! I picked up two of these Technics 1200 emulations and love them - not hyper expensive and get the job done. The clip holding the tone arm busted on one...not too big a deal though. As for buying vinyl - I used to own a vinyl record store and while picking up a stack of 45s feels a little like Cal Ripken picking up a baseball after a long while...it is also an addiction I need to keep at bay. So I limit myself to like 15 minutes or 5 records or $10 at a time...then we're done and I have to put it down and walk away

I'm a little late to the party but a few ideas: 1. Rock and Roll Graveyard in Frederick MD. I once discussed record cleaning there and ended up in a 60 minute conversation on the subject with other patrons chiming in. There was some deep kmowledge there. 2. Get an opinion from a real pro: amps and more (ampsandmore.com) in Westminster, MD. It may take 2 weeks and you may pay for it but you will get the best opinion or service possible. 3. Self-assess: IMHO, a turntable needs 3 things to be usable: the ability to swap out the cartridge for decent ones, the ability to adjust the weight on the arm so you don't carve up your records, and either a good direct-drive system or the ability to fine tune the speed. Now, you didn't mention what kind of rehab you want, to make a player (that may end up with franken-parts) or to make an accurate reconditioning of the antique that may not actually play well. I suspect the former as you asked about record stores, not antique stores. My suggestions above are geared toward something you use and your concern is functionality, vs something you refinish and preserve. anyway, good luck and if you've already moved past this then maybe someone else is helped!

You know, looking at a map... Maybe a clean cut would be to use Rte 32 - it seems to be just about where you have the line currently in the Columbia/Laurel area. (is it? What do you use along I-95?) It extends above I-70 and is kind of shaped like an outer beltway for Baltimore. That would move your line to where it would split Eldersburg - but - I wouldn't fret over that one. Eldersburg has Liberatore's Italian food, Oscar's Alehouse, J&Y sushi, Nora's Kabobs, Franks pizza and a slew of fast food joints on the Baltimore side of rte 32, and really only Salerno's Crabs on west side. All of the Sykesville restaurants are on the west side, including Baldwin Station, French Twist crepes and E.W. Becks Pub (which I went to twice in two weeks - both for brunch. The first time was terrific, and the next was oddly different and not in a good way - changed menu, no specials, couldn't make the drinks we had two weeks before...very odd...) It's a pretty clean cut up there. Besides, as I drive through that part of MD toward Baltimore, it feels like crossing the Liberty Reservoir area is the point where I'm entering greater Baltimore. But maybe that's just me. Maybe this suggestion only shifts your problem to the East about 10 miles - but maybe it also keeps you from getting out the magnifying glass to see if the Carroll county line goes behind the restaurant's dumpster or in front of their door. :) Further edit - Brick Ridge is a few miles north of Mt. Airy Proper - so if you took your plan (to just include all Mt. Airy in either Carroll or Frederick) where would THAT line be drawn? (any answer is ok so long as it isn't near any restaurants!)

Sometimes you have to draw a line somewhere! That's partly why I compared Brick Ridge to Monocacy Crossing...I don't have the culinary expertise to compare it to some universally well-regarded place, and each time I've been to Brick Ridge I've decidedly not eaten critically, rather I've just sat back and enjoyed. It is certainly comparable to Monocacy Crossing in that it just sits curiously on a treed two-lane road, more like eating in Vermont than Maryland. Maybe someone else can better review the dishes. I'd judge that it would get decent marks, though I don't think it tries to be on a par with someplace like Patowmack Farm. Holy Shit - you have no idea. I was just reading the other day that rural roads are 5x more likely to have accidents, and they will be deadlier, even accounting for their reduced traffic. My wife works at the high school along 27 and there hasn't been a year that's gone by in the last 15 years or so where a student wasn't killed on 27 or in the roads around Damascus/Mt. Airy. Every year, one or more kids, all either students or recent former students. This year...hell, this week...was no exception and 3 boys didn't make graduation. About 6 months ago my car's engine died while heading up rte 27 - all power lost suddenly. Luckily I was able to drive it into someone's yard and get it just off the road - but had that happened 1/4 mile ahead or behind - I would have been a sitting duck. (the lawsuits are in progress over that one...) That road is insane. I get that for much of the rest of the country that may be the norm, but it is different from the rest of MoCo and the DC area. And a bad different. No doubt the first time. No doubt. circle the calendar As they've done this for (I think) all 16 years they've been there, and the specials are limited and the ownership has been consistent, I'd also imagine they've had a chance to reduce the risk that comes with this method...supply risk, execution risk, etc. I love it because no matter when I go I know there will be a few things I've never seen offered before. I'll leave it to others to determine how successful this is; it works for me. I do, however, know enough to ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE it is better then the America restaurant that used to be Union Station. Cool - I live down the road from Black Ankle (next to Talbot Run stables). Cool place, I'm just not into wine, though my wife is. So we'll have to go back up and pay Jen a visit! BTW, you have "roadside diner" as a tag...I guess that's accurate on some level, but this is a white tablecloth, wine glasses and slacks kind of place, I think 'diner' misses the mark a little bit, but it also doesn't look like the tag has been applied anywhere else so maybe not!

They sat, in one location, 575,000 guests in one year?!??! That's 1575 people served every day of the year. Whoa...

Not sure if there is a separate thread for Vintage, so here's a small review: We had a nice meal here a few weeks ago. The hotel dining interior is decorated in architectural antique-store distressed shutters and wall coverings - not cluttered but...you'd better like distressed things The colors are 50 shades of white. Our waiter was excellent, on point. Appetizers: the pretzel bites were kind of bland, the deviled eggs were fine...the standouts were the hush puppies and the buffalo blue chips - housemade chips with mild buffalo sauce and blue cheese crumbles, very nice and light. Main: I had catfish which was nicely breaded and cooked nicely though mildly spiced. It was served on a bed of really delicious corn, almost in chowder form (kind of creamed corn I suppose) and topped with "southern chow-chow" made of beans and its REALLY sweet. I suppose the mild catfish was nice relative to the tangy sweetness of the chow-chow. The main portions were all quite large - the chicken and waffles included a mountain of chicken piled on! Chef Stephanie Wilson was recently nominated for the MD restaurant association's 'chef of the year award.' I had not been to the Mealy's incarnations (despite my posts about Mealy's) but I'd go back to Vintage. They seem to be pretty popular.

So, I live pretty far away from the beltway now and I'm not sure if this should be in the Washington DC or Baltimore forum (it is just on the Carroll side of the Frederick/Carroll county line). Brick Ridge is a quaint little roadside restaurant that does much better than you'd expect on the way to Westminster. They've been there since 2000 and have been cycling through the 50 states, offering specials from that state, one different state each week during the year, for many years. Yes, this sounds gimmicky and risky but I've enjoyed it. I've been 4 times maybe as I now live very close. I'm not going to comment on particular dishes but will give an overall sense of the place. I would put it on a par, or maybe better, with Monocacy Crossing, which is to say it is food prepared by a kitchen that knows how to cook well. I'd say the dining rooms are nicer/brighter at Brick Ridge. The menu will typically have 10 or 15 standards that stick around (duck, steak, etc) that include safe options and a few more adventurous dishes. Then each week they offer a handful of dishes from that week's chosen state - so for instance, here's this week's Montana specials menu: Custer’s Last Stand - $7.00 - Rum, Vodka, Tequila, Triple Sec and Blackberry Liqueur Served Over Ice Potato and Spring Pea Soup - $4.95 - Chicken Broth Based Soup with Potato, Spring Peas and Carrots with Sourdough Croutons Lamb Patties - $10.95 - Ground Lamb and Green Onion Patties with a Lemon and Mint Aioli Bison Ribeye - $28.00 - A Grilled Ten-Ounce Bison Ribeye ~ Chipotle Pepper Glaze Wild Steelhead Trout - $24.00 - Flat Iron Grilled Fillet of Wild Trout ~ Blackberry-Merlot Butter Big Sky Blackberry Crème Brume Brule - $6.00 The owner Todd Bricken is ever-present and the staff is very experienced and always helpful. Given that each week they are changing gears on some items, taking some risks and such...I'd expect that they occasionally serve an off dish. I'm glad to be close by though and would recommend this place...given the mix of safe and adventurous, quality and comfort...to anyone.

This is my tried-and-true "foist rule." I don't go seeking the ethics/stance/positions/policies of a company (or candidate, or friend, or really anything) ...BUT... if they are going to foist it upon me, if they are going to put it in my face by the media, their menu, their symbols or otherwise - then they risk that I might either disagree with it or pause to verify it. And that may result in me never being a customer again for reasons that have nothing to do with the company's product. And yes, I agree. Definitely worth the review. I guess there can be different ways to achieve 0 stars, and that's just fine!

Yeah, this is kind of the point I was making up-thread, a while (2 years?) ago. FF has figured out how to get the green credit while not actually committing. That's it. We would generally think that credit would come from simply providing information and being truthful. So someone like Dean lists his food sources on his menu. Turns out, that appeals to a minority but doesn't hit the homerun (it doesn't hurt much either...I'll explain...) Instead, FF teaches us that a vague story allows consumers to paint their own perfect picture. And they provide the "paint" in SPADES - the rough wood on the walls ("oh, that must be from the older dairy barn in the pasture out past the willow tree!") to the old-timey water bottles ("yes, frugality is an important farm ethic!") to the checkered shirts worn by the staff ("I don't know why farmers wear tablecloths but I know a farmer when I see one!") By not being specific, they get credit for being PERFECT. Because generally people want to construct that perfect story in their minds. Not to criticize Dean at all (or anyone who provides specifics...) but here's maybe some of the mentality behind indicating "sourced from Bob's farm in La Plata, MD" on a menu: "Yeah, La Plata was hot and kind of plain when I was down there. This restaurant is nice, upscale...I hope they cleaned everything well first..." or that kind of thing. There's no paint to help the story along and the specificity of something like La Plata makes it real - and real isn't ever prefect. La Plata just isn't Normal Rockwell's Farm no matter how nice it may be. I also don't think it deserved 0 stars. I was at a restaurant that seated me not more than 5 feet from a 5 gallon bucket of grey water with trash floating in it. The food was lukewarm, and the A/C was broken...that's the kind of crap that is worthy of shutting the doors. Yeah, I haven't mentioned the quality of the food...but what difference does it make if you're staring at stagnant dirty water? I'm not saying FF has good food (though I didn't say it was bad in my posts a while back...) rather that I continue to be fascinated in how the concept they've brought to market is hitting a grand slam. And I have to suspect that somehow, THAT's what has Tom all fired up. We (Washingtonians in general) are suckers for this stuff.

This is cool and I think it could do really well. Right now, there is an arcade in Hanover PA that 'gets it' and has hourly rates, special events and such. They do well enough to recently announce a new location. Meanwhile the arcade at Crab Towne USA in Glen Burnie has some great machines but doesn't promote the arcade much. I also like a few spots on the Jersey Shore, particularly Jilly's arcade in Ocean City, NJ and the SilverBall museum in Asbury Park. There are a few reasons why I think this could succeed: It represents a new social activity that is comfortable/known, not expensive and can be very interactive. It is age/gender/talent neutral. (vs something like bowling which not everyone can do) It has that 'retro' feel that is so hipster There are new machines - including new machines that play old games. Most exciting, to me, are virtual pinball machines played full-scale, like this. They play just like the real things yet don't have all the repair issues that complex pinball machines can have. One word of caution to anyone considering such a business: Don't call it a museum. That makes people think they would be looking at the games and NOT playing them. SilverBall survives because it is on the boardwalk and established itself.

Yeah, Im a bit unfair, like ragging on a neighborhood that scores a 9/10 because it is next door to a 9.5/10 one. I owned in Lakelands for a while and enjoyed it very much. Interestingly, the building architecture is somewhat different, one being more of a Cape Cod / Caymans cottage look, the other being more colonial. What's the same is the layout and design principles of the neighborhood. --- Dog Haus Biergarten (pras)

It is literally the opposite approach to planning and development. I'm in Columbia now and driving around here just makes me insane

You are right that if people are left to their own devices, they could build a great neighborhood. No one designed Venice, or London. No one built all of Alexandria or Annapolis in one swoop. Sadly, the world doesn't work that way anymore and developments are how housing gets done these days. Evans Farm is a good example of the worst of this. The houses are beautiful as are the common areas. But - there's no store to walk to? No shopping? No school or church? It is a bedroom community, just like so many others. It looks like people have little if any reason to come out of their houses and form a community. I imagine they are ok with that - that the neighbors are just extras in the occasional play they put on at their house for invited guests. New urbanism says that neighborhoods should not be walled - Chinatown doesn't have an "exit". They should be thriving places where people not only want to be, but where they can add and make them better over time. Evans Farm is not that. Nice houses, but not the ideal.

Yes, I believe they finally approved the Kentlands master plan, which allows for the buildout of the "Kentlands side" of the retail area - the rectangle from Whole Foods to Buca de Beppo. Right now, that area is all one-story shops, and it isn't really supposed to be that way. Part of a true new-urbanist design is to allow growth where growth wants to go into already-created areas. NYC wouldn't be NYC if they limited building heights to 1 floor. I believe Gaithersburg made a mistake in letting Crown go vs. unleashing Kentlands first, but in time they will likely both grow. The next step for Kentlands is to have the Whole Foods to Buca area expand to 4 to 5 stories, a la Rockville Town center. That will make the retail more viable and continue to attract new folks. Probably the biggest hurdle is that whole strip is owned by one developer who may not have the resources to pull off an upward expansion. One could argue that a basic rule of new urbanism is that small lots are individually owned so they develop and grow independently - such that even if I don't have money to expand my building, your neighboring expansion floats my boat. Right now Kentlands, at least that chunk, is locked up pretty tightly.

Two points: 1. The "movie set" feeling is, I believe, an artifact of the idea that there has been SOOO little new construction that looks like this - like a "main street" - in the last 100 years. Annapolis, Alexandria, parts of DC - they're older and have this look. So a new version must be fake - because, it isn't a mall or a big box store. It doesn't feel real. I get it, but within a few days of being there it becomes very nice 2. Those aren't fake balconies. They are floor-to-ceiling windows (doors, really) that merely have an iron railing across so the people don't fall out. The owner could sit there on a nice Saturday morning and enjoy breakfast looking out over the farmer's market, and get a nice breeze and a view. Something not as possible with the regular windows in the other units. Kentlands doesn't have much of that fake stuff - if you see dormers on the roof, there's generally living space behind them.

OK, I'll try to sort this out Kentlands was one of the original "new urbanism" developments. There have been 100s since, and I'd say that the vast majority have distorted the intent, as DaveO points out. And Kentlands itself had some compromises, as I'll point out. But at its heart, it is one of the better attempts in the US at what can be a really great place. New Urbanism is really best described as anti-Columbia MD. It seeks to accomplish a number of goals: To group buildings by their scale, not by their use. To make public spaces for humans, not cars. To make communities where people can (in theory) live, work, shop and pray without leaving. To accomplish these goals, architects and developers had to overcome MANY zoning laws that had developed over time. The kinds of zoning laws that created Columbia MD, where there are no sidewalks and you have to drive for anything outside of your house. I think new urbanism is best described in this entertaining video. At the end of it all, new urbanism aims to create places that people love and want to defend. Big box areas are not that - and Europe created such places over many centuries without zoning laws and such. The simple argument is that zoning laws and the priority of the car over the human inadvertently created places that aren't enjoyable, and are really anti-social. So back in the early 80s, architect Andres Duany wanted to design on this vision. He went to Gaithersburg and gave them the hard sell, which meant not only asking for a development but variances for all kinds of zoning and housing laws - they needed to buy into the vision. Here's the presentation he gave - I find it fascinating. And I recall watching him give this to the Gaithersburg council many, many moons ago. This video is from San Antonio, who declined the offer. Gaithersburg accepted and set to work getting all the variances and such needed. (Side note: As a simple example of the variances needed, Gaithersburg (like pretty much every town) has rules about how curved a curb must be - i.e., how the curb, as it follows a right angle, is curved. In places like Alexandria, you'll see a very tight curb radius, making the turn very sharp. On a highway on/off ramp, the curve radius is HUGE, maybe 1/4 mile to make the right angle. A wide curb radius does two things - it allows a car to go faster around the turn, and it makes a human crossing the street have a longer walk to get to the opposite corner. It is pro-car, anti-human. The streets in Kentlands aimed to reduce curb radii, while still allowing emergency vehicles through - making it a better place to walk and slowing traffic down overall. An existing rule that says "a road with X expected traffic must have at least a Y curb radii" is intended to be "safer" for cars, but the result is a faster intersection, making things more dangerous to walkers. And such rules are hard to overcome and not worth it for most developers.) As mentioned above, financing became an issue at one point - and a chunk of the property was cut loose for retail. That's the area from Lowe's to Not Your Average Joe's and Brasserie Beck. To the chagrin of the builders, it went "traditional" with giant parking lots and a strip mall look. But the shops in the true Kentlands area are more like the picture above. That particular picture shows part of the little Kentlands square (triangle, really) where in the summer they offer concerts on the lawn - which is very community building. Part of the science going on it that picture - the buildings are multi-use (so the shop owner could live above the store), the cars are welcome but slowly and people get priority to walk in front of the stores, and the store fronts are lined up and in a room-like area (the triangle) which is the kind of place people like to be. Back in the Kentlands neighborhood, houses have alleys for services (trash, mail, etc), Along the houses, lots were given to builders 'randomly' so there would be different styles, and in fact the same design could not be built within site of another like it. The roads have "terminating vistas" where the fancier houses are put such that people drive to them, making them very visible. And the houses have allowances for apartments, such as over the garage - for nannies or grandparents (which addresses a lower-income housing issue.) The result is generally higher density - while making places people want to be. And that's easily shown by the property values. Not everyone likes to live close to others, but living in a great place makes it a positive, not a negative. The second big concession was next door, in Lakelands which was built 10 years later. There's no line between Lakelands and Kentlands; and by the time the developers got to Lakelands they began cutting all the corners we so in so many BAD 'new urbanist' communities since then. The houses have repeating designs; the cars are given more primacy, the density is higher and there's less mixed-use buildings. It's not much better than any other community. So the real Kentlands is surrounded by the compromised retail and by the compromised Lakelands area. It is great at its core but insulated such that a visitor would never know. And most visitors have, by now, seen the more recent bad versions of "neo traditional neighborhoods" and are rightfully skeptical. It is better than that.

Details of his licensing deal with Ceasar's.

My guess: Cava was the main restaurant issue. They are basically the same restaurant concept, though I'm sure both would argue that. I suspect Chipotle was tossed in there as an argument why they weren't drawing the 15 year old crowd that doesn't mind e-coli risks. The real issue was likely that they were outside the mall, lumped with car gas/repair/dealership places. I don't like malls, but that's the only game in that part of town. While I doubt it cost very much to open that Roti, it sounds like they learned a hard lesson here.

And to address the other item- sure, 2 digit years are fine. Though I'd like to think that something, anything (maybe?) I do might be viewed by someone soooo distant from me that they wonder (care) in what actual year that thing was made. Unlikely. So two digits.

When building a document storage/archive solution, one must balance the sorting and retrieving features against the "user pain" aspect, as an archive is worth zippity if users don't put things in it. In a recent such exercise, we judged usability so high that in fact we decided on no unique archival tool at all. Instead, we just used Windows file system, but with a simple naming convention. When naming files or folders in Windows, a date is not recognized - but a "last edited" date is automatically captured. So let's say you want to save a batch of documents related to a project and you want the project folder to reflect the delivery date for the project. So your naming convention is (say): customer - delivery date - project manager So now your folder looks like: CustomerX - 1-9-15 - Bob Smith But Windows won't sort this chronologically; it doesn't "know" that's a date. So you have to present the date in a way that Windows will sort chronologically as it is really just sorting alphabetically. That requires two things: -,YYYY-MM-DD format, and - two digits always for DD and MM. So the folder name above should instead be: CustomerX - 2015-01-09 - Bob Smith Viola! To answer your question, yes.

If a menu item costs $18.50, then it costs $18.50, Not $18.5 Enough. From now on, im going to request a "fill in" for the missing digit. "Oh, fifty? OK, great, thanks for that clarification. Because it didn't say that and I wasn't 100% sure with the missing digit. I mean, I guess I was 90% sure, because the cents could have only been 50 or 51 or 52 or 53 or 54 or 55 or 56 or 57 or 58 or 59 - not any of the other possibilities like 43 cents, or 89. Don't get me wrong, I was thankful for the 5. It let me know what neighborhood we were in, you know, the ballpark amount of pennies for that dish. But it just wasn't quite enough to get us there, you know? Just a little shy..."

So, about three weeks after I posted above, my mother passed away. She went from swimming at a July 4th party with us to gone by Thanksgiving. This isn't news to anyone: death sucks pretty much any way you slice it and I'm sure we've all experienced it. Here, I've experienced for the first time the frustration that comes with not having answers. I don't wish that on anyone. Ultimately, my mother died from diverticulitis. Internal Inflammation. From what I can tell, that's not really supposed to happen, any more than you should die from a cut on your foot. But it happens I guess. My mother wasn't particularly old (just turned 70) and was active and thin. But...she didn't eat much but meat and potatoes - no veggies, no fruits - ever. And she wasn't one to complain much - she didn't like going to the doctor unless something was 'broken'. The combination turned out to be deadly. The diverticulitis (common in older folks) is thought to be caused by a lack of dietary fiber. And she suffered for months with stomach aches, not saying anything. By the time we began to take action - it was too late to take action. In the last few weeks we discussed this with hospice folks while we kept up an aggressive approach - this wasn't cancer, this wasn't supposed to be terminal. I guess if we knew 3 weeks out that there was NO chance, then hospice would have been a more dignified exit. We kept throwing dice to the end. I hate indecision. I hate not knowing what's going on or what to do. My father's cancer was much more definitive - he chose his exit and it was peaceful; we may not have liked it but we were confident in our choices. This was not. So I still do not have an answer to my original question, what is life? In fact, I believe I know less about the topic today than when I originally asked. Maybe that means I'm closer to my answer.

Very true. Nor does Boeing arrange for an interview with an industry critic, have the boss talk but a PR person sit there, use purposely obtuse language, provide apologies for other's actions (alleged actions), get into a little he-said, she-said with the interviewer, deny knowing their own sales figures or fail to deliver information promised at a later date. The guy would do well to STFU. Like a real business like Boeing would.

If we had a poster hall of fame, Farrah Fawcett would most certainly be in it.

Good grief. There was hardly a definitive statement in there anywhere. Choice cuts: "We are not freezing any product at the commissary or in-house. The only item that we are freezing are the products that require it for the preparation." Notice how the number goes from 0 to 1 to multiple, all in a span of only 27 words! Impressive! "...and why did we resume food preparation in-house extensively....The new executive chef was hired back in July to help transition some of the production and preparation items made in the commissary to each units. So today, all the foods are produced in-house" Extensively, some or all? And notice a few turns of words here: items vs. food - I suspect this is corporate speak for ingredients vs. dishes. So maybe some ingredients are still made in some central place - while the dishes are prepared on-site - which has always been true (but not the issue). units vs. in-house - I believe that units mean actual restaurants, like the one in DC, while in-house means anywhere under a Fig and Olice roof. So while they may have closed the commissary - is it at least possible that one location is feeding others with "items"? Translated, I think he's saying "we no longer use the commissary - but our business model relies on centralization of some preparation...so we've re-tooled all that in a way that doesn't use a commissary (but I still can't say that every dish is built from the raw ingredients in the kitchen a few feet from your table.)" I can't prove that - but why all the song and dance? Personally, I'd expect restaurants to do some of this, even the best ones. Mix up the 'secret spice' somewhere and send it to the kitchens in gallon jugs. Whatever, that's fine to a degree. But to "Shkreli" this to Tim Carman? (yes, that's the verb form of that name...) C'mon, get over yourself. Never been, never going but enjoying this thread.