DaveO

Serpico, made in 1973 is one of my favorite movies of all time. Intensity, morals, costume changes, Pacino's range of emotions, NYC, cops, danger, motorcycles, dogs, funky apartments, you name it. A trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtTRYnsDH8Q

I hope these sandwiches are good...because it seems there is tremendous value here in this little itty bitty sandwich shop in Toronto: Link:

Messi has been an incredibly fast and quick player with magical ball control for several years. Hurt or not he is magic. I played against ball magicians who are so incredibly better than you. All one can do is foul them. Having played long ago in an environment with many good quality players of that era and at a certain lower level I marvel at the advanced ball control skills of Ronaldo, Messi and some others. The players with advanced quickness, deftness, and ball control levels would dominate. Then they would advance to a higher level, and others would dominate over them. Its astounding how extraordinarily talented the players at the highest levels are relative to all others. That Messi, Ronaldo, and a variety of others can dominate the creme de la creme at the highest level is simply extraordinary. Over the years Messi's combination of ball control, high speed, changing directions, and scoring is truly magnificent, imho.

yes he is excellent. An incredible offensive machine with terrific skills...and he grew up in this area. But in the long history of the NBA there have been a variety of "unstoppable shots" from certain players. One of my favorites, who couldn't be defended was Earl the Pearl Monroe from the late 60's and 70's and who played for the Baltimore Bullets way back when. Earl would twist and turn , spin and rotate in ways that nobody before or after has ever duplicated. It wasn't that he shot from above anyone else or created unbelievable distance between his shot and the defender that was so remarkable. As Earl himself said, he never knew which way he was going to spin or turn...so how could the defender. One other shot that was undefendable for a period was that of Charles Barkley when he was younger and at his peak. Barkley would grab a rebound on the defensive side and race down the court dribbling to the other basket to shoot and score. It wasn't undefendable in the height and space created manners that Kareem, or Elvin, or Durant manage to create an unstoppable shot. Nobody wanted to get in Barkley's way. He was an enormous burro of a musceled man the size and strength of a hefty burro racing among thin jackrabbits. Nobody was foolish or stupid enough to block his path to the basket.

As a result of continued tough financial results LivingSocial announced they are closing the facility at 918 F Street where they held live classes. "LivingSocial Posts $183M Loss In 2013, Plans To Close 918 F St. Space" by Bill Flook on bisjournals.com/washington I must admit to having not attended one, although I continuously read through them....and frankly they invariably looked interesting. Just wondering if any of you attended any of them and what was your reaction? Did anyone attend a lot of them?

The honesty of various members is commendable. I can't put myself in that category. Not to assign it to learned behavior from others.....but as a kid I do recall my older brother having ripped up and stolen a parking space sign for an employee at our local library. He had the metal post and a great big sign with the employee's name on it. The employee's last name was BLOOD

Among the many ways they encourage calls for delivery is this method. ....and it works. (the funny thing is I've seen a regional GM don the outfit during terribly hot humid days with warm weather. omg. that is dedication)

I have a lot of access to PJ's and simply don't take advantage of it, because it is among my least favorite foods. Among the pizzas I find the thin crust the tastiest, verging on acceptable/ok/eatable. As DanielK said above the price is very good relative to anything else in the area. I've also had an opportunity to get a tiny peak inside their operations locally. They do run a tight ship, keep employees, and create an environment that has made this local franchisee extremely successful. kudos to them on that basis.

Man I feel so dirty fessing up to something I did back in my college days. OTOH at some point in the last decade I purchased a set of six of what I thought were very neat ladle like soup spoons from a restaurant. That was a first. It was something that had never crossed my mind previously. I do recall thinking that I could have stolen them while making payment. ...but stealing six would have involved a lot of visits, coercing fellow diners into joining my thievery, etc. not easy. not worth it...and lo and behold...I would have felt still dirtier with this article. But the scope and costs of all that theft in the article above. Mind blowing.

Ha ha ha. That is a riot. and thank you for putting an historical note to the video.

oh lordie. these articles spark memories: While in college I recall hanging out at a cabin at a beach resort with some friends. The ladies who lived there all worked at a local restaurant and we feasted on their stolen lobsters. hmmm surprisingly tasty. During that period I recall being in the Florida keys, stealing lobsters from the lobster pods in the shallow water, roasting them up on the beach. tasty again. I wish you hadn't sourced this article.

I knew Papa Johns did very well in the DC region. I didn't realize they did this well per this article:

More follow up/news.

Ultimately reviews have a big impact on revenues, on competition, etc. There is a lot of money involved so it gets dirty. I went to a source where reviews have been a "sticky topic" and picked up this complaint from an smb owner about what he calls "faked reviews". Here are some of the comments showing to the public: Fake reviews are being posted regularly at our Google Place page. It is all related to the "fratirist" David Thorne, who posted an article about F4S You can tell that all the negative feedbacks being left there are with fake accounts created just for that reason. Here are some review examples: "Asked to rent a skateboard and the sales rep --obviously drunk--threatened me. His name tag said "Fatty." "... I made my way over to this side of the shop and picked up a snowboard, which exploded in my hands, sending debris everywhere, and blinding me, my wife, our nine children and our dog, Horace..." "so on his first day with the board, the board exploded in mid-air when my son attempted a jump. he's paralyzed now and attempted suicide twice." "Went in with my son and the guy behind the counter stood up...nude from the waist down! And he overcharged us, too." "Went there for my free snowboard but was denied, so I stabbed Anton in the throat because he deserved it." "...Even though I have never been to this store and even if the email exchange is untrue..." - And he still left us one star and defaming review?! From what I could see this business closed in 2013. Over the last several years I spent a lot of time inside the google forums for businesses, wherein businesses would struggle with all the issues about getting google visibility. One of the recurring issues has been about reviews, and one of those recurring issues has been about competitors or angry folks posting numerous faked attack reviews. On the other hand that google forum would not be the place wherein there would be a lot of complaints about faked positive reviews by the business owners or their friends...but over time google took various steps to cut down on what they perceived as mass volumes of faked positive reviews. I haven't followed this issue vigorously but last year they by algo they eliminated millions of reviews that were generated via IP's inside the locations of various businesses in certain industries and then issued standards limiting that option. I'm not current on the issue. Its an incredibly sticky issue and there is a lot of money involved. I don't see how the review venues can eliminate the volumes of faked reviews either positive or negative as it remains relatively easy to establish a web presence and generate reviews. Its a big conundrum.

Listrani's, Wilson Blvd, Arlington just closed. They will continue to do delivery into the Arlington Alexandria and some other areas via their Alexandria location. The various Listrani's in Va do a lot of takeout business. I recall this story from the height of the recession. The McLean store was regularly busy during the recession. One regular customer regularly ordered hamburgers and meatballs for the pet dog. (so much for recessions)

For the Arlington section of DC I vote for Earl's on any variety sandwich with fresh roasted turkey. Eat one of those and it feels like Thanksgiving!!!

So, Don you are telling us the sharks lawyers were working for a contingency fee of 1/3. It seems to be the way we do things around here in the US. Right or wrong. At least the FOH staff gets some of the money they were due. The wronged staff hired the law firm/lawyers. Too bad they couldn't get a deal with a cap on lawyers fees on the total winnings. Everything is expensive. The article references a series of these cases in the past. This goes on a lot more than I realized and through the school we have seen that it occurs. Its quite ugly with the operators taking advantage of staff. Its a shame.

During 2013 I had the lamb chops at Me Jana several times. I'd had it in the past. In my mind it remains one of the most mouth watering succulent aromatic main dishes in the region. It never fails to knock me out.

Dang when this very cold spell hit I was reading this thread and craving some comfort food snacks. Despite all the wonderful references I went for sabra hummus pita and some various veggies. It was good. But I still crave chocolate. I'm breaking down. Dang you all.

From the perspective afforded to the bar school we have learned of many of these issues: Some employers in the food and beverage (f& industry stiff their employees. Some employers are abusive...and we have heard for years about employers who specifically have hit on women inappropriately. Also the f & b industry is one that will hire people with criminal records. In our long experience we are aware of some people w/ criminal records who started in the industry in lowly jobs and went up through the ranks. Kudo's. Those examples are testimony to the power and wonderfulness of giving people a second chance. Of course not all such stories end up so happily. From our perspective whenever we here about one type of abuse or not we simply don't spread the word of job availability to our grads. I always wish we knew beforehand about the abusive folks...but we never do.

I love chocolate and will go on chocolate binges with chocolate bars, including hershey chocolate. The one thing I know is I won't be eating nestle's chocolate after learning here their chairman would like to charge everyone for water. That arrogant )^*_%(_%^

I identified 3 graduates of the bar school hired by Bebo to be bartenders between 2006 and 2009. As far as I recall we never got feedback that FOH employees were being stiffed or that these three were among employees who didn't get paid. I do know we hear about it way too often from too many grads at too many places. I did look at this website explaining pay requirements for tipped employees specifically in this case in Virginia. Source Its not a lot of money. Its particularly disillusioning to hear that stiffing these oft times poorly paid people was something that occurred to multiple people. Its an ugly recurring issue.

I didn't know there was a court case against Roberto Donna nor that he had purposefully stiffed employees and the state. I'm newer to this forum. I do know that some years ago a grad of the bar school I help operate got a job at Bebo through our placement efforts. I recall stopping by while that grad was bartending there. I didn't learn that employees were being stiffed. From our vantage point at the school it occurs a lot. We'll hear about it from grads. The school doesn't have contracts with employers but we solicit leads for jobs from them, don't charge the employers and forward these to experienced and new grads. Over many years I've heard of many employers in the food and beverage industry that stiff employees in the FOH. It sucks. The base salaries of FOH personnel are especially low via law, in recognition that they can earn significantly more through tips. But that is very variable. Slow days in a restaurant bar can kill potential tip income. Not getting paid what is a meager base salary on top of that is especially problematic...especially for folks that don't make a lot of income. IMHO its more troublesome if the establishment owner is sitting in a big expensive house surrounded by expensive baubles.

My work colleagues love Cava. Its a regular happy hour stop for them. They swore by it. (I'm not a happy hour kind of dude anymore so have nothing to suggest....but that has been their fave)

BBQ season hasn't hit but I was intrigued by these rubs: