AM Columnists:         Matt Cipriano         Joel Friedlander         Josh Friedlander         Eric Hazard         Jason Ihle         Scott McCue         Paul Woodland

You know what really grinds my gears?

Articles like this one from Reuters tend to get me a bit flustered and frustrated, I have already deleted my initial rant and started over to try and focus my issues.

The article is about men who do food shopping and how they essentially can not handle the intricacies of a supermarket. Well, I am a man who does supermarket shopping and I have no problem with a supermarket.

I guess my biggest problem with this article, and more so with the research, is how much is left out and the implications that are being made based on the vague research. Read more »

Water Water Everywhere

The newest target by environmental activists is bottled water (”Bottled Water: No Longer Cool?”). Complaints range from water bottles adding additional litter to landfills to arguments “that the commercialization of water undermines the idea that people are entitled to safe, clean drinking water [for free].”
As companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are just filtering tap water to turn a profit, I am guessing this isn’t going to make it very far as a movement. I know if I could turn on my sink, run a Brita and bottle it all in 1/2 liter bottles and make $1 off each of those bottles I’d be at home right now with every sink in the apartment running.

In other water news Coca-Cola just paid out $4.1 Billion to buy Glaceau, the producer of Smart Water and Vitamin Water. This article has caused me to question my beliefs, was I drawn to Smart Water due to its cultivation of “an anti-establishment image, complete with cheeky sayings and the shunning of capital letters on its stylishly simple labels.” And if that is the case will I still be able to drink my Smart Water knowing that beneath that anti-establishment veneer they are owned by a soul crushing global corporation?

Yeah, I don’t think it will be too big a problem.

Oh, then there is this piece from the Atlantic Journal-Constitution about how bottled water is outselling milk, and *gasp* is closing in on beer sales.

Mouth-wateringly ridiculous

So I like to grill. In fact, somehow, over the years I have ended up with two grills in my backyard. One is for meat, the other is for other meats, or the occasional veggie burger.
I don’t really consider it going overboard. In fact, I rarely use both grills at the same time (well except for my birthday last year, where besides the obligatory sausages, hamburgers and hot dogs we also had 3 different types of ribs).

Although this grill scares me, it is clearly meant for the serious griller: someone who feels he is missing out by only being able grill 3 or 4 animals at a time, and really wants to bring his game up to have 6 or 7 animals grilling at once. With its 1,370 square inches of cooking space, this grill is clearly not meant for the faint of heart (or for anyone who might be at risk for heart disease). But at only $500 and taking up only 20 sq inches of deck space it seems like it might be quite a bargain.

Damn the Hipsters

So before checking out the website I knew it was called Give Us Back New York and immediately assumed it was some crappy Hipster site about how great New York used to be before gentrification. I am tired of that bullshit argument, especially from Hipsters who moved here 5 years ago and are nostalgic for a New York that never really existed.

Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that, while it is an anti-gentrification site, it is to revert New York back to New Amsterdam, proposing a Dutch take over of the city. Fun site with some interesting views of what the city could be like under Dutch Rule. I think I need to get me one of them I (heart) NA tshirts. I especially like their idea of filling in the rivers with landmass

Barely worth discussing

I stand by what I have had to say about CitySearch.
If you are censored from writing an honest review what is the point of writing at all.  Knowing that all of their reviews may not fully reflect the actual quality of the restaurant leads me to write them off.
As I have been ranting about them here and feuding with them over email. I do feel obligated to post their final* repy to me about why I was not allowed to discuss my experience:

Hi Matt,
Thanks for contacting us with your concerns. Regarding your review, we ask our users not to mention potential health code violations. Your review mentions bugs, roaches and bad oysters, all of which are health code violations.
We’re more than happy to host negative reviews, but we want them to adhere to our guideline, which you can find here: http://national.citysearch.com/saved/html/my_citysearch/terms_of_use.htm
l. Scroll down to ‘Posting Reviews on Citysearch.com‘ and you should see them.
We hope you’ll revise your review with the recommend changes so we can put it back on the site.
Thanks, and feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Joe
Citysearch User Review Monitoring Team

So, yes, they do have a monitoring team, but still honesty is not at the top of their agenda. I understand the argument that anyone can log in and write a slanderous review, but anyone can write in and write a glowing review as well.

*final because I have no intention of fighting over this any more, I am simply writing CitySearch off and deleting them from my bookmarks 

© 2008 American Madness is powered by WordPress