It’s been a while since I devoted ink to “rants”, and these all don’t qualify, they have that flavor.
We're Number One!
What is it with the American Psyche that drives sports fans
to a seemingly insatiable desire and fascination of “who’s number ONE”. In the wee smalls, one of my defenses for
the demons of the night is to listen to Sports Talk Radio Shows from one
network to another. Granted, they are
eager to fill their time slot somehow, but they feed the American beast by
endless debates as to whether LeBron or Michael is the GOAT, or Brady and Montana. Who the he** cares? They’re all
talented athletes (or atha-letes as one host says) and can’t they just co-exist
without designated one as the “Best” ever regardless of decade or whatever.
One of the last refuges from this mania has (to me) been in
the world of golf. You can watch a
tournament on the weekend (the recent Open Championship) and just enjoy that
event, and when it’s over, it’s over. On
to the next. Okay, there are occasional
comparisons of stats (Tiger/Nicklaus) but palatable. Well, that has now changed. Now, every weekend when Tournament du Jour
coverage starts it begins with a statement like “CBS Sports welcomes you to the Ridge
Open, part of the season long race for the
FEDEX cup!!”; now you can’t just enjoy the competition without continuous screens
showing the cup points and standings.
The only reason the “regular season” exists is to see who is eligible
for the FedEx Cup, The SUPER BOWL, NBA playoffs, or World Series. The other
night one of the sporting talking heads urged his listeners to call up and say
why or why not their NFL team would be in the playoffs!! I am not sure but I don’t think game one has
been played, and scrimmages (OTA’s as they’re called) have just started.
Ridiculous! Makes me ill and takes the
enjoyment out of watching weekly competition for what it is.
Okay, enough of that..second aggravation. The other night we were hosting some friends
over for dinner, and I picked up my (Android) phone to look at contacts or
something, and upon pressing Contacts, a green box appeared around it and the
phone said: “You have selected contacts,
to continue you must double click the box, or long press to (do something)” OMG what have I done? Same for
anything. I couldn’t make it stop. Panic
set in, my worst nightmare, a phone that took 2 minutes to do anything! After flailing around unsuccessfully, I
called my contact with MFO's phone at the local Verizon store and, bless him, he answered, and
said I had apparently somehow turned on the TalkBack feature. "It’s pretty involved to turn it off, but if you call Verizon at 611,
selecting option 4 they can do it over the lines". Okay, I’ll try. Press phone icon “you have selected the phone
icon, press it twice to continue or long press..” finally was able to call 611 to get the
“welcome to Verizon please enter your Verizon pin number”. Crap! I never use it, let alone know what it
is.. took shot (you have entered 6 green box, 3 you have entered three (green
box), and finally “That is not the pin associated with that account, please try
again later”. Click. A few tries later
it asked me to briefly describe why I was calling… “Stop phone from talking back” “I
don’t understand you, let me get someone to help” finally an actual human
answered and we stumbled through the process.
Do you know it makes a difference (at least in that mode) whether you
scroll with two or three fingers? By
this time my heart rate was a million, and my nerves were in shreds. I hope I never get in that mode again. Once again the phone proves to be much
smarter than its owner. Kind of tainted
my whole evening.
Well, well well
Okay, I want to finish on a upbeat. Alert and longtime “Feeder Reeders” know that
I continually have harped over the years on proper behavior when in a
restaurant. You also remember that the
food writer/critic for the Washington Post (Tom Sietsema) sometimes deviates
from his weekly reviews of restaurants to comment on similar subjects. Last Sunday, I found this synopsis from one
of his on-line chats:
I found the article extremely interesting
The “cleaning up” part was about the growing practice of presenting
“naked tables” (i.e., no linens) even in dressier restaurants with silverware resting
on bare surfaces, and the cleaning of same.
Wiped down? Disinfected? It was surprising to me how many people
objected to this practice and lengths they go to for removing them from the
table top (hence the cartoon above)
“Showing up” was discussion on whether or not you should
return the call from restaurants that go to the trouble to dial you up and
remind you. Some places actually release
your reservation if they don’t hear back.
Are you obligated to confirm your booking! Polite manners would be to call the
restaurant only if you had to cancel, otherwise it should be understood you are
planning to fulfill your commitment. More interesting discussion
But, But, But what really got me was his third subject
(Does Tom read the Feeder??)
Reiterating things I have railed about for years –
apparently sharing the opinion with Mr. Sietsema (and the WaPo fashion editor)
Interpreted for readability Somehow blogger screwed up my pics from the actual article. They would read:
In other words
“My pet peeve is men wearing ball caps in dining rooms, which
didn’t go over very well with a chat participant who claimed to be seated at
the upscale Fiola while wearing jeans and a hat. He called my annoyance “Disrcriminatory”
without providing any details.
Call me prehistoric, but removing one’s hat indoors
demonstrates respect. Was I missing
something? I took the matter to The Post’s
esteemed fashion critic, Robin Givan, who settled the matter to my great
satisfaction when she responded via email that “unless that dining room is at
an actual ball park, I say take off your cap”. To me, keeping it on just makes you look like you're ready to flee the scene at any moment.
Givan added, "it's a little like sitting in a dining room with your sunglasses on. Take them off, stay a while
In other words
Another part of the Feeder’s definition of his DFD has always
been to dress in accordance with the restaurant which he also addressed:
T-shirt and cargo shorts at the Inn at Little Washington is not going to match the décor; someone in a tuxedo at McDonald’s similarly clashes
It is gratifying to me that I am not just some loonie howling
in the wilderness but have others (far more into the “scene”) than I that share
similar opinions
Other short notes
67 years ago (1952) today marked the opening of the linking of Maryland's Eastern and Western shore from Annapolis to Kent Island.
Rumor has it that there is much activity on the long awaited
restaurant in Leonardtown on the other corner of the old Café Des Artistes
(sigh)
And as Tom and I would remind you
DFD
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