Here are today's must-reads:
1. Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square:
GUY FIERI, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square? Have you pulled up one of the 500 seats at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar and ordered a meal? Did you eat the food? Did it live up to your expectations?
Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex? When you saw the burger described as “Guy’s Pat LaFrieda custom blend, all-natural Creekstone Farm Black Angus beef patty, LTOP (lettuce, tomato, onion + pickle), SMC (super-melty-cheese) and a slathering of Donkey Sauce on garlic-buttered brioche,” did your mind touch the void for a minute?
Did you notice that the menu was an unreliable predictor of what actually came to the table? Were the “bourbon butter crunch chips” missing from your Almond Joy cocktail, too? Was your deep-fried “boulder” of ice cream the size of a standard scoop?
What exactly about a small salad with four or five miniature croutons makes Guy’s Famous Big Bite Caesar (a) big (b) famous or (c) Guy’s, in any meaningful sense?
Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?
2. Should Live Tweeting Be Protected Like Broadcast Rights?:
Too much live tweeting at a University of Washington sporting event, however, could land you in hot water.
How? A section of the athletic department’s media guidelines states that, “Periodic updates of scores, statistics or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the event are acceptable, as long as they do not exceed the recommended frequency (20 total in-game updates for basketball, 45 total in-game updates for football).”
That policy was instituted in August, an athletic department spokesperson tells Mashable, but just recently gained attention after Tacoma News Tribune reporter Todd Dybas tweeted Monday night that he had been “reprimanded” by department officials for excessive tweeting during the Huskies basketball game against Loyola. As noted on the blog GeekWire, Dybas’ post triggered a smattering of confusion and scorn towards the athletic department on Twitter.
Washington’s official policy threatens punishment, including the revocation of a reporter’s press credential for breaking the live-update limit, and at first glance seems to be an awkward, shortsighted stance to have today.
But it also raises an interesting question: As the ability to provide real-time updates becomes more and more common — and as the line between reporter and spectator becomes increasingly blurred — should the rights to live updates be protected to the same degree as TV and radio broadcasts?
3. Why are couples so mean to single people?:
No-one is supposed to be single.
In the course of my life, I have loved and lost and sometimes won, and always strangers have been kind. But I have, it appears, been set on a life of single blessedness.
And I haven't minded. Or rather, I realise, I haven't minded enough. But now I kind of do. Take dinner parties. There comes a moment, and that question: "Why don't you have a partner?"
It is usually asked by one of a couple, with always a swivel of the eye to his or her other half, so really two people are asking this question.
And I struggle to answer: "I have never found the right person... I am a sad and sorry manchild... I am incapable of love... I am a deviant, and prefer giraffes."
These are some of the other things I've been tweeting about today:
- the wire's david simon on the petraeus affair: "Stray penises and politicos" http://pjblack.me/XIbsAI
- "Study: Being a 'Healthy' Degree of Neurotic Lowers Risk of Chronic Disease" http://pjblack.me/XIaNPR /cc @ryydergood news?
- this doesn't surprise me: "People Are Literally Allergic To BlackBerry Phones" http://pjblack.me/UI5ZUr /cc @tsrickards
- "Democrats' wish list for 2016" http://pjblack.me/UG2QEB
- "How Afghanistan’s Burgeoning Soccer League is a Symbol of Hope for a Secure, Free Future" http://pjblack.me/UFTGb0
- i don't know if i agree with this premise but it's still a fun read: "Why are couples so mean to single people?" http://pjblack.me/UFNOP7
- "Internet-based and open source: How e-voting works around the globe" http://pjblack.me/UFTl8i
- "Clay Shirky on the Internet as a Distractor and Disruptor" http://pjblack.me/XE0lsD
- "Was Petraeus Borked?: The Last Time that Congress Got Scared About Privacy and Surveillance" http://pjblack.me/XHo1fN
- "Apple Finally Rolls Out iOS 6 Turn-By-Turn Navigation In Australia" http://pjblack.me/XHguh0
- "Why Apple's Steve Jobs became an instant legend" http://pjblack.me/UFNIXR
- "One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How Khan Academy Is Reinventing Education" http://pjblack.me/XDGGJj #highered
- "Teachers Say Media-Use Is Harming Kids' Performance" http://pjblack.me/XDGmdt
- "Noam Chomsky on Where Artificial Intelligence Went Wrong" http://pjblack.me/UFKi7s
- "The haka: a song and dance about attribution?" http://pjblack.me/XH3M1H #lwb486 #lws008 #kkb175
- "For One Night at Fox, News Tops Agenda: Fox News’s Election Coverage Followed Journalistic Instincts" http://pjblack.me/XH0CuL
- a scathing, hilarious restaurant review from the @nytimes: "Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square" http://pjblack.me/UHuDo0
- how many episodes end in a guilty verdict, plea bargain etc?: "The Law and Order Database: All 20 Seasons" http://pjblack.me/UFuXng /via @TV_Rev
- it's a gummy bear lawsuit: "Gold Bear Lawsuit Pits Haribo Against Lindt For Use Of Trademark" http://pjblack.me/XB3nhl #lwb486 #lws008
- "A Petraeus Puzzle: Were Politics Involved?" http://pjblack.me/XB2iG0
- this is a very interesting question: "Should Live Tweeting Be Protected Like Broadcast Rights?"http://pjblack.me/UEqMbn
Follow me on Twitter @peterjblack.
And you can get my latest links anytime on my Rebelmouse social media front page.
