I will never patronize Morton's Steakhouse or any of the Landry Steakhouse family of restaurants again! Not only is what the restaurant did inexcusable, but the chain should have immediately responded that something like this will never happen again.
Brief summary: A group of 16 people, one of whom is a cancer patient, spent $2000 on a Christmas dinner. Near the end of the dinner, the cancer patient, who has become sensitive to cold, put on his wool cap to get warm. The restaurant's server said he can't do that unless he has a doctor's note! They said that the party should have informed the restaurant ahead of time so that they could put them out of sight, out of mind in a private room! WTF!!! The restaurant called the cops! The people were asked none to politely to leave. Just who in the hell does Morton's think they are? What happened to gracious service? And with a $2000 bill being this arrogant and inconsiderate! Below is a link to the article.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/16/police-escort-cancer-patient-from-nashville-steakhouse-after-hes-forced-to-remove-hat/
Monday, December 16, 2013
Posted by Gator Duck at 12/16/2013 12:57:00 PM 0 comments
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Hash Tags on Facebook
It is amazing how quickly hash tags popped into existence and how even quicker they have disappeared. Those of us who were responsible for filing hard copy documents 30, 40 and 50 years ago tried to tell you that it was a bad idea, but nobody listened.
You see, it's really very simple but hard as hell to do! Just as with stuffing a piece of paper into a file cabinet or placing a computer file into a folder, the important thing is being able to retrieve it later. It does absolutely no good to carefully label something and carefully file it away unless you are extremely organized at how you go about this. It is essential to be consistent and use the same label for things that are similar or you wind up with a complete and total mess that is almost as difficult to sort out as if there were no attempt to organize things at all. The problem is that an extremely small percentage of the population is good at doing this. In my experience, less than 0.01%. I know the pitfalls and I have problems doing it.
Posted by Gator Duck at 11/09/2013 05:02:00 PM 0 comments
Friday, November 8, 2013
The First Amendment
I am a strong believer in the First Amendment. I will strongly disagree with things people have to say, on Facebook, for example, but I will often include a statement that even though I strongly disagree with you, I will defend to the death your right to say it.
What really chaps my hide, however, is when someone posts a meme or an oratorio stating their positions that is absolutely outrageously bigoted, hateful or discriminatory and then they get all upset when they get negative comments. The First Amendment gives you the right to speak your mind, but it does NOT make you immune to the ramifications of your actions.
A family member of mine posted an anti-abortion meme that stated that anybody pro-choice hates God. I found that offensive and said so. Because this persons beliefs are different from my beliefs is absolutely no basis for saying that I, or anyone else who is pro-choice hates God. It simply is not true.
End of rant.
Posted by Gator Duck at 11/08/2013 10:16:00 PM 0 comments
Liberty and Justice for All - The Myth
On Monday, November 4, 2013, Luke "Sasha" Fleishman, an 18 year old student at Maybeck High School in Berkeley, California, was traveling through Oakland on an A/C Transit bus. Sasha was sleeping on the ride home from school. Richard Thomas, a sixteen year old student of Oakland High School, was also on the bus. Richard thought it would be a good idea to set Sasha on fire. "WHAT?" you say. Why on earth would someone do such a thing, especially in the most liberal part of the country, the San Francisco Bay Area?
Well, as it turns out, Richard is homophobic and Sasha, who is biologically male, was wearing a skirt. Sasha received painful 2nd and 3rd degree burns to the legs that will require considerable skin grafting. Richard was identified via security camera footage. He has been arrested and charged with a hate crime, along with aggravated mayhem and felony assault. Sasha's mother describes Sasha as agender, one who does not identify with being either male or female. Sasha prefers to be referred to as they instead of he or she. Richard's mom, as to be expected, describes Richard as a good kid.
Today, Friday, several male students at Maybeck High chose to wear skirts to school in support of their classmate.
I don't understand this country we live in anymore. It seems we are taking many steps backwards in our cultural evolution and as a society as a whole. Back in the 1960s we started making progress towards treating blacks as equals but we are still not there. In the 1960s we also started to progress in our attitudes about women and in 1969 LGBT rights came into the picture as well. It used to be that one would rarely see a woman in public wearing anything other than skirts or dresses. Now it is commonplace to see women in pants at least as often as in skirts.
In the last few years something strange has happened. Now there are people who, once again, want women barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. They want to force women to carry all pregnancies to term, even if conception was due to rape or incest; to prohibit women from using contraception; and to force women who were raped to share custodial rights with the rapist, not to mention, to leave the workplace to adopt the role of a stay at home mom. In Texas and some other states, they have now made it very difficult for any married woman to vote. What used to be referred to as the "radical right" has now become mainstream conservative.
I salute Sasha and the students at Maybeck High for taking a stand, but our country is, unfortunately, not yet civilized enough for people with male genitalia to appear in public wearing skirts. There are many cultures past and present where it has been socially acceptable, but not in Europe or North America in this day and age, unless you are wearing a kilt, and even then you can expect strange looks. So, I guess I will continue to wear skirts only in the privacy of my home. I find them far more comfortable than pants. I'm not gay, I'm not transgender, and I don't know if I am a Scot, but I do know this. The last thing I want is to be assaulted by some asshole who doesn't like the way I dress. It is time for emancipation of everyone - men, women, blacks, Muslims, LGBTs, and anyone else with a difference. Some of us are starting to get our freedom. However, the fact that this incident with Sasha happened in the San Francisco Bay Area underscores that those freedoms are just not for all of us, not today.
Sources: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/11/07...
http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men's_skirts
Posted by Gator Duck at 11/08/2013 11:59:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: gay rights, respect for differences, social commentary
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Eating crow - kind of...
Thursday I blasted the Republicans for not providing recovery aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. Well, Friday they did with promise of more to come. However, they failed to provide continued support for rape victims.
Posted by Gator Duck at 1/05/2013 03:41:00 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Conservative Republican Asshats in the House are at it again.
So, after a glimmer of hope that they were coming around to what Americans want to happen with the fiscal cliff legislation, today they re-elected Boehner as their leader, immediately went after Obamacare and failed to do anything about helping Hurricane Sandi victims relief.
Posted by Gator Duck at 1/03/2013 01:15:00 PM 0 comments
Florida Gators humiliated in 2013 Sugar Bowl by Louisville
Muschamp couldn't get the team "up" for the game. Either the team didn't care or they were too big for their britches. The performance was none the less embarrassing. The Gators are a better team than showed up tonight... Or are they?
Posted by Gator Duck at 1/03/2013 12:21:00 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
GatorDuck Taking a Break
I am taking a break from blogging because I do not have the time or the energy. I am leaving the case for a playoff posted for reference by anyone interested.
I may resume some day when I have more time, such as when I retire from the workplace.
Posted by Gator Duck at 2/09/2010 09:58:00 AM 0 comments
Thursday, January 1, 2009
IT IS TIME FOR A PLAYOFF - Chapter 1A - Background, Part 2
I didn't know this... but, does it ever fit right into all the reason's why we need a playoff.
The president-elect has already called for a college football playoff. Now he should go one better and simply declare a champion of this broken system. That’s what happened in 1969.IT IS TIME FOR A PLAYOFF - List of Articles (with links)
By William R. Mattox Jr.
I don't know whether our president-elect has a Machiavellian streak. But Barack Obama certainly endeared himself to millions of college football fans (like me) when he recently declared his enthusiastic support for an eight-team postseason playoff to decide the national championship.
(Dec. 6, 1969: President Nixon, second from left, attends “The Big Shootout” football game between Texas and Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. At right is Rep. George H.W. Bush, R-Texas / AP file photo)
And the best way I know for our emperor-in-waiting to expose the naked truth about the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) would be for Obama to present a National Championship plaque to the winner of Thursday's Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, Calif.
Now, I'm sure that probably sounds crazy to folks who believe that this season's "real" championship will be played Jan. 8 in Miami. But there's actually a precedent for the championship to be determined by presidential decree. And by honoring the winner of the Rose Bowl between Penn State and Southern California, Obama might even be able to right a wrong committed by a not-so-Galloping Ghost of College Football Past.
Nixon's Southern (football) Strategy
On Dec. 6, 1969, the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks squared off in a gridiron battle that some observers called "The Game of the Century" because it matched two unbeaten teams in the final regular season game of college football's centennial year.
The game, which Texas rallied to win 15-14, garnered an incredible rating of 50 share, meaning half the TV sets in the USA were tuned in to ABC's coverage. It also attracted the attention of President Nixon, who not only attended the game but also fulfilled a promise to present a plaque proclaiming the winning team the "National Champions."
Nixon's audacious plaque presentation might have been about more than just football: Texas and Arkansas were electoral "swing" states in presidential elections back then. Whatever its purpose, Nixon's decree certainly annoyed Penn State head coach (and lifelong Republican) Joe Paterno, whose team finished the season undefeated — for the second straight year!
After hearing numerous complaints, Nixon tried to make amends by offering to give Penn State a plaque for having college football's longest active winning streak. But this conciliatory gesture didn't go over very well. When told of Nixon's offer, Paterno said, "Tell the president to take that trophy and shove it." Several years later, in a commencement speech, Paterno asked, "How could Nixon know so much about college football in 1969 and so little about Watergate in 1973?"
The obvious moral to this story is that college football championships should be decided on the field — not by presidential decree or by having a beauty-pageant-like panel of judges pick from among the contestants.
Yet, four decades after Nixon's announcement, the "system" for determining the major college champion is still a political football. The problem, in most years, is that more than two teams can make a compelling case for being included in the BCS title game.
William R. Mattox Jr. is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
Posted at 12:17 AM/ET, December 31, 2008 Link to complete article.
Chapter 1 - Background
Chapter 1A - Background, Part 2
Chapter 2 - Example of Problem
Chapter 3 - Jim Ruppert’s Bowl Schedule
Chapter 4 - Another Point of View
Chapter 5 - Case Against 8 or 16 teams
Chapter 6 - Congress Gets Involved
Chapter 7 - Alternative 16 Team Plan
Chapter 8 - And More…
Chapter 9 - As I See It
Posted by Gator Duck at 1/01/2009 08:23:00 PM 0 comments