Month: April 2007

Imus have said something bad

By now many of you have heard of controversy that nationally syndicated (and future former) radio host Don Imus has put himself in:

The drama started when Imus referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as a group of “nappy-headed hos.” The remarks were a seemingly off-the-cuff reference to the squad, which had just lost the annual NCAA women’s national championship, but Imus’ insensitivity to a group of college athletes who were coming off a remarkable season aroused public ire that seemed to increase with each passing day.

Interestingly (and why I’m writing about it here, of course), it turns out that Imus used to work as a radio host in Sacramento:

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Overestimating the underestimate

MSNBC has just published a review of the “Top 10 underrated US cities” for travel destinations. Guess why I bring this up?

Sacramento came in as the number 10 top underrated city – which would mean that it’s the least underrated of the top 10 underrated cities. So, in effect Sacramento is the most overrated of the most underrated cities. So, like, is Sacramento really all that underrated then?

The review is provided by ShermansTravel.com (who dey newayz?). Here’s why they think Sacramento is underrated:

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New swanky location on Jay Street

The LoftTaking the bus up Jay street last night I saw “The Loft,” a new meeting/event spot at 727 1/2 J St. That half makes all the difference. A smart move would be to open up “Lofties” next door at 727 1/4 J st., and sell your wares to confused event attendees. I’m glad to see “the loft,” the alternative music venue, make a comeback, even if it is as a completely financially unrelated venue not intended for alternative music.

And since any mention of “the loft” must be accompanied by an unnecessary insult, I should add that one time when I was at “the loft” some cockroaches set up a civilization in the mouth the drummer of visiting band “Monad Nomad.” The roaches were discussing universal health care by the time anyone noticed due to the poor lighting.

(I should officially no longer wonder why people hate me so much.)

Spinning the lunch

There used to be a lunch time tradition in the early days of the Sac Rag. When we’d need a break from the snark and the hard hitting journalism, we would find ourselves at a loss in choosing where to go for lunch. To solve this problem, we came up with a way to spin a wheel that would give us a random number that would correspond to our own legend of restaurants and eateries to go to. One spin of the wheel would give us a number, and whatever restaurant we assigned to that number ahead of time was our lunch time destination.

Looking back at those days, it’s amazing that we didn’t starve to death.

Welcome to 2007, happy lunch go-ers. Someone has made picking a lunch spot in your neighborhood very easy.

Introducing the Wheel of Lunch!
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“Public opinion = right; CoolDMZ = wrong”

I don’t know about you folks, but I think there oughtta be more blog posts with my name in the title, like this one on Eyes For the Brambles. Jeff thinks that I am wrong about something, but I’m not sure what, as he agrees with me that a female teacher seducing a male student could be called a child molester. He calls me naive for wishing this double standard did not exist. Don’t read his fourth paragraph, it’s icky. I warned you.

Avid, “Records” on Broadway?

I don’t know about you folks (why don’t I start every post that way?) but I’m pretty excited about Avid Reader and “Records” moving in to the former home of the dearly departed Tower stores on Broadway. (Can I get a RIGHT AWN!! to Bob Shallit zinging the departed Tower chain’s lackluster employees? Gutsy.)

To me, the only thing cooler than a corner anchored by “Records” and Avid Reader would be a “Meet the cast of Battlestar Galactica” kiosk inside an authentic Philly cheesesteak joint, but I digress. Here’s hoping that a couple of independent secondhand stores can succeed where a worldwide retail music chain could not. But seriously, good luck.

“Monster Teacher” reporting

I was a lot more fired up to write about female teacher-male student molestation scandals last night, when I thought there was a brand new scandal on the heels of the Dry Creek situation. I swear there was a teaser for a story about an “FTMS” scandal with a mugshot of a completely different woman. But that was right before bedtime. Turns out, like many stories are on the Sacramento news, that was a flub. I just confirmed with RonTopofIt, he saw the same thing. Get it together, people.

But still, there’s much to discuss. It’s a shame that the reporting on cases like this always has to highlight the “double standard” controversy, but it’s still shocking when you hear the double standard working in soundbites and it goes completely unremarked. Like the neighbor of Kelly Spaich, who was quoted on the evening news saying “She’s an attractive woman… seems like she could get a man.” Or the numerous acquaintances with the perp who say “she’s a good person… I’m not going to judge her, I’ll leave that for the jury.”

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Sacramento Brewing Company: Two Saturdays, Same Result

It’s that time of year again. No, not spring. No, not your mother’s birthday. No, will you just let me finish for chrissakes? It’s that time of year when Mrs. Eats and I whip out the Entertainment book and start feeling a little guilty that we haven’t used it much in the six months that we’ve had it. It’s the time when you remember how sad you were the previous November when you looked through the dining coupon section of last year’s book and said, “I didn’t know they were in the Entertainment book!”

So, wanting to raise our EQ (Entertainment quality) we opted for two meals with savings written all over them, one dinner last weekend at the Sacramento Brewing Company and one at SBC’s Oasis the week after.

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Customer service sighting in Sacramento

I had a rough experience the other day at my local gymnasium. I needed to drop an add-on feature from my account. I wasn’t using this feature and therefore felt my money was being thrown away each month. A simple request, right? You would think. I was told by the front desk employee that this wasn’t a simple request and I would have to meet with a sales representative at their convenience (they work from, uh, 9 to 6, fancy that, so do I!). I am sure you see where this is going so suffice it to say that when I finally sat down with the sales rep I was none to pleased to find out I was going to be charged $10 to make a simple notation on my account via a keyboard stroke.

I wanted to go home and rant about this on the Sac Rag, but alas the customer service Gods saw my dismay from up above and threw me a celestial bone. A few days later I visited the Jack’s Urban Eats restaurant at Loehmann’s Plaza as I do enjoy me a Jack’s salad. It was a crowded evening (I know, shocker) and we were dining with another couple so finding a table was imperative. As such, I sent Mrs. TopofIt to scout out the scene. She left me with specific instructions as to the type of salad she prefers. The list of ingredients is a simple one, but it all hinges on the salad dressing. Short story long, I finished up my order, paid, and sat down with my party salad in hand. My wife took one bite and quickly realized that I had chosen the wrong dressing.

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News10 news director weighs in on inform vs. exploit

The Bee’s Sam McManis clued me in tonight to a blog post by Stacy Owen, News Director at News10, about the interview of the daughter of Annette Brodovsky that I ranted about earlier this week. She has some interesting things to say: “In the newsroom, we even alerted each other to local blogs about that interview.” Heh.

I love reading that Karen Massie expressed reservations about the assignment; I was right about her. About Owen’s conclusion though, I’m not sure. The family told you they wanted to talk on camera…after you asked them. Obviously I don’t have to deal with that moral dilemma so I have no idea what I would actually do with this situation. I do think it’s a great thing for a news director to explain the newsroom thought process because it goes a long way toward making cynical folks like me understand.