Opening Ye Olde Kimono in Greensboro

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One of the hardest things for any business to do is admit weakness.  The same is true for people and since all businesses are run by people, except maybe Wal Mart, so that statement should come as no surprise.  Over in Greensboro the News & Record is admitting that it can’t keep up technologically so they’re going to enlist the help of their community.  Check out this post from Lex Alexander to see what I’m talking about.  Excerpt:

We understand the value of what we are being offered, we understand that the offer is for a limited time only, and we’re going to take you up on it.

I spoke today about how to do so with John Robinson, with News &
Record Interactive head Kathy Lambeth, and with a number of other key
people who work for one or the other.

Long story short, in January we plan to hold a meeting here at the
paper of key N&R news and technology staffers and anyone in the
community interested in working with us to address some of these
specific technological problems.

My hat’s off to them for even taking one step on this endeavor because it takes true guts to admit weakness or need.  I’m sure some skeptics would say that desperation sows all kinds of brave acts, but I’d counter with the argument that there are many people/businesses who don’t even take the first step. Hopefully this works out for the N&R and the folks working there.

Cross posted on lowderenterprises.com

At 17 I Was Swiggin’ Beers & Chasin’ Skirts

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ThreewheelerAll Bob Shotwell did at the age of 17 back in the 30s was build his own three-wheeled car, pictured at left.  He named it "Philbert the Puddle Jumper." At that age I couldn’t tell a hammer from a screwdriver and my skills were limited to those listed in the headline. In defense of myself I must say I honed those skills with great effort and gusto. 

Building anything, much less a car, was way beyond my ability and quite honestly of zero interest to me. That means that I now hold people who do build things, especially at the age of 17, in special reverence.  The car is featured in a Popular Mechanics article by Jay Leno, who refurbished the car after Shotwell gave it to him, and he points out that in this day and age there are very few 17 year olds who can build anything, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad about my own lack of DIY creds. He also wistfully points out that in the 30s you could show up at the DMV and register a self-built three wheeled car.  Try doing that today.

These Guys Don’t Know Shiite

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Just read this OpEd piece in the New York Times (via Lex) about how some Congresscritters who sit on committees that oversee critical aspects of the war on terrorism don’t know their Shiite…or Sunnis.  From the piece:

FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy
interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a
fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a
Shiite?”

A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your
enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds.
And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for
theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today,
and what does each want?

After all, wouldn’t British
counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the
difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a remotely similar but
far more lethal vein, the 1,400-year Sunni-Shiite rivalry is playing
out in the streets of Baghdad, raising the specter of a breakup of Iraq
into antagonistic states, one backed by Shiite Iran and the other by
Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states…

Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican
who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on
technical and tactical intelligence.

“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment:
“One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest
with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion,
different families or something.”

 

To his credit, he
asked me to explain the differences. I told him briefly about the
schism that developed after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and how
Iraq and Iran are majority Shiite nations while the rest of the Muslim
world is mostly Sunni. “Now that you’ve explained it to me,” he
replied, “what occurs to me is that it makes what we’re doing over
there extremely difficult, not only in Iraq but that whole area.”

As Lex says, "Ya think?" 

Man, we’re in trouble.

Ye Olde Commodore

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The first home computer I remember seeing was my friend Andre’s Commodore 64 that hooked to his TV.  I couldn’t figure out why it was so cool since it WAS a computer, which implied work to me, and not just a game system like my beloved Atari 2600.  Shows what a fool I was.

Check out the video below which is a commercial from around 1982 for a Commodore Vic20.  You can also find a whole bunch of old computer commercials that track the evolution of the PC here.

Baboons Gone Wild…er

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In another sign that we’ve been messing with mother nature a bit too much roving bands of baboons in South Africa are encroaching on the homes of people who have encroached upon their habitat.  According to this piece at National Geographic (found via Boing Boing):

Conflicts between baboons and humans in the suburbs of prosperous Cape
Town have gotten so bad that monitoring teams have been deployed to keep
the animals away (South Africa map).
The large monkeys invade people’s homes in the coastal Table Mountain
region, sometimes confronting people who try to scare the baboons off.

Joan Laing is co-chair of the rival Welcome Glen Baboon-Free Neighbourhood Action Group. She says the animals are a menace…

"They break windows to get into houses," Laing said. "They even know
how to open doors. And once inside, they make a mess. They empty the
fridge, ruin furniture, and defecate all over."

And they’re not afraid of people, she says.

"I have had them in my house several times, even while I was
there. They simply brushed past me. I had to get out of the way," Laing
said. "Even my husband got threatened by a baboon."

Just makes you want to say "Holy crap!" doesn’t it?  And I don’t doubt for a minute that the beasts poop everywhere once they’re inside.  Celeste and I were in Belize a few years back and while on a jungle tour one of the guides warned this guy in another group that he was getting too close to the monkeys.  The guy ignored the guide and within seconds had a steaming piece of poop in his hair after a monkey flung it at him.  They look cute on video but they’re pretty nasty creatures up close.

Does This News Bode Ill for People Who Read for the Blind?

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The International Herald Tribune is allowing readers to get audio feeds of any article they like.  Users can go to audionews.iht.com and create custom "podcasts" of any individual news item or news section that they can then play over their computer or on their portable player (MP3, iPod, etc.).  Best of all it’s a free service.  While I started writing this piece as just one more sign that we’re finally seeing newspaper companies embrace the emerging convergence of different media, and how they better speed it up before they go the way of dinosaurs, I’m now looking at this from a different angle.

A while back Celeste and I got a special radio for my grandmother who had recently lost her eyesight.  The radio receives just two stations, one that is the local public radio station and another that is broadcast out of Wake Forest and is dedicated to audio programs that include volunteers reading newspapers, both local and national.  What does a program like the IHT’s mean for these volunteer programs?  If newspapers throughout the country adopt this standard won’t the organizations that distribute these programs simply be able to pick the "podcasts" they want and broadcast them to their listeners?  That would be a bummer for people like my Mom who volunteer to read and enjoy it thoroughly.

Eats in Greensboro

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Greensboro, NC is about a half hour east of where I (and my lovely family) live in Lewisville, NC.  Since we’re right outside of Winston-Salem we usually spend our time there, but we’ve had some opportunities to go to Greensboro and we’d like to go more. So I thought I’d pick the brains of Greensboro’s bloggers for places to eat.  Following are recommendations mined from some blogs and comments on those blogs about eating in Greensboro.  These aren’t in any particular order, just a random sampling of what I found while browsing the blogs of Greensboro’s finest.  I’ll update this as I come across more.

Monk’s Cheese Steaks and Cheeseburgers
1030 Summit Avenue
275-1105
Recommendations from David Wharton’s and Ed Cone’s blogs.
Quote from Wharton: "Monk’s Cheese Steaks and Cheeseburgers in the Northeast Shopping Center knows exactly
how to make them. Visiting Monk’s is like taking a little trip to an
everyday New York eatery, complete with an airbrushed mural on the wall
featuring the Twin Towers. The staff is friendly in that New York kind
of way, the place is immaculate, and the cheese steaks … oh, yes.

The
meat comes handsomely piled on the soft bun, laced with just the right
amount of gooey cheese, onions, peppers, and seasoning. The fries were
hot and delicious and the service was fast. The only complaint comes
from my cardiologist."

Ganache
403 N Elm St
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 230-2253
Quote from Sean Coon in the comments on Cone’s blog: "by far the best cheesecake i’ve had in town to date is the chocolate chip cheesecake at ganache"

Ghassan’s
3 Locations in Greensboro
Battleground: (336) 273-2266
State Street: (336) 378-1000
Coliseum(336) 294-4060
Quote from Jerry Bledsoe on Cone’s blog: "Damn, all these Blogsboro soft-bread Cheez-Whiz (it ain’t even food)lemmings. Try a real cheese steak. Go to Ghassan’s."  And another quote from Wharton in the same post comments: "Yes, Ghassan’s fries are special. From the taste, they’re not fried in vegetable oil. Probably beef tallow."

Solaris Tapas Restaurant & Bar
125 Summit Ave.
Greensboro, NC, 27401
(336)-378-0198
Quote from Potato Stew: "We’ve been to Solaris twice, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. Very tasty tapas. We’ll be going back there more…"

Cafe Europa
200 N Davie St
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 389-1010
Quote from Roch101 on Plead the First: "The food is good, the wine list extensive and dining on the terrace this time of year is a treat."

Undercurrent
600 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC 27406
(336) 370-1266
Quote from Patrick Eakes on Plead the First: "It is on the more expensive side, but provides plenty of coziness and a romantic setting."

223 South Elm Restaurant
223 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 272-3331
Quote from Potato Stew: "It was great! Very interesting menu. I had the trout which had a black
pepper goat cheese on top that was amazing. I would defenitely
recommend the restaurant."

Bistro Sofia
616 Dolley Madison Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27410
(336) 855-1313
Quote from, well, me: "Celeste and I had dinner there a couple of months ago and I can tell you it is one of the two or three best meals we’ve had since we moved to NC.  Can’t recommend it highly enough."

Update: Ed Cone has posted a list of restaurant recommendations here.  I’m going to shamelessly steal his list which you’ll find below…thanks Ed:

My personal list would start out something like this:

Best Indian food in Greensboro: Saffron

Best sushi in Greensboro: Sushi Republic (formerly Sushi 101)

Best fine dining in Greensboro: Undercurrent

Best cheesesteak in Greensboro: Monk’s Cheesesteaks and Cheeseburgers

Best pizza in Greensboro: Vito’s (traditional); PieWorks

Best soul food in Greensboro: Madison Kitchen/UHoP

Best low-key seafood in Greensboro: Bert’s

Best Vietnamese food in Greensboro: Saigon (mentioned by Astro Boy in the comments, I concur)

Best wings in Greensboro: Minj (via Wharton)

Best carniverous experience in Greensboro: Leblon churrascaria (the usual suspects, such as Ruth’s Chris, are available for traditional steakhouse experience).

Best barbecue? Tough call. I will vote for the Brunswick Stew at Stamey’s.

PTI to Delta: SOS

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Via Ed Cone comes this article in the News & Record
about a letter that PTI Airport Authority chairman Henry Isaacson sent
to Delta’s CEO and the mayors of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High
Point. Excerpt:

"As a result of Delta’s pricing and inventory policies at (Piedmont
Triad International Airport)," he wrote, "your traffic has plummeted at
the airport. And, because you have been the largest carrier at GSO, the
airport’s traffic has dropped significantly."

and

Isaacson compared Delta’s fares with four destinations from PTI,
Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham . The lowest price from PTI for a one-day
business trip on Dec. 6 was $348 to Fort Lauderdale while the same
flight from Charlotte was $138.

The highest price was to Boston, at $798, compared with $158 from Raleigh-Durham.

"What
would you do?" Isaacson asked Grinstein in the letter. "What would you
tell your employees if you were a business in the Piedmont Triad? The
answer is no different than what over 2,300 people who drive each day
to RDU and CLT do: Use those other airports — only 60 minutes away —
and take flights with lower fares — AirTran, Southwest, JetBlue and
yes, Delta."

Also posted at Winston-Salem Business.