Dave’s Personal Blog

I was reading a food related email thread in gmail and it suggested this link.  I was intrigued so I checked it out.  It just got me mad.  And so I blog.

How totally lame… look at the poor cute piggy… gimme a break.  That tactic doesn’t open my wallet for poor 3rd world kids… and it isn’t going to close my wallet at the butcher section.

I was a vegetarian for close to 14 years… almost 14 years of no meat.  A good chunk of that with no eggs or cheese.  You know all I have to say about that? (listen up because I don’t say this lightly) I WAS WRONG.

My culinary world is simply exploding these days… I’m discovering a lot that I’ve been missing in the wide world of food.  I think Anthony Bourdain sums it up nicely: 

“If it’s slower than me, dumber than me, and tastes reasonably good… pass the salt!” 

In response to Peta, I offer you this link: The Bacon Show

Go forth and enjoy that smokey, salty, piggy goodness.

Now, don’t get me wrong.. I have nothing against folks that abstain from meat (or just pigs) for religious or cultural reasons.  Personally, I don’t understand the idea of putting meat in Indian food.  There are plenty of examples of simply excellent indigenous vegetarian cuisines.It’s the peta style vegetarians that I have issues with.

Hmm.. I’m hungry now… a sandwich would be good… I think I have some ham in the fridge.  Yum!

Nova Scotia lifts Sunday shopping ban:

”
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 4, 2006 | 4:00 PM AT

CBC News

The Nova Scotia government has swung the door to Sunday shopping wide open now that the province’s Supreme Court has sided with two grocery chains.

In a ruling released Wednesday, Justice Peter Richard said the government went beyond its powers with regulations introduced in June that prevented Sobeys and Atlantic Superstore from selling products seven days a week.

Shortly after, Premier Rodney MacDonald said the government will not appeal the ruling and it will clear the way for Sunday shopping.

‘The rules will be the same for all retail outlets, creating a level playing field for all retailers in Nova Scotia, regardless of what they sell,’ he said.

Retail stores of all kinds can open on Sundays and other holidays, starting this weekend. The only exception is Remembrance Day, which is covered under a separate law.”

It’s bloody well about time!

Last night I was traveling home from my client in Philadelphia. We left Philly delayed by about 45 minutes, nothing too unusual. We get close to Toronto (where I had a connection on to Halifax) and find that there’s still a massive thunder storm over the city. The airport has closed due to the weather so we redirect to Rochester NY to sit out the storm. Air Canada doesn’t have a presence there so all we could to is sit in the plane.. for several hours before continuing on to Toronto. Again.. weather happens.

The thing that has me and many other travelers steamed is what faced us in Toronto. (aside: the airport in Toronto is in a state of flux… domestic and international flights are handled by the new terminal while US flights are still handled in the old terminal.. they use a shuttle bus to move passengers between the two) By the time we got in, the shuttle service wasn’t running… so it wasn’t as easy to get the to domestic terminal. Once there I find that the support staff had gone home for the night.. leaving several hundred passengers to try to get through to the customer service line on a special bank of phones or via a toll free #.

I was just about to the phones when we were told to go to another area where some agents were starting the day. That line much have had 400 people in it at one point. No broadcast announcements were made informing people what was going on, where they should be, or anything about what the process was.

People were given directions, and shuffled about with very poor instructions/information and no explanation of what was trying to be accomplished.

In all we we herded like so many cattle. The worst though was that there was nobody there to deal with the situation. The shift finished and everyone went home. What kind of customer service is that?

Air Canada clearly doesn’t seem to have a policy in place for proactively dealing with situation like this (a mass of customers missing connections due to delays and/or cancelations). IMO they would gain in terms of customer satisfaction what it would cost to keep customer service staffed for as long as required in these situations.

I am happy to report, however, that When I eventually did get to talk to an agent (after 4 hours of standing in lines) I got a seat on the first flight out in the morning. So I’m only 10 hours late getting home. I’m writing this sitting at the gate waiting for my flight.. which is sitting just outside the window.. and assumedly will leave on time. I’ve been awake for over 24 hours, I’m tired, my feet hurt, and I smell funny… but so do a good number of people around here this morning… so that’s not worrying me. I will consider carefully before traveling Air Canada again.. or connecting through Toronto.

Yesterday I flew back to my client site outside Chicago. En route I needed to get a new TN-1 visa so I made sure to get a lengthy stop in Toronto to do so.

So for the stick… while the border officers were pleasant and down to business, there weren’t nearly enough of them on duty to efficiently handle the amount of people going through the system. A simple 10 minute job (my TN-1) took far too long to make it through the queue. Once it did it was processed efficiently. In fact, I had to wait so long that I ended up missing my connection, albeit only by about 15 minutes.

Now for the carrot… I went to the gate from which my flight had oh so recently departed and explained the situation to the Air Canada agents still there. They promptly printed me a boarding card for the next flight to Chicago. I had almost an hour before it boarded so I was able to grab a quick lunch. Everything worked out for the best after all. I am most impressed with how Air Canada handled the situation… immediately and with a smile. My checked bag even made it to Chicago with me.

OK.. here’s a WTF moment for you all.

This has to do with what must be the absolutely most stupid traffic management that I’ve ever seen.

The driveway for this school is one way, going in to the right of the school, across the front, and out on the left. There are angle parking spots along the section across the fron of the school… additionally there is room for at least two lanes of traffic.

So, we were there to pick up Thomas (Nancy’s son) last week.
Ok .. it’s a school.. so there are buses. Additionally people pick up their kids. People (mostly teachers apparently.. but that’s another rant) park in the angle spaces… still plenty of room for busses to line up in front of the school for loading.. and room for parents to drive along as well.

Now, someone in their great wisdom decided that the busses should angle park in front of the school. This allows more buses to park. Great.. easier/quicker to load.

But this has a couple interesting side effects. First buses form a queue… they have to leave in order. Worse, though, is the fact that when the buses are angle parked.. they don’t leave enough room behind them for even a single row of traffic.. so parents are effectivly blocked.

A bit more thought would seem to be required.