What needs to be changed more?

[angus]

nah.  I ain't buying into your analysis.  there aren't many places in the world I can walk into and say, "hey man.  bring me a big tub o cheese and bread and get a pitcher of whatever beer you can get away with."  and hang out all night and eat for free and watch the game on TV.  In fact, there are only two such places in the world.  The Olive garden in North Arlington TX and TGIFriday's in Pleasanton CA. 

In my opinion, those two places are great.  Also, TGIF is extra special because the mixed drinks are free as well.  In fact, it's better than olive garden.  (but then I don't go into there expecting seafood do I?  I just expect large quantities of cardboard-flavored food for free and copious well drinks.  I guess it's all an expectations game.)

[Cashcow]

What am I supposed to expect, dog feces? Because that's pretty much what the food tastes like. It's just another bad chain restaurant, aiming to deceive those who don't know what real Italian food is.

[angus]

What am I supposed to expect, dog feces? Because that's pretty much what the food tastes like.

I won't even ask how you know that. 


dumbass.

[angus]

any man that that can in all seriousness compare the taste of dog feces to anything is bound to have serious issues.

but seriously, I have a good idea what cardboard tastes like.  and I don't mind admitting that.  and that's pretty much what you get when you get stuff for free.  but unlike cardboard, which has beta-1,4 linkages between the glucose polymers, Olive Garden and TGIFridays food has alpha-1,4 linkages between the glucose monomers.  And that makes all the difference.  it's useful stuff.

incidently, yes you do have the enzymes to digest large portions of what's in dog feces, and if you're that kind of guy.  hey, it's a free world, pal.  be my guest.  I'll stick with olive garden's all you can eat and drink free buffet when I'm down on my luck.

[angus]

What am I supposed to expect, dog feces? Because that's pretty much what the food tastes like. It's just another bad chain restaurant, aiming to deceive those who don't know what real Italian food is.

are you sure you're an american?  seriously.  because you sound suspiciously like a foreigner who is not totally submersed in the american experience.

no one claims here or anywhere else that this type of food is delicious.  just like no one claims that drinking pepsi light will give you the figure of cheryl tiegs.  it's called a marketing ploy.  I have had italian food in a number of italian restaurants from turin to boston to san francisco's north end, and that includes my grandmother's little kitchen where she made all her italian dishes from scratch just like her mother taught her to in her youth when she lived in italy before she moved out to the sticks in northern minnesota.  In fact, there's a long article about her in the minneapolis star tribune.  look it up on line.  her name was magdalena anna mancuso.  but that's all really beside the point, isn't it. 

I'm not sure how OG came into this discussion either, but two points are salient: 

1.  to compare OG (or tgif) food to feces not only puts a very disturbing image of you into my imagination, but also probably insults the flavor of dogsh**t.
2.  you seem not to know much about the marketing of style over substance.  if you expect to become a republican you'd better shape up.

this probably deserves its own thread since it cuts to the heart of the market-driven consummerism that is apparently so misunderstood.  but suffice it to say here that you probably don't need to lecture any of the posters here about the unhealthy habits of eating large quantities of flavorless food.  you might as well lecture us on cocaine, marijuana, and prostitutes.  after all, they're all meaningless and tasteless wastes of money and health as well.  (okay, not the coke, but the rest of it anyway.)  still, since I don't have a close personal friend in any of those business, those empty pleasures are not free to me the way the flavorless olive garden food is.  and therefore, since they cost hard-earned money, I tend to have higher standards when judging them.

However, you might reconsider the advantages/disadvantages of eating dogsh**t.  If it's an economic problem, I'm sure some of the democrats can put you in touch with some folks who can help you.

[Cashcow]

This does deserve its own thread. However, I'm going to assume you're joking and not respond while I stare at my screen in disbelief.

[angus]

This does deserve its own thread. However, I'm going to assume you're joking and not respond while I stare at my screen in disbelief.

ah, well.  it started off that way.  but I think you hit on something powerful in your last post.  I hadn't actually given much thought to the fact that there may be some folks who do walk into an olive garden hoping to get what my old grandmother would make.  or hoping to get something like those delicious buttery garlicky mussles they serve at Vinny Testa's.  Then it occurred to me that maybe you're right.  maybe they do.  maybe it's I who doesn't have a g clue.  I leave room for that possibility, and am generally quick to admit when I've been shown to be wrong.  (see the many many threads in which I've had to eat crow:  super bowl rant, for example.)

now I have this incomplete vague thought about olive garden commercials (yes my friend really did work there back about 15 years ago when I was a starving grad student.  and yes I'd take handouts of flavorless partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil before I'd go around eating feces.  so, all things considered, my own recollections of OG, which I haven't been to in over ten years owing to the fact that now I have a job and can afford to buy my own food, are rather fond.  the free beer helps too).  what are they really marketing in those commercials?

I submit:  atmosphere, for sure. 

delicious food?  implied, maybe, but no guarantee.  look closely at the marketing.  there's really no serious expectation that you get good food.  it's all style, no substance.  do you disagree?

[Cashcow]

The restaurants are quite nice to look at. If that's what you mean, I don't disagree.

[Horus]

2 is more urgent, but they both need to be done.

[J. J.]

The tax code is fine, but blatant State favoritism of Christians is a travesty.

I'd rather see the tax code reformed than lead a move to tax the Koran or Talmud, if they were taxed.

[John Dibble]

The tax code is fine, but blatant State favoritism of Christians is a travesty.

I'd rather see the tax code reformed than lead a move to tax the Koran or Talmud, if they were taxed.

Not sure you understand the issue. I made a thread on it earlier. Basically, a paragraph in the Georgia tax code exempts Bibles from the sales tax - there is no exemption for holy books of other religions, meaning that there is state favoritism for one religion. That should not be the case, so the Bible should be taxed just like the rest of the books.

Now, as I said, I'd rather have federal tax reform.

[angus]

The restaurants are quite nice to look at. If that's what you mean, I don't disagree.

that's why I challenge your assessment.

as for my passionate defense.  Well, it's like the commercial says, "When you're here, you're family"  For me, that was exactly the experience.  the food sucked, but it was free, along with the beer.  and they accepted me for what I was, and I met lots of nice folks there, occassionally got stoned or got laid with folks I met there.  So, in a real sense, it would be just as if I was invited to eat with someone's family, and they fed me.  and they let me do their little sister and such.  I'm totally serious, I have nothing but fond memories of the place.  I agree that the food is unhealthy and flavorless, much like the home cooking of some of my friends' mothers.  But that's beside the point.  The commercials don't say you'll get good food.  Just atmosphere.  "Olive Garden.  When you're here, you're family."

Also, stay tuned for some pictures I'll post from Wal-Marts all over the world that I've made.  Some feature the outside, with signs in English, Spanish, French.  ("bas prix toujours.  Bienvenue a Walmart")  If we ever have a poll of which poster is the biggest Wal-Mart fan, I respectfully request that you consider Angus as an option on the poll.

   Merci Beaucoup, mon ami Wal-Mart 

[opebo]

flavorless food.  you might as well lecture us on cocaine, marijuana, and prostitutes.  after all, they're all meaningless and tasteless wastes of money and health as well.  (okay, not the coke, but the rest of it anyway.) 

I've certainly had a lot more fun with prostitutes than in any American chain restaurant.  Though many are bad, even the worst is better, in her field, than an American chain restaurant in its industry.  True, hookers don't compare with the mind-bogglingly high level of customer satisfaction achieved by the porn industry, but they do OK overall.

The food in American corporate restaurants is disgusting, but you also mentioned the marketing of 'style' over substance - the style of those places is worse than the food!  A more grating, unpleasant, contrived ambiance could not be imagined, and the people that patronize such places are not worth knowing - in fact they're just the people I want to avoid.

[angus]

downward spiral, my man.  at some point we need to call a truce.

back on topic.  I'm thinking that a tax not only on bibles, but on whores as well, would do our current budget deficit a world of good.  8.5% tax on all prostitute services.  (even the most conservative estimates put the total federal revenues this way at about 400 million dollars per year, and states can scrape off a bit on top of that if they wish.)  User funded, all benefit, and it eases taxes on other goods, services, and properties.  Helps balance the budget.  Sounds like it would have appeal to the plutocrats as well as the socialists.  Win-win all around, whaddya say?