Posted on

Whose job is it to protect diners?

I read this article in the AJC last week and it made me think of the harassment I took from a gang of gluten free women last month when I refused to advertise that the taqueria was a gluten free establishment. They got pissed because I wouldn’t make those statements and I told them to call the owner. Oh, but let me tell you, if one of them got sick from eating something verboten, you can be sure they’d be the first to sue. Bitches.

But anyway, the AJC food critic/blogger John Kessler published a point/counterpoint article about this type of silly crap that “advocates” think restaurants should be responsible for: calories, fat content, allergens, etc., etc., ad nauseum. The article WAS on the AJC food blog, but no more. [Dec 2015]

Of course I’m on the side of the restaurant. The only places you’re going to find full nutritional info is large chains. If you want that sort of information because you don’t understand that “al fredo” means heavy cream and butter, then I suggest you eat only at Chili’s, Applebees and the like.

If you are deathly allergic to peanuts, then perhaps you should eat at home?

If your brat requires no gluten, then ask the owner or manager about the menu, but don’t get all crazy on waiters (or admins like me) because we won’t guarantee anything.

The way I see it, if you like to patronize local joints, then you either educate yourself about how the kitchen is run and make friends with the owner/manager or you stick to safe bets like chains. Or eat at home.

DO NOT go out to a restaurant and bring your drama and bad attitude. The waiter probably does NOT know every freaking ingredient in every freaking dish. That’s not her job! It’s NO ONE’S job to fuss over you and cater to your specific needs. You are in a business not a daycare. If you need coddling and the like then please, just stay home. Small restaurant owners have better things to do than deal with your silly shit.

I’m not making light of medical conditions or allergies, but dammit, don’t expect the whole world to stop and cater to YOU. Small businesses are just that: small. Small budgets, small margins. It’s pricey to get nutritional analyses and no local place is going to do that. Get over yourself and cut your local joints some slack.

Nobody likes bitchy little girls. If you can’t act like a grown up and be responsible for your own shit, STAY AT HOME. This is just another offshoot of people wanting everyone else to be responsible for them. Isn’t the Nanny State up in our business enough?

[This is on behalf of all small local restaurants that have to put up with unreasonable people.]

Posted on

New Tech smell!

Ahh! New technology! Makes me feel warm all over! Apple announced the iPad today and it’s SWEEET! We don’t need one, but we may have to GET one. Just because we can! We need it for cons, right? RIGHT! Write offy goodness! :-)

Now I need to rant for a sec:
Too bad the afterglow of the announcement has been somewhat tarnished by the retards on FB. Man, there are some seriously dumb people on that network. One ‘tard was bitching about the price for a “slightly re-engineered” iPod Touch, insisting it’s “$100s more than the iPhone for the same stuff”. Um. No, it’s not more than the phone and uh, there’s LOTS more “stuff”. Then there was the brilliant PC dude who said “yah, but MAC [sic] is just not as flexible as PC for word processing. It’s more for art!” OMG. How can such completely outdated info STILL be believed?? HOW??

It’s not MAC. It’s Mac, which is short for Macintosh, whereas MAC is short for Media Access Control (or MAC cosmetics). And if you PC people think that your piddly little version of MS Office compares in ANY way to Office:Mac version, you are sadly mistaken. The Mac version of Office will make you CRY it’s so much better than the PC version. Seriously. You. Would. Cry.

It’s ludicrous that people STILL believe that there is actually a software gap.
//end rant

It’s great that complete luddites feel they can contribute to the convo, but DAMN. At least have a tiny little clue, people! At least read the specs for the device! At least have a vague idea about the platforms before saying something as dumb as that PC guy.

Reality is that this device, the iPad (yah, the name certainly could be better, but WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE?), is the next in a long line of innovations from Apple that the rest of the tech world will emulate. Apple is the tech world’s R&D department and I think they should get 100% credit for it.

All the bitchers and naysayers seem to fall into two main groups of lusers: PC people who are clueless in the first place (as in: office workers who don’t know what “Windows” is and the like) and broke muthafuckahs who can’t afford anything great, so they feel the need to bash.

All I got to say to you guys is: hey, enjoy your knockoff (read: CHEAP) tech. It’ll trickle down to you in a coupla years when the rest of us are on to the next great thing. And don’t be hatin’ those of us who appreciate it NOW.

Posted on

Family Llamas

This intro should warn you of my pissy nature at the moment. So tread carefully if you need to speak to me.

There’s no more vicious breed of Drama Llama than that of family. Each family member has their own and they are primed for battle at all times. I post this for the amusement of my friends who rarely get to hear juicy Drama Llama stories from me. I don’t have many Llama tales of woe, but when I do, it’s a biggie. Enjoy, you sick bitches!

This trip to Nutsville was a prime example of why family is the wart on the ass of humanity and should be avoided at all costs.

My mother has never been nice. Or even sorta nice. She’s a mean spirited, selfish, small minded woman who is only interested in people she can control. Which is why we do NOT get along. She cannot tolerate insubordination from the minions and that’s all she’s ever gotten from me. It drives her crazy that she can’t find a way to make me get in line. I like this. This bit of rebellion kept me sane growing up with this woman.

She perfectly reflects her upbringing and she has perfectly recreated that same fucked up dynamic in her own family. She rules the roost, the menfolk cower from her ass chewings and let her do as she pleases. Just as her mother did. She marginalizes the female child just as she was marginalized. She browbeats the male child and keeps him steppin’ and fetchin’ just as her mother does to her brother. It’s sick, sick, sick. She’s ruined my brother’s life by controlling his every breath since he was born. He is 42 years old and single, imagine that. He did manage to reproduce, tho, so she has two generations of minions to carry out her every order. The old battle axe will live to be 100 and my brother will be steppin’ and fetchin’ his whole life. So, what will happen then, is that his kid will be steppin’ and fetchin’ for him. The cycle goes on. [update a couple of hours after I wrote this post: OMG, I just realised that my brother is raising a kid with his mother. GAH! Oedipus, anyone?]

Sick, sick, sick.
Continue reading “Family Llamas”

Posted on

All’s quiet on the virtual front?

You’ve got to be kidding me! I find it hard to believe that the ONLY newsworthy event is Travolta’s son dying at 16. Tragic, yes, but is that the only thing going on?

No drama? No gnashing of teeth or rending of clothing? No tales of woe? LJ, you can do better!

Well since no one has anything to say, I’ll post a big ole political post to at least give everyone something to read. No cuts, either, bitches.

A bunch of Muslims got tossed off an AirTran flight and detained for talking about which seats are the safest in a crash. Stupid, yes, but illegal? I think not. The fucking TSA must be reigned in. Those assholes can detain you as long as they wish for any reason they wish. That is WRONG. Oh, and these Muslims were CITIZENS, people, not some random ferrinners.

I get searched about 50% of the time at the airport, which tells me that I’m probably on a watch list for my views on this blog. Well, SUCK IT, TSA!! Go ahead and harass me all you like. I will not stop criticising a fascist department of government with unbridled power to treat citizens any way they wish. It’s wrong and it should be stopped. The fallacy that it “makes us safer” is just plain stupid.

Let’s have some quotes about democracy, shall we? Remind ourselves of a few things:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – CS Lewis

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” – George Bernard Shaw

“In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.” – J. William Fulbright

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi

“The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.” – Noam Chomsky

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” – Voltaire

Why do we allow the TSA and the Patriot Act to continue? Because Americans have become sheeple, that’s why. I’m certain that the people of Germany told themselves that Hitler’s regime was acceptable because “I’m not doing anything wrong, so what am I worried about?” And the trains, did indeed run on time.

“Lack of dissent provides permission by acquiescence.” – Angela H. Pratt

Posted on

Marriage Rant (Rights for ALL!)

As most people know, Nick and I are married ONLY because we want the special rights afforded those who tie the knot. Yes, there are laws here and there for “domestic partners” but they are weak, not enforced and vary by COUNTY and even by COMPANY.

I think it’s hilarious that we felt that we had NO CHOICE but to get married to ensure that our finances and our healthcare decisions would be guaranteed to the other if anything happened to one of us. Not to mention the long list of discounts you get for having that piece of paper.

Personally, we think it’s fucked up that we HAD to get married. If we didn’t, we’d have to manually do contracts and tons of paperwork supervised by lawyers to ensure that the other person has full rights and controls if one is gravely ill or dies. I know a gay couple who did just that. They had piles of paperwork that cost thousands of dollars to create to ensure that they kept custody of their daughter, could administer the money or make health decisions for each other.

I just don’t see what the big fucking deal is with gay marriage. The big deal is that STRAIGHT people are discriminated against just as much if they don’t want to marry. Nick and I HAD to have the piece of fucking paper – don’t think that you get partner rights just because you’re straight – YOU DON’T. In MY opinion, WE have been discriminated against because there are NO domestic partnership laws.

You want equality? Let’s get DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP laws on the books. Marriage is an artificial social contract. It has never served any purpose other than to the church. It has evolved into a whole list of rights and privileges that have nothing to do with the act of marriage at all. It’s a social contract that grants SPECIAL rights to the participants. And it’s NOT FAIR.

You want to RAGE against something? Then RAGE against this whole society being rooted in silly Christian religious crap that affects straights, gays, blacks, everyone.

RAGE that STRAIGHT PEOPLE are expected to get married if they want the same privileges afforded the married. Want that insurance discount? Get married. Want to see your partner in the hospital? Get married.

If we put as much energy into EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE as we do into railing about gay marriage rights, we might actually get somewhere.

Don’t-Call-Me-Mrs-Pratt-OR-Mizgala
It’s ANGELA.
MISAngela if you’re nasty.
:-)