Where's Sam Wo?

The story about the San Francisco health department closing a Chinatown fixture was interesting to me. Seems the Sam Wo restaurant’s owner couldn’t afford to bring the place up to code, so they served their last egg roll last week.

You’re probably wondering, so what? And, pretty much, so do I; I’ve never been there, although it’s purportedly been around since just after the 1906 earthquake. And I certainly wouldn’t have gone there to be insulted by “The World’s Rudest Waiter”.

It would have to be exemplary food indeed to prompt me to pay for the privilege of being the butt of the help’s rudeness. Frankly—I can get that sort of abuse from my employer, who actually pays me. (Not much, but still…)

I also don’t find it inviting to eat at a place where the health department finds “rodent activity” anywhere on the premises, much less in the kitchen. I’m not all that squeamish, but I do have some standards.

What I’m kind of wondering is why it took so long to cite the place, and why the owner doesn’t seem to have the money to make the improvements, since it’s apparently never short of customers?

But what this joint reminds me of is other institutional dives—restaurants that have been around for donkeys’ years, with large helpings of attitude as a major part of the cachet. The one that immediately comes to mind is The Original Pantry Café, in downtown LA.

It’s another place with a rep, and waitstaff that came over on the Lusitania. You don’t dare ask for any kind of special cooking or substitution, unless you like a huge helping of dissing with your pork chops. (And it’s not just one rude waiter; they all trained with Don Rickles. But you only get stick if you step out of the clearly demarcated menu lines.)

I’m thinking that TOPC stays ahead of the health department. Although now I'm going to wonder.

Verse for the best

April is National Poetry Month. I did not know this.

And today is Poem in your Pocket Day. Which I also did not know. But I fully support the concept.

Really—no purchase necessary. Write, download, type, draw a poem on a piece of paper. Put it in your pocket. Then share with colleagues, friends, family, people in the supermarket checkout line, etc.

This is apparently a very Big Event in Charlottesville, Virginia. Which is to be expected from the home of Mr. Jefferson's Academic Institution. Go, Wahoos!

I realize I’m getting this to you on the day, but not to worry—it doesn’t take but a minute to recall, research, write or ask someone for a much-loved poem. You can even post one to your FaceBook page.

Anything that gets people talking or thinking about verse.

Here’s one of my very most all-time favorites, from e.e. cummings:

plato told

him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

What’s yours?

It's a goose/gander thing

I was interested in Peggy Noonan’s latest philippic about how (American) society is going straight to hell, not passing GO and not collecting $200.

Don’t get me wrong—I agree that beating tourists, mass thievery and, frankly, any participation in prostitution is not a good thing. And posting videos about it is even worse.

As for that whole GSA thing—well, words fail me.

But what I find interesting is that Noonan is apparently not shocked, utterly shocked to find that Wal-Mart de México not only paid millions in bribes to do business with one of our biggest trading partners, but when the corporate HQ became aware of it they devoted all their effort to sweeping it under the serape.

How come Noonan hasn’t said there’s something wrong with that picture?

Or, for that matter—why isn’t she excoriating Bank of America, Goldman Sachs or any of the other corporate criminals whose actions have brought the world economy to its knees and ruined the lives of tens of millions?

If, as determined by the Supreme Court, corporations are people, shouldn’t they be held to some level of standards of character too?

Peg? Hello?

Magic Kingdom beans

Well, the wicked stepmothers, evil lions & wearers of puppy fur must be dancing in the Main Streets today, for they and all the Dark Side have triumphed at the Magic Kingdom.

Yes, Starbuck’s is invading the Disney ecosystem, starting with California Adventure in June. According to the Disney Parks blog the beachhead will be on Buena Vista Street, “a place that transports guests to 1920s Los Angeles, when Walt Disney arrived in California and a cup of coffee was the perfect way to jumpstart a busy day.”

Well, fine; but I’m guessing the 1920s cup of coffee was considerably different from what the Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Café (I swear I’m not making that name up) will serve. Not to mention that your venti triple-shot caramel macchiato will cost about 500 times more than the one penny price of a cup of joe 90 years ago.

But what I’m really wondering is: do the little princesses and midget Davy Crocketts really need one more source for a sugar high in that environment? Are they not already wound up tighter than a cheap watch (well, a cheap watch from the 1920s, when you had to wind one up) and ready to pitch wobblies at the least provocation? Do they really need "jumpstarting"?

No, I just cannot think that Mickey and Minnie are sleeping well these days.

Around town

Okay, here are a couple of things—unrelated (I think), except that they fall into the category of what-the-hell-are-these-people-thinking.

First, the past few times I’ve been driving around the Valley and heard the sirens of emergency vehicles, I’ve ascertained what direction they’re coming from and if they’re on the same street as I, headed in either direction (assuming it’s not a divided road), I put on my right indicator, pull over to the right and come to a stop. Like always.

Whereupon, like as not, some buffoon in a Lexus, BMW or SUV swerves around me and keeps on going—as though I were somehow behaving completely unexpectedly.

Is that make-way-for-fire-engines-ambulances-and-cops thing no longer the rule? It was in the California DMV regs when I took my test less than two years ago. Has it been repealed? Or is there an exemption for the Head Up But (HUB) driver?

The other thing I’ve noticed is people bringing bottled water into church services. What’s up with that? You can’t go 60 minutes without rehydrating? (And for the one today who came in late—you can’t go 50 minutes?)

What’s coming down the road—cups of latte and blueberry scones?