BACK TO SQUARE ONE

Went to lunch at a "Burger Place" just across the street from Sarasota Memorial Hospital. It was lunchtime and they have a big parking lot and it was not filled. Inside it was also sparsely populated. "This is NOT a good indicator" said the Kitty. Once again, the Kitty was right and here's why.....

We ordered our food..mostly burgers and diet cokes. The cokes tasted a little "funny" the burgers were small and greasy. The service was OK. The bill was EXPENSIVE.

This is one of three restaurants by the same name. They are NOT going to make it with their present formula...high prices, small portions and greasy food. For 20% of the cost we would have had a better meal at McDonald's. In fact, there is nothing tastier than a McDonald's Cheeseburger which is not much smaller, is less greasy and costs a dollar.

On the way out I studied the layout of the restaurant and concluded that this is a Gin-Mill with the full licensed bar central to the operation. Happy hour signs were everywhere. There were even some midday barflies in attendance. Go there if you want drinks. If you want a good burger, go to McDonald's or a lot of other places.

MEDITERRANEAN 2

When I know I have a big evening ahead of me, in the culinary sense, as in Black Tie Charity event, I stop by my favorite local restaurant and order one of these for lunch...Mini Greek salad with anchovies and extra feta cheese. It is practically free. I get out of there including infinite refills of diet coke (no Coke, Pepsi) for a few dollars. In the Mediterranean sense, it has vegetables, healthy cheese, olive oil, and oily fish for the Omega 3 benefit. The coke has no High Fructose Corn Sugar since it is diet cola. An Ice tea would be better but operating on the principle of "Water which is too pure has no fish" I make a few less than perfect choices. Choosing diet coke over Ice tea is one of these.

Not that they need any more business, the place is filled to capacity every day for lunch and dinner, for a good reason, you should try it when in Sarasota. It is on South Tamiami Trail south of Barnes and Noble and north of Office Depot. DEMETRIOS. The proprietor is Dino Karounis, a real greek, his wife is a latina, and his daughters, who work there, have inherited the best of both blood lines. Whoops, I guess I gave away my real reason for eating there. My bad.

FOR PETE'S SAKE

In 1961 when I started college they arranged us alphabetically and sat me next to a guy whose last name began with LA just like mine. We were pre-meds back then. We became good friends. After graduation we went to different medical schools. Then internship, and finally we both took orthopedic surgery residencies and became board certified in the field. We served in the military (Army for me) and one time I visited him at camp LeJeune (he was a Marine-Navy doctor) and we operated together.

I got a call from Pete last week telling me he and his wife were coming to Florida for a week to visit his sister-in law. He drove about 1 1/2 hours down from north of Tampa to spend the day. We had a great time. The last time we saw them was at their daughter's wedding a few years ago.

The Guy's an Empty Suit

I wonder where this expression came from and why we use this so often when describing politicians. There's that other one "Clothes make the man." Perhaps we could combine the two and come up with "Clothes ARE the man, the whole man." Then there's the expression "the Emperor has no clothes" another favorite in political punditry. So, going further with the clothes thing and being more specific about its application in those who govern us, Our leaders are without talent, good intentions, and insight, and their proposals are accepted like the naked emperor until the little boy in the back shouts out "The Emperor has no clothes!" Suits me. Case clothed.

Are GIRL SCOUTS trying to kill us?

Indisputable that almost everyone considers drug dealers and cigarette manufacturers to be some sort of "killer" who capitalizes on human weakness and addiction. What about those lovable little scouts who will be coming to your door and enticing you with Samosas and such? These "cookie-pushers" are not only adorable children, and dutifully supporting their fine organization, but while they are selling these yummy cookies with their peanut butter, chocolate, and tons of carbs, do they ever consider that they are causing obesity and type 2 diabetes in the unsuspecting? To the carbohydrate addicts of the world? Among the merit badges and patches on their uniforms is there one that says "the Surgeon General has determined that eating Girl Scout cookies can give you a fat ass and a heart attack?" or "If the full feeling you get after eating a box of chocolate chip cookies lasts more than 4 hours, call a doctor?" I doubt it. Another hidden danger of modern society and a potential windfall for personal injury lawyers. I can see it now... The guy who advertises on TV for asbestos and mesothelioma buys an ad that says " Have you ever eaten a Girl Scout cookie and are you fat, diabetic, or ever had a heart attack? Then call our law firm at 1-800-8cookie and we can make you rich. Non-attorney spokesperson."

I'm going to JACKSON (laboratory)

Sarasota is all a twitter over the prospect of Jackson Laboratory moving to our area. Though there is not 1 in 1000 people living in Sarasota County that can tell you what Jackson Laboratory does, everyone on the county and city commission seems to think this is the best thing since sliced cheese. It will create anywhere between 11 jobs and 3 million jobs and grow an economic Utopia that would make the post-war baby boom look like a lemonade stand. Few of the articles written about the Jackson Lab mention that in order for this move to happen, the State of Florida would have to give Jackson 100,000,000 dollars and the county another 100,000,000 (one hundred million) dollars and free land, and a 120,000 square foot building, and cover any losses they might have from operations for the first few years. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?

The Gulf Coast has 600,000,000 in unfunded pension obligations, Sarasota had a budget shortfall, this year, and just bribed the Orioles to come here for spring training by building them a 30,000,000 stadium when there are players on the team that probably make that much in salary. We just completed a 46 million dollar city police station (planned before the downturn), and all new traffic signal upgrades for more millions. I don't know about you, but last time I looked, the economy is in the crapper, joblessness is rampant, we extended unemployment benefits out to 99 weeks, and we are at war in at least two places on the globe and more on the horizon.

The ORACLE is going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction....the leaders of our town and county will do anything they can to make this happen no matter that we are busted flat and broke. Alternatively, Jackson will move on to another location to see if they can find another sucker to put up all the money to build their new lab, in the hopes that jobs (too high tech for our high school graduates) or building and development will make East Overshoe the next silicon valley of medical technology.

Ask yourself...other than breeding millions of lab rats...what the heck do they do in Jackson Laboratory? One non-clinical department I am sure they have is the one called "Let's see if we can get some wannabe town to build us a new facility at no risk to us." Don't worry though, if Jackson does not come, I hear that there is a Unicorn Farm looking for some seed money and a place to set up shop. Our work force will be able to fill those shovel-ready jobs. Too bad we don't have people who are trained to do genetic research and most of the future Jackson employees for those jobs will be coming from elsewhere. Our local merchants will have to learn how to speak Hindi or Mandarin.

the GOV

Rick Scott is the new governor of Florida. He is in the mold of Governors Mark Sanford, Chris Christie, and Scott Walker, the embattled governor of Wisconsin who is on TV every night. Almost half of the state did not vote for him. It may be the half that pays no taxes and wants the government to do everything for them, I don't know, but I suspect that it is. He is a "kick-ass-take-names" type of guy who has strong opinions and brings a business background to the job. Sure, there are opportunities to criticize his past and his choices, but that is the essence of politics, the winner, like President Obama for example, gets to set the agenda. "Get over it" you liberals who wouldn't have voted for him in a million years.

Many of my friends are police officers and fireman who feel unduly put-upon by the governor's attempts to balance the budget by attacking their pensions. Everyone has their favorites and so do I. In my world, there are certain people who deserve special consideration... these include military warriors, police officers, and firemen and women. I would not touch anything that they have been promised. I would make some different rules going forward for the new hires but I would still place these jobs in a special category I like to call "These guys are willing to die so you can be safe." This is unlike other "professions that are currently rioting in Wisconsin over "the children" that is to say the teacher's union. If doctors got the results that teachers do, i.e. half their clients don't graduate, the malpractice law firm of Dewey Cheatem and Howe. would be even richer than they are. So as for teachers' salaries, pensions, and medical benefits, I will not care if their salaries and pensions are cut to the bone until the union gets out of the way. Rather than protectionism, allow the awful teachers to get replaced. Get rid of the ridiculous tenure system (who else has tenure?) and replace the worst "educators" with teachers that care and have better teaching skills no matter that they are recent hires and not seniority union sacred cows.

Until that time, I am cautiously optimistic that Governor Scott will take a meat cleaver to the budget even if this means that dead wood has to go. If the only way we can increase employment in this country is to hire more government workers, then it is time to fold our tents and sneak off into the night. I think there is another way and I am willing to give the governor a chance. The people KNEW what his intentions were when they elected him. If you don't like it, wait as I have to for the next election and throw the bums out. We may just have different opinions as to who these bums exactly are. One man's bum may be another man's hero.

TIME SAVER

For those of us who live in and around Sarasota, Florida, where the only option among daily newspapers is the Sarasota Herald Tribune, I have discovered an incredible time saving system for deciding which side to take on the issues of the day. I am sure that there may be the occasional exception but generally you can "take this to the bank"...If you can understand the poor writing and grammar and can ascertain what the opinion of the paper is, if you then take the EXACT OPPOSITE opinion, you will invariably be right.

It used to make me mad to open the daily paper and read the opinions of the editors and reporters of the paper because "I was there" at the event on which they were reporting and I knew that what I was reading in the paper was not correct. I no longer get mad, or irritated, I have merely changed my attitude from one of being "pissed" to being thankful. If I see an article, for example, about why we absolutely and positively NEED to have High Speed Railways in Florida, I immediately know that having a high speed rail would be the fiscal equivalent of dropping a concrete block on your foot. IF they report that this would boost our economy and save the state, I know that this means that in the real world that is not populated with Unicorns, this would be a boondoggle and bankrupt us into the year 2050.

So from now on, when you go out to your driveway to retrieve "the" paper, know that you are about to save yourself incredible amounts of time doing research on the internet, or in the library. Read an article, any article, and hopefully you will with some difficulty "get" what they are trying to say. An article about "Poor woman can't get help for wrongly arrested honor student son" might mean "Woman clueless about parenting blames everyone but herself for son holding up convenience store." You get the picture. Always glad to be of help.