Schneier

What? Should they ignore you and not ask if you are finding your food to your liking? Yes. Exactly. If there's a problem, I'll signal them to come over. Otherwise, don't bother me while I'm eating. Bruce

Sounds like if you go to a couple of events a year, it's a good deal. Bruce

My wife and I are going to their dinner event in December. We would have saved $50 x 2 if we were members. How much is membership? Bruce

This is just a fantastic Q&A. Thank you, Russ. Bruce

I think that everyone should be able to see what they like. Bruce

Yep.

Is this a great country or what? Bruce

Now that is an excellent question, and a closely garded secret. Bruce

Doing product endorsements can be a difficult decision. Think of it as having only a fixed number of fame points. Whenever you endorse a product, you give up some of those fame points. Hopefully you're selling them at a good price, but you do lose them. Unless you have a way of getting more fame points, you'll eventually lose so many that you're forced to endorse newspapers on a windy streetcorner. Bruce

Although a lot more if you calculate your hourly wage into the equation. On the other hand, a lot less is you deduct the pleasure of what sounds like a wonderful afternoon foraging. Bruce

Good list. Add: 11) The food auction (who ordered the lamb?) 12) Waiters who need to tell you their name 13) Waiters who need to ask if everything is okay 14) Dirty menus 15) Dirty tables 16) Food that is allowed to cool before its served. This is fun. Bruce

It happens a lot in middle-of-the-road restaurants. My guess is that the average patrons like it. They want to decide what to take home and what to leave--the entree, the vegetables, the bread, a few salt packets--and they want to do it themselves. I, too, would much prefer the kitchen to pack up my food, but I think I'm fighting against the tide. Bruce

What's interesting is that this is a broad new advertising strategy for BK. They must be really losing ground to McD. Bruce

I like "Grace" as a restaurant name. Bruce

Adolescence is rarely pretty. Bruce

Ramen noodles. Throw away the seasoning packet, and flavor them yourself. Bruce

That explains the wine popsicles. Bruce

This demonstrates that even respectible companies resort to snake-oil claims in their advertising. It's true in the computer field; why shouldn't be true in the wine field as well. Bruce

That sounds good. It won't use it all up, but it will use some of it up. Bruce

I'll bet it would make a really good dessert sauce. When we have extra sweet wine in the house, we reduce it down and then freeze it. Bruce

Steven Shaw is certainly right when he says that the tests were not scientific, and would not pass muster in a scientific journal. And he makes a good point when he says that all of Mark's results could be explained by variables other than the wine clip. But I am still impressed with Mark's methodology, and I am still amazed by his results. There's a reason they don't put the chemists next to the harpsichordists on college campuses. I think Mark did an excellent job controlling the variables he thought were important, and designing three tests to see if the Wine Clip did any good. And remember that he's a skeptic, and any placebo effect would be likely to sway things in the other direction. The fact that he believes that something is going on does, in my mind, make the clip worthy of further study. That is not to say that Mr. Clip (sorry, I can't find his real name) is not a crackpot and a snake-oil salesman. His posts clearly demonstrate that he is both. I find this whole thing fascinating. This whole thing has a lot of parallels to various pieces of pseudo-science, and my guess is that a rigorous scientific study will pronounce the Wine Clip useless. But it is interesting to read that it didn't fail right out of the box. Bruce

You're right. A good letter writer could be put to much wider use. Bruce

That's certainly the best possible outcome. Good for the restaurant for doing the right thing. Can you post the letter you sent, so we can see how to do it properly? Bruce

I like the last option. We're serving eggs as a main course for dinner tonight. (Two of us, three guests.) Bruce

Cafe Florian Piazza San Marco Sitting outside in the Piazza San Marco can be an exciting experience, especially when the bill arrives. Yes, it's that bad. A Coke costs 7 euros. A dish of gelato: 11 euros. Cover charge on top of whatever you order: 4.50 euros. Just remember that you're not paying for the food, you're paying for the location, a ringside seat in Europe's drawing room. And that once you order something, you can sit undisturbed all day without ever ordering anything again. I think it's worth it. Cafe Florian opened in 1720, and is one of the oldest restaurants in Europe. Even so, it's only the second oldest restaurant in the square. (Last visited: October 2003)