kitchenmage

National Restaurant Association #flashBoycott

Yeah, yeah, this is a food blog. Well, in theory, at least. But bear with me, this is sort of foodish...

As a staunch advocate of everyone's right to speak, I am hoping that the National Restaurant Association does the right thing tomorrow and decides to release the women accusing Herman Cain of sexual harrassment from their silencing.

I don't have a whole lot of faith, however, so I am hoping you will join me in giving them a small nudge. Between now and when the association announces its decision, boycott all of their members. No morning espresso. No drive-through on the way to work. Maybe even go to that tiny hole in the wall for lunch. The big chains will survive without us for a day.

Partial National Restaurant Membership List

7-Eleven, Inc.	Marriott International
AmRest Applebee's LLC	McDonald's Corporation
ARAMARK Corporation	Morton's of Chicago National Headquarters
Arby's/U.S. Beef	Nordstrom Restaurant Division
Benihana Inc.	Panda Restaurant Group
Bennigan's Franchising Co	Panera, LLC
Big Boy Restaurants International	Papa Gino's, Inc.
Burger King Corporation	Papa John's International Inc.
California Pizza Kitchen, Inc.	Papa Murphy's International, Inc.
The Cheesecake Factory, Inc	PF Chang's China Bistro
Chick-fil-A, Inc.	Quizno's Master LLC
Chipotle	Red Robin International
Denny's	Ruby Tuesday, Inc
Domino's Pizza, Inc.	Ruth's Chris Steak House
Dunkin' Brands, Inc.	Shakey's of California
Emeril's Restaurant	Shari's Management Corporation
Hard Rock International, Inc.	Sonic Industries, Inc.
Hooters of America, Inc.	Starbucks Coffee Company
Hyatt Hotels Corporate Office	Subway Sandwiches and Salads
In-N-Out Burger	Tim Hortons Inc.
Jack in the Box Inc.	Walt Disney World Company
Jamba Juice Company	Wendy's/Arby's Group
Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation	White Castle System,Inc
Little Caesar's Enterprises, Inc.	Yum! Brands, Inc.
Macy's Food Division 1143

Yes, it is broad and there are a lot of nice places on that list. But it's for only half a day.

Join me?

If you'd like to do something more direct, here's how.

Twitter: @WeRRestaurants

Facebook: National Restaurant Association

Email: Sue Hensley

In Which Ina Garten Doesn't Make a Wish

There are other, more thoughtful posts floating around on my computer half-written but I am annoyed in a more than 140 character kind of way about today's twitter outrage. In a nutshell, Ina Garten declined to cook with a terminally ill child who requested it through Make a Wish foundation.

We will now pause for the two-minute hate.

Done? Good. Moving on...

Cooks Source Statement: Slightly Corrected

To Unknown Cooks Source Source,

After waiting days for you to emerge and say something, I read your statement. I am really disappointed in you. In addition to some glaring errors, it has quite a few problems with style and substance. I have taken it upon myself to make some edits, gratis. Corrections are inline below, deletions are strikethrough and additions are red. Notes to consider when rewriting are red and parenthetical. (In case you haven't read it, the black text is the actual original.)

STATEMENT HUMBLE APOLOGY

We are sorry. So sorry.

We do not know how the hell that happened. I mean, we thought we hired a professional editor and we got...well, you know what we got.

We have cancelled lost control of our Facebook page on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 6:00PM. It has since been since been hacked by unknown parties and now someone else (I think this is a known unknown, not an unknown unknown.) unknown to us has control of it. Their inclusion of Cooks Source issues and photos is used without our knowledge or consent. (Really? You're going with they used your content without your consent? Really? Might I suggest you STFU instead.) Please know that none of the statements made by attributed to either Cooks Source or Judith Griggs were made by either our staff or her. On the other hand, that arrogant and ignorant email she sent to Monica Gaudio? All Griggs. Yeah, I know. We don't get it either. What do we get? That we are sorry. Very sorry.

Cooks Source: Now For Something Completely Different

Update: Cooks Source issued a statement. It needed a little cleaning up, so I did: Cooks Source Statement: Slightly Corrected (10.9.10)

If you care about food, writing, law, scandal, chicanery, hypocrisy and/or Internet drama — which may define my readers, by the way — you have no doubt heard about Cooks Source, but just in case you are none of the above, welcome and a summation:

The tl;dr version of this post: My 2005 Ice Dragon entry, called "A Tale of Two Tarts" was apparently printed without my knowledge or permission in a magazine and I am apparently the victim of copyright infringement.
             from Illadore's House o Crack - Copyright Infringement and Me

There is, of course, more.

It is the kind of 'more' from which grand Internet dramas are made: Clueless editor, arrogant responses, google reveals the magazine seems to be built on lifted content, class action suits are suggested (after someone finds Martha Stewart, NPR, and Disney amongst the victims; it's corporate money they want to use for lawyers)...and the pile-on begins.

We are now at less than 20 hours and there are dozens of posts, a Facebook pileon, thousands of tweets, fake twitter and Facebook accounts, the Cooks Source site has been up and down and there's just a whole lot of poo being flung around by the flying monkeys. It's only going to get messier - there's apparently a Travel Source magazine which seems to also be full of infringing material (check for your stuff here).

Illadore's article has the full story, which has now been rehashed all over the Internet, it is well worth the read it if you are interested in what is going on.

I want to talk about what is not...

Good news for small farms: No NAIS! (updated)

According to the New York Times, NAIS is dead. Well, this version at least.

Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak.

In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry.

Read the full article here: U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock

I love that they dropped it because of "stiff resistance" - that means we did it! Since they are already talking about a new version, however, this is no time to let it slide. NoNAIS.org is my go-to site for information so stop by there for updates as they get going on NAIS v.2.

Update

We knew that was too good to last, didn't we? Son of NAIS has been announced. Major differences from the original NAIS are:

• Only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce;
• Be administered by the States and Tribal Nations to provide more flexibility;
• Encourage the use of lower-cost technology; and
• Be implemented transparently through federal regulations and the full rulemaking process.

First steps include a forum with states and tribes so if you want a voice, talk to your officials at that level. Don't know who they are? Go to Project Vote Smart and type your zip code in the search box on the top of the left sidebar to get all the relevant information.

Press release: USDA Announces new Framework for Animal Disease Traceability (h/t to podchef for update)