I have been working in restaurants for 20 years and have seen and heard some really fucked up shit. I am currently working in a restaurant that is literally a stones throw from Lake Superior. I would like to share with you some of things that have happened in the last 20 years.

For those of you who have read the book Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain you will know what kinds of things I am going to talk about. For those of you who havent, I highly suggest picking it up. It is a great and funny read for those of us in the industry and those of you who arent. While I dont know any of the people in the book by name I DO know the types of people in it. While reading I have said to myself thats Tom, or Fred, or Steve exactly.

For obvious reasons I wont be using real names of people or some of the restaurants I have worked at. I have been working for the same company for over 15 years and have worked at a few of their different concepts.  Ill just call it The Company so I can co ... Read more ...

Mark McGwire finally admitted to what pretty much everybody already knew. He took steroids. He does this as a door opens to his future as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. But as that door opens another slams shut never to open. The door to Cooperstown. I am wondering if he thought coming clean will get him into the Hall. He probably should have asked Pete Rose about that.

Personally, I feel betrayed. He was a hero of mine growing up. A massive kid that crushed the rookie record for homeruns as he towered over everyone near him. He was Ruth re-born but, unlike Ruth (In baseball anyway) he was a liar and a cheater. A liar in that he has been telling everyone since day one that he doesnt use steroids. A cheater in that he used a chemical substance as an unfair advantage in baseball. Sure steroids werent banned in baseball until 1991 but it was and still is illegal to obtain a prescription drug for uses other than it was intended. In sports you and or your team use talent, strategy, and dr ... Read more ...

Miep Gies died today at 100 years old. Who is she you ask? I didnt know either until I read her obituary at CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01/11/obit.miep.gies/index.html) In my opinion she is one of the most important people of the 20th Century. Is she a hero? If you asked her that question she would vehemently say no. But every hero I have ever heard asked that same exact question says the same thing:

 No.

Gies was among a team of Dutch citizens who hid the Frank family of four and four others in a secret annex in Amsterdam.

Yes, that Frank family. Anne Franks family.

That alone would have made her important and if she stopped at doing just that very dangerous and difficult deed we might not have known her or Anne Frank. But she went even further.

When the Gestapo showed up and took Anne, her family, the four others hiding out and two people who helped Gies hide ... Read more ...

This is the lead story on CNN.com. What the fuck dont these people understand about 'Plead guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor?' This guy got a 13-year old girl drunk AND gave her part of a Quaalude to rape her. These people are upset because 'The filmmakers objected to his being arrested en route to (a) film festival, which held a tribute to him this year'. Holy shit! So they are OK with the fact that he drugged AND raped this girl but its NOT OK to grab him on his way to a film festival because THATS crossing a line? These directors/actors/producers make Polanski out to be someone who is single handedly saving kids from disease in some third world country. HE MAKES MOVIES! Get over it and yourselves.

Then they go on to say its been so long. Really? Do you know why its been so long? He hadnt been caught until now! So, let me get this straight. If you commit a crime (And plead guilty to it in ... Read more ...

The following is 100% Fiction. Take it for what it is.

About four years ago when I found out I was going to Washington D. C. for a work trip I decided to make a small vacation out of it also. I made arrangements with my company to take a full week of paid vacation after my four days of drumming up business for the software company I work for back home.

I had heard the best way to see D.C. was with one of the many charter touring companies. You pay them money they provide transportation and tickets to the various monuments and museums. I would make a whole day of seeing the White House as well as the various presidential and war memorials. I would also spend a few days going through all the buildings of the Smithsonian. That was all fine and good but what I really wanted to see was Arlington National Cemetery.

Arlington, for me anyway, was a duty to go and see. It was a duty, that as an American, I believed I owed to the men and women buried there. Dont get me wrong I didnt vi ... Read more ...