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Ask The Geico Guy: Is it Hilarious That a Little League Group Is Raffling An Assault Rifle?
Absolutely. It is pants-shittingly funny for a whole host of reasons. , and on so many levels. Let's just go through the story to see why.
An Illinois town's little league program is raffling an AR-15 assault rifle to raise money.
Atwood Armory is raising money for the Atwood-Hammond Little League program to replace old equipment.
"We could have went with a basic shotgun or something simple," league commissioner Steven McClain told WCIA-TV. "But obviously it's not going to draw the attention, not going to draw the volume we're hoping to make."
How this story isn't happening in Florida or Ohio is just a flat-out shock. Beyond that, the idea that a gun shop is helping to sponsor a little league team seems like something straight out of the Bad News Bears. Secondly, you have to love the idea that real thought went into this. They knew they couldn't raise money with a "basic shotgun," so they upped the ante with a 5.56mm semi-automatic rifle. The story goes on to make it clear that previous raffles did not do so well.
The little league program only raised $10 last year in a raffle so owners of the gun shop decided to step in.
"If we were to sell that gun in store with all the accessories and ammo with it, it would be well over $2,000," Atwood Armory co-owner Charidy Butcher told WCIA.
What the hell were they selling that they only came up with ten lousy bucks? The Girl Scouts get three and half bucks a pop for boxes of cookies. You could sell rocks and make more that a ten-spot. But it seems the AR-15 did the trick.
According to the gun shop's Facebook page, the little league raffle has raised $1,600 so far.
Co-owner Bryan Butcher says they are not trying to send any type of message through the raffle.
"It was never a political agenda. It is what it is," Butcher told WCIA.
Well, maybe not for you, but you know damn good and well that once this story gets out, the shrieky anti-gun crowd will have an absolute brain hemorrhage. How can they not? You've got guns, kids, and that Connecticut school shooting is still a bit too recent for them to not go completely apeshit over this. Once they do, you can bet they will go find a liberal judge to grant them some sort of injunction to stop the raffle, which would be a real shame, because the only losers will be the kids who little league team gets screwed over some idiotic political power play.
If you are interested, tickets for the raffle are $20 each and they can be purchased until June 28. Kee in mind, howver, that even if you win the raffle, you will still need to pass a background check before they will give you the rifle.
Ask The Geico Guy: Was Notre Dame Over-Rated?
Of course they were…for 12 out of 13 weeks. There was a brief moment in the 2012 college football season where the Golden Domers wore the legitimate shine of being ranked #1. To be fair, there being over-rated at all other times this season was a function of the fact that they played a schedule full of overrated teams, and that the Irish and the media ignored several warning signs about the true nature of their team.
If you do a week-by-week breakdown, this becomes a "moon rocket filled with nuclear waste fired into a supernova" glowing ball of obvious.
Ask The Geico Guy: Does Jerry Kramer Belong in the Hall of Fame?
Does a former drill sergeant make a terrible therapist? Of course he does.
Even if the name Jerry Kramer isn't familiar, you've seen him if you've ever watched NFL Films. Kramer is the man who threw arguably the most famous block in NFL history. Kramer's block on Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Jethro Pugh in the 1967 NFL Championship cleared the way for Packer quarterback Bart Starr to score the touchdown which sent the Packers to Super Bowl II.
The game known as the "Ice Bowl" is an iconic piece of NFL history, and the setup to Kramer's game-winning block is timeless. The Packers were trailing 17-14 with only 4:50 remaining. The Packers had the ball on their own 32-yard line, and the weather conditions were less than favorable for such a clutch drive; after, there's a reason they called this game the "Ice Bowl." This is the game that put the term "frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" into the NFL lexicon and gave us the moment where 13 was the magic number…the temperature was 13 degrees below zero, there were 13 seconds left on the clock, the ball was little more than 13 inches from the Cowboys goal line, and the Packers had no timeouts.
Quarterback Bart Starr called a play in the huddle that called for fullback Chuck Murcien to carry the ball behind a double-team block on Pugh thrown by Kramer and Packer center Ken Bowman. Starr kept the ball after the snap as he felt he could get better footing on the icy field. Kramer definitely had footing as he drove Pugh backward; Kramer was the first Packer in the end zone. Starr was the second, and that score led to the Packers second Super Bowl championship.
However, that wasn't Kramer's biggest performance in a championship game. That would come in the 1962 Championship Game, played against the New York Giants in Yankee Stadium. Many people thought the conditions that day were even worse than those of the "Ice Bowl." Broadcaster Art Rust, Jr. called the weather that day "barbaric. " Temperatures were in the single digits and the winds were gusting over 40 miles per hour. During the games conditions were so adverse one cameraman suffered frostbite while others resorted to lighting fires in the baseball dugouts to thaw out their cameras. Even Kramer himself was awed by the circumstances (From NFL.com):
Jerry Kramer surveyed the surreal scene as quickly as he could with the Giants waiting for the snap and the sounds of 64,892 fans in Yankee Stadium muffled by the howling winds gusting up to 40 mph.
Kramer, the team's right guard, was in his first year taking over place-kicking duties and all he could think about were ghosts of Yankees legends like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
"'What are you doing in the middle of a baseball field against the New York Giants trying to kick a field goal?'" Kramer recalled. "It was great pressure for me."
Even before the game, Kramer knew it was going to be an epic struggle, especially considering Packer head coach Vince Lombardi had been an offensive coach for the Giants.
"It was the coach's backyard and his first time back in the big city in a playoff game. We knew how much it meant to him. There was considerable pressure and we understood it was going to be a substantial battle."
The Packers won that hard fought battle 16-7; the difference being three field goals, all kicked by Jerry Kramer. But like a lot of lineman, Kramer just didn't get the love that day.
Kramer got voted for the team game ball, which he still has, while the writers picked linebacker Ray Nitschke as the MVP (he got a Corvette in "a classic example of what a lineman's life is like," Kramer quipped).
The lack of love, at least as far as the Pro Football Hall of Fame is concerned, continues for Kramer. This is why we here at Dubsism are taking up the cause to get Kramer the enshrinement in Canton he earned. Take the following from the website Jerry Kramer for Pro Football Hall of Fame
Jerry Kramer played right guard for the Green Bay Packers from 1958-1968. During these years the Packers dominated the NFL, winning 5 Championships (61, 62, 65, 66, 67) in 7 seasons and the first two Super Bowls (I, II).
The heart of Green Bay's offense was the Power Sweep. To Coach Lombardi it epitomized team work, requiring "all 11 men to play as one". But the role of the guards was key and there was none better than Kramer, "the perfect prototype of a right guard".
Three times a Pro Bowler (62, 63, 67), five times an All-Pro, Jerry was named to the 1960's All Decade Team, the Super Bowl Silver Anniversary Team, and, most notably, the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Star Team. Incomprehensibly, he is the only member of that team NOT in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I cannot believe he is not yet in the Hall of Fame," wrote legendary sportswriter Jim Murray, "Neither can anyone he ever blocked for." Packer teammate and Hall of Fame running back Paul Hornung concurs. "When you think of Hall of Fame guards, very few come to mind. However, when I think of great guards, I think of Jerry Kramer."
Merlin Olsen may have said it best, "Good Lord, he should be in the Hall."
Steve Sabol of NFL Films once referred to Jerry Kramer as "the lead boulder in the avalanche that was the Packer Power Sweep." NFL Films also produced a video which makes Kramer's case to be in Canton. Bleacher Report says Kramer is the greatest player to ever wear the number 64. Even Sports Illustrated's Peter King gets the power of the petition.
"Want to see Jerry Kramer get one of the Seniors nods? That's the tenor of what I read and hear on Twitter. There are nine Seniors Committee members, and five of them meet every year in late August in Canton to determine who will get the two nominations. The best advice I can give those with the passion for Kramer is to write passionately to the Hall about his candidacy. Your voices will be heard."
Want your voice to be heard? Start by going to the Jerry Kramer for Pro Football Hall of Fame website. There you can access the full story on Jerry Kramer, follow their Twitter feed, like them on Facebook, and sign the petition to get Kramer inducted.
Not only that, but you can contact the Senior Selection committee. These are nine veteran members of the Selection Committee who can nominate two members each year. Since Kramer is no longer on the regular ballot, he must be nominated by the Senior Committee. These members are:
- Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune
- Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News
- John McClain, Houston Chronicle
- Ron Borges, Boston Herald
- Bernie Miklasz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- John Czarnecki, FOXSports.com
- Dave Goldberg, AOL Sports/Fanhouse
- Ira Miller, The Sports Xchange
- Len Shapiro, Miami Herald
It isn't hard to find Twitter feeds or email addresses for all of these people. Like Peter King said, if you want Jerry Kramer in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it is time to let your voice be heard.
Ask The Geico Guy: Is Lamar Odom A Crybaby?
Does a former drill sergeant make a terrible therapist? Absolutely. But maybe Lamar Odom could use some drill sergeant treatment. Perhaps somebody needs to sit his ass down and explain to him that he doesn't really have it all that bad. Granted, I understand he has had some personal issues in this past year, but I also understand that everybody else did as well.
Lamar, it's called being a professional, and like it or not, you've been paid as a professional while acting like a bitch. First of all, you've made over $107 million in your career. That breaks down to $122,602.56 for every game you've played so far. That also breaks down to $8,655.34 for every point you've scored. For that amount of money, you suck it up and you give your best effort. After all, it was Julius Erving who said "being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them."
So, let's chug on over to Namby-Pamby land and see if we can't get some self-confidence for you, Lamar. Frankly, I think you have two major problems. First of all, let's talk about that drag-queen you married. Getting involved with a Kardashian is never a good idea, let alone if you are an athlete. Not only that, but you married the one who looks like her mother got raped by a Bigfoot.
Now that we are on that subject, what the hell were you thinking by doing that stupid-ass reality show? You know that there is a precise, psychological term for a guy who sulks about everything then puts his private life in front of cameras for a fourth-rate cable network: Idiotic asshole. When you do that, and everytime you pout because something isn't going right for you, it makes you look like a complete dick.
This leads to your second problem, Lamar. I will say this as succinctly as I am able…IT ISN'T ALWAYS ABOUT YOU, YOU SELF-CENTERED BUTT-LOAF! Like I said, I understand you've had some issues in your personal life, but you lose me when you use those as excuses for your petulant, "me-first" behavior. This latest round of your bullshit came when the Lakers tried to trade you to the Hornets.
Apparently, that was too much of a personal affront for you since you stormed into the Lakers' front office after the deal was quashed by the NBA, said something that irrevocably fractured the relationship, and your ass was headed for Dallas by the end of the weekend. It's not like you were shipped off to some NBA back-water, the Mavericks are the defending league champions. But instead of contributing to a title defense, instead you chose to pull a disappearing act; your indifference finally led owner Mark Cuban to confront you in the locker room last weekend. Again, you said something that forever frosted the relationship and the Mavericks have effectively flushed the Odom toilet.
So, let's cut to the chase, Lamar. If you really have a diagnosable case of depression as that dude you married suggests, then go get help. If not, then grow a pair, take stock of your life, and change the things you don't like. Dr. J called it being professional, but most of us call it being a man.
Ask The Geico Guy: Does America Love a Naked Cheerleader?
Does a woodchuck like to chuck wood? Good old-fashioned American guys love just about any naked chick, but for some reason cheerleaders (with, or better yet without the cheerleader uniform) cut right to the heart of all of our adolescent fantasies. this is likely why I was reminded by the author of Sportsattitudes (you should check it out, it's like a good version of this blog) that I did in fact promise to keep tabs on the Taylor Corley story, the Mississippi State cheerleader who showed her cowbells last year in Playboy magazine as "Taylor Stone."
Granted, I forgot about that. But when you are the author of such a big-time, media-shaping sports blog like Dubsism, you are knee-deep in naked cheerleaders. I have the duct-tape and chloroform bills to prove it, but that's another story.
The honest truth is that this girl dropped off the radar. Believe it or not, even a smoking hot blond with her assets on display will fade from view without the creation of new content. Pump "Taylor Corley" or "Taylor Stone" into the search engine of your choosing, and the most recent entry you will see if one about the cheerleading squad at Mississippi State asking her to turn in her uniform, ostensibly since she wasn't wearing it anyway. There's also some guy posting a vlog about her getting a reality show on MTV, but since I haven't seen anything there that wasn't Beavis and Butthead or starring Rob Dyrdek, I'm not sure when that happened.
The bottom line is that while we American guys love naked women, we also have short attention spans. If you doubt that, go back to the search engine of your choice and key in the term "naked cheerleader."
Click whatever links you find at your own risk. I can't be responsible for whatever you download or the costs of your wrist replacement surgery.
Ask The Geico Guy: Is Instant Replay In Baseball A Bad Idea?
Do you live under a rock? Of course, its a bad idea.
Every time there's a blown call in baseball everybody starts crying about how baseball needs instant replay. What nobody realizes is that these calls only ever come when it is a sympathetic character that gets "robbed." Everybody was up in arms last year over the call Jim Joyce blew which cost Armando Gallaraga a perfect game. Everybody is up in arms over Jerry Meals' rob-job of the Pirates the other night.
It is exactly this emotional, knee-jerk reaction that hides the fact instant replay hasn't worked as intended in football, and it would be a disaster in baseball. Take a look at the following reasons why instant replay in baseball is a terrible idea.
1) It doesn't solve the "bad call" problem.
Face it, this is the whole reason the call for replay exists; people are enamored with the idea of eliminating "bad calls." By following the logic of the argument, one is led to the conclusion that bad calls have been wiped from the face of the NFL. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, replay allowed for the creation of silly rules which by their very enforcement are bad calls – such as the "Tom Brady Tuck Rule" and Calvin Johnson's "Catch that wasn't a Catch" last year. Wait until instant replay meets the "Balk Rule" in baseball if you want to see this kind of ridiculousness.
2) It makes the game longer.
Lengthening games is really the last thing baseball needs. Thanks to Fox, playoff games are already creeping north of four hours, and let's be honest, with replay there will be greater scrutiny during the playoffs. As it stands now, every close play in foo ball gets reviewed, and reviews are now so common that referees take time to huddle before making the call on the field just so the call can be reviewed by replay.
Don't even try to tell me try to tell me this won't happen in baseball. Wait for your first NFL games this season and count the times play is stopped only to have the call on the field upheld because the video evidence is "inconclusive."
3) In baseball, calls don't automatically mean the end of play.
This the functional nightmare nobody seems to be thinking about when we talk about replay in baseball. In football, the referee's whistle means the end of the play; there's no other action happening on the field. That' s not always the case in baseball. Take the following example:
There's a runner on second and two outs. The batter hits a fly ball to deep center field. The runner is off on contact, but the second base umpire rules the center fielder caught the ball, ending the inning. However, replay shows the center fielder trapped the ball. Where do you put the base-runners? Does the umpire give the hitter second base and allow the run to score? Or is it runners at first and third with two outs? What if it's the bottom of the ninth and that run means the ball game?
The point is that you cannot eliminate judgement calls with replay, and baseball has far more situation like that than football does, and baseball has tons of calls which don't stop the action, which will only complicate the issue of "fixing" mistakes.
4) It doesn't solve the root cause: Bad Umpires.
Here's the big problem…Joe West with a replay screen is still Joe West. Country singin', call-blowin', manager-tossin', Joe Fucking West. Major League Baseball is full of guys who have no business calling anything let alone a ball game, but the umpires are unionized so there no such thing as holding them accountable or hitting the eject button on such incompetents as Country Joe, C.C. Bucknor, Bob Davidson, or Angel "I gotta toss the guy who sang Take Me Out To The Ball Game" Hernandez.
Now, if we could only get Country Joe to be the singer Hernandez tosses.
5) "The Slippery Slope"
Generally, I disdain "slippery slope arguments" because they usually are incapable of distinguishing the first event on the slope from the last. This type of argument gets used in politics all the time, but replay in baseball presents a time when this type of argument fits. In case you've forgotten, replay already exists in baseball on boundary issues. So, by definition, the argument to expand replay is a "slippery slope argument." First it will be catch/not a catch, then it will be safe/out calls on the base paths; ultimately the replay-o-philes will get this down to balls and strikes. The argument that sticks all the way down the slope is "we need to do as much as possible to get thing right for the proper outcome of games." Well, name an official in any sport that has more control over the outcome of a game than the home plate umpire in baseball. If this happens, get ready for five-hour ball games.
6) Technology doesn't change the fact people make mistakes.
Let's says that we get every thing available to be reviewed by instant replay. Is the guy watching the replay monitor human? Do humans fuck up all the time? So, why does the concept of instant replay automatically get a pass on the inherent flaws it has? The only argument I've ever heard on this point is "replay is better than anything else."
Here's my question: if people make mistakes, and both systems inherently involve people, doesn't it make sense to introduce a system that rewards making less mistakes and punishes making too many? In other words, as long as have a glut of bad umpires, you are going to have a glut of bad calls. As I've mentioned, that's the fundamental problem with instant replay; it doesn't even solve the problem it is intended to solve, in fact in several respects it complicates them. So, before we knee-jerk our way into a plan that solves nothing, introduces a host of new problems, and happens to have some serious practicality issues, wouldn't it make more sense to make the first step eliminating the bad umpires?
Now, that sounds like a good idea.
Ask The Geico Guy: Is Terrelle Pryor Leaving Ohio State a Surprise?
Do you live under a rock? Let's cut through the guano here. If back in December you didn't at least suspect that at least one of the "Ohio State Five" would never put on a Buckeye uniform again, you are naive. If after Coach Cheatypants McSweatervest bought the farm last week, you still thought all five of those kids who were suspended for the first five games of the upcoming season were coming back like they "promised" to do, you are delusional. If you think Pryor is the last one to bolt…well, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you may want to consider purchasing as an investment property.
Ask The Geico Guy: Is This The End For Brett Favre?
Does a former drill sergeant make a terrible therapist? Let's put it this way: Up until now, during this season the only person that didn't know Favre's career was over was Favre. Forget about the "streak," forget about "Weiner-gate," forget about his usual symphony of indecision. Look at the fact he's selling "See Ya" souvenirs on his web site. That's right, you Favre-o-philes, five hundred clams will get you your own probably-not-that-limited edition "good-bye" football, which if you will notice, are unsigned.
Why aren't they signed? Because Favre will need to learn to write left-handed as his right arm is dead and about to fall right off.
I'm no doctor, and I don't play one on TV, but that is a hell of a lot more than a simple bruise. When your arm is more purple than a Viking jersey, and when you can't feel your fingers, you are about two steps away from being that guy with a sleeve that flaps in the breeze. Trust me, I had a similar situation a few years ago where I had a blunt force injury to my leg, after which it swelled to twice its size and turned bright purple. Know what happened? It had to be split open like a hot dog left in a microwave five seconds too long in order to keep it from needing to be chopped off.
That's not a pretty picture at all, but it is one that could be in Favre's future if he doesn't walk away now. The fact that he may be back in the Viking saddle Monday night against the Bears is no no longer just an exercise in Favre going too far past the "should've retired" line; now it becomes a waiting game to see how much of egregious injury it takes to get him off the field.
Regardless, his days as an effective NFL quarterback are over, it is just a question of whether he walks off the field or has to be carried.


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The two men rescued from Lough Ree tonight are reported to be in a critical condition in hospital.
The men were found in the water by personnel from the RNLI lifeboat after reportedly going fishing in a small boat on the lake.
A third man is now missing and a search of that part of Lough Ree has been scaled down tonight and will resume early tomorrow morning.
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All the news from the annual Google I/O event, including the latest on Android.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your wallets! Here's a list of my favorite deals, along with some Cheapskate exclusives.
It's the latest from Google and Apple going head-to-head in a big screen tablet battle. Who will be crowned King of the Prizefight Ring?
Production of the lower-cost iPhone will cease during the middle of 2015, claims Taiwan's Industrial and Commercial Times.
With stunning graphics, balanced gameplay and multiple ways to play within each game, Vainglory is a must download for battle arena fans.
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The biggest shopping day of the year is gearing up to be a madhouse at the stores, but with the right apps you can map out your shopping strategy and get the best deals before they're gone.
Place your bets, folks. Which of these phablets will reign supreme in the battle of design, usability and productivity?
The free Presence app is a great way to experiment with home security -- just don't let its prominently-featured online store trick you into spending hundreds on accessories.
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Manual is a no-frills camera app with advanced tools to get the shot you want, but the controls need to be rethought.
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Here is how to wipe your personal data from a mobile device the right way before trading up to a new model.
Hyperlapse is great for creating time lapse clips, but it performs more like a feature that belongs in the main Instagram app rather than a standalone app.
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Im trying to get a program that will improve both my muscle endurence and strength.
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Films By John Roberts
After 350,000,000 years, the insects get their lucky break in this animation about a nightwatchman whose blundering puts evolution into overdrive. ... Read more
A witty, touching comment on celebrity. A film about the magic of music and the magic of the moment. ... Read more


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Featured news
FBI backs transatlantic anti-spam summit
Wednesday, 26 January 2005, 10:35 AM EST
A delegation of British MPs heads over to Washington next month to discuss information security with US politicians.
During their three-day trip to Washington, the MPs aim to help set the agenda for international policy on internet security issues, including spam, viruses, zombie computers, rogue diallers and denial of service attacks.
By John Leyden at The Register.
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John Kerry calls it a "tragedy for the Senate." Richard Lugar has lost the Indiana Republican primary for Senate to Richard Mourdock. It isn't close: he's headed to a 60 percent to 40 percent defeat. (Interestingly, his Senate colleague Dan Coats only got 39 percent in the 2010 primary with the conservative vote split between Marlin Stutzman and John Hostettler.)
Lugar had some real accomplishments, like Nunn-Lugar, which helped secure former Soviet nukes. We can remember the good times, like his ill-fated 1996 GOP presidential campaign, when he ran on a national sales tax and the argument that he had voted with Ronald Reagan more than any other senator. But he came to typify an entitled Washington insider who was part of the problem rather than the solution. Even in defeat, Lugar -- attacking Mourdock's "partisan mindset" -- sounds as if he believes that Senate seat belongs to him.
Tonight he was reminded that it doesn't. The accolades rolling in from Kerry and President Obama (whose press shop released a statement on Lugar's "retirement") are an example of why Republicans voted against him. The quote of the night belongs to Hoosier conservative activist Greg Fettig: "The message to the establishment is, 'You're our servants. We're the masters. Do what you're supposed to do, adhere to the Constitution or we'll fire you.'"
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'Party's over,' Preckwinkle vows
BY LISA DONOVAN Cook County Reporter firstname.lastname@example.com
Toni Preckwinkle listens to a question Wednesday, the day after she won election as Cook County Board president. She vows an end to many current practices.
No more fancy office furniture. No more hush-hush, no-bid government contracts -- that are illegal. And in the next four years, say goodbye to the county sales tax hike.
That's the message from Toni Preckwinkle as she prepares to take the reins of the Cook County Board. The board's president-elect is positioning herself as the anti-Todd Stroger, the lame-duck board president whose administration has been criticized -- and criminally investigated in one instance -- for many of the practices she plans to put an end to.
"The employment of friends and family and cronies who are minimally competent or just completely inappropriate hires is over,'' she said in a wide-ranging interview after her election victory Tuesday.
Preckwinkle, 63, of Hyde Park, also vowed that while there is a time and place for no-bid contracts, she will not stand for the ones that led to the arrest and public corruption charges against Carla Oglesby, Stroger's ousted deputy chief of staff. She allegedly steered contracts to public relations firms she ran as well as to her pals - all just under the $25,000 threshold requiring approval of Cook County commissioners.
"We're not going to do anything that deliberately skirts the rules - we're going to be taking a look at contracting," she said, adding: "There was deliberate effort, it seems to me, to circumvent the rules laid down by the Cook County Board. Presumably small no-bid contracts may be awarded, but . . . you would not be going to have these $24,999 contracts that skirt the rules."
She also said that taxpayer money won't be spent on "luxurious'' office furniture, a reference to the Stroger administration signing off on the purchase of $13,000 in office furniture for Stroger's childhood pal and chief spokesman Eugene Mullins, whose last day on the job was Friday.
"The party's over," Preckwinkle said, echoing a comment she made election night. "The idea that you can spend money, whether it's on no-bid contracts or luxurious office suite furniture -- that was part of the party.''
Preckwinkle is likely to enjoy a honeymoon period -- which one expert said was 100 days -- and in that time, she'll have to juggle delivering a $3 billion spending plan and close a projected $300 million budget gap along with political expectations that come fresh off the campaign trail: loyalists looking for jobs and the unions pushing back amid talks of layoffs.
Indeed, critics -- and quietly some commissioners -- have already been chattering about whether the Preckwinkle administration will give the unions special treatment for supporting her campaign.
The Service Employees International Union alone chipped in more than $500,000 in cash and in-kind contributions.
Preckwinkle said there are no sacred cows and that she has warned contributors that tough days lie ahead.
Preckwinkle says she believes across-the-board cuts of at least 10 percent are necessary, which would likely mean slashing some of the 22,000 employees who largely work in the county-funded local court system and jail, as well as health and hospital systems.
Preckwinkle said she likely will slash her $170,000-a-year paycheck by 10 percent.
An audit of the offices under the president, with about 2,000 employees, should help root out some of the do-nothing employees.
"We've discovered there are positions for which there are not job descriptions, so it's kind of hard to hold people accountable if they can argue they don't know what they're supposed to be doing,'' Preckwinkle said, noting that job descriptions and performance reviews will now become the norm.
The county's Highway Department -- which handles road maintenance for unincorporated Cook County -- is also expected to be in the cross hairs after repeated patronage scandals including Stroger's personal hire of a steakhouse busboy who ascended to a $61,000-a-year middle management job until he was arrested on domestic violence-related charges and fired.
"We've treated the Highway Department as a cash cow for too long. At one point, 90 percent of the money went for infrastructure and 10 percent went to the administration or to support the county generally. Now it's 60-40,'' she said.
The transition from 19-year veteran Chicago alderman -- under the iron grip of Mayor Daley -- to chief executive will require her to be a consensus-maker among the 17 county commissioners, including the four Republicans. Under Stroger, commissioners complained it was tough to get face time with Stroger.
So Preckwinkle will need at least nine commissioners to support her if she's going to slash what's left of Stroger's unpopular penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike in a few years.
Building consensus could be a challenge, as Preckwinkle's bookish nature and no-nonsense, even abrupt communication style at times have been described as off-putting. But she revealed a softer side on the campaign trail, at one point airing a sales tax repeal ad that showed Preckwinkle shaking hands with a penny-pinching Benjamin Franklin.
And Preckwinkle and her chief of staff, Kurt Summers Jr., who worked on Daley's 2016 Olympic bid, have begun to reach out to commissioners beyond John Daley, the mayor's brother, and longtime Preckwinkle friend Larry Suffredin, both Democrats on the board.
Reaching out is crucial, "especially at budget time, before commissioners create a new alliance and block her wishes,'' said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a onetime independent alderman.
Some fence-mending might also be necessary: Preckwinkle supported the opponents of Democratic Commissioners Deborah Sims and William Beavers in the February primary.
"I don't need nothing from her, so I don't see any kind of conflict,'' said Beavers, a former Chicago alderman who served with Preckwinkle.
Preckwinkle also supported the Democrat who ran and lost against Republican Liz Gorman. Gorman and Preckwinkle agreed last week they can put the election behind them.


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Catch up with the latest thoughts from our CEO on management, politics and making organisations great places to work.
Happy's Beyond Budgeting Conference on Storify
Some versions of Internet Explorer refuse to display the Storify content on this page. If you don't see lots of tweets and photos here, don't worry. Just go direct to Storify for the full story! more
Great work by our young Drupal apprenticeships
For the last twelve months Happy Computers has been running a Drupal apprenticeship programme, in partnership with the Drupal community, to enable young people (fresh out of school) to get an exciting start in the world of programming. (Drupal is an open source web development framework.) Three of the youngsters have been working at Dennis Publishing and, ... more
Happy Workplaces 2014 on Storify
Some versions of Internet Explorer refuse to display the Storify content on this page. If you don't see lots of tweets and photos here, don't worry. Just go direct to Storify for the full story! more
Think Big – like Google
At the Happy Workplace 2013 conference Yvonne Agyei (Google Head of Benefits) explained Google's Think Big philosophy. Or as she put it, "have a healthy disregard for the impossible". Watch the video: Yvonne Agyei (Think Big is from 12:12 to 16:31) Yvonne explained how 4 years ago she went to the Board, as the newly appointed Head ... more
Reduce expense claims: let your people decide what to spend
In his excellent book "Becoming a Better Boss", Julian Birkinshaw describes a very interesting experiment at the pharma multi-national Roche. Two groups of staff, in Germany and Switzerland, were told that their travel claims were to become self-authorised. Instead of being approved in advance and signed off afterwards, each employee would decide for themselves what was ... more
One million pounds to spend and nobody is interested
Happy is moving. A month ago, just before the deadline for the landlord's break clause approached, a law clerk arrived at our office and served a notice to quit. The landlord plans to redevelop the building and we have to be out of our office by 30th October. This has led to great excitement here. It ... more
Is this a government committed to small business?
Today David Cameron will claim his government has delivered on supporting small businesses. I'm sorry, Prime Minister, but I don't see it. Your government's direct attacks on small business has cost my company in excess of £200,000 a year. Cameron will apparently claim that he has abolished 800 regulations. I will be interested to hear what ... more
8 Companies That Don't Have Managers
At Happy we let people choose their managers, an idea which has been seen as very radical when I've spoken about it (eg, on Radio 4 last year). However there are companies that have gone a step further and got rid of managers altogether. Some are small but some are billion-dollar companies: 1) Zappos: The US ... more
SouthWest Airlines shows putting your people first makes good business sense
The annual UK Servant Leadership conference this month was an inspiring event. This movement is based around the idea, first promoted by Robert Greenleaf, that your purpose as a leader or manager is to serve your people. One example of how this makes simple business sense is SouthWest Airlines, which is clear in its commitment to ... more
Get more great ideas – spend less time at work
Last week I was in Barcelona speaking to the international conference of the Dogs Trust, and exploring overwork. I asked a simple question of everybody there: Think of a great idea you've had in the last year? Where did you get that idea? The answers included "in the bar", "in the shower" and "walking the dog". Out ... more


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Leveling is extremely easy, even as a healer (you can queue up for random dungeons, and healers have a short queue time). There is a pretty steep learning curve from 80 to 85 though, especially as a healer. One of the main points of the Cataclysm expansion was to make healer mana matter again, because previously healers could just spam their spells nonstop once they got a bit of gear.
And yes, "blame the healer" is fairly frequent among idiots, but you learn to deal with it.


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|Why authors write
|By P.G. Wodehouse
|Tuesday, 07 January 2014
The question of how authors come to write their books is generally one not easily answered. Milton, for instance, asked how he got the idea of Paradise Lost, would probably have replied with a vague 'Oh, I don't know, you know. These things sort of pop into one's head, don't you know,' leaving the researcher very much where he was before.
But with Sir Raymond Bastable's novel Cocktail Time we are on warmer ground. It was directly inspired by the accurate catapultmanship of Pongo Twistleton's Uncle Fred. Had his aim not been so unerring, had he failed, as he might so well have done, to allow for windage, the book would never have been written.


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Child categories
|Bonnaroo 2007
|/Entertainment/Riverbend/Bonnaroo 2007
|Looking Ahead
|/Entertainment/Riverbend/Looking Ahead
Dylan Liles remembers he was in sixth grade when he first heard Casting Crowns perform live.
Long before they took the stage as the first headliner of the 30th annual Riverbend Festival, the Coca-Cola Stage lawn already was well saturated with stalwart fans of Huey Lewis and the News.
As a mobile disc jockey in Dalton, Ga., in 1986, current 107.9 Big FM program director Rick Zeisig said he snapped up the Huey Lewis and The News album "Fore!" just after its release and played the single "Hip To Be Square" for a high-school dance audience.
When Georgia native Mickey Thomas joined the popular band Jefferson Starship as its lead singer 30 years ago, little did he know the band would one day bear his name: Starship featuring Mickey Thomas.
Riverbend 2011 will open with old-school rock as Huey Lewis and the News and Starship, starring Mickey Thomas, have been booked to perform on opening night, according to executive director Chip Baker.
Pull out your hankies, fellow 'benders, because this will be my final blog.
Well folks, the end, as they say, is nigh. When the last of the bit of explosive artwork leaves its mortar tube to close out the fireworks this evening, another Riverbend will be over and done with.
George Clinton may have signed a check to the city of Chattanooga guaranteeing a night of funk, but that check wasn't cashed until Ivan Neville took the stage last night as the front man for the New Orleans dirty funk ensemble Dumpstaphunk, when they kicked things off opposite Billy Currington on the Unum Stage last night.
As the great Mike Jagger and the London Bach Choir have been telling us for all these years, you can't always get what you want. In the case of tonight's headliner, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, those words rung surprisingly true.


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You must earn 10,000 points to post other members' whiteboard
Belated Congratulations on EARNING over 970K, points and your nice orange ride, that's commitment. Most buddies don't reach that mark. Your next car will be a RED convertible. Wishing you the best in everything you do. Lets be buddies. Thanks. Shep
Thanks, But did you for get to Click Accept ???
A BIG CONGRATS on 1,000 consecutive days! Not bad missing just 3 days since you joined in 2011! Ron
A Big Congrats on reaching the 1000 Day Mark Posting, Wanna be Gas Buddies
Congratulations on 1,000 consecutive days!
Congratulations on hitting 1000 consecutive days. Want to be Buddies?
Care to be buddies? It would be nice to add you as a buddy! Come see my profile page! Have a nice weekend! Ron
Congratulations on posting for 900 consecutive days. That is real dedication. . Wishing you success in all that you do. Hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend
HI Piggyster, Congrats on reaching the 900 Day Mark Posting, Notice you have over 2 plus years at this, Wanna be Gas Buddies
Congratulations on having the tenacity to post for 900 consecutive days! Have a good weekend. Warren :)


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Start learning with our library of video tutorials taught by experts. Get started
Create your own great looking movies to share with family and friends in iMovie.
Shows how to organize, edit, and share videos using iMovie 11.
"I almost feel as if I am in a classroom but with the benefit of sitting at my home computer." —Christine B.
more from our members »


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Classroom Collection
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Title: Classroom collection
Characteristics: 1 kit (books + teacher's guide)
Notes: Teacher's guide includes curriculum activities and webliography for the unit
Summary: Kindergarten through 2nd grade fiction and nonfiction materials. This unit answers the question: What is a community? It identifies various careers and people who make up a diverse neighborhood.
Branch Call Number: Bucket of Books #2
Subject Headings: Curriculum planning Neighborhoods Study and teaching (Elementary) Community life Study and teaching (Elementary)
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text: Normally, when you come across a celebrity in Aspen -- say, Kevin Costner fashioning a kayak for an In Stylemagazine photo shoot -- it's funny, but not ha-ha funny. For nearly one week out of every year, though, Aspen is the ha-ha-funniest place in the world. The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival is a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet of humor, from standup to sketch comedy to readings; Cheech and Chong, Conan O' Brien, Jim Carrey and Dave Eggers were among those on hand this year. And how about all those hangers-on in fur coats with VIP passes around their necks, talking on headset cell phones? Now, that's funny.


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At central synapses, P/Q-type Ca(2+) channels normally provide a critical Ca(2+) entry pathway for neurotransmission. Nevertheless, we found that nerve terminals lacking alpha(1A) (Ca(V)2.1), the pore-forming subunit of P/Q-type channels, displayed a remarkable preservation of synaptic function. Two consistent physiological changes reflective of synaptic homeostasis were observed in cultured hippocampal neurons derived from alpha(1A) (-/-) mice. First, the presynaptic response to an ionophore-mediated Ca(2+) elevation was 50% greater, indicating an enhanced Ca(2+) sensitivity of the release machinery. Second, basal miniature excitatory postsynaptic current frequency in alpha(1A) (-/-) neurons was increased 2-fold compared with WT neurons and occluded the normal response of presynaptic terminals to cAMP elevation, suggesting that the compensatory mechanism in alpha(1A) (-/-) synapses and the modulation of presynaptic function by PKA might share a final common pathway. We used cDNA microarray analysis to identify molecular changes underlying homeostatic regulation in the alpha(1A) (-/-) hippocampus. The 40,000 entries in our custom-made array included likely targets of presynaptic homeostasis, along with many other transcripts, allowing a wide-ranging examination of gene expression. The developmental pattern of changes in transcript levels relative to WT was striking; mRNAs at 5 and 11 days postnatal showed little deviation, but clear differences emerged by 22 days. Many of the transcripts that differed significantly in abundance corresponded to known genes that could be incorporated within a logical pattern consistent with the modulation of presynaptic function. Changes in endocytotic proteins, signal transduction kinases, and candidates for Ca(2+)-sensing molecules were consistent with implications of the direct physiological experiments.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.0308188100
View details for Web of Science ID 000220163800052
View details for PubMedID 14990796


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Weather Links
Humidity 97%
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Sponsored by: Arceneaux Ford
Humidity 97%
Winds 5.8mph
Jun 13, 2013 4:15 PM by Ian Auzenne
The St. Mary Parish Council last night outlawed saggy pants from the parish. The council voted 9-1 to ban garments or skin below the waist from being visible in public. That law will take effect once it is published in the council's journal of record.
The council also approved an ordinance that outlaws smoking in Courthouse Square and on the Blevins Property across the street. That ordinance will take effect 30 days after it is published.
1 day ago


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FORT WORTH — Need a new backpack for school? How about immunizations? Heck, maybe a haircut to top it all off for a fresh start.All of this, and more, will be available at the ninth annual Tarrant County Back to School Roundup, which provides free school supplies for eligible students in prekindergarten through grade 12 enrolled in Tarrant County public schools. But to get into the Aug. 7 event, which is expected to serve at least 10,000 students, adults need to preregister by Aug. 2, something local school officials stressed at a news conference Wednesday."Going through the process of preparation for school helps reinforce the fact that attending school has the expectation of learning," said Clint Bond, Fort Worth schools spokesman in an earlier statement."If a student is fully equipped with required supplies, immunizations and knows how to catch the bus, or which route to walk, then the distractions that detract from the learning day are minimized or eliminated," he said.Several registration events are scheduled for upcoming weeks for families to get vouchers for admission to the event and school supplies. Individuals without admission vouchers will not be allowed inside.At the 14 events, families can pick up vouchers after completing paperwork and providing photo identification, proof of Tarrant County residency and proof that the family's income falls below the federal poverty level.Immunizations will be available to up to 200 children, and eye exams and glasses will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Vision screenings will be available to everyone. This year, 2,000 school uniforms and 7,000 free books will be distributed. Representatives from Tarrant County schools will be available to answer questions.The event is funded by donations and in-kind contributions to meet the needs of low-income families in the county. According to the 2011 census, 23.8 percent of young people in Tarrant County live in poverty.Last year, the average person with schoolchildren spent $95.44 on school supplies such as notebooks, pencils and backpacks, according to the National Retail Federation.
Jessamy Brown, 817-390-7326 Twitter: @jessamybrown


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Silom Art Hostel Reviews
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Huge coach roaches, the woman who checked me in was extremely unfriendly, and I didn't see another living thing besides the coach roaches and the front desk person during my stay.
- Novice Nomad
- Anonymous
- Female, 25-30
- (1 review)
The hostel is in a very good location, clean and the common spaces have a really nice design. It is very quiet, or at least it was during my stay at the end on May. The only think I didn't like about it is that the room didn't have any window, so as it was very difficult for me to wake up as I don't like a total darkness and I need a light to wake up. But this is more personal and could be a plus for others.
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Synergy Practitioners are, simply put, some of the most excellent in the area.
Experience. Bastyr trained with additional internships locally and internationally, including mentorship with some of the most well known Chinese Medicine masters in the world. Vision: We are here to serve you and the community; to offer a unique, synergistic set of skills that will help you thrive and literally become all that you can be.
Tiffany Pollard, MS, L.Ac, LMP
Acupuncture | Meridian Massage Aroma Acupoint Therapy | Whole Food Nutrition
I created Synergy Wellness Center 8 years ago so that you have a place to go to for your health needs; a place where you can be certain of the following:
The highest quality acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, and alternative medicine care. All practitioners are trained above and beyond state requirements. Our practitioners have experience in various modalities beyond acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, such as therapeutic bodywork, essential oil medicine, and whole foods nutrition. This means that you get better faster and generally with more ease.Synergy practitioners work together as a team in order to make sure that any and all of your needs are met. In the event that we are unequipped to handle any health issue you may have, we have a stellar referral base that includes both MD's and ND's, as well as Physical Therapists and Counselors. Needless to say, you are in excellent hands.We are thrilled to be the first clinic on the Eastside to provide group style acupuncture treatments. This ensures low cost acupuncture treatment options for those in need or for those of you that may have maxed your insurance benefits.
Read more…
Susana Schoenstein, MS, L.Ac, LMP
Acupuncture | Sound Therapy | Body Work
My interest in Holistic Medicine began during my work as a Family Mediator. During this period I was introduced to Chinese Medicine. I began taking Tai Chi, Qi Gong, learning the Art of Chinese Medicine, and receiving Acupuncture treatments. This process opened my eyes and my soul to its reliance on the laws of nature and its ability to reach all levels of a human being– body, mind, and spirit – setting it apart from other systems of medicine. In my Chinese Medicine practice, I use an integral approach, which recognizes the richness, diversity, and uniqueness of a person and asserts that in order to help people effectively realize their full potential it is essential that we look at the entirety of who they are. As a partner in your healing, I also consider the uniqueness of your relationship to your body and health, and help you to bring awareness to your body's healing messages.
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Monica Campa, MSAOM, EAMP
Every person has a distinct path to optimal health and my intention is to facilitate and support you during your path. During your time at Synergy Wellness Center, I will spend time getting to know you and any specific complaints you may have to customize a personalized treatment plan while keeping in mind your personal wellness goals. It is my belief wellness is achieved by restoring balance and harmony within the body. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are beautiful and highly effective means in providing this caliber of holistic care. Being trained as an East Asian medicine practitioner along with my education as a naturopathic physician allows me to utilize many dynamic and distinct systems of medicine to approach healing in many facets.
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Ann Sullivan, MS, L.Ac
As a practitioner I wish to support you on your path in health. I am interested in listening to your concerns, helping you alleviate stubborn patterns that are no longer useful to you, and helping you to feel energetic and at ease within yourself.You, and your health are important. I have a wish to help you with what ever may be your health challenge, though I specifically enjoy working with people on preventative care, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, headaches, stubborn aches and pains, life stressors, cardiac health concerns, pregnancy support, woman's health, and post-surgical and car accident recovery, and through times of challenging life situations or patterns. Working with and supporting women is an important aspect of my practice. I believe giving women extra support and Guidance with their health and fertility is especially important at this time.
Read more…


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At Hudson, the St. Croix River broadens and its waters serve as a sparkling backdrop to one of the loveliest towns on the river. Hudson is both a center for recreation with boating, fishing, swimming, golfing, hiking and biking available, and a historic site with picturesque Victorian houses and parks. The center of the town's historic residential district is Octagon House, built in 1855 and now a museum. Area antique shops and downtown shopping are packaged with charming B&B accommodations.
Top photo opportunities are...
- View of the St. Croix River Valley from Birkmose and Prospect Parks
- The Trumpeter Swans in Lakefront Park in the winter
- Willow Falls at Willow River State Park
- Hot Air Balloons launching at the Hot Air Affair
- The St. Croix River from the Old Toll Bridge Road
Mark these events on your calendar:
- Hot Air Affair
- Gopher to Badger Run
- Spirit of the St. Croix Art Festival
- Take Me to the River
- Christmas Tour of Homes & Craft Sale
- Locust Street Car Show
Small town charm
Oh what Fun! - a quaint river town rich on natural beauty. Take a cruise on the St. Croix River, bike and hike the trails, explore Willow River State Park, attend the theatre and visit the art galleries, drive the Yellowstone Trail and enjoy our many local eateries and one-of-a-kind shops!
Must see attractions
- Tour the Octagon House and Museum
- Willow River State Park
- The Phipps Center for the Arts Theater, art galleries and classes
- Free Summer concerts in Lakefront Park
- Taste and Tour Hudson Brewing Company and 45th Parallel Distillery
- Locust Street Car Shows
- Geocaching
When the seasons change you may be surprised to find...
The weather outside is delightful! Whatever the season, there is plenty of fun along the St. Croix River: boating, sailing, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, biking, hiking, snowshoeing, downhill and cross-country skiing, sledding, camping, dog sledding, bird watching, regattas, hunting...the great outdoors!


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Richmond – Pacific East Mall – Best of Daimo Chinese Restaurant
- rworange May 12, 2007 12:29 PM
What more can be said about Daimo, the 200 seat Hong Kong chain whose 500 item menu spans everything from humble congee to exotic ostrich … and good ostrich from what I've read.
Adding to its popularity is it is open from 9 am to 3 am.
I've never been. While the many positive reports stick in my memory, I couldn't remember what was recommended.
So after going thru a lot of reports and newspaper reviews, I thought I'd pull out some great reports and links and put them here for other Daimo first-timers.
A good starting place is this 1999 … yes 1999 … SF Chronicle review. It seems Daimo is timeless. The review has a nice description of the won tons which is what I plan to have first based on so many positive comments. The Chron wrote …
"The filling is a dense amalgam of nearly whole shrimp, coarsely ground pork and a hint of pepper and ginger. Portions the size of golf balls are wrapped in gossamer-thin dough that infuse the broth with … a stock that, using a traditional method, is prepared by simmering chicken in a pot that rests inside a steaming wok. The result is a crystal clear, double- boiled soup that is rich in chicken flavor and not the least bit greasy … cooks snip some yellow Chinese chives over the top, adding one more layer of character."
Johathan Gold in another review says of the filling "whole shrimp sandwiched between a fresh scallop and a dried one."
My question here … which won ton to order? It seems people lean toward the war won ton soup.
Other Daimo questions …
How many menus are there? Besides the menus on the wall, I read there are two menus with a suggestion there is a third. A Chowhound wrote …
"While eating at Daimo last night I noticed someone just seated at another table go back to the entrance and pick up a different menu. Checked on the way out and they have printouts of the daily specials. Also noticed a third menu of interesting set dinners."
Is there a best time to go? It seems the most negative comments come from people who use it as a late night stop. Is it a Cinderella story … after midnight the magic is gone?
It seems the price edge Daimo has is gone and I read a report (unreliable) of an ownership change in the past two years. Any truth in this?
Positive mentions of dishes from the Chowhound links at the end …
" I think Daimo has the best salt-and-pepper crab that I have ever tasted. It's salty, mildly spicy, but also with a slightly sweet aftertaste that balances out the 2 stronger flavors as they linger in your mouth. The coating is a nice, thick batter that slides off if you use your teeth on the shell as you suck to extract the meat (probably not the most polite way to eat crab)."
"My favorite dish here is their salt-and-pepper crab, which has a slightly sweet taste that balances out the stronger flavors."
"I really enjoyed the congee I had there when I was there last (shredded pork and preserved egg). The egg was perfect in taste and quantity, and peanuts were a delicious addition"
"Half a "Daimo special roast chicken with garlic" It came with the skin crispy fried, but tender and juicy inside and served with fried garlic slivers and black vinegar for dipping)"
The East Bay Express has a lovely description of the roast chicken …
"roast chicken looks perfectly lacquered, brown and shiny with soy sauce. The skin is as brittle as scorched parchment in places; it clings tenuously to pieces of succulent meat"
There's also a nice description of the steamed spot prawns and pig's knuckle.
"Beef briskets in Hoi Sin sauce" (in the Hot Pot section of the menu). And it was just that! Thick slices/chunks of brisket, no veg, and not very much sauce, actually. But man, the brisket was fork tender. The pieces seemed large at first, but fell apart pretty easily in my rice bowl. The sauce was more savory than sweet, even with the jolt of 5 spice. The hoisin beef hot pot was perfect; tender chunks of beef redolent of anise.
"One regular-menu item we often order is Peking duck "two-style": first you get a platter with crispy skin and buns, later they bring out the meat stir-fried with garlic and black beans."
"I am partial to their Cantonese roast duck, which comes with little marinated soybeans. It is pricier than most places, but way better than the duck from Ranch 99. I get the duck cut up, save the neckbones and other less meaty pieces to make excellent soup broth."
"whole bbq duck - juicy but fatty, skin s/b crisper"
"Daimo's known for their wontons, which are incredibly fresh with a whole shrimp in each one."
"The wonton noodle soup had only five wontons, but they were packed full of crunchy shrimp with little other filler. There was a generous quantity of al dente noodles. "
"Their shrimp wontons and noodle soup is superior."
"We had steamed bbq pork buns; soft, yeasty, and sweet buns filled with tender pork and a judicious amount of sauce. These are my now-favorite version!"
"The tomato beef chow fun was fantastic. Nicely charred noodles with big pieces of tomato that clearly tasted of TOMATO, and lots of beef strips."
"We also had gai lan in oyster sauce that had a nice crunch."
"Gai lon w/oyster sauce - huge portion, perfect"
"We ordered the Frog legs and eggplant in XO sauce. Tim said this amazingly tender, with plenty of garlic. (gee, is that why none was left for me??!)
"Clay pot spicy eggplant with seafood. The eggplant was not at all spicy, and the squid/scallops/shrimp in it was very tender and succulent."
"gotta go for the salt/pepper fried calamari"
"Their wok charred salt & pepper calamari is always tender and fresh."
"The stir-fried dishes always arrive piping hot and with that special smoky aroma that is the mark of the chef's skill with a really hot wok."
"Their rice plates lunches are also excellent"
"Pea shoot leaves (the Big ones) - exceptionally good, perfect leaves, seasoning garlicky but not too"
" Some other successes I've had are their fresh greens, including large pea leaves (da dou miao) prepared with dried scallops or fresh crab "gravy" and water spinach(on choy or kong xin cai) with preserved fish.
"Noodles w/enoki mushrooms - noodles were soft-chewy, just right"
"Salt & pepper spareribs - fried to juicy perfection w/ garlic chips and chili, almost pork chop-like"
"Roasted pig - tasty lean pieces of meat w/very thin crispy skin atop, should have asked for the rib section which would have been less lean"
"Brisket & turnip soup. Not on the menu. The broth is infused with wok fried basil. It's as good as it sounds."
Of course this only scratches the surface. I haven't read EVERY post. There are lots of one-line mentions.
Here are a few dishes recommended: good clay pot dishes, Dungeness crab in XO sauce, Stir-fried convolvus with preserved tofu, Fried salt-and-pepper tofu, Beef with bitter melon, Fook king chow fan, Pork, tofu, and oyster clay pot, BBQ Pork, chicken and corn, braised crab dishes fish congee, Shang Hai dumpling, fried tofu, honey walnut shrimp, Spinach with Garlic, Eggplant with Chili Sauce, pork with shredded mustard greens and taro, braised crab dishes, fish congee, Shang Hai dumpling, fried tofu, lo mein noodles with duck, HK milk tea.
Of course it isn't all raves. There are people who think 'eh'. Some dishes like this are misses …
"Singapore chili crab .,.. Crab was a decent size and tasty but the sauce was all wrong, from the color (a strange yellow - turmeric?) to the taste (a little off to my palate). Dish was served with soft steamed buns - I would have preferred a crusty"
This doesn't seem to be the place to go specifically for dim sum as there are quite a few comments that it is limited.
Any other weak spots here to avoid?
From a Chronicle 'Best of' mention, here's a little about the fish tanks …
"You pick the fish (it's sold by the pound), and select from more than two dozen preparations, ranging from a plain blanch in hot water to an elaborate saucing of black beans or curry"
So … any other tips? Do you agree with the above? Any favorites that were missed?
Daimo Chinese Restaurant
3288 Pierce Street
Richmond, CA 94804
(510) 527-3888
Daily: 9 am – 3 am
Does this place ever close for holidays?
Just a few previous Chowhound posts … Those with the name in the title.
Yikes, that's too much info for me to try to read at one sitting. Thanks for taking the time to compile it!
War won ton just means won ton soup topped with whatever the kitchen has handy cooking on the stove. It's a meal in a bowl, but not one that will show off won ton making particularly. Sort of like ordering a burrito when you wonder how good the tacos are at a taqueria.
Wor won ton,
re: Melanie Wong
Thanks. Yeah going thru the reports started to confuse me on what to order so I cut and pasted to organize my own thoughts ... all I got out of that exercise was ... order won ton first ... and maybe that pork bun.
But on my second trip I'll have some notes to refer back to. And then there's the rw factor in all of this ... ordering something no one has ever mentioned anywhere.
I guess Jonathan Gold once did a review of Daimo. I was looking for that (couldn't find it online) when I saw his won ton review.
re: rworange
I think Jonathan's piece on Daimo was for Gourmet, if that helps.
re: Melanie Wong
Hmmm ... I though I reported on the won ton soup, but maybe in another thread. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. I ordered the plain won ton soup first ... IMO, that's the thing to go with since this soup is all about those golf-ball sized won tons with the wisp of a wrapping holding together a lot of shrimp and other stuff ... didn't detect the scallop that Jonathan Gold mentioned.
For 5.50 there is a large container of soup with another container of 10 won ton.
The problem with the war won ton was the price discrepancy ... it is $14.75. What that gets you is another container with sliced chicken, bbq pork, squid, baby bok choy, whole black mushroms (3), whole scallops (2), shrimp (4) and a carrot piece or two.
I'm not that compulsive, but I was splitting it up into three bowls because it is a lot of soup. So I was trying to even things out. I'm sure the mixture is the luck of the draw.
However, that extra container just isn't worth the nearly 10 extra dollars. If you must fill up, get the war won ton noodle soup which is $5.50 also. None of the 'war' ingrediants was up to the 'won ton' level. They were fine, but that's all.
The broth is rich but the taste is on the salty (msg?) side. Doesn't matter though. Good won tons.
Good taco/burrito analogy.
Does Daimo have the Bay Area's worst musak or what? It is like a paradoy of musak ... like they bought the first musak tape ever made and keep playing it over and over. Today it was "Memories" from Cats and ":Yesterday" ... I guess there was a theme. It is always so bad it ceases to be background music and annoyingly catches my attention.
re: rworange
I'm glad you tried the straight-ahead, plain version to get a handle on how good the won ton dumplings are here. A dish like this shows the skill needed to make something that seems simple shine.
i had the beef brisket with hoisin last time i was there. that was my first time having it, and it was wonderful. I haven't had brisket prepared that way before and I am glad it was a great first experience. just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
I don't think they're open till 3am any more.
Funny, we've eaten there at least 20 times and have had hardly any of those dishes. That's probably because we order mostly daily specials off the wall.
We almost always order pea leaf stir-fried with garlic if it's in season. Peking duck "2 style" is one of the few regular-menu items we order. Probably every visit we order at least half things we haven't had before.
Didn't have great luck with noodles or congee so mostly avoid those. Never tried any of the wontons. Wasn't thrilled with the smoked sea bass. Clay pot dishes weren't as good as Yuet Lee's.
There used to be a noodles & jook menu and a full-dinner menu. I'm not sure they still do that.
Prices were never a bargain except relative to the quality. I haven't noticed any change in the food. It's a chain so I a change in ownership wouldn't necessarily be noticeable.
That Chronicle review was by the excellent Kim Severson, who's now with the New York Times. Speaking of reviewers, Daimo was one of Jonathan Kauffman's "last suppers" before moving to Seattle (where he's not far from the Vancouver branch):
How about attributing quotes with usernames and/or links? To me that's essential information in evaluating the recommendations.
re: Robert Lauriston
Didn't know about Kim Severson. Yeah, I like the reviews I've been finding. Thanks for that link to the East Bay Express review.
The menu and door hours still say 3 am, but I'll check. Thanks for the tip about the congee because I was going to get it here. WIll maybe go to168 instead.
All the quotes are from the links at the end of the OP. It was daunting just picking those out. There's lots more stuff in the links ... and the almost 200 mentions in board threads.
re: rworange
The congee might be fine, I haven't tried it in years.
If it's 3am on the doors, I'm sure that's right.
re: Robert Lauriston
Maybe the time to order the congee is in the morning. When I was picking up my won ton soup to go yesterday I noticed that every day from 9am - 11 am there's a breakfast menu.
If this isn't one of the top breakfasts in the East Bay, I don't know what is.
For $6.70 pick one from column A and one from column B. Milk tea is $1 extra and so, so worth it.
This has to be the best milk tea I've tried to date. Nice tea flavor and the condensed milk not overdone so that it makes your teeth ache. At first I wasn't sure if there was condensed milk in there at all because it wasn't sickenly sweet. An elegant version.
I've only had congee three times in my life so far. Once at Fat Wong's in Milbrae
The $2 take-out version at 99 Ranch
This was the best I've had to date. To my taste it far out-classed Fat Wongs and I paid a dollar less at Daimo.
The preserved egg and salted pork congee was thick and wonderful. The black egg pieces had a nice egg flavor and texture unlike the 99 Ranch version which were a tad sulferous and bordering on slimy.
The pork was delicate and delicious. What made this soup was the condiments ...green onions and peanuts on top with fresh grated ginger threads laced throughout the jook.
The Chinese donut was different from the crispy donut at Fat Wong's or the oozy-oily version at 99 Ranch.
This was served cold, cut up and was soft and yeasty almost like an American donut without the sugar. It just upped the deliciousness dunked in the congee. I have a lot leftover and they are nice little snacks with my coffee.
They also have a dim sum menu in the morning and seriously the steamed pork bun is true greatness. I've never liked the steamed version before but the bun was soooo light and tender. The one I warmed in the microwave for lunch was still fine, but ... MUST EAT THESE AT DAIMO IMMEDIATELY for sheer wonderfullness.
For the pork filling itself, Golden Gate Bakery remains my favorite, but this was good with the right ratio of pork & sauce to bun.
They also have those rice rolls that Fat Wong's sells. They are served daily from 9am to 3pm. Daimo offers: plain, dry shrimp, prawn, sliced fish, scallop and donut in rice roll. They have a rice BUN with pork that looked pretty good.
In the morning there are 4 congees as part of 'choice B' of the breakfast menu. "Choice A" includes rice rolls, donuts, turnip cake and pork sticky rice dumpling. There are 25 jooks offered on the regular menu.
The three other morning jooks from choice B - beef, assorted meat & pork organs ... that last would wake me up.
There's about a dozen dim sum items offerred from 9am to 5 pm & 10 pm - 3 am ... the answer to where you can get dim sum other than mornings.
Theres the standard stuff like egg custard tarts and sesame balls. Othere sesame items are sesame rolls and sweet rice roll with sesame seed. The table next to me ordered those and they looked great.
They also had a few less common ... to me ... items like steamed egg custard buns, steamed shark fin with crab meat dumpling in supreme broth ($6.50) and a very cool looking logan & madlan pudding.
Had some time to look through the full menu. Interesting looking presentaion of the head-on Empress chicken. There's also a soup of the day.
This has to be one of the best spots to breakfast solo. You can watch the kitchen making the rice rolls and dumplings from large fresh thin sheets of dough, the fillings laddled in. They are setting up for the day and lacquered mahogany ducks are put on display and huge hunks of bbq and roasted pork are hung for the coming day.
They are also very nice about letting you hang out ... at least during the week. Breakfast comes with a complementary pot of tea ... which I liked ... a touch of smoke and a hint of apricot color ... very pleasing. Anyway, I was lingering ...which I rarely do ... and watching the kitchen while finishing the free pot of tea and they offered to refill it. There wasn't any pressure to rush me out the door.
Great spot just off the freeway that is easily accessible for breakfast. If I get a job in the city again, I think my commute would include a detour for a cup of that milk tea to sip on the road.
re: rworange
Thanks so much for the breakfast and dim sum report from Daimo! We've heard slight mention of dim sum here but few details. I'm happy to hear that the front kitchen seems to have shaped up again.
re: Melanie Wong
It is times like these that I'm so grateful there is a Chowhound. Five years ago I would have had no clue about Chinese donuts, jook and rice rolls ... and on the chance that I did order the off the menu I would have had no clue about how to eat and enjoy them. I really appreciate all the info from posters on this board.
re: TerriL
Mongolian Chicken? That sounds like a Desi Chinese dish.
re: Gary Soup
Chicken Manchurian is a Desi Chinese standard.
re: Melanie Wong
You're right, it's Manchurian, not Mongolian Chicken. An even more puzzling name.
re: Gary Soup
And some of the spellings of Manchurian are a scream. Hakka appears frequently too as an adjective.
re: Gary Soup
what's a desi chinese dish? heard of mongolian chicken though, well, beef anyhow.
Thank you for the compilation. Maybe if I can get my wife to read this I'll be able to bypass 168 one of these times. Not that 168 isn't great...
I agree with one of the lines above regarding beef chow fun. I've had their regular Beef Chow Fun a few times and it was very good. Perfectly charred noodles with good balance of flavor, big and flavorful beef pieces and fresh bean sprouts. A lot of places don't stir enough and half the chow fun are still white without flavor. I don't know about quality of chow fun in SF or Oakland, but Daimo's chow fun can only be matched by a couple of places in the south bay.
re: billibi
And my favorite congee is fish fillet and preserved egg plus another preserved egg.
My go-to dish at Daimo has always been Foo Chow Fried Rice (福建炒飯) which is about $12.00. It is a dish with fried rice with eggs underneath, topped with enormous amounts of a delicious sauce that has scallops, mushrooms, duck, shrimp, bbq pork. It is me and my boyfriend's favorite dish. It is especially economical since it usually lasts us for two whole meals.
re: liujenny
My wife is a big fan of the crab and Virginia ham rice dish, for the same reason.
She gets a couple of lunches out of it later in the week.
We tried a couple of new-to-us dishes last night.
Roast pork was great--juicy with nicely-seasoned crispy skin. Next time I'd order a knife as the skin wasn't hot enough to snap when you bit it. Got it on a combo platter with BBQ pork, good but paled in comparison with the roast (which is considerably more expensive), came with those weird sweet starchy brown beans and a good earthy black bean dipping sauce.
Noticed a new item, three variations of "pork meat cake" ($10), among the wall specials. It was like a giant fresh sausage patty, nice and juicy, good pork flavor. The waiter didn't seem to be familiar with it and maybe there's a problem with the English translation--I took him over and pointed to the "with preserved vegetables and mushrooms" one and he came by the table and said, "salted fish, right?" Said no, preserved vegetables, but we ended up getting the third version, "with salted egg," which was definitely more boring than the one we ordered would have been. I'll try this again and send it back if they don't get it right.
With steamed rice and a plate of pea left stir-fried with garlic this was carnivorously satisfying. I meant to order Malaysian chow fun but just as well we didn't, had plenty of leftovers as it was.
They're now serving dim sum after 10pm. New menus include a lot of photos.
re: Robert Lauriston
Daimo Chinese Restaurant
3288 Pierce St, Richmond, CA 94804
re: Robert Lauriston
Did you have the steamed or fried version of the pork hash? Haven't had any of the variations at daimo, but vastly prefer with salted fish to the others. At the first Chinatown lunch series event some 3 years ago, I eased the group into the genre with the salted egg style at Bow Hon. After that, the steamed pork hash and salt fish was a fixture of our meal at any of the Chinatown spots that had it on the menu and the hounds became connoisseurs of this dish over time, if you're interested in revisiting those reports.
I ate at the Daimo in San Leandro and have not had better wontons. We also had the perk belly with preserved vegetables which was really good with a unique flavour. I have heard that the Richmond is the mothership experience, but the SL store is a good entry level experience, not overwhelming at all.
after reading this thread again yesterday afternoon I got a craving to go late last night after watching Avenue Q in SF. Myself and 2 friends ordered the Beef Brisket in Hoisin Sauce over rice which came topped with some sauteed Bok Choy. And we ordered a bowl of the seafood & tofu soup. Wow, it really hit the spot. I love Daimo for my late night dining.
Tried a couple of new dishes the other night, partly because the newish menus were confusing.
Green beans with salted shrimp, pickled vegetable, and chiles (in the appetizer section of the new dinner / lunch menu) was reminiscent of dry-fried green beans with pork. This was really interesting and good, I've never had anything quite like it.
Ong choy / water spinach with salty fish (in the vegetables section) was similar to the Malaysian / Singaporean kang kung prep with shrimp paste. Very tasty, nice texture.
We've ordered whole steamed fish with ginger before and loved it. This time what they had on hand was "sea trout," it had a nice texture but was a bit bland, good but probably wouldn't order it again given the 500 other choices on the two menus and specials sheet.
They are open today.
re: Robert Lauriston
Glad to hear you had a good time so recently.
We were heavy regulars until recently as we live so close but the past 2 or 3 meals were somewhat disappointing, Good but not quite what we've come to expect there. It seems like ownership changed sometime the past winter and coincided with this.
Maybe they had some kinks to work out. It sounds like it may be time to go back again.
Thanks for the post.
re: kevine
What do you usually order? I haven't noticed any change.
There's no change of ownership listed in the liquor license record:


text:
Pom Harrington, owner of his father's antique bookshop, Peter Harrington Rare Books, travels the globe in search of the rarest tomes on earth. "Twice a year I drive around America just going from bookshop to bookshop," he says. "There's only so much you can find on the internet and sometimes you come across the most amazing items that have been cast away with no idea what they're worth."
The business came from far more parochial origins. In the 1970s, Peter Harrington took over a stall in Chelsea Antiques Market and quickly discovered that the collectible books he bought in the country and sold to City-types proved much more popular than anything else he was selling. Books dominated his stall and his collection grew to such a size that he eventually took over the entire market, sold the freehold, and founded his own bookshop on the Fulham Road. Since leaving the business to his son Pom, it has grown to include a contemporary art gallery and a thriving mail order trade through its website. A second premise is set to open on Mayfair's Dover Street in June.
The polished stacks on the ground floor display row upon row of gleaming first editions. Venture upstairs in the four-storey converted townhouse and the chaos grows the higher you climb. In total, the shop is home to 10,000 rare items, from £150,000 Shakespeare folios to great political tomes; from Damien Hirsts to 17th century atlases.
Whatever our technological advances, the principles that determine what makes a book valuable remain the same. "It could be the greatest-looking book in the world," says Harrington, "but if no one likes it, no one cares. You want desirability of the text, then the first printing, then the rarity. For example, around 4,000 copies were first printed of Winnie the Pooh, but it became very popular so they issued 26,000 copies so the price goes down by a third in the second printing
"Lastly, the condition is so important. We have to make sure no pages are missing before we buy and we have UV-blocking glass in our windows to protect our books from the sunlight. Ultimately, you're trying to collect something that's in the condition it was issued. The Holy Grail is to find the object that really makes you tick – if you're a banker, it might be Smith's Wealth of Nations – and get it the way you would have back in 1776."
Harrington recalls an American customer who acquired a first edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island among some other books that had been bound in Morocco that he bought for a few thousand dollars. Soon he wanted all the books in their original condition. While pursuing those, he found one of them, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in its original binding and ended up paying $500,000 for it.
A book's value is also mythologised because, unlike many other collectibles, they can't be replicated – there are a finite amount of original condition Frankensteins out there. This heightens the exhilaration of finding one of the few in existence.
"Before the book fairs open, there's all this secretive trading when everyone's setting up and it's a bit of a bun fight. In some cases, you've literally got dealers unpacking other dealers' stock so they can see what books they've brought in."
Rare books are constantly changing hands and some great stories are created in the dogged pursuit of them. The most impressive book in Harrington's extensive personal collection is a book he chased for 14 years – a copy of Bambi, illustrated by Walt Disney, inscribed to Roald Dahl. But how did these giants of children's fiction cross paths? "Walt Disney gave Roald Dahl his first job and produced his first book, Gremlins." It first came up for auction in 2000 for £7,000. Constantly outbid for it, Harrington had all but given up on the book when its owner simply walked into his bookshop and offered it for sale, oblivious to the fact he had originally outbid Harrington.
While he has been involved in the sale of books worth £500,000, the vast majority go for a couple of thousand pounds, coming from a select group of popular authors; Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, Winston Churchill (of whom the shop is something of a specialist), AA Milne, Ian Fleming, and Jane Austen ("who I just can't get enough of. I'd sell them every day if I had them").
For all the talk of Amazon killing off the book trade, Harrington says he's weathering the storm. It's the "shady" dealers who are suffering most. Easy access to a wealth of knowledge online means it doesn't take long for new collectors to suss out a bad deal. Those flogging overpriced and overvalued books are quickly exposed. City dwellers now know exactly what books cost in the country and vice versa so prices have leveled out – something that would have killed off Peter Harrington's trade in Chelsea Antiques Market.
As we're finishing up the phone rings. "A gentleman on the phone is desperate to meet you in Paris tomorrow to talk over a sale", Harrington is informed by a colleague. The search goes on.