Monday, February 27, 2006
question
I came in to work ready to post about Big Sur, completely unaware that there had been all this posting over the weekend. I started writing something back that was all sarcastic and stuff, easy shots like bagging on Rachel M. for bragging that she was writing a thesis. But it doesn't seem worth refuting point by point. I would rather post a review of Il Fornaio, where I ate last night. Here's what I observed overall. The two people who posted that were witnesses and the one who knows what happened directly and jumped to the manager's defense all confirm that the guy did get water thrown on him, which is what I printed. So it happened, right? So, why can't these guys just talk to the News and Review about it if they have nothing to apologize for? Then they can clear it up. They can explain they were just helping the guy out because they were concerned he would possibly have to go to jail if they didn't handle it that way. Sounds like funny logic to me, but they can make their case for that. They are denying it to the people trying to investigate it. Why lie if they're not ashamed of what they did? Maybe over the weekend they decided to own up to it, and this question is moot, but last I heard no one wanted to talk.
Let's just stay on point for this post, please. Sorry to muscle in, but it's my deal and I have the say. Point being: it happened and the main guy involved is denying it. Please don't comment if it doesn't directly relate to that. Go ahead and comment on the old post on the weight of the guy, whether he has gray or white hair, etc. Same goes for the "it happened, but I'm justifying it this way" type of comment. Put that on the old post. Or the "what you care about is dumb but what i care about is important" category of comment. Or the "you can't talk about this because you don't devote your life to homeless activism" genre of comment.
ReplyDeleteSo Ed, that's why I deleted your comment and put it on the end of the other thread.
ReplyDeleteBeckler, not that you need it, but you have my unfiltered support for axing my comment if you want to.
ReplyDeleteEd
It all comes down to whether or not you think the action taken was fucked-up or not. I think most people on here have been downtown enough to know that homeless people can be frustrating & nobody's debating that. The attempts to paint the readers of this blog as bleeding heart liberals who think all homeless people should be worshipped or something are absurd. The action taken was stupid and I think everyone probably agrees on that point. The original post said nothing about boycotting Paesano's & I don't know that I'm all aboard that solution. It would be easy for me to do since I don't like it that much but if it were my favorite restaurant, I can't say with certainty that I would stop going. I do hope that the owners aren't happy with what happened & that that manager didn't get off without some sort of punishment. And anyway, the fact is, it's become a story & I feel Paesano's would benefit by admitting that it was a mistake.
ReplyDeleteThe whole "you suck, no, YOU suck!" mood of the comments is the worst. Why does everyone have to be so harsh & personal? I mean, sure, Squirty Tip gets what he gets - that comment was assy in anyone's book - but shit, if you're that pissed off, go yell at the manager that did this & if you hate blogs & "gossip" & the internet so much, get the hell off Heckasac. I feel that, from reading between the lines, I've pieced together a pretty good idea of what happened. This guy had been a pain in the ass for Paesano's, someone got frustrated & stupidly decided to pour water on the guy, people heard about it & got pissed & maybe exagerrated it and now it has nothing to do with this homeless guy & all to do with "fuck you guys who weren't even there", "I'm a real journalist & I hate blogs", "fuck anything the Virgas touch" etc. I don't know - maybe I'm just too painfully aware of the stupid shit I wish I hadn't done in certain situations in my life but I'm really just interested in WHAT HAPPENED & not all the various thinly disguised personal disses & slanted takes. It's not necessary for a community of people to all do the same thing in a situation - it's simply important to know the facts & make you own choices accordingly.
And for the record, I will say that while the second thing Rachel posted was pretty snotty, the first thing (buried somewhere in the 62+ comments) was at least somewhat level-headed & I can appreciate that.
miller
What about Il Fornaio? blog it dog!
ReplyDeleteElla
this miller person sounds like a published journalist.
ReplyDeleteHe's not a published journalist. Just a song writer.
ReplyDeleteCharles
I answered the SNR Street Talk once - does that count?
ReplyDeletemiller
I answered that too once...they didn't print it.
ReplyDelete