Published on: November 17, 2008
Regarding the higher cost of a Thanksgiving dinner this year, one
MNB user wrote:
The great thing about holiday dinners is that they're usually the same as they were the previous year and the year before that and the year before that. Since I know that we're going to have the green bean casserole with mushroom soup and crunchy onions on top for one side, potatoes for another, and pumpkin pie, I have this amazing opportunity and ability not to just shop the week before but to use my coupons and loss leader deals several weeks before hand or in some cases much more in advance than that to prepare.
It's frustrating to constantly read about how prices are going up. I don't doubt that it's true but wonder how many people ACTUALLY pay more. Are there any numbers on that?Another
MNB user wrote:
I can feel your pain about the increased cost of Thanksgiving dinner. We just relocated to France this fall (spouse's job) and I've been trying to source a small whole turkey for our Thanksgiving. (Has to be small -- my oven is 1/3 the size of my American one!)
Ready for this? It requires a special order from the butcher (drop me a note when you come to Paris next -- I'll take you through our wonderful market -- a wide variety of products, but small enough to be able to walk past all the vendors) to acquire an entire turkey...and the cost is running 15-19 Euros per kilo. That breaks out to somewhere in the range of $10 per pound....for a TURKEY. Yikes.
I'm seriously considering pheasant or duck for our dinner (to be held on Saturday, as Thursday is a work and school day, and impossible for friends to attend)...I have a hard time coughing up $10/pound for something I know thousands of families will be buying for under $1.00/pound without even thinking about it!
Oh, the things we take for granted!Oh, to have such problems!
You have a deal. Next time I come to Paris, I’ll give you a holler.
One
MNB user brought up a question I sort of figured would emerge eventually…
I am a retired food industry executive (beverages) and my wife also from the food industry reads your webpage.
We are coffee drinkers and have lived in Europe, Asia, and South American. Like many coffee drinkers we have favorites and know that the type of bean and bean blends is important. The method of roasting is also a factor in the flavor and "drinkability" of the finished product.
Not dilettantes, just normal country folks.
My wife suggests that you favor the Starbuck's coffee products. She was an beverage analyst and indicated that in the last 1,506 publications of your website you mentioned Starbucks in 813 of them. That is significant, according to her.
Although we do not care for the Starbuck coffees we know some (fewer and fewer) consumers do.
Now that you are promoting White Cloud Coffee will your mention rate of Starbucks decline?While I appreciate your attention to detail, you have to find better things to do with your retirement than count the mentions of Starbucks on
MNB!
That said, you make a point worth addressing.
I have never counted the number of times I have mentioned Starbucks – or any other company or person. I figure that the news dictates the mentions, and I don't believe in quotas.
I would guess, however, that most of my Starbucks mentions have to do with branding and business issues, and those references will almost certainly continue. I find the company to be a fascinating story, and we don't know how it will end yet.
But you are right. I have many times enthusiastically talked about Starbucks’ products, which I always have liked. But as mentioned in our DrumBeat above, the folks at White Cloud sent me their coffee unsolicited, I tasted it and loved it (Mrs. Content Guy ordered me not to buy Starbucks for the house anymore), and then we started talking about them sponsoring MorningNewsBeat.
The great thing about
MNB is that I’ve been able to endorse virtually every product made by my sponsors…and this is a perfect example. Not that my endorsement counts for much, but it makes me feel good about the companies with which I do business.
I hope this answers your question. Transparency is everything.
I also got a bunch of emails responding to last Friday’s list of great hamburger joints around the country.
MNB user Anne Maas wrote:
Ahhh, the memories. I moved from Minneapolis to the East Coast 4-1/2 years ago. I have tasted burgers from many of the Minneapolis restaurants listed and it just made me miss all of the fabulous food that city has to offer. Bar Lurcat - if ANYONE is ever in Minneapolis, you must stop by Bar Lurcat and order their 2 mini burger appetizer. It is beyond divine. They are just burgers in a bun. No condiments, no lettuce, tomato - nothing. And it is the best freakin' burger I've ever had. Yum! Of course being very conscientious about healthy eating, I don't even want to begin to know what makes them taste so good. They have a wonderful selection of wines to wash them down with as well ... One
MNB user wrote:
The next time you are in the LA area try the Apple Pan in Westwood near UCLA. They have been around since 1945 or 1947 and I have been going there for 40 years myself. They have fantastic hamburgers and apple pie.Been there. Love it. Good call.
MNB user Rob Rice wrote:
I’m not looking for a bag, just wondering if omitting from your list a burger stop you recently made (see description below from Offbeat posting, 9/19/08) was an oversight, or if that burger isn’t worthy of inclusion on the list. Just curious.
Another night, I ate at a small bistro called Smokejack’s, where they served a delicious local tomato, basil and mozzarella flatbread, and one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten – made of local beef, and served with local cheese and bacon-roasted organic potatoes. Yummmm…I’m getting hungry just typing the words.I love Smokejack’s, in Burlington, Vermont…but Friday’s list was meant to be joints contributed by
MNB users. I’ll add it to the master list, though. Thanks.
Another
MNB user chimed in:
You forgot Shantytown in Bloomington, MN.Didn’t forget it. Nobody told me about it. Until now.
Tangentially, I got two similarly themed emails about the hamburger list, which carried the headline, “Good God Almighty, Which Way Do I Steer?”
One
MNB user wrote:
Why do you have curse God as part of your commentary? Totally unnecessary and very offensive to some. And another
MNB user wrote:
Please, Please, I would ask that you not use His name in vain, in an explaining of a burger.I apologize if anyone was offended.
However, for those who may not have gotten the reference, it was not a gratuitous line...it is a direct quote from the Jimmy Buffett song, “Cheeseburger In Paradise.” And therefore, I thought, and continue to think, entirely appropriate.