Text 27133, 102 rader
Skriven 2015-05-18 14:01:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: ancient history 646
===============================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 05-13-15  00:51 <=-

 ML>> I've discovered that the way to palatabilize such products as
 ML>> A-1 and Lea & Perrin is to age them for a considerable period,
 ML>> preferably by forgetting them in the back of a cupboard.
 NB>> I probably have a well-aged bottle of at least one of those in my
 NB>> cupboard....  (G)
 ML> The aging adds dimensions of flavor not unlike the wine
 ML> situation at the sacrifice of the freshness, which in
 ML> many cases you don't want anyway, in the same way you'd
 ML> prefer a 50-year-old confidante to an 18-year-old one.
 
Makes sense.  Even though the occasional 18yo might be wise beyond
his/her years, experience counts for something there, too... :)

 NB>> here for the week)...  I gave them the dates, they might show up for
 NB>> part of it... Burt's had his salt intake further reduced to 1500mg/day,
 NB>> and worrying about that... and starting a new diabetes pill... I told
 NB>> him we could work around that for meals at the picnic... :)  Sounded
 NB>> to me as though they were hoping that it would work out... 
 ML> We'll try to work things out. 1500 mg is not a big issue, and
 ML> I can lend him some KCl to balance it out if he goes over.

I didn't think it would be much of an issue... although I forgot that
you have the KCl to balance things...
 
 ML>> Kalina - it appears (though the investigation stopped
 ML>> being in the news when he died) that he was not guilty
 ML>> in the first place.
 NB>> That's always so sad, when someone, falsely accused, takes the "easy"
 NB>> way out... and then isn't around to be vindicated... 
 ML> From what I've pieced together, he and his biz associate
 ML> devised this scheme whereby they approached local Pittsburgh
 ML> restaurant owners and - for a promotional fee that was not
 ML> inconsiderable - they would get to put their signature recipes
 ML> into a book to be published (and that was eventually released)
 ML> under Kalina's name. He was at the time a popular TV and print
 ML> personality. All the testimony I've read says that the
 ML> restaurateurs were perfectly okay with this and merely wrote
 ML> off the expense as advertising and promotional costs. Some
 ML> ambitious Fed prosecutor got hold of this and accused Kalina
 ML> of wrongdoing, semi-justified as the procedure, though common
 ML> and perfectly legal, is sort of morally dubious.

So, not really wrong, just treading on thin ice, skirting the edge... 
The book gave proper credit to the restauranteurs for their signature
recipes...?  So it really was somewhat of a promotion for them...?

 ML> According to the New York Times article,
 ML> Restaurateurs also paid $125 each to Mr. Kalina to attend a
 ML> dinner celebrating the book's publication in December.
 ML> Frank Sacco, an owner of Piccolo, Piccolo, a downtown
 ML> Pittsburgh restaurant with a five-fork review, said he had
 ML> thought nothing of Mr. Kalina's solicitation because he had
 ML> received similar ones from commercial publishers in the past.
 ML> "Mr. Kalina wrote for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a highly
 ML> regarded newspaper, and we felt by virtue of the fact he was
 ML> so popular that the book would be legitimate publicity, and
 ML> it has been," Mr. Sacco said. "There was never any coercion."

And the restauranteurs didn't see it as unethical... certainly not
illegal...  

 ML> So no crime, but there is the ethical issue. From the same
 ML> article -
 ML> Such mingling of business and journalism is not illegal,
 ML> but is considered unethical for a journalist and is grounds
 ML> for dismissal at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and most other
 ML> media companies. Mr. Craig, editor of the Post-Gazette, said
 ML> in an interview that he probably would have dismissed Mr.
 ML> Kalina or, at the very least, removed him as restaurant critic
 ML> if he had known that Mr. Kalina had sought contributions from
 ML> restaurateurs to help publish the cookbook. "It's so
 ML> fundamental," he said. "You can't take money from the people
 ML> you are covering."

Well... one shouldn't be being paid for the article in the paper talking
about the establishment... unless billed as an advertisement, I
suppose...  I can somewhat see the cookbook as not exactly being the
same thing or even following from the reviews, but being a somewhat
different enterprise...

 ML> [M's note 23 years later - the standards of journalism have
 ML> slipped since, and what was considered a moderately high crime
 ML> and misdemeanor is generally shrugged at now.]

To say nothing of infomercials, where touting is being touted as
reporting...  ;)

 ML> A sad sidelight in the history of food TV, and it is a sore
 ML> subject with me that it is essentially forgotten, and it's a
 ML> cautionary tale that should not be.

Many things are lost to time that should not be...

ttyl        neb

... Friendliest thing in the whole world:  A wet dog.

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