What Comes After J ?

I guess the Etc. now stands for nothing as J has gone up and vacated the premises...

Now You See It....

.... Now you dont!... Hmm, Didn't there used to be a subway entrance here in front of the T-Bone Diner?

On the Set of Blue Bloods in Forest Hills

Pink Slimed

So this is what that commenter was referring to on this blog a few days ago. I had no idea: Where You Can Get 'Pink-Slime'-Free Beef

"After an ABC News investigation detailing the use of a cheap meat filler, finely textured lean beef, commonly called pink slime, which is in 70 percent of the ground beef sold at supermarkets, J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, defended the practice as a way to safely use what otherwise would be wasted."

I have to say that I haven't trusted ground beef, or pretty much any meat, brought from lower-end supermarkets since the first television news reports uncovering their meat preparation practices decades ago. I am referring to the reports where they took hidden cameras into the backroom kitchens of the grocers and discovered them mixing old, out of date meat in with fresh meat. That was the deal breaker for me. Ever since, I go out of my way to shop only at reputable markets now, or as reputable as I can possibly find, in the rare times I actually buy meat at grocery stores.

I cannot begin to tell you how strongly I feel about this issue. As a business, when the health and well-being of your customers can depend on what you do, and then you go and violate that, you have lost me forever as a customer. There are no second-chances here. You have shown your true colors and nothing you will do will earn my trust again.

And, by the way, if the entire supermarket industry is harmed by these reports, then they deserve to be -- even those who are not responsible for it. It is a very powerful industry with a lot of money and should be using those resources to police itself and pressure those companies among them that are using such disgusting practices.

Peak Bloom for DC Cherry Blossoms Moved Up
WASHINGTON (AP) — A continuing streak of warm weather means the famed cherry blossoms in the nation's capital will reach their peak bloom earlier than expected.