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LATE-NIGHT BEER MUNCHIES
Last weekend I had the pleasure of eat
ing around midnight at Wilson's (between
Manhattan and Little Kings). I didn't even
know they were open for business at that
hour, but I'm glad I noticed their neon "Open 1
sign. I have to say it
was a darn good BBQ
sandwich for any time
of day, and it tasted
especially good at
that hour.
My first hint that
they were open was
the delicious smell
of ribs that someone
was eating outside
on the patio at Little
Kings. Wilson has built a new screened smoke
house in the parking lot between the restau
rant and Little Kings where he can let them
slow-cook just right.
I'm just extremely exrited that someone
has chosen to fill the "late-night beer munch-
ies" need on that end of town since J.B. no
longer makes regular appearances. It's smart
and I think there's a huge demand for quality
late-night food downtown, especially on that
end of town. I'm extra-super excited that it's
one of my favorite downtown places: Wilson's.
He tried to talk me into the mac and
cheese, and I passed since I had never tried
home-style mac and cheese on a stomach
full of bar-hopping, opting for just the BBQ
sandwich. But he gave me a scoop of mac
and cheese as a sample... O...M...G. Lesson
learned. I will never pass up on the mac and
cheese as a late-night snack. The cheesy
goodness seemed to caramelize together with
the pulled pork and BBQ sauce in just the
right way.
I'm writing this letter because I really want
Wilson's to be successful with their new late-
night business exper-.
iment. But mostly,
I'm writing this letter
for purely selfish
reasons because if I
can convince enough
people to try out
late-night food at
Wilson's, then it will
be successful and I
can eat there every
weekend at midnight
for the rest of the summer. Oh, the cheesy,
smokey, BBQ goodness!
Joseph Kass
Email
MONETARY MELODIES
Pete: I enjoyed your Feb. 4 Pub Notes,
"Unchained Melody." I wish more journalists
would catch on to the fact that too much
economic integration—mergers, acquisitions,
etc.—can create problems and likely has wors
ened our current crisis.
Many economic experts, including the
majority of those selected by Obama for his
administration, have been pushing the merits
of consolidation in the name of efficiency
(cost savings, mostly) for a long time. These
arbiters of good judgment, however, frequently
intermingle Libertarian ideology with their
economics, sometimes without realizing it,
and fail to acknowledge the downside of some
mergers—the longer-term bureaucratic "Yes-
man" choruses that frequently follow, creating
waste and folly—along with a reduction in
competition and consumer choice.
The deregulatory ideology championed by
the Republican Party (although not exclu
sively) that has plagued our financial and
securities markets also has degraded antitrust
enforcement, and it's time for a proper bal
ance for "policing" the free market to return. I
hope you continue this kind of common-sense
editorial coverage.
Jim Ponsoldt
Athens
INTOLERANCE = TOLERANCE?
Since when did intolerance equal toler
ance? When President Obama was elected.
When Barack is intolerant, it's somehow tol
erant. Somehow (do voters/Americans even
follow news headlines?) Barack Obama, in the
name of tolerance and progress, expresses
extreme intolerance for specific groups of
people: namely, conservatives and religious
people. I greatly fear that because President
Obama is as much of a celebrity (when will he
get an MTV reality show? I'm waiting!) as he
is a principled leader, people are deceived into
thinking he is a tolerant peacemaker.
As reported today from various news
sources, Barack Obama is repealing "job pro
tections for doctors and nurses who refuse to
provide a medical service because of moral
qualms." The moral qualm (that's an under
statement) is obviously abortion. How will
he remove the job protection for doctors and
nurses who have a particular moral stance?
He'll stop funding institutions that employ
those doctors! How shrewd and nasty! He's
going to put people out of jobs because
they have a particular moral stance. How
intolerant.
It's similar to the amendment in the
stimulus bill just passed (yes, amendments
were passed in a stimulus bill?): any public
school in higher education that houses reli
gious meetings will lose federal funding. No
joke. You a public university? You want to
have a Christian meeting? A Hindu meeting?
A Muslim meeting? Don't do it in the school's
buildings. If you do, we'll pull your funding.
Thats what Obama says. At public universi
ties! Now there's one way to kill the flow of
free thought. That's about as intolerant as it
comes.
In the Obama administration, we will see
the most deceptive displays of intolerance the
country has ever seen. We will see "religious
meetings" forced out of all public facilities
(surely it will reach that far). We will see doc
tors forced out of medicine and forfeit job
opportunities because they have a particular
moral stance.
Wake up to intolerance, Athens.
Sam Hill
Athens
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4 • FLAGP0LE.COM • MARCH 11,2009