Gaming TripAdvisor. Surely, you’ve used sites like Yelp!, TripAdvisor, or others when visiting strange news places. What if one of the top-rated restaurants there was a complete fake? That’s what VICE UK‘s Oobah Butler, a clever prankster, did with his backyard shed:
It’s a great story, especially the part where people are begging him to eat there and using their media email addresses to do it. In the end, Butler does open up The Shed at Dulwich for one night. It’s sort of amazing that this guy was able to hype up a place that didn’t exist, while others literally ruin their lives to pursue their dreams.
Philadelphia goes after the bodegas. Ah, the city of Brotherly Love! Fresh off of their much-hated soft drink tax, local leaders are now trying to put small-market stores out of business. How? By forcing them to risk getting shot or stabbed by criminals:
Councilwoman Cindy Bass, who clearly knows better than her constituents, tells FOX29 that: “We want to make sure that there isn’t this sort of indignity, in my opinion, to serving food through a Plexiglas only in certain neighborhoods.” FOX29 reports: “She says she wants to put some controls on these small stores that, from her point of view, sell booze, very little food and are a source of trouble for her district.”
The “Stop and Go” bill, as it’s called, should be renamed: Shut Down Your Store or Die Trying to Keep It Alive.
Tears in the Senate. Senator Al Franken announced today that in the coming weeks, he will resign his seat in the upper chamber due to the controversy surrounding allegations of groping and forced kissing. Earlier, Alabama Senator Luther Strange gave his farewell address, as he lost to Roy Moore in the primary. Other Senators came by and paid their respects and said goodbye, as is a Senate tradition. As a former Senate staffer, I recall attending Ted Stevens’s farewell speech, which was one of the big ones. And, when my old boss Jon Kyl retired, I sat up in the press gallery with Fred Barnes to show my respect.
Al Franken’s resignation speech was not a farewell speech (highlights here), but still, his staff attended since they’re loyal. And, as the Examiner‘s Al Weaver reports from inside the chamber, they were sad. Even some Senators who called for him to step down were sad, too:
The staffers will all be out of a job soon, unless Franken’s replacement keeps them. It’s sad to lose one’s job, but odd to cry when somebody is resigning like you demanded they do.
Speaking of tears, can you imagine taking away stuffed animals from kids? That is sad. My newborn twins already have at least 15 stuffed animals already and they’re not even 3 months old. So, this WSJ item on how there is now an industry of experts dedicated to eradicating stuffies sort of makes sense. Though, it’s got some strange suggestions for how notto traumatize your wee ones:
The folks at the Journal even made a blindfolded teddy bear hedcut. At least give the good bear a smoke before the firing squad, will ya? He’s only guilty of being cute, and donating used stuffies can be logistically difficult in a lot of places, meaning the toy will often times be destroyed.
Couple tempts fate. CNN reports:
“For them,” Spencer Feingold writes, “the global challenge is both activism and performance art.” Yes, but it also is setting up what could be one of the most logistically difficult divorces in the history of the world.
Afternoon Links are part of the Daily Standard newsletter, a free daily newsletter that goes out Monday through Friday. Sign up here!
