Closings

Two restaurants were eliminated from the restaurant guide today because they closed. Goodbye to Mainland and La Maganette.

Mainland [1081 Third Ave. (bet. 63rd and 64th Sts.) 212-888-6333]
The setting is splendid. The food is high quality. The prices are insane. A nice choice for a special occasion (like Father's Day for example), as the overall quality of the restaurant was excellent. Perhaps the prices are so high because the rent is so high. Multiple restaurants have failed in the same location, but I hope that Mainland can succeed. To start, I would recommend the "Shao Leung" dumplings (essentially Shanghai soup dumplings) or the Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. For my main course, I went with half a Peking Duck and it was delicious. If the whole table wants some duck, go for the full. The Pan Roast Sea Scallops, while they tasted good, are not a good value at $25 a plate. I would say that the White Miso Glazed Escolar is a much better seafood option. On the whole, be prepared to spend a lot, but your taste buds will be well-rewarded.

La Maganette [825 Third Ave. (at 50th St.) 212-759-5677]
Solid but unspectacular standard Italian fare. I had the Rigatoni alla Vodka and it was certainly tasty, but they weren't exactly reinventing the wheel here. Prices are affordable though (at least for lunch), so it is a decent option if you are in midtown.

New Breed

Someone at the Onion has read about David Icke. Maybe on Delino? Either way, I am happy to direct my readers to this article.

Blast from the Past

Check out the video for "Freestyler." I first saw it on German MTV, and I loved it!

Also, see these two Peugeot commercials. The first is just funny. The second is just cool.

Subway

Not sure if this true, but I have found it to be the case that swiping an Unlimited Metrocard is more reliable than swiping any other Metrocard. I always receive that beautiful green "Go" instead of that deflating "Please Swipe Again" or the even worse "Please Swipe Card Again At This Turnstile." Anyone else?

Malaria and Technology

An oldie but a goodie from Malcolm Gladwell about Fred Soper and his fight against malaria.

An excerpt:

Once, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a large ammunition dump--the Niterói Arsenal--blew up. Soper, it was said, heard the explosion in his office, checked the location of the arsenal on one of his maps, verified by the master schedule that an inspector was at the dump at the time of the accident, and immediately sent condolences and a check to the widow. The next day, the inspector showed up for work, and Soper fired him on the spot--for being alive.

Also, I am very excited to go to the WIRED NextFest this weekend! So much cool technology like the Hug Shirt or Brainball. I hope that I can test some of these things out.

Penny Anti

I still don't like the penny! Read more about the penny situation here.

I love it when...

...people make fun of Blockbuster Video. A great Onion article on the subject.

New Squash Rankings

1. Donald Rumsfeld
2. Noah
3. Tom
4. Rich
5. Dan
6. Dave

White and Nerdy

Weird Al is back and at his best in this "Ridin' Dirty" parody song and video.

Just another day at the office

I look at the phone and see a number that I don't recognize with a 305 area code. Tom has the same area code in Florida.

"Hello, Richard Berger, NFL."
"Hi Richard, I just had a question. Can a team get penalized if its fans make too much noise?"
"Um, I don't think so. I think that the fans can be warned maybe, but I don't think it ever turns into a penalty."
"Really? Cause I thought it could happen in places like Seattle. You know what I mean? Anyway, I just had a bet on this. A couple hundo. No big deal."
"Yeah, who is this exactly?"
"Oh, it's Peter."
(Peter can't see the confused expression on my face)
"Ok..."
"Yeah, well I'll just call you back on Monday and we'll settle things. Thanks, talk to you later."
(Click)

As it turns out, the NFL rulebook says:

Loss of team time out(s) or five-yard penalty on the defense for excessive crowd noise.

Need to transfer large files?

Try this site! Pando.com offers free file transfers of any size for anyone. And they have that great "pan-do" attitude. Hopefully their web site will say: "As featured on award-winning blog Not About Marquis Grissom!"

Hat tip to Tom of Delino fame.

Reading Matter

Look here to learn about smart people.

Look here to read about The Office around the world.

Repressing the urge for a sarcastic post title

Apparently everyone thinks he's as funny as America's original funnyman (Dan Berger) these days.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...my graduation speaker. Watch Stephen Colbert and Eleanor Holmes Norton go at it in this wonderful installment of "Better Know A District." This is probably my favorite recurring segment of Colbert's show.

Typical Government Hypocrisy

Ok, so we can't gamble on anything sports-related. Unless it's horse racing or we live in Nevada. But at least we can "gamble" on the lottery, aka "The Poor Tax." Oh, and don't worry, gambling billions of dollars on the price of natural gas is perfectly fine as well.