Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Chinese Buffet
Wednesday
March 26, 2003
One of the best lunch values around is the Chinese buffet. As I've mentioned on here before, there are quite a few of them in the vicinity of Clear Channel Tampa. There's one really close by that I ate at today; mmmm, it was good. My only complaint about the place is that the "General Tso's Chicken" has bones in it. But, wow, it has some really good-tasting food, a great variety of chicken, and even the broccoli & rice is a nice dish. All for $4.25.
I've never quite understood the whole concept of one price for lunch and another for dinner when you're receiving the same food choices. That's kind of baffling to me. I guess the thought is that people are willing to pay more for dinner, or that they're more likely to eat more. For me, hungry is hungry, and it doesn't really matter if it's lunch or dinner. But I'm just a customer, not a restaurant entrepreneur.
But, man, the honey chicken is excellent. And if you're for some non-fried food, the roasted chicken is a nice choice. You could make an entire meal out of the white rice, brocolli and roasted chicken. But with so many choices, it's hard to limit yourself to just that.
The construction on the Crosstown Expressway is becoming quite annoying. Now, I know the need for road repair/improvement. That's the nature of the beast. But for the past week, FDOT has had the on-ramp to the Crosstown from Gandy closed. The next on-ramp isn't too far away -- just a left turn onto Dale Mabry. But a massive backup builds up at that left turn signal, particularly during rush hour. I've found that it's much more time effective to drive through Dale Mabry, then whip a U-ie around the other way and make a right onto Dale Mabry. Occasionally this is difficult when there's oncoming traffic, but I can always hit the Target parking lot and then swing out from there.
Okay, life sucks sometimes. But what I find frustrating is that there are crews doing several other projects at the same time. The Exit 1A off-ramp to MacDill is closed for repair. And on top of that, traffic narrowed to one lane around Exit 4 due to even more construction.
Maybe there's a reason for all of this. But my thought is this: finish one project before you start another.
Frank Sanchez ran a strong campaign, but Pam Iorio beat him in a runoff yesterday to become the Mayor-Elect of Tampa. I think Iorio will do well; certainly she's a much better choice than Bob Buckhorn. But Mr. Sanchez has a bright political future ahead of him in the Tampa area, and hopefully his success in reaching the runoff will help him from a name recognition standpoint on down the line.
It seems that all of the cable networks are back to a normal schedule (or at least something close to it). I do miss the commercial-free coverage and the situations where the anchors lost their places (after seeing how it works on the other side, it's fun to watch as a viewer, particularly on the national level). I haven't seen any blow-ups like when CNN's Miles O'Brien started making shoot comments about his producer on-air the day of the Columbia shuttle disaster, though.
I'm glad to be out of my former working situation at WTSP at this time. I couldn't imagine facing the stress of a wartime situation combined with the deluge of new information and developments overnight and then added with the second-guessing and vitriolic grandstanding by the Executive Meddler. I think I'd rather be living in a box underneath I-4 than enduring that.
My mom pointed out in an e-mail that yesterday marked eight years since my grandfather on my dad's side, Charles Louis Pickney Sr., passed away. It's amazing how time can fly by like that. I've been very fortunate to have had the chance to know all four of my grandparents, and to have three of the four still alive today.
With the war going on, it makes me think of what both my grandfathers and many of my great uncles had to endure in World War II. A relative of Bubba's best friend from his childhood days died in Iraq (one of the victims of the Iraqi "surrender" sneak attack). I mentioned to him that my great uncle Johnny Pickney died in WWII. Their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of the men and women fighting in Iraq right now, are not lost on me. Not in the slightest.
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