Take these chains from my heart and make me free...

The Republican running for Governor of Pennsylvania suggested that it is time to privatize the State-run liquor stores. A politician will suggest anything that will help him get elected, so we all know what this is about. Having said that, it is way past the time to remove the chains and let the independent stores do their thing.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) is trying everything imaginable to modernize the process. They introduced Sunday hours in a number of selective stores, and they introduced wine tastings in their "Specialty" stores. Believe it or not, their latest venture is allowing the public to purchase wine through a vending machine. In,all due respect, it's like putting perfume on a pig.

The most embarrassing part of the Pennsylvania story is regarding the sale of beer. One can visit a host of beer distributors, but your only choice is buying by the case. If you want a six-pack, it's no problem finding a bar that will allow you to purchase a maximum of two six-packs at a time. You will pay a ridiculous premium for their kindness. The purchase of one bottle of beer is next to impossible.

It's a joke, and everyone knows it, but the system lives on and on. It's etched in stone, and the man running for Governor knows it.

My argument is a simple one. It happens to be 2010, and and the controlled states are yesterday's news. There are two big cities in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) and on a national basis, they will never be seen as great restaurant destinations as long as the State remains in the business of selling alcohol.

And while the educated wine buyers continue to support New Jersey and Delaware, be advised that bringing a bottle of wine across State lines is illegal. I'm not certain of this, but it might be punishable by death.

The Tragedy at the Inn Continues...

"Only The Good Die Young"
....Billy Joel

The story involving the death of Chef Jim Webb will never go away. His business partner, Chef Guy Sileo, was found guilty of the murder and received a sentence of life in prison. We now learn that his sentence has been vacated and he will receive a new trial. I followed the events of this tragic story mainly because I got to know Jim Webb very well. I could see there were issues early on and I knew their business was going to have serious problems, but I had no idea that anything this horrific would occur.

It is interesting to note that I had a friend in the local police department and I called him shortly after the murder and simply asked him about the crime. He immediately told me who murdered Jim Webb and I was understandably shocked. Of
course, it's one thing to know what happened and a very different thing to find that party guilty. The murder took place in 1996 and Chef Sileo didn't go to trial until 2001, and here we go again.

The General Wayne Inn was opened in 1704 and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a Hessian soldier who was murdered in the restaurant and who still hangs out in the basement. I lived in the area and knew the previous owner (Bart Johnson) so I was familiar with all the ghost stories regarding the Inn. My familiarity with the restaurant was part of the reason that I stopped in to meet Jim Webb when he and Guy Sileo arrived in October of 1995. We met several times after that and he told me everything I had to know - in my mind, the restaurant was never going to make it.

The two chefs were the former owners of the popular American Bistro in Morton (Delaware County) and the only thing in common with the Bistro and the Inn was that both were restaurants. The Bistro was a small (second floor) BYOB while The General Wayne Inn was gigantic, very old, and needed tons of work which translates to tons of money. It was further complicated by the fact that the General Wayne Inn needed a whole new audience. Most of the devoted guests of the Inn were either deceased or well on their way. The Inn was basically Lawrence Welk - the new Inn had to be Bruce Springsteen. They needed major marketing dollars as well as all kinds of upgrades both inside and outside the restaurant. The expected crowds failed to materialize and the pressure on the owners was clearly taking its toll.

It is important to note that Jim Webb was an incredibly hard worker who constantly worked late at night and often slept in his office. Guy Sileo (or very few of us) could ever match his work ethic and that became an issue. Having said that, it was Sileo's father who helped the partners with a much needed influx of cash which played a major role in the motive for killing Jim Webb. If something happened to Jim, the insurance policy ($650,000) dictated that Guy Sileo would be the benefactor, and his father could be repaid immediately.

The thing that really bothered Chef Webb was an affair between (the married with children) Guy Sileo and a twenty year-old sous chef by the name of Felicia Moyse - a recent graduate of the Restaurant School in Philadelphia. It was possibly the main reason that Webb was ready to call it quits and walk away from this challenging restaurant endeavor.

On the morning of December 27, 1996, Chef Jim Webb was found murdered in his third floor office with a single bullet wound to the back of his head. On February 22, 2000, Felicia Moyse committed suicide. Shortly after the official sentencing, Chef Sileo suggested that a despondent Felicia Moyse murdered Jim Webb over his dissatisfaction with their affair. This is actually the basis of granting a new trial as the original judge dismissed this motion and the jury never heard this particular allegation.

I only spoke with Guy Sileo about three or four times and one of those was at the funeral. I don't know the man, and I will allow the courts to decide his fate. Jim Webb clearly ran the restaurant and I admired his talent in the kitchen and most of all his passion for trying to make the General Wayne project a success. Jim Webb was only thirty-one when he was murdered and that unto itself is a major tragedy. He also had a devoted mother and father, two brothers and a sister, a son and a daughter, a loving wife and many friends.

I still have the coffee cup he gave me during one of our meetings. It was inscribed with the following message: "The General Wayne Inn Since 1704... IT'S ALIVE". The Inn is still there, but for me personally, it's anything but ALIVE.

The Robots Are Coming...

"You gotta be pretty desperate to make it with a robot". -- Homer Simpson

I can remember the fascination of watching a robot make hamburgers at a New York restaurant show. It was amazing to watch a machine make perfect hamburgers every single time and even clean the stove after each batch. The robot worked for hours on end and never missed a beat. There were zero visits to the bathroom, no complaining and no coffee or cigarette breaks. It was fascinating and also a bit frightening at the same time.

Now I read that the Japanese have developed an electromechanical sommelier capable of identifying dozens of wines, cheeses and hors d'oeuvres. This robot can even talk (the head swivels and the mouth lights up when it speaks). It is not clear whether or not it can actually open bottle of wine, and it is yet to be determined if this sommelier can accept cash tips for services rendered. The inventors point out that all foods have a "unique fingerprint" and the robot uses that data to immediately identify precisely what it tastes.

All of this is to suggest that eventually someone will develop an electromechanical executive chef. You can visit your favorite restaurant and be certain of a perfect meal on every occasion. It's even possible that there will be celebrity-chef robots that will appear on television and do all the things that real chefs are currently doing. It will even be possible to clone these celebrity chefs as a restaurant opens additional locations.

My guess is that the chef robots will be programmed based on a particular cuisine (Italian, French, seafood, etc.). The competition will be intense and it will be interesting to see if Las Vegas beats Atlantic City in acquiring the first celebrity robot chef. The truth is that I can definitely see robots in the fast food sector, and while jobs will be lost, the basic concept will only go to improve what they are currently doing. In terms of upscale dining, forget about it.

I will allow a robot to build my automobile, and possibly wash my dishes, but I will continue to search out restaurants with real people. They might miss once in a while, but somehow it's more interesting. Maybe it's just me, but I would feel uncomfortable discussing the wine list with a robot. The swiveling head would bother me.

I'm not impressed with the Japanese sommelier thing. However, if you can teach that machine how to do sushi, we might have something to talk about.

September 11, 2001 ... It's the End of the World As We Know It

The restaurant known as Windows On the World was on the 106 and 107th floor of the North Towers. Magnificient floor-to-ceiling windows provided their guests a celestial view of some eighty-five miles. It was one of a kind, and on this day Windows On the World literally disappeared along with a host of employees listed below. They were real people just doing their jobs, and reading the names one-by-one helps to understand the enormity of this tragic day in our history.

In Honor of Lives Lost...

Stephen Adams
Sophia Buruwa Addo
Shabir Ahmed
Antonio Javier Alvarez
Telmo Alvear
Manuel O. Asitimbay
Samuel Ayala
Ivahn Luis Carpio Bautista
Veronique Nicole Bowers
Jonathan Briley
Jesus Cabezas
Gregorio Manuel Chavez
Luis Chimbo
Mohammed S. Chowdbury
Jeffrey Coale
Jaime Concepcion
Annette Andrea Dataram
Nancy Diaz
Luke A. Dudek
Doris Eng
Sadie Ettz
Henry Fernandez
Lucille V. Francis
Enrique Antonio Gomez
Jose B. Gomez
Wilder A. Gomez
Tambi Gonzalez
Norberto Hernandez
Ysidro-Hidalgo-Tejada
Clara Hinds
Heather Lo
John Holland
Francois Jean-Pierre
Eliezer Jiminez Jr.
Howard L. Kane
Eugene Kniazev
Abdoulaye Kone
Victor Kwarkye
Alan Lafranco
Jeffrey Latouche
Yang-der Lee
Orasri Liangthanasarn
Jay Magazine
Charles J. Mauro
Manuel Emilio Mejia
Antonia Melendez
Nana Akwasi Minkah
Martin Morales
Leonel Morocho
Blanca Morocho
Carlos Mario Munoz
Jerome Nedd
Juan Nieves Jr.
Jose R. Nunez
Christine Anne Olender
Isidro Ottenwalder
Jesus Ovalles
Leobardo Lopez Pascual
Manuel Patrocino
Victor Paz-Gutierrez
Jose D. Pena
Alejo Perez
John F. Puckett
Moises N. Rivas
David B. Rodriguez-Vargas
Gilbert Ruiz
Juan Salas
Jackie Sayegh
Khamladai K. (Khami) Singh
Roshan (Sean) Singh
Abdoul Karim Treore
Jupiter Yambem

This one is for Bonnie and it's very personal....

I knew Bonnie from high school and I always considered her someone who was very special. We lost touch, which is to be expected, and our lives went in very different directions. We're going back to the 1960's and the very next time I heard about Bonnie was shortly after the events of 9/11. Bonnie was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center and after all these years, it continues to bother me.

The Bonnie I knew was just a young, great-looking girl with a great personality. For whatever reason, every time I think or hear about 9/11, I think about her. Over the years we lost a lot of people from the high school days and that's just the way it goes, but her death was unacceptable, and it's something that will be with me for the rest of my life. It should never have happened.

The soon to be built mosque near Ground Zero has succeeded in bringing back the horrible memories of September 11, 2001. I absolutely understand the dynamics of messing with the freedom of religion thing, so forgive me when I tell you that I'm not in the mood to think about a mosque sitting anywhere near Ground Zero, especially so close to yet another September 11th. The issue concerning the mosque is one for another time, but some 3000 people died that day and my friend was one of them.

I did learn that she worked on the 93rd floor of the north tower known as One World Trade Center. The tower was hit by American Flight 11 after hijackers took control of the plane. I am told that she survived the impact of the plane and even called her husband on her cell phone right before the collapse of the building. She had two children (who are now adults) and I now discover that her husband later died.

The entire thing is so tragic and all I can really remember are those innocent high school days when we had no clue what was in store for us. If I could speak with her children today, I would tell them that their mother was very special, but I'm sure they know that already.

Lauren

Section Y
Row 17
Seats 5 & 6

By Lauren Hart


From the day I was born, this was the place where so many of the Hart family memories were created. A young mom took her three babies, one by one, to see their first hockey game. We saw the first Stanley Cup come to Philadelphia. There were victories, defeats, and a real loss. The Russian Army team took on the Flyers while the Cold War was actually happening. Brother and sister bonded. Mother and daughter went through the dreaded teens. A son saw his dad hold the coolest job on earth, and friendships were made. Mischievous kids ran through the concourse, hid under the bleachers, and worked on sneaking past the security guards. We watched in awe as our heroes walked like giants through the hallways underneath the building. Nervous boyfriends tried to impress, and a young aspiring singer longed to get a chance to sing on that ice. Proud kids watched from afar as their father grew into a legend and Dad reigned as a king from the press box. Fifty nights a year we cheered our team on as they took the ice, and more importantly, our family grew, connected and learned to dream.

How many times did we cross that bridge from our home in South Jersey and headed to “THE” building? I walked proudly through the parking lot next to my father. I took my seat and watched him make the climb to the press box all the way at the top of the Spectrum. On his way up, the regulars stopped him to talk, or they just cheered him as he made his way. Somewhere in that building, he was always busy holding court.

In between games I saw my first concert (Billy Joel). I thought about running away with the circus and becoming a trapeze artist. I put on my blue costume at the annual Flyers Christmas Skate party with visions of Dorothy Hamill in my head. I hung out with Cindy Lauper and Captain Lou Albana (OK, now who remembers that!) and I got to sing before a Tori Amos concert.

And…..one day I got the chance to sing the Anthem with knees knocking and breathless in the zamboni tunnel while Wayne Gretsky walked by. I certainly never would have guessed what this song and the relationship with this team would eventually become, and I would never have imagined what a building could become to mean to a human being.

I’m sure many other fans have shared these exact same memories. For our family, they were life changing. Time has a way of turning regular moments into legend. Somehow they became larger than life itself. Over the years, my Spectrum memories have been folded and tucked away safely into my world.

On October 1st, the Flyers played their last official game in the building. I was preparing for my final God Bless America alongside the memory of Kate Smith. I heard my father’s voice ringing out: “Good Night, Good Hockey”. All at once I felt the emotion of a lifetime. I wasn’t ready to feel breathless that way again, but I did. The reality of the moment suddenly occurred to me. I was letting go of something very special, and I wasn’t sure the words and the song would find their way. Fortunately it worked, and I felt extremely proud. I felt so thankful that I was able to be the one standing there after all this time.

Adrienne

The Gladiator was one interesting movie because it was based on events that were very real. People actually murdered each other to the delight of stadiums filled with adoring fans. I'm sure it was far more interesting to watch the lions maul the Christians, but give me a beautiful day; a couple of hot dogs and several beers, I have to believe the Gladiators was as good as it gets.

I was thinking about the Gladiators when I heard the news of a Kickboxer killed after a severe blow to the head in Orlando, Florida. This time it was a thirty-four year-old lady by the name of Adrienne Simmons who took the shot during the hotly contested third round of her battle. Sanctioned by the American Kickboxing Association, it was a Muay Thai tournament which is a style that incorporates punches, kicks, elbows, and knees. It's hardly surprising that Muay Thai is characterized as "frighteningly violent".

This is a very tragic story, but please explain to me what Ms. Simmons was thinking about to allow such a thing to happen in the first place (don't bother, I already know the answer).

Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to see women fighting each other. I don't want to see women playing "professional football" (and I might add "professional basketball"). Having said that, I actually think ice-hockey and volleyball are perfectly acceptable.

Bad things can happen when the objective of a sport is to knock-out your opponent. Even the great Mohammad Ali watched his daughter enter the ring knowing what boxing
did to her father. When a sporting event ends in a death (and let's forget about NASCAR which to me is highly forgettable) we are talking about the modern version of the gladiators.

Professional wrestling might be the worse thing that ever happened to the real world of sports, but at least these "gladiators" are faking it. The folks that get permanently injured are far from faking it.

A final thought on the subject... If you find yourself in line purchasing tickets to an event where women are literally trying to kill each other, you have some issues that should be addressed on a rather immediate basis.

Thirty-four is too young to die, and for who and for what? It makes absolutely no sense!

How Many Big-Macs Will it Take to know Too many People Have Died?

One of the unfortunate consequences of the American obesity problem is that too much information is making the problem more confusing than it needs to be. Study after study with all the medical nonsense has helped to cloud the essence of this issue. There is so much information that we are literally boring the public to death.

So much of this information is too ridiculous to believe. Of course, this statement calls for an example, so how about one that just crossed my desk today...

Chocolate Milk Restores Muscle (as seen The Hartford Courant (Conn.) (10/11)

"Chocolate milk can restore muscles following a workout, according to research sponsored by the National Dairy Council and the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board. For the study, male runners drank either chocolate milk or carb-only drinks after exercise, and chocolate milk was shown to be better at rebuilding muscle".

This was sponsored by the National Dairy Council, and of course, the conclusion is obvious - chocolate milk is clearly the one drink that is good for you, especially if you happen to be a male runner.

There are thousands of these things and at the end of the day (or perhaps the end of your life) you are totally confused and in despair. You sit down and eat an entire cheesecake (which also will help you restore your muscles following a workout).

My remedy is the following. Do not read any of this. If one of these incredible studies appears on your television screen, immediately switch the channel. If a friend, or even an acquaintance starts talking to you about the latest study, walk away and do not return.

Trust me when I tell you the following:

If we outlawed Soda, Fast Foods, and Sugar, obesity in America would cease to be a problem. We won't outlaw tobacco, so we are not about to outlaw the likes of soda, fast foods, and sugar.

Allow me to put it another way... AVOID Soda and Fast Foods (you may even have small amounts of sugar) and you and your children will not have to be concerned with the life-threatening thing called obesity.

End of Story.