Death to the pizza man!

Here's a little something that's been making the rounds.

Seen this pop up a few times on the fringes of my social media streams.  This is supposedly a quote from the head guy of Papa John's pizza.  I say 'supposedly' because despite my requesting proof that he actually said this no one has been able to provide any.  No one's posted a video clip or a link to a reliable source.  So, we have a "quote" attributed to a businessman with no proof whatsoever, but its attached to one of those demotivational posters, so it must be legit, right?

I'm doubting anyone actually said this because "excessive profits" is a term only used by pinheads who don't like successful people.  These folks are out there, obviously.  They labor their lives under the assumption that if someone is successful then they must have done something horrible to be so.  Its pretty much jealousy.  Its the sort of simple-mindedness that leads to people making such images an posting them in the internet for the like-minded dimwits to "like", "plus", retweet, and share.

Of course the image fails under any sort of objectionable scrutiny.  Replace the term "excessive profits" with " success".  A business owner is under no obligation to share profits with workers.  They took the risk.  They paid the wages.  They rear the rewards.  They can use those profits to expand their business and create new jobs.  They can offer raises and/or bonuses to staff.  They can keep the money and do things like buy beach houses which need maintenance and keep certain hammer-swinging, karate-teaching, comic-drawing goons gainfully employed and letting them pay their mortgages.  So, no, trickle down economics is not debunked in any way shape of form by this.

But the jealous folks are still going to try to make their point.  Frankly, it just make me want to get a pizza.  But a recent post led to personal attacks against the Papa John's fella and it seems like the biggest beef the rabble can come up with is that the guy doesn't like the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare).  Can't say as I blame him as most business owners don't think to kindly of the Government telling them what sort of benefits they better provide and they had better be ready to pay through the nose for it.  Then again, I doubt the people who are railing against pizza guy have ever had to make a payroll.

But here's where it got ridiculous and I had to copy this gem.

This bastard admitted he would rather fire people than give them health care by reducing his profit margin or requesting a few cents more per pizza.   
If this was the French Revolution people would be oiling guillotines over statements like that. 

So the answer to business practices that we don't like is decapitation?  And the pizza guy is the bastard here?

First up, the guy who made the comment seems to have no idea what the French Revolution was actually about.  Here's a summary.

Did you watch all three parts?

Done yet?

Cool.

So, the guy who made the comment somehow thinks that a person not charging more for food would be at risk of getting his head chopped off during the french Revolution in which the biggest problems of the time were people starving and national debt?  Really?  Because it seemed like a lot of problems were caused the a government not being able to get its crap together, over-reaching horribly, and people being so desperate to eat that they lashed out.

Quick note: revolutions tend to happen when people can't eat.  Keep that in mind the next time you read a news story about how much the government spends on food stamps.

But let's circles this all back together.

We have people who think they are smart due to them talking in too many echo chambers.  They have their romantic ideal about how things should work and instead of espousing why their ideas are good they tear down everyone who doesn't agree with them.  They talk of intelligence while taking leave of their reason.  The speak of compassion while wishing for horrible things to happen to those they don't like.  Fortunately, while they think they are a majority, they really aren't.

So, the lesson for today is simple: work hard and smart.  Don't be afraid of being a success.  There will always be those who don't like you because you succeed where they do not.  You can't let them stop you from achieving your dreams.

Be good.

And eat more pizza.

Pikachu Pinata Pizza Protest!

It's Wednesday, March 2, 2011, my Squirtle just fainted, and this is The Side. The week seems to be flying by, but when you're working hard it weeks tend to do that.

I pissed someone off pretty good the other day. She was crowing on about the Wisconsin protesters and how the Governor must be desperate if he's using such a lame excuse as them really needing to clean the capitol building to try to get them to go home. She was pretty smug when relating how the protesters had countered this ploy with their response of "We'll clean it ourselves!" That smugness turned to bile when I piped up with "What? A union worker actually doing work? No way!"

Of course it was hard for her to spew that bile my way with about five other people laughing at that comment. Expect them to demand pay and benefits for cleaning the place.

GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!

A recent TV ad and Joe's latest entry has me thinking about Pokémon. I like Pokémon. It used to be just a weird cartoon that would come on before I went to work. It was neat, and the kind of thing I'd really be into if I was a kid. I even found a Japanese Pikachu t-shirt which I wore, because the cartoon had actually given people seizures in Japan. That's hardcore! But then the kiddies picked up on it, the fad exploded, and it became pretty annoying. But I still checked out the cartoon from time to time. The collectible card game baffled me a bit. I never really glommed the "collecting" aspect of it. Had a younger cousin who had a bunch of the cards but no clue whatsoever how to play the game.

Onward the thing went. Sequels to the game were released. There was new varmints to catch and battle. The gameplay didn't change much over the years, but it was a winning formula, so there wasn't much tweaking needed.

Joe touched on something interesting. The tagline was always "Gotta catch 'em all" and when there were 151 that was an achievable goal. It would take a while, but it was doable. You had to probably buy different games, or have a buddy you were willing trade the virtual varmints with, but if you were determined you could pull it off. But now its gone on to a whole new level.

Gamestop is doing a promotion this week in which if you go in with your Nintendo DS and one for the DS Pokémon games then you could get a special Pokémon, Celebi. I'm a bit torn on this. Part of me thinks that getting these little critters shouldn't involved stuff like this, but part of me does think its a pretty novel marketing gimmick.

So I ventured to a local Gamestop, minus the family's pink girlie DS, to inquire a bit about this. It was at this point I encountered Pokémon Pete. Pokémon Pete knows a shitload about Pokémon. So I asked about this here Celebi. I asked if it was possible to capture this Pokémon within the game without coming into a Gamestop. Nope, its a Gamestop exclusive.


This kinda reminds me about a promotion they did with Yu-Gi-Oh in which certain cards were included with some of the video game releases. The thing is one of the cards was "Harpie's Feather Duster", and there are leagues and tournaments which have significant prizes, and that card could be a serious game changer in a competitive deck. This led players to buy the video game only to get the card, and them promptly return the game.

So I did some research into Celebi, and he's not really much of a beast. He's got some useful moves, but he's not going to stomp all over an opponent's line up. So, its mainly a collector's item. Fine and well.

But I questioned Pete further. See, if you get Celebi and then buy one of the new Pokémon games coming out. You can beat that game, trade Celebi to it and that unlocks a special quest in which you can possibly get one of that game's "Legendary" Pokémon. Legendary in the Poké-vernacular translates into "Cool looking, hard as fuck to find, harder to catch, and typically not the best in a battle line up". However, it has to a Celebi from this event, and not a Celebi you got from somewhere else. But wait, if Celebi was Gamestop exclusive release where else could a player have gotten one?

Pete told me he knew that there had been an event in which you could get Celebi if you went to the Pokémon Store in Times Square up in New York.

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT! SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

A POKEMON STORE? IN TIMES SQUARE?

Now, its not there anymore, its a Nintendo Store now, BUT STILL!

Part of me wonder if there was some kid back in the day in the middle of West Bumbleton, Arkansas who somehow talked his folks on taking him on a PokéPilgrimage to the Big Apple. Got see the Statue of Liberty? The Empire State Building? A Broadway show? Fuck that shit! I gotta catch 'em all!

Thus ended my conversation with Pokémon Pete. And I now know more about the world of Pokémon than I ever wanted or needed to know.

NOM NOM NOM!!!

I mentioned before that Domino's has redone their pizza recipe and that its pretty tasty. To help promote this they were doing a deal in which if you got two or more medium two topping pizzas they were only $5.99. Now they've upped that deal to where you can get a large two topping pizza for $5.99 with no minimum.

Now this is a company that really wants my business. Domino's isn't even my favorite pizza place. Sure, its good eatin', but there's other places I prefer. However when they're selling large pizzas for near the same price as I could buy frozen ones at the store and the economy being what it is, I'd be a moron to buy my pizza's anywhere else.

We got pizza last Friday night, and we've still got enough left over for a couple days.

MUSIC!!!

Educational moment: if you play a mean accordion, beware Mexican women driving hearses.



Thanks to Kat for the link to the video. That's the whole Pokéball of wax for this go around. See y'all Friday.

Who loves pizza?

I just got done watching a video on YouTube about arguing on the internet. I'm not going to post it up here, because its kind of long. Now, I recently subscribed to this guy because he does little news stories about entertainment stuff I care about. This video was a bit different from his others, but obviously he was caught up in things and having quite a time with the situation and felt like sharing. I came close to clicking away from the video a few times, but everytime I got read to go for my mouse he'd say something that kept me hanging in just a little bit longer.

And then came the grand finale. I really wasn't going to post about this, but when I went to check my blog here (new follower, yay and welcome) there was an ad for good ol Papa John's in my adsense space. Seemed like fate to me. For those of you who haven't tried ordering pizza online, some of the sites are really cool. One of them even lets you know when your pizza is being prepared and when it's going into the oven and everything. Pretty neat.

So Kent, if you need to order more pizza, feel free to click that ad in my blog here. I'll get a whole penny. One day.

And for the dope who actually posted his home address online with the challenge for Kent to go to that house to fight him: hope you're hungry.

Me nom nom pizza

Like the majority of right minded thinking folks, I like pizza. I keep it simple usually. Give me a regular cheese pizza and I'm happy. I usually go Hawaiian style with ham and pineapple. I'm also a big fan of Papa John's as far as the major pizza chains go. Sure there's some local places like Doughboy's, Kogan's and Delvecchio's that are great, but none of them deliver to my house. I'm OK with most of the chain places. Although if i eat too much Pizza Hut I don't feel so hot later. I usually go for their pasta which is really good.

Watching my good friend and adviser TV la week or two ago I saw an ad for Dominio's which showed the executives watching footage from taste tests and the like. Dominio's kind of gets a bad rap, and the complaints I hear from people about them are exactly the same as the one that were in the ad. I don't have a problem with Dominio's. That was where I'd grab a pizza from if i was picking up one for the family after school. No one delivers out to the old neighborhood. However, Papa John's made a tastier pizza and had those great dipping sauces so when they hit town I converted.

In the ad the executives gave their responses to the feedback they got. No excuses. No spin. No crap. They said it hurt to hear that about their product. That's good, it means they give a damn. Then they said they were going to do something about it. The big differences were going to be spicing up the sauce a big and adding a butter garlic bit to the crust. They also were offering a special on two, two-topping pizzas and a money back offer.

Last night was time to see what was up. I called the Dominio's around the corner and told the fella I was talking to that I had seen the ad. He said the changes were indeed already in effect, the deal being offered was being offered at that branch and that the new pizzas were "Goooood". He sounded pretty sincere about that last bit. It always helps in selling your product if you actually like your product.

The food arrived, the village rejoiced as we were quite hungry. We got a sausage and peperoni pizza as well as a ham and pineapple. The sauce did indeed have a bit more kick to it. I have a bit of a cold but even I could tell. The Missus (whose sense of taste remains intact as she isn't sick) was very impressed with the sauce. What got me was crust. Very flavorful, and very tasty. That was a big win for me. It had me eager to finish the main part of pizza just to get to the crust.

There you have it. The results of what happens when a company takes an honest look at constructive criticism and really cares about its product. Food is like any art, you don't get your best criticism from people who like you. I might just be converting back to Dominio's from here on out. And while you all chew on this information, I'll be chewing on some leftovers.