memebag

Unless that measurement showed widespread use of ad blockers.

Mrs. Bag and I visited Houston Pavilions today after lunch. She thought it was a dumb idea at first, and only later did I have to agree with her. It was ugly and unpleasant. The pedestrian space between the stores is too narrow. The "architecture" is just a jumble of concrete and aluminum. I couldn't find the wonderful views that others have spoken of. Blech.

Ouisie's Table is now on San Felipe. It shut down for 6 years (according to the web site). I've only been to the San Felipe location once, and it seemed way over-priced for what it is.

The House of Blues should let BB King do anything he wants. If he wants to take a dump in the middle of the restaurant on Valentine's Day they should ask him what kind of toilet paper he would like.

I don't. Sex can be about intimacy, but it doesn't have to be. Sex can also be about control. The big difference is convenience. Porn is always convenient. Why eat a Big Mac instead of a home cooked meal? Because a Big Mac is cheap and easy to get.

Yup. They had the largest White Mountain ice cream freezer I'd ever seen in the middle of the store. It was just like the one we had at home, only super-sized. They made about 6 flavors a day, and every one of them tasted exactly like real homemade ice cream because it was, just made in the store. Some of my greatest dining experiences were based on the proximity of Marini's and Udder Delight. In the 80s there was an Udder Delight in Austin on Guadalupe. It was beneath a dentist's office.

I'm wary of the term "addiction". I think it's often applied to benign, atypical behaviors just because they're atypical. I mostly blame the 12-step movement for spreading a non-medical view of addiction and treatment.

I heard his "addiction" was to internet porn, not random hot young women. Did something else come out?

Is sex addictive? Only if you do it right.

I don't read TV's posts, so I'll respond to your summation. If we can't make socialized medicine work, why can other countries do it? Is it something wrong with our ability to govern, or something about our citizens that makes them ungovernable?

I'm OK with the US providing worse health care for Sheiks and foreign millionaires in exchange for providing better health care for the majority of US citizens. That's a trade off I can live with. And yet these nations continue to train and employ doctors who provide their citizens with cheaper health care and help them live longer lives. I'm also OK with US doctors taking a pay cut to bring them in line with the rest of the world. Looks like the citizens of Germany, Spain and Denmark might benefit from that, too.

I've come to the same conclusion. When I was young I believed the free market could solve any problem. Now I see that it is great at finding local maxima, but often fails for problems with larger scope. I've also come to realize that keeping the profit motive away from the foundations of society protects them, lowering risk, which in turn fuels innovation and development. If you're constantly worrying about how much melamine is in your milk, how long your bank will remain solvent or what that bump on your nads might be, it's hard to devote your attention to producing the next must-have widget. The problem with this position is it's complicated. It's easy to say the free market solves everything, or that government control solves everything. It's much harder to say that we have to think about each issue and weigh the potential cost and benefit. Ideologues will always have an upper hand at swaying supporters because of the simplicity of their message. Most people don't want to hear that life and government are complicated.

People are flocking here from Germany, Italy, Australia and Japan? I haven't seen it. Sources? Likewise, if you have evidence that the US is draining top medical specialists from those countries with the lure of the almighty dollar, I'd love to see it.

I thought we already did a thread on this. I recommend the Frontline episode "Sick Around the World". They used to have it online, but now there's a page error. The nut is that other countries have figured out how to pay less for better care for more people. We need to steal their ideas and make the US healthier. It will lower the amount of our GDP that goes for healthcare and reduce the cost of doing business in the US. My favorites are Italy, Germany, Australia and Japan.

That seems screwy. They've got excitement when the mall opens, but they dilute it when folks visit and there are only 4 stores open.

That seems kind of screwy to open a mall with only 4 tenants, then wait several months before opening the rest. What's the logic behind that?

Yeah. It's a really good food court. It's got Doozo.

Everyone doesn't love the Gap, but I can see why many people who love new shopping malls would love the Gap. They are compelled to wander about, looking for things to buy. The Gap has that.

This might be shocking if passing oneself off as a UofH grad meant something special. It doesn't, and who cares so much about where folks went to school?

No, I don't. You don't like the name. Other folks do.

"Pretentious" is the word I would use. "Icky" works, too.

It isn't bad because it's commercial. I bought a ticket to see the Butthole Surfers in an abandoned warehouse. There was commerce. It isn't bad because it's popular. Lots of great stuff is popular. It's bad because it's fake, and it doesn't even acknowledge that. It convinces us little by little that it's as real as the real thing. It steals the real out of our lives. It's like pornography: OK in a pinch, but wouldn't you rather have sex with a real human being? Or at the very least, a real farm animal? If the music is all that matters then listen to a CD at home. You can hear a much better mix without the limitations of large hall acoustics and amplification, or the interference from other people. Or farm animals. Live performance is about more than music. It's about a real experience, not a "real" "experience". Look at this: That isn't an old building; it's new. It was built to look old. It's like the worst sort of magic trick, the kind where the magician pretends that magic is real. It was built by people who think you are an idiot.

But they're part of a wave of commerce that's replacing real things with pretend things. HoB isn't a music venue, it's a music venue themed amusement park ride. Houston has lots of music venues with genuine funk on them. Why do we need pre-fab funk?

And I think of a shopping mall. Do you object to the name "Times Square" for similar reasons? What's wrong with the area being associated with a shopping mall?

Why?