How cool is it that you can make a restaurant reservation online? And you can see the menu online. And if you’re ordering out, you can place your order online, and even set the time when you want to come pick it up. It’s easy, painless and convenient. No waiting for someone to answer the phone, or finding out that someone misheard and screwed up the order. It’s wonderful. So why then should restaurants have phones anymore?

Gregory Ryan, 39, owns and operates two restaurants in California’s Santa Barbara County: Bell’s and Bar Le Côte. Neither of the restaurants has a phone line, a decision Mr. Ryan said was made because they have small teams. People reach Mr. Ryan and the restaurants through email and Instagram direct messages, which he said “are a good way to be able to connect and speak with people in very, very quick ways.” After being in the restaurant business for 15 years, Mr. Ryan said about 80 percent of phone calls are “typically a waste of time.” Continue reading →

By its own terms, the Equal Rights Amendment expired in 1982, after Congress extended its own initial expiration date. You remember the ERA, the progressive constitutional amendment of 1972?

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

It seems too obvious to deny, even if somewhat duplicative of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Rights Clause. But then, women were still subject to sex discrimination back then, with those seeking to break out of traditional gender roles at war over who had to go the market for orange juice. Continue reading →

It’s one thing for a person to seek redress to a governmental body, which is a right protected by the Constitution. But then, does the protester get to disrupt the body to the point where it cannot conduct its business? This was the issue facing City of National City, California (great name, right?), but before you leap off the edge, it could happen elsewhere, like Washington.

Tasha Williamson, and others, decided to engage in a protest at a City Council meeting. Continue reading →

Happy Friday! Here are a few short jokes for your consideration, two of which I will make no bones about being completely awful.

Boutrous-Boutrous Ghali and Yo-Yo Ma go out to dinner. They ask the waiter, “How is the mahi-mahi?” “So-so.” “Then we’ll have the cous-cous.”

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I’m a huge fan of Neil Young’s music, whether CSNY or solo. There are lyrics that pop into my head. The melodies can move me. More than anything else, the songs bring me back to happy, simpler times. And there was a lot about his protest music that rang true to me, at least at the time.

I’ve never seen the Joe Rogan Experience, and don’t quite understand why a comedian and former host of a show where people ate bugs is qualified to offer much by way of insightful commentary. A lot of other people, apparently, like the show. Continue reading →

I remember when candidate Trump, from the debate stage, announced he would appoint a Supreme Court justice who would overrule Roe v. Wade, as candidate Clinton announced she would appoint one who would uphold abortion. Both made me cringe. It’s now normal for presidential candidates to “sell” Supreme Court seats to voters as an enticement. Even Reagan did it announcing he would nominate a woman, who turned out to be Sandra Day O’Connor.

To be fair, it’s not as if seats haven’t been deemed “owned” by a demographic. The great Thurgood Marshall’s seat was reserved for a black justice, and so Clarence Thomas, whose qualifications were in serious doubt, got the nod. Of course, the only thing in common between Justice Marshall and Justice Thomas is their skin color, dispelling the myth that melanin is all it takes. Continue reading →

In the latest version of “Let’s Come Up With A Stupid Law,” Florida’s entry is the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

A Florida House committee on Thursday passed a bill seeking to ban discussions of sexuality and gender identity in school classrooms, which LGBTQ+ advocates say will effectively “erase” LGBTQ+ history, culture, and students.

The Parental Rights in Education bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, passed Thursday in the House Education and Employment Committee largely along party lines.

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It’s not that Facebook forced its users to declare their sex, but that if they chose to do so, they had an option.

Previously, users had to identify themselves as male or female. They were also given the option of not answering or keeping their gender private.

I can hear the cries of “what about me” coming from transgender people, which is curious given that the argument is that a male transgender person is male, so it wouldn’t seem to create any conflict to pick a sex. And if they didn’t like the choices, they weren’t forced to make one. Fair enough? Not anymore. Continue reading →

Biden called some guy named Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch.” It was inappropriate and impetuous, and he quickly apologized for his intemperate remark. But what about the Beatles?

Not so many years ago I would park my then-new car outside the front door of coffee shops where I was playing guitar and singing on Long Island, hold up the keys and announce, “If you can stump me on the Fabs, I’ll give you my wheels.” Or if I happened to have a hundred dollar bill, I’d pin it to the wall behind me and offer it to anyone who could name a Beatles song I couldn’t produce in three seconds.

But the game was rigged — you couldn’t beat the house.

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There are law-abiding gun owners. There are shooters. There is a constitutional amendment, for better or worse, that protects the fundamental right of a citizen to possess a gun. What’s a former police captain turned mayor to do?

In a solemn speech just three days after a police officer was killed in Manhattan, Mr. Adams called for immediate changes to add police officers to city streets to remove guns, and for help from the courts and state lawmakers in the months ahead.

“We will not surrender our city to the violent few,” Mr. Adams said.

Continue reading →