High Steaks- Missouri Lawmaker Calls for Pork Steak Rebellion After EPA Mulls Regulations For BBQ Grills

Kicking off this seasons #PorkSteakRebellion pic.twitter.com/pSFKYohPBf

— Brian Stahlheber (@bstahlheber) March 22, 2015

Not content with restricting what kind of woodstoves New Englanders can have in their homes, the EPA is setting their sights on what kind of outdoor grills that people can use during cookouts.

The agency awarded a $15,000 grant to the University of California-Riverside to look into technology for grills that is intended to "reduce air pollution as well as health hazards in Southern California, with potential for global application". This has led to some concerns that the EPA will introduce further restrictions on newly manufactured propane grills.

One Missouri state lawmaker has taken exception to the EPA's maneuvering and has called for a campaign of defiance and civil disobedience dubbed the 'Pork Steak Rebellion' to preemptively thwart any moves by the agency.

It's a sentiment shared by State Senator Eric Schmitt.

Although this is not a new law the agency pushing to get on the books, Senator Schmitt isn't taking any chances.

He introduced a resolution discouraging any regulations on the tradition of backyard barbecuing. The lawmaker has a lot of support from people who couldn't agree more.

Schmitt has also taken his campaign to twitter--#porksteakrebellion--encouraging people to barbeque in their backyards.

Meanwhile, in Texas, Austin's city council is mulling an ordinance that would require BBQ joints or mobile food vendors within 150 feet of a residence to install restaurant grade scrubbers. Some businesses have stated they would have to move of shut down altogether due to the high cost of compliance.

Several council members believe the smoke being emitted from these businesses are having an adverse affect on the health and quality of life of the people who live nearby. Renteria says he’s fielded calls from concerned constituents.

“Saying that if this keeps on, they were just going to have to sell their house and move out,” said Renteria. “The whole resolution is not to try and run anyone out of business it’s just we all want to be good neighbors.”

This requirement does not apply to locations that burn supplemental wood chips and chunks in stove-top box smokers using gas-powered stoves or grills.

“We would have to leave town most likely, or just close up because it’s just not an option to put scrubbers in for eight smoke stacks,” explained Aaron Franklin, founder of the popular Franklin BBQ on East 11th Street.

Franklin says a solution is out there but they just have to find one so Austinites can enjoy BBQ without living in smoke.

“This BBQ thing creates a ton of revenue here in town,” said Franklin, who understands that something needs to be done to help neighbors cope with the smoke, but he feels that scrubbers are not the answer.

As recently as last year, the Texas state environmental agency- the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality- had received complaints about smoke had visited multiple BBQ joints in Austin, but in those instances the TCEQ found no violations.

Chick Fil A Founder S Cathy Truett Passes Away

Georgia restaurateur and philanthropist S Truett Cathy passed away from natural causes in the early morning hours on Monday at the age of 93. Final services were held on Wednesday at the First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, GA.

A devout Southern Baptist, Samuel Truett Cathy was born in central Georgia in 1921 and after attending high school in Atlanta, GA, served in the Army during WWII. After the war, Samuel returned home to the Peach state and along with his brother Ben, opened up a restaurant in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville that specialized in chicken sandwiches. The Hapeville, GA restaurant was actually called the Dwarf grill because of its small size.

In the early 1960s, Samuel discovered a fryer that could prepare the chicken for his sandwiches in about the same time it took for many burger joints to prepare a burger. Running with that concept, Cathy opened the first Chick Fil A in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall in 1967. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Chick Fil A expanded to a number of food courts throughout the southeastern USA. However, the first free-standing Chick Fil A restaurant wasn't opened until 1986. As of 2012, Chick Fil A has roughly 1000 locations across the USA, including airports, hospitals, sports venues and universities.

Besides the restaurant business, S Truett Cathy was also a Sunday school teacher for nearly 50 years. Samuel sought to incorporate many of his Baptist beliefs within Chick Fil A's corporate culture- most notably closing the restaurant on Sundays so that employees and management could spent time with family or go to church.

In 2001, Samuel stepped down and his son Daniel T Cathy took over day to day operations as CEO of Chick Fil A- although his father remained on the board of directors until late 2013. Like his father, Daniel was also a devout Baptist and said in a 2012 interview that he was against same-sex marriage. The fairly innocuous and bland statements brought down the wrath of the left and LGBT activists, accusing the restaurant of discriminating against gay and lesbian employees or customers. Seeking to capitalize on the controversy, the mayors of Chicago, Boston and San Francisco publicly stated that Chick Fil A would not be welcome in their cities [Chicago had two Chick Fil A locations before the 2012 controversy while there were no Chick Fil A locations in Boston or San Francisco proper; just the suburbs- NANESB!]. Calls for a boycott were countered with a 'buycott' from evangelicals and conservatives, bringing attention to a previously nondescript fast-food chain and breaking all single-day sales records.

The chicken-centric restaurant's slogan is "We didn't invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich" and their ad campaign in recent years features a pair of Holstein cows urging people to 'Eat Mor Chikin' while displaying misspelled signs. Most notably for sports buffs is that the restaurant secured sponsorship and the naming rights to the Peach Bowl in the 1990s.

Samuel Truett Cathy also wrote a number of motivational and how-to books, such as Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People; How Did You Do It, Truett? and It's Better to Build Boys Than Mend Men explaining some of his business practices or how to raise a family. In 1984, Cathy also founded the WinShape foundation which was meant to foster good ethics and success in business, marriage, academics and marriage.

In addition to the Chick Fil A Franchise, Cathy started up a number of other Atlanta-area eateries in recent years with an emphasis on causal dining in recent years, including Truett's Grill, Truett's Pizza Cafe as well as the original Dwarf House.

Today's Train of Thought- Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ocotber 6th, 2013

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the southwest corner of Old Dominion and gives us a pretty good glimpse of the supply chain for some of those yummy snacks we seem to enjoy.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Mike Pierry Jr caught Norfolk Southern B32-8 #3550 in charge of NS local V19 on July 23, 2013. The burly GE has a cut of tank cars loaded with vegetable oil for the Shearer's Foods potato chip facility in Bristol, VA.

While Virginia is no Idaho or Maine, it does grow its own potato crop, some of which was just brought in by the Freightliner seen in the foreground. According to the photographer, once the truck pulls out, a batch of hydraulic rams will lift the trailer and discharge to potatoes. Once inside, they will be cleaned, skinned, sliced and united with the contents of the tanks cars on the Norfolk Southern train.

One Man's Trash Fish Is Another Man's Dinner- Fishermen and Restaurants Look to Fish Once Considered Undesirable

A face only a mother could love- and even then, that's kinda iffy. Monkfish- also known as known as goosefish- apparently tastes better than it looks.-Photo courtesy of Katrinshine

With new regulations set to cripple New England's traditional commercial fishing industry, an unlikely group of fishermen, environmentalists and restaurateurs are attempting to come up with new concepts to keep fishermen working and seafood on the menu as limits are placed on cod and haddock.

One such solution is the marketing of 'trash' fish- fish that was once considered a nuisance and undesirable by fishermen- to consumers throughout the east coast.

Most people have only ever seen a scorpion fish in an aquarium. Unless they dine at Carolina Crossroads Restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., where they’ll find the spiny, venomous creature on the menu.

It’s called trash fish dining, and it’s catching on with chefs around the country searching for fresh ways to fill their menus with sustainable — and delicious — seafood.

“The fishermen would be like, ‘This is all trash, junk,’ but I said, ‘I’ll pay fair price for it if you’ll bring it back to the dock,’” says James Clark, the restaurant’s executive chef. “Eat some butter-poached scorpion fish and you’ll swear it’s lobster.”

Chefs such as Clark go beyond the usual recommendation to eat small, lower-food-chain fish like sardines, and instead delve full force into little-known local catches that many anglers regard as nuisance or “trash” fish. Clark’s menu also offers triggerfish, drum, white grunt and other obscure species.

Meanwhile, New Haven, Conn., sushi restaurant Miya’s features invasive species such as shore crabs and moon snails. At San Francisco’s Incanto, chef Chris Cosentino serves sea slug, tuna spines and roasted fish heads. And at Arrows restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine, award-winning chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier built a “Trash Fish Dinner” around whiting, mackerel and other less desirable species.

Besides introducing the public to lesser-known fish, these top chefs also are promoting a broader concept of how to eat sustainably from the ocean, a concept that conservation experts say could help secure the world’s seafood supply. Just three fish — shrimp, canned tuna and salmon — account for more than half of all U.S. seafood consumption, according to the trade association the National Fisheries Institute.

The 'trash fish' offerings have proven popular with a number of customers, although there is some re-branding involved. For instance, slimehead becomes orange roughy or the Atlantic goosefish becomes monkfish to make it sound more palatable to potential consumers.

Invasive species like the Asian Carp along the Mississippi River are getting similar treatment. Although there isn't much market for the carp in the Midwest, the state of Illinois signed into a contract with China to sell 30 million pounds of carp the Chinese back in 2010. Although there is carp available in China, the rivers there are notoriously polluted. The carp from the Illinois and Missisiippi Rivers, however, are marketed as fresh and clean offerings for upscale Chinese restaurants

Doing the Jobs that Most Italians Won't Do- Italy Facing Shortage of Pizzamakers

Wow- this is kind of depressing.

Despite a prolonged recession and high unemployment, Italy is facing a shortage of pizzaioili- pizza makers who knead dough and stoke fires in the ovens that cook the iconic Italian dish. The shortage of workers has led to a number of immigrants in Italy to take up work as pizzaioili, with some of them even opening up their own pizzrieas. Many Italians holding out hope for cushy office work or secure public sector jobs and consider the work too demanding for the modest wages it pays.

Italians may be reluctant to get their hands dirty by stoking ovens and kneading dough, but foreign immigrants have no such qualms and are now filling the gap, producing an increasing share of the three billion pizzas that Italians eat each year.

Egyptians have shown themselves to be particularly adept at mastering the art of the perfect pizza and now run many of the pizza restaurants and hole-in-the-wall takeaways in big cities like Rome, Milan and Turin.

"I would say about 80 per cent of Egyptians who come to work in Italy end up as pizza makers," Amadeo Al-Wikel, who emigrated from Cairo to Rome 12 years ago and now runs his own pizzeria on a street corner near Rome's Trevi Fountain, told The Daily Telegraph.

"We are good at it because we are prepared to work hard. Italians, in contrast, want a nice comfortable office job where they can work six hours a day, five days a week, in air-conditioning. They're not prepared to work 10, 12 hours a day." Alessandro Rossi, who runs another pizzeria in Rome, is also surprised that Italians refuse to take up an occupation that is part of their cultural DNA, especially as unemployment among young people has reached 35 per cent.

"The Italian mindset is that being a pizza-maker is humiliating, it is a manual labour job," he said. "Young Italians want to own 40,000 euro cars and wear nice clothes but they are not prepared to work for it. So the gap is being filled by the Egyptians, the Filipinos and the Arabs."

They now play a key role in many of Italy's 25,000 pizzerias, with around 100 Egyptians training as pizzaioli every year. "The Egyptians are supplanting Italians, it's true," he said.

Although pizza pies aren't as culturally ingrained in the USA as they are in Italy, traditional pizzamaking in most of the non-chain restaurants has been handled by staff from Brazil, Mexico, Greece or Colombia. In the northeast, some family-run pizzareias are run by first or second generation immigrants from Greece or the Middle East.

[Hat tip- Sea of Syrah]

Nuts! Truckload of Nutella Stolen in Germany

Why stop at maple syrup? Thieves in the central German town of Bad Hersfeld made off with more than five tons of Nutella earlier this week. The popular chocolate-hazelnut spread was stolen from a tractor-trailer on Monday by an unknown number of thieves.

Police said Monday an unknown number of culprits made off with 5 metric tons (5.5 tons) of "Nutella" chocolate-hazelnut spread from a parked trailer in the central German town of Bad Hersfeld over the weekend.

The gooey loot is worth an estimated 16,000 euros ($20,710).

Officials declined to speculate whether this was a well-orchestrated theft or simple joyriding, although a truckload of energy drinks was stolen from a truck in the same town in the last month.

UPDATE- 4/11 - Seemingly determined to prove that Nutella isn't the only yummy contraband sought after by cargo thieves, the Florida Highway Patrol arrested a man who is accused of stealing a truck hauling $75,000 worth of Campbell's Soup from a central Florida truckstop that was destined for a Publix supermarket distribution facility.

That's right- the soup flew the coop and the split pea and ham was on the lam. The fact that the big rig was equipped with GPS enabled officers to track down the purloined broth with relative ease after following it for about 30 miles.

With food prices on the rise internationally, food being shipped to market is becoming as equally popular as electronics, consumer goods and pharmaceuticals but it can be harder to trace. Worldwide cargo theft is becoming a widespread problem [and also the premise for the reality show Big Rig Bounty Hunters on the History Channel- NANESB!]. Even before the July 2012 theft of C$20 million worth of maple syrup at a Quebec warehouse launched a thousand groan-worthy, breakfast-centered puns, cargo theft was on the increase in Canada's Maritime provinces, with the trailers or loads eventually resurfacing in Montreal.

On the US side of the border, the FBI suspects Armenian gangs based in southern California of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of meat and dairy products by showing up at warehouses throughout the west with fake manifests and affixing the names of other trucking companies to their vehicles. Aside from electronics, cigarettes or pharmaceuticals, other targets for cargo thieves and organized crime throughout the USA apparently include tomatoes, Alaskan King Crab and walnuts.

Sticky Situation Update- Stolen Maple Syrup Reportedly Surfaces in Quebec, New Brunswick

Barrels of maple syrup at the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers warehouse in Laurierville, Quebec. Yves Charlebois- QMI photo

It was the heist that launched a thousand breakfast puns- in late August, thieves siphoned anywhere from C$20 to C$30 million worth of maple syrup from a warehouse in St Louis du Blandford, Quebec. The warehouse- owned by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers- is part of Canada's Maple Syrup Strategic Reserve [a phrase one usually associates with commodities like oil, gold or uranium- NANESB!]. They syrup at St Louis du Blandford warehouse and other facilities is stored in barrels, but instead of taking the barrels the thieves had siphoned off the liquid gold, leaving behind empty barrels so that the theft wasn't noticed until immediately.

In October, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Sûreté du Québec executed search warrants at two seperate locations following the heist. RCMP officers reportedly found a significant quantity of syrup believed to be from the heist at a processing and export facility in Kedgwick, New Brunswick.

Quebec Provincial Police officers also raided a warehouse south of Quebec City about 10 days later. Less was known about the warehouse in St Nicholas, QC than the export firm in New Brunswick. The warehouse owner, who asked not to be identified, said he leased the building to syrup distributors who owed them money. A worker at a neighboring business said the current tennants had been there for about a year.

In the latest development, a lawyer for S.K. Export Inc- the New Brunswick firm that had approximately 660 barrels confiscated when police served a search warrant- has convinced a Quebec judge to return at least some of the 660 impounded barrels to the firm.

Étienne St.-Pierre, the owner of S.K. Export is also contemplating seeking compensation from the Quebec Provincial Police and the Quebec Federation of Maple Syrup Producers, contending that the Federation has been trying to put him out of business due to his long-standing practise of circumventing the Federation when he purchases surplus syrup from Quebec producers.

Police declined to comment on how they determined the syrup at S.K. Export was from the St Louis du Blandford heist due to the ongoing investigation.

Happy Thanksgiving From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Just a quick reminder to wish you and yours a happy and relatively stress free Thanksgiving- or as I like to call it "Football and Roast Beef November Thursday".

Now you might be asking 'Why Roast Beef?' or even 'Why should I care?Jees- get over yourself'. The menu selection is a family tradition dating back to when PETA had first launched a high profile campaign calling for Thanksgiving boycott of turkey. Faced with the prospect of weeks of incermentally less appetizing turkey leftovers and clearly not listening to the rest of PETA's message, I enthusiastically backed the idea of a turkey-free Thanksgiving and came home with a pot roast one year. Sure it was more than enough for the whole family, but for the next several days we had yummy roast beef leftovers- a good problem to have!

Other relatives warmed up to the concept- some apparently going so far as following through PETA's original message. So although Thanksgiving rotates between casa de Fenway and other relatives' places, in my eyes a Thanksgiving feast has become synonymous with roast beef, ham and even a cornish game hen with sides like scalloped potatoes and steamed asparagus- although I admit I find the concept of the turducken intruiging.

The saucy little brunette pilgrim above is from Freeman Elliot called  An Arrow Escape. The arrows in this case are not pointing the way to the Mass Turnpike as that logo was phased out by the 1990s. Although I'm unsure of the date, it was reportedly used in a 1950 calender from Brown and Bigelow.

That's the Way the Twinkie Crumbles: With Hostess Shutdown, Twinkie the Kid's Salvation May Come From South of the Border

Growing up, I was more of a Little Debbie kind of guy, but this still sucks.

After more than 82 years in business, Hostess Brands, the maker of such iconic confections as Twinkies, Wonder Bread and Donettes, announced on Friday that they were closing their doors forever in the wake of a bankruptcy filing and protracted labor dispute.

The specter of liquidation has loomed large since the bankruptcy case, Hostess's second in recent years, kicked off in January. From the start, the company has warned that labor cuts were its only chance to survive in the marketplace and said the only other possible outcome was a full shutdown of the business. Both Hostess and its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, have long agreed a widespread strike would spell the end of the company.

The shutdown and liquidation of Hostess is expected to leave as many as 18,500 employees at 36 plants throughout the country jobless right before Thanksgiving. Although the Teamsters union had agreed to wage and benefit concessions that was part of the Hostess restructuring, but the Bakers, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Miller's Union balked at any such concessions on their end and refused to return to work by a 5 PM deadline on Thursday. Apparently this wasn't an ill-conceived bluff on the part of the BCTGM, as the leadership was well aware Hostess didn't have the means to weather a prolonged strike by their workers [interestingly, while the BCTGM's website was offline with an "exceeded bandwidth" message throughout the weekend, it returned Sunday night with a slew of 'It's not OUR fault Hostess shut down!' articles- NANESB!]

With liquidation on the horizon, a number of potential bidders for Hostess' assets and trademarks have come forward. According to analysts, potential suitors include private equity firm and current Pabst Blue Ribbon owner C. Dean Metropoulos & Co, Kellog Company [NYSE: K], Kraft Foods spinoff Mondelez International [NASDAQ: MDLZ], Campbell's Soup [NYSE: CPB] and the largest baking company in the world, Mexico's Grupo Bimbo [BMV: BIMBOA].

In September 2011, Grupo Bimbo had completed their acquisition of Illinois-based Sarah Lee Corporation's baking unit and may be looking to further expand their market share in the USA with the purchase of Hostess' assets.

Food Fight! Papa John's CEO Catches Flack, Faces Liberal Boycott For Pointing Out 0bamacare Realities

Pizza chain Papa John's [NASDAQ- PZZA] has become the latest restaurant to catch flack from vindictive leftists and this time around the hot-button issue is 0bamacare.

After Papa John's CEO John H Schnatter announced last week that prices would be going up and employees hours would be reduced due to 0bamacare, liberal pundits threw a spectacular hissy fit accusing the Romney donor of being a sore loser and using his employees to play politics.

However, this was something Schnatter and others in the restaurant business had anticipated as early as August, pointing out that Papa John's had much more purchasing power than smaller restaurants. This means that Papa John's would be able to absorb the costs of 0bamacare as well as increased food costs due to a massive Midwestern drought over the summer much better than smaller restaurants.

While Schnatter was pointing out an unpleasant economic reality for himself and countless other restaurant owners, liberals started calling for a boycott of the chain, pointing out that the self-made millionaire  CEO dares to live in a nice mansion [because apprently they know how to spend Schnatter's money more than he does- NANESB!]. It's also worth pointing out that an organized widespread boycott by the shrieking progressives would harm the Papa John's employees whose well being they profess to care so very much about first and foremost.

On the flip side of the coin, a grassroots group called Rebooting America is calling for a Papa John's buycott on Friday.

Earlier this year, Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy- a devout Baptist- caught flack from gay and lesbian groups when he flatly stated in an interview with a Baptist publication that he did not support same-sex marriage. LGBT and Democrat calls for a widespread Chick-Fil-A boycott backfired when August 1st was declared Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day and the chain had shattered all previous sales records due to the high turnout.

Happy World Pasta Day!

I seem to be a touch late in learning about this one, let alone verifying it for myself, but as it turns out October 25th is World Pasta Day. I know- right?  Up until this week, I hadn't even heard of such a day.

Naturally, different restaurants will have different ways of marking the occasion [or forget about it altogether- NANESB!] but I thought Buca di Beppo's promotion was worthy of some attention.

For today, Buca Di Beppo is not only giving away an order of spaghetti whenever somebody orders an entree, but they also send you out the door with a 1 lb package of Rummo pasta- along with whatever you couldn't finish.

Buca has roughly 85 locations in 25 states, the UK and Mexico. The restaurant was started in 1993 and the name loosely translantes to 'Joe's Basement', specializing in dishes from Southern Italy.

Sticky Situation- Theives Steal $30 Million Worth of Maple Syrup From Little-Known 'Strategic Reserve' in Canada

All that syrup and not a pancake or waffle in sight!

Think of it as 'The Brinks of Breakfast'. Thieves had made off with an estimated C$30 million worth of maple syrup from a little-known strategic reserve in eastern Quebec on Thursday.

The shortfall of the sticky amber liquid was discovered during a routine inventory check at the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers warehouse in rural St Louis-du-Blanford, Quebec- a small town along the Trans Canada Highway on the south shore of the St Lawrence River between Quebec City and Montreal. The facility reportedly stores some 10 million pounds of maple syrup- some early estimates claimed that at least one third of the reserve's inventory had been stolen.

Quebec produces about 75% of the world's maple syrup. The facility holds about a fifth of the province's total quantity of unsold supply, stored each year to protect producers' from the ups and downs of global supply and demand.

The federation says it currently sells one pound of Quebec's maple syrup to distributors and food processors for C$2.86, though it can retail for much more at home and abroad.

Though strategic reserves are typically used to cushion petroleum markets, Quebec has kept a supply of unsold syrup for more than a decade, to be drawn on if supply of the quintessential Canadian staple falls because of poor yields, or higher-than-expected demand. From February to about mid-April, about 7,400 Quebec farmers tap their maple trees and boil sap in mostly small-scale so-called sugar shacks. They evaporate the goop into several closely regulated grades of syrup—extra light, light, medium and dark.

But sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate, causing shortages. Quebec syrup makers started squirreling away a cushion in 2000. They had to tap the reserves each year from 2005 to 2008. In 2008 and 2009, Quebec ran the reserve dry. Since then, producers have been slowly building it back up, and it now holds about 50 million pounds, up from 37 million pounds last year

The strategic reserve can also be used in times of reduced demand for the product. Canada surpassed the USA as the world's leading maple syrup producer sometime around WWII. In recent years, Japan has become a significant importer of maple syrup from Canada, offsetting a decline of exports to the USA since 2010. Canadians themselves are thought to account for 10% of the domestically produced syrup. Earlier this year, a warmer than usual winter had adversely affected the syrup harvest in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces.

On the US side of the border, Vermont is the biggest producer of syrup, followed by New York and Maine. The late winter/early spring gathering of maple sap is so iconic in the Green Mountain state that it was featured on the Vermont state quarter when it was minted in 2001. Some in the Quebec Maple syrup producers' association think that the vast quantites of amber sap could be in the USA or Europe by now.

Investigators haven't announced any new leads or suspects since news of the heist broke. It is worth pointing out that cargo theft by organized crime and well coordinated bandits throughout the USA and Canada is on the rise. Besides consumer electronics, entire truckloads of beef, tomatoes and even Alaskan king crab have been known to disappear. It wouldn't be that farfetched for robbers to help themselves to the sticky amber goods before it could even hit the road. While a multimillion dollar maple syrup heist sounds like some sort of Mackenzie brothers-meets-Die-Hard skit, it's not as though all that syrup has serial numbers and could be easily traced.

Another possibility being bandied about by industry insiders is that this could have been an inside job, either with somebody at the warehouse providing details to the theives beforehand or- and this is a little more complex and farfetched- arranged by somebody in the Maple Syrup Producers Association themselves. The Montreal Gazette notes that all maple syrup inventories are insured leaving open the possibility that somebody arranged for the theft to relieve the association of excess inventory while collecting on the insurance- and this could be on top of taking a percentage of the off-the-books sale of the boosted syrup that might've been agreed to in advance.

Pie in the Sky- Cost of 0bamacare Complaince to Raise Pizza Prices

Customers of Papa John's can expect to see an increase in the cost of the chain's pizza pie, and according to chairman John H Schnatter, President Obama's landmark healthcare law is to blame for the anticipated rise in prices.

In a conference call with analysts, Schnatter said that although he did not support 0bamacare, his company's business model would reportedly allow it to absorb some of the costs associated with the law better than some other companies.

According to Papa John’s Founder, Chairman and CEO John H. Schnatter, health-care reform will cost the company an additional 11 cents to 14 cents per pizza.

“We're not supportive of Obamacare like most businesses in our industry,” Schnatter said in a call to analysts. “But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare.”

Schnatter added that on a corporate basis, the reform would increase Papa John’s price per pizza by 15 to 20 cents.

“Let's say fuel goes up-- which it does from time to time-- and we have to raise delivery charges,” said Schnatter.”We don't like raising delivery charges, but the price of fuel is out of our control as is Obamacare. So if Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs. And of course strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholder's best interest.”

Headquartered in Louisville, KY, Papa Johns [NASDAQ: PZZA] is the third largest pizza chain in the USA and boasts more than 3800 locations in 32 countries.

While an increase of 15¢ to 20¢ may not seem like much at first glance, keep in mind that Papa John's is a large and well organized corporation with considerable purchasing power. For many of the smaller local or regional chains or stand-alone family run pizzerias, those costs will quickly add up and those locations will also have little choice but to pass along costs to their customers.

Frank Pepe's of New Haven, CT- specializing in tomato pies and clam pizzas for over 80 years. Photo- Kevin Finch/Travelling Feast

With a number of such restaurants already in danger of shutting down due to the sluggish economy over the last three years, I suspect the last thing they would need is additional regulations, red tape and paperwork in regards to their employee healthcare under threat of punitive fines from the IRS. If nothing else, think of 0bamacare as the Dodd-Frank of pizzerias.

What's Dodd-Frank? you might be asking yourself? No- Dodd-Frank isn't the Castle County, Maine Sherriff's Deputy who was revealed to be a serial killer in the Stephen King novel The Dead Zone- that was actually Frank Dodd.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was signed into law by President Obama two years ago. Proponents of the bill claimed it was meant to keep larger banks and financial institutions such as JP Morgan and Bank of America in check in the wake of the 2008 subprime lending meltdown and "too big to fail" bailouts. However, two years later the larger banks that had been bailed out seem to be thriving at the expense of smaller, community banks in the new regulatory environment.

While larger institutions such as Citibank or JP Morgan-Chase had engaged in much of the subprime lending practices that led up to the current economic crisis and malaise, they were larger, better funded and more equipped to handle the compliance costs of the new regulations with Dodd-Frank while much smaller institutions such as Lee Savings Bank or First National Bank of Durango had fewer resources and funds available to put towards compliance. Basically, despite claims of reigning in unaccountable and reckless Wall Street fat cats, the same regulations entailed in Dodd-Frank are adversely affecting the smaller community banks and lenders differently moreso that the giant, bailed-out "too big to fail" institutions like Citi. Althought they weren't pivotal in the subprime lending crisis, the economies of scale can apply that same situation to a Papa John's or Pizza Hut versus a family-run restaurant like the Pizza Den in Chatham, NY or Huckelberry's in Rock Island, IL and I'll leave you to figure out which one is at an advantage in the new regulatory environment.
Many of the small businesses are still trying to figure out how best to make payroll in this economy to try and figure out what provisions of 0bamacare are going into effect when.

Yes, thanks in part to President Obama's economic and healthcare policies, a family going out for a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza once a week may very well become a frivolous and unattainable luxury for many Americans.

In addition to the estimated cost increase with 0bamacare compliance, the midwest is currently in the middle of one of the worst droughts in more than 50 years. The USDA has slashed the estimated corn yield by 12%, driving up the price of corn which in turn will likely force livestock to liquidate herds because of the increased cost of feeding them, making meat and dairy even more expensive.

[Hat tip: Lonely Conservative, Wyblog, La Jolla Princess]

ChickFilA Reportedly Enjoys Record Turnout & Sales on 'ChickFilA Appreciation Day'

Line at Chick-Fil-A in Houston, TX on August 1, deemed by some Traditional marriage and First Amendment supporters to be "ChickFilA Appreciation Day"

Atlanta-based ChickFilA reported that the single day sales record for their restaurant chain had been shattered on Wednesday, Aug 1st- in what many supporters had billed 'ChickFilA Appreciation Day'. Some ChickFilA locations were so crowded that extra employees were called in to direct traffic in the parking lots and other locations reportedly ran out of food hours before they were scheduled to close for the night.

The privately held company declined to give specific sales figures but released a statement confirming that frenzied sales of chicken sandwiches and cross-cut waffle fries had made for a record-setting day.

"We are very grateful and humbled by the incredible turnout of loyal Chick-fil-A customers on August 1 at Chick-fil-A restaurants around the country," said Steve Robinson, executive vice president of marketing, in the statement. "While we don't release exact sales numbers, we can confirm reports that it was a record-setting day."

The support for the chicken sandwich chain wasn't limited to the Bible Belt either, as lines were wrapped around the building at locations from New Hampshire to California on Wednesday. While some customers lining up on Wednesday no doubt disagreed with ChickFilA CEO Dan Cathy's statements opposing same-sex marriage, it became a First Amendment issue when the mayors of Boston and Chicago threatened to use their offices to block any attempt at ChickFilA to set up shop or expand in their respective cities.

Another line at a ChickFilA location in suburban San Deigo, CA on August 1

A video filmed at a ChickFilA Drive-Thru in Arizona- apparently shot on ChickFilA appreciation day- shows a motorist videotaping himself pulling up to the window and asking for a free cup of water before berating the cashier over the CEO's recent statements.



Although he quickly erased the original video, a number of unedited copies went up on YouTube under different accounts. Within 24 hours, the man was identified as Adam Smith, a Chief Financial Officer with Tuscon-based medical equipment manufacturer Vante. By Thursday afternoon, Vante had reportedly dismissed Smith after deciding the video of himself at ChickFilA demonstrated that he had shown poor judgement. Smith has subsequently apologized to the cashier in another video released onto YouTube, but in that same video, he holds himself blameless for the series of events leading up to the loss of his job.

I suspect most of the participants of the ChickFilA Same Sex Kiss-In DIDN'T look like this, but a guy can dream, can't he?

On Friday, although not as well attended as the ChickFilA Appreciation Day, gay marriage supporters staged a same-sex 'kiss-in' at some locations. On Thursday, a Chicago-based LGBT group filed suit against ChickFilA with the Illinois Department of Human Rights alleging that the resturant's "intolerant corporate culture" violates state law and a provision in Illinois' Human Rights Act, although the suit declines to specifically mention any instances of harassment or discrimination against homosexual customers and employees.

Eat Mor Chikin: Atlanta-Based Chick Fil A Under Fire From Leftists Over CEO's Stance on Gay Marriage

The president of an Atlanta-based fast food chain has drawn the ire of gay and lesbian activists as well as Democrat politicians looking for a big juicy distraction after stating this his restaurant supports traditional marriage in an interview with a Baptist website earlier this month.

Chick Fil A Cookies & Cream milkshake- yum!

Started in Atlanta by restaurateur and devout baptist S Truett Cathy in 1967, Chick Fil A has grown to a chain of more than 1600 restaurants across 39 states specializing in chicken sandwiches, chicken strips, chicken wraps and chicken salads. The company also is the title sponsor for the Chick Fil A Peach Bowl which is played between one ACC college football team and one SEC school each New Year's Eve at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Neither S Truett Cathy nor his son Dan Cathy are shy about their Baptist faith or incorporating it into their business model. In keeping with Cathy's faith, the restaurant remains closed on Sundays.

As you might be able to figure out, most Baptists are opposed to same-sex marriage. With more than 30 states voting at the ballot box to define marriage as being between a man and a woman, that's a viewpoint that's hardly fringe or in the minority.

Have the liberals who want to start a Chick-Fil-A boycott really thought this through?

LGBT groups and various democrat politicians desperate for a distraction have chimed in on Chick Fil A's stance on same sex marriage.

Among the first was Boston mayor Tom Menino, who penned a letter threatening to block any attempt by Chick Fil A to open up a location in Boston.

“It sends a strong message that the habit of supporting hateful organizations that demonize LGBT Americans are out of step with not just Bostonians but a majority of fair-minded Americans,” Menino told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Thursday.

In it he said,”There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.

“If they’re going to hurt people’s rights and social justice is involved. I’m going to speak up on that. No matter what it is. You might not like it, but I have to live with myself,” he said.

Curiously, Mayor Menino required no such ideological litmus test for the Islamic Society of Boston's mosque after selling them a city owned parcel of land for $175,000- far below the appraised $1.8 million. With two locations in the metropolitan Boston area, Chick Fil A was reportedly looking at opening a location on the campus of Northeastern university, which is inside Boston city limits.

Meanwhile, Obama's former-chief-of-staff now Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel was able to take time out from the escalating carnage in the Windy City to announce he would be protecting Chicagoans from the ever-encroaching menace of grilled chicken sandwiches.

"Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago’s values. They’re not respectful of our resident, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect the Chicago values,” said Emanuel.

Ah- I see. Apparently if Chick Fil A wants to do business in Chicago, they need to have a storied tradition of turning a blind eye to gang violence and organized crime, selling off political appointments to the highest bidder and utilize drug gangs like the Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples for the get-out-the-vote effort and reward them by steering contracts to their families and friends later on.

In a display of even more staggering hypocrisy, a few days after chiding Cathy, Rahm Emmanuel would praise fringe antisemitic Nation of Islam preacher Louis Farrakhan for dispatching his followers- known as 'The Fruit of Islam' to some of the violence-plagued areas.

To hardly anybody's surprise, the mayor of San Francisco also chimed in, even though the nearest Chick Fil A is some 40 miles away.

So there you have it- at least three mayors of large American cities who have pretty much come right out and said they would use zoning requirement and government bureaucracy to block or revoke a private company from opening their doors within city limits because they disagreed with an opinion held by somebody in the management. Now for the progressives who might have a difficult time wrapping their heads around why this might be a bad thing, let's say a staunchly conservative mayor or county commissioner found out a business owned by a liberal supporter of gay marriage and gun control wanted to open up a business in the community and decided to stack the deck against the liberal business owner and put all sorts of zoning and regulatory hurdles in the path of this would be business because the conservative politician disagreed with something the hypothetical business owner had said.

Sucks- doesn't it? Yet that's exactly the kind of behavior that Menino and Emanuel are engaging in.

Not surprisingly, various Hollywood has-beens would also chime in on the issue in an attempt to make themselves feel relevant again and in the process, reveal their own rather skewed definition of 'tolerance'.

Enter bitter, corpulent 'comedienne', Occupy Wall Street supporter and failed Green Party presidential candidate Roseanne Barr:

Interesting how a few short months ago Barr was calling for the wealthy to be summarily executed or sent to re-education camps, yet decided to boast about her own materiel wealth as some sort of witty rejoinder before resorting to 2nd grade insults- apparently her writers bailed on her long before the 2007 writers strike.

As you could probably gather from the above exchange, I decided to stop by my nearest Chik Fil A last week and even though I already had lunch, I decided to get a cookies and cream milkshake [pictured at top- NANESB!] as part of a 'buycott'.

In fact, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and other conservatives have encouraged people to go to Chick Fil A on August 1 as part of  "Chick Fil A Appreciation Day". Although the nearest Chick Fil A is some 35 miles away, I will probably be stopping by as it isn't too far out of my way for the commute to one of my temp jobs and I have some coupons that are expiring soon.

Massachusetts Backing Away From Proposed School Bake Sale Ban

With new nutritional standards from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Departments of Public Health and Education set to go into effect that would basically outlaw school bake sales beginning in August, the state legislature and Governor Deval Patrick have reportedly backed away from the proposed guidelines.

The state legislature was also drafting a budget rider that would leave the decision regarding bake sales and sweets up to the individual school districts

The regulations were reportedly drawn up to curb childhood obesity and would prevent sweets from being sold on school grounds while classes were in session. Gov Patrick and Commonwealth Public Health Commissioner John Auerback said that the ban will be reversed before its even set to take effect. The regulations will apply to sweets sold in school cafeterias during lunchtime.

State Senator Michael Knapic (R-Westfield) also noted that the proposed guidelines will also have an adverse effect on Bay State dairies since they also are applied to chocolate milk.

"The dairy farmers say they’re not equipped to make the type of milk (the state is asking for) and it could turn into a total ban on chocolate milk,” Knapik said, adding that legislators also are considering intervening on behalf of chocolate milk.

Although school health officials said they supported even further limiting access of sweets to schoolchildren to battle childhood obesity, word of the regulations once again made the Bay State a laughingstock and poster child for government overreach by liberal busybodies

Islamic Cleric Issues Edict Prohibiting Muslim Women From Handling Cucumbers & Other Produce

Harmless cartoon charchter or unstoppable corrupter of unsuspecting Muslimahs? You decide.

A European-based Islamic cleric has reportedly issued an edict that would prevent women from handling cucumbers, zucchini, bananas or carrots to avoid impure thoughts.

An Islamic cleric living in Europe reportedly has warned Muslim women not to get too close to bananas, cucumbers or other produce -- to avoid having “sexual thoughts.”

The unnamed cleric, whose directive was featured in an article in el-Senousa, a religious publication, purportedly said that if women wanted to eat these foods, a third party -- preferably a male related to them, such as their father or husband -- should cut the items into small pieces before serving, the Egyptian website Bikya Masr reported.

BikyaMasr.com said the cleric, identified only as a sheikh, was asked in the interview how to “control” women when they are shopping for groceries, and whether holding these items at the market would be bad, to which he replied that the matter was between them and God

Apparently there's some doubt about the cleric or whether or not there was even an edict that was issued in the first place, as the only source of the El Sanousa article was Bikya Masr.

But the mere suggestion of a strict order for Muslim women handling food has been enough to send people to website forums and Twitter to air their indignation.

Danish/Lebanese journalist Helen Hajjij tweeted on Wednesday: “So if Muslim women should stay away from cucumbers and bananas, should men stay away from melons?”

Attack of the Cobalt Crustaceans! Electric Blue Lobster Pulled From Scottish Waters

An azure lobster pulled from the waters off the east coast of Scotland has found a home at the London Aquarium after being purchased from a fish market.

The buyer, Rex Goldsmith, said he paid market price for the pastel lobster at a London fish market, but rather than cook it, he contacted researchers from the Natural History Museum who confirmed that it was a European Lobster but developed the darker blue tone due to a rare genetic variant. The European lobsters are fairly common and can be found in the Atlantic waters anywhere from the UK and Norway to the Azores and Morocco. However, they are normally a much darker shade of blue- almost indistinguishable from grey or light black.

In 2009, a cobalt-blue lobster was caught off the coast of New Hampshire before being turned over to the New England Aquarium. Researches at the New England aquarium attributed the odd hue to an antioxidant known as astaxanthin that bonded with the lobster's shell.

Extrmemly Rare Cobalt Blue Lobster Caught Off New Hampshire Coast

(Foster's Daily Democrat)

New England Aquarium Research Director Mike Tlusty said that the blue shell is a result of the lobster being able to process a red-hued antioxidant known as astaxanthin more efficiently, which in turn bonds with proteins in the lobster's exoskeleton- giving it the bluish pigment.

Tlusty said the odds of this happening were 1 in 5 Million, and that it was still very tasty when served with warm butter.