That was a great Saturday night, Edmonton. And Enoch.
But more on Conan under the big tent, later.
In other news (Jeff news, that is.) it’s come to my attention that I need to state that I don’t actually hate Subway.
See, I can get along with Subway.
Sure, I’ve used the term “Subwayfication” to describe chain stores moving in on Whyte Avenue, but in Whyte’s case it really IS Subway. There are three in a mere seven blocks. Even downtown Edmonton, with a much larger lunch-seeking work population is a little more spread out.
So I’ve mentioned that I boycott the newest of the Subways on Whyte. But that’s the only one. Trust me, I dig into a nice turkey sub every now and again.
And I could never hate Subway…it saved Jared’s life.
Whyte Avenue, 99 to 107 Street: 3 Subways, 3 Mac's, 3 times the love.
Meanwhile, I’m glad to see a 24-hour convenience store back in the old 7-11 spot (I need juice at 3:30 am!), but that makes three Mac’s in that same Subway radius. Sigh.
Do you have any chains, standalone stores, or specific locations of a business you boycott?
Is it for noble reasons (Or noble-ish, like my vague support of local and independent biz on 82 Avenue…) or did they just screw up so bad that you could never go back?
Alberta school boards suffer $33M hit to savings, says auditor’s report
NAIT rethinks cancellations (A dozen programs on the chopping block are spared. For now.)
Albertans buy 23 per cent more cars, trucks in February (That could be a good sign of economic recovery.)
Doom of democracy ticks closer as Tories fire up the smoke machine
Let’s do some medical stories: Rage in the doctor’s office…Disorder forces move to Edmonton…‘Brilliant’ Edmonton pediatrician lived to serve children…
Stakes are high for Alberta in Canada-EU trade talks
‘Virtual’ rehab for wounded (Patients, primarily injured soldiers, will rehab in a virtual world.)
$100,000 to clean up caustic soda spill from stolen tanker outside of Edmonton
Poetry with a push (It’s poetry time.)
Transportation improving (It sure is. We’re not “one of the best in North America just yet though.)
Blazes battled across Alberta (It’s hot. It’s dry. We need some rain.)
Online campsite reservations prove popular
Website clearinghouse created for things lost or stolen (I wonder if they’ve seen my digital camera…)
Projects shift congestion (Metro’s got a good column on transit and transportation.)
Book ‘em: universities crack down on bookleggers trafficking in stolen texts
Edmonton Transit considers using Twitter (They’d still need a text option to report trouble. And Twitter could mean WiFi in the LRT stations, I presume. Which is sweet.)
Cabbies join Teamsters (Well, they’re looking at joining.)
National Volunteer Week (Thank all the volunteers that keep this city running. Thank yourself, if you volunteer.)
21st annual Edmonton Earth Day
Beaumont school overcrowding worries parents
Unwelcome Alberta rat deported to B.C. (It must be tough to remain “rat-free” with such movement among our population now. I didn’t know about the rat-free thing when I moved here.)
Former Alberta official gets 3 1/2 years for fraud
Nurses hope to provide shelter for Haitians
And in other news, real news, the City of Edmonton has received the downtown arena zoning application from the Katz Group. It begins (officially)!
And Mack’s got your first look at the new LRT stations, which officially open to all of us in one week.
I’ve boycotted the High Level Diner as the food has been terrible every time I’ve been there, and the service was exceedingly bad the last time. I don’t understand its popularity -they are dead to me.
I’ve usually heard good things about the High Level. But it makes sense you wouldn’t go back, if you’ve never had a good time.
I have two rules that I live by.
One of them is to never trust a person with two first names. Mary Pat Barry has three. THREE! Daryl Katz is screwed.
I’ve been boycotting the Mac’s store on Whyte Ave and 106th St. since high school; I refuse to even set foot in the store…
Way back when, Coke was running a promotion where you could win actual money; check under the tabs of the cans or on those funky plastic things under the bottle caps, and you’d find a “Free Can of Coke”, a “Sorry, please try again” or, if you were lucky, a “You’ve won $5!” or whatever denomination. If you won $25 or less, you could redeem them in-store.
I was lucky enough to win $10 (which was a lot of money back in the mid-40s when I was in high-school) & took it to that Mac’s at lunch hour to cash it in. I handed it to the teller when I got the front of the line; he looked it over for a few seconds, put it into the till and just stared at me. After about 10 or 15 seconds of uncomfortable silence, he said “Cans are over there”. Confused, I came back with a witty rejoinder: “Huh?”
“Cans. Over there.”
“Huh?”
“Get free can over there.”
“… Huh? OooOOOOOoooh, I get it. Sorry, I won $10, not a free can.”
He pulled a tab out of the register that said “Free Can of Coke” on it. “No, free can. You win free can.”
I argued with him about it for a couple of minutes, while the people in line behind me were all, like, eye-rolls and “Sure, kid. You won $10. Of course you did.”
Finally, I ended up giving the guy the finger, grabbing a can of Coke and just leaving. I haven’t set foot in that store since 1938.
Paul, she’s actually quite a nice woman and doesn…OH MY GOD!
SHE JUST RIPPED UP THE KATZ GROUP’S APPLICATION RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR KIDS.
I love Dadeo but fat ass doesn’t fit into the booths, so I hardly ever go because the tables are limited. I don’t understand why I continue to frequent Two Rooms, given a full decade or more of abysmal service. And I will not darken the doors of a Blockbuster, ever since they claimed that I didn’t return a copy of “Baby Mama.” It’s one thing to claim I didn’t return it. It’s quite another to assert that there is no possibility that a mistake was made because their computer and human processes are “never wrong” and then send me to collections a week after saying they wouldn’t until the matter had been resolved.
I will also never return to the High Level Diner again. Terrible service, terrible menu, terrible food. I don’t understand all the good things people say about it.
Starbucks. It’s everywhere. In Vegas, there are no small coffee shops. Every small coffee shop supplies Starbucks coffee. It’s frightening.
Derjis, great story about the Mac’s, btw.
Sam, that kind of creeps me out. And also makes me think of Demolition Man, where Taco Bell won the franchise wars.
Pub 1905. I’ve had many bad experiences, but the last time was the straw that broke the camels back.
I went there one Friday afternoon, with my wife and co-worker. They ordered their stuff, as did I. 1-hour later, their food came, and nothing for me. 30-minutes later, I noticed the table next to me get the same order as I would have received. I shrugged it off. Another 30-minutes later, our waitress came by to ask how everything was, to which I asked where my food was. She said I didn’t order anything. 5-minutes later, she came back and said that I did, and that she would have it rushed out asap, and the table next to me did get my order. Another hour passed, and the waitress comes by with the bill…no food yet.
We all got mad and demanded to see the manager (conveniently they weren’t available). The person who did deal with us didn’t even look at us, and yelled at the waitress to give us 15% off my bill…my bill of 2 beers.
Last week, I spoke to a former waitress of 1905, and she said it was the worst place she’s ever worked. The management always stays in the back or never come in.
Never again…Pub 1905 blows.
Rene, I was there with people one Friday night and it was also terrible.
One waitress refused to seat us. She then promptly ignored us.
We got the cold shoulder because we had too many people for our table and some were standing as we waited for the after-workers to filter out. Some at our table went and got drinks at the bar and that was the kiss of death.
When we eventually got a waitress she was blown away by how thankful we were just to receive menus. I gave her a nice tip.
It was also her first day. She probably hates it by now.
Rigoletto’s. The snooty waiter is always snooty and everything has too much parsley on it.
The EEC is officially the only boycott I am running at this time.
The EEC (Edmonton Events Centre, or Red’s or Ed’s whichever you recall) is the worst concert venue I have EVER been too. Ummm…giant post right in the way!
I wish I could get more people to boycott it, but it seems to be growing in popularity, notably with all the bands I am longing to see.
I recently abandoned my boycott to see Vampire Weekend, I was not going to miss out on that, and every moment I was in the EEC I was reminded why I boycott it. (Bathroom attendant with all her wares taking up all the space, get out of the way in such a tiny bathroom!) Getting in and out is ridiculous and unsafe in my opinion. I miss out on a lot of concerts that I would attend if they were at other venues.
Oh and I avoid any other movie rental store other than Movie Studio. They are the only store with exceptional cusomer service and they are not trying to seperate you from your money at every turn.
It’s funny, Heather, since I don’t want to go back to the “Venue” at River Cree (as I talk about in my Conan post from yesterday) because it’s crappy.
Also, I’ve never been to the Edmonton Event Centre. I’ve lived here for almost 5 years, and there have been bands I’m interested in playing there, but I’ve been told it’s such a crappy venue that it’s not worth the money to see anyone there.
I guess they, and River Cree, just know how to throw money around to get the better acts.