The Sub Conscious alternative to the Sunday Brunch

Sunday morning is way too intense for a complicated brunch menu. What, with having to recover from the day used to recover from the work week, it’s just not a good time to make serious decisions. The brain can be a bit foggy and incapable of discerning essential adjectives from non-essential ones. A Belgian Waffle? Why can’t we just have an American Waffle instead? Eggs named after a Pope? Sorry, there are too many issues involved to make that choice.

The whole business of Sunday brunch itself is a bit disconcerting. Everybody knows that the A List chef – who worked his/her busy digits to the bone the night before – is at home with a hangover and couldn’t possibly be brought in to supervise the operation unless he/she was transported by ambulance. Indeed, Sunday brunch is where busboys pretend to be line cooks and line cooks pretend to be chefs. It’s all happy, in an “up-from-bootstraps” sort of way, but doesn’t do anything to improve the quality of the meal. Staring down at a seafood frittata at a Sunday brunch, one comes to the realization why it’s not offered the rest of the week: the seafood bits are what are left over from what they could not sell the rest of the week. Insert the appropriate cat food reference here.

After all, what is a frittata anyway, other than an Italian name for an omelet that’s been finished off under the broiler? Somehow it wouldn’t taste nearly as good as if it were just labeled an “omelet that’s finished off under the broiler”. If polenta is just grits with better PR, isn’t a frittata is an omelet for somebody in search of the exotic?

That’s where the idea of food as entertainment comes off the rails. As Americans, we seem to have stumbled into a notion that everything we do should be exotic and jam packed with entertainment value. Three channels on the telly aren’t enough? Let’s have 500 hundred including seven ESPNs. Coffee-flavored coffee a tad too pedestrian? Have an iced double decaf mochaccino, half-foam instead. Don’t bother with the omelet; have the frittata.

This constant and monotonous pursuit of the novel, the new, the oh-so-trendsetting is another mind numbing manifestation of the consumerism treadmill. One gets on and can never really get off without experiencing the polite condescension from those still handcuffed to the machine. Those in the perpetual pursuit of ever more exotic food have left me utterly bored with the pursuit of ever more exotic food.

That’s why the missus and I have a simple plan for Sunday mornings. We drop the kid off at Grandma’s and head straight to Sub-Conscious on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. The place is usually empty and funereal quiet (save the TV in the background) which is the way we like it.

On the menu are all the normal things that a college sub shop would typically carry – sandwiches, fried bits of this or that and pizza. I’ve never tried any of the fried bits or the pizza. It’s just not fitting. No, one comes to Sub-Conscious for one thing – the subs. And they are brilliant.

This stuff in the middle – the sandwich fixin’s – are where most restaurant of this type concentrate their efforts. And at Sub-Conscious, meats, veggies and whatnot are fresh and well prepared. But that’s not what makes their offering so much better than the next guy down the street. It’s the bread. They get theirs from upstate New York. It’s crispy without being crunchy; light but still full of flavor. Indeed, the outside crusts crackle with every bite.

The two we typically order are the cheese steak and the Italian. Both are prepared with lightly toasted bread. The contrast of the warm and slightly crispy bread to the cold ingredients in the Italian is striking and makes for a marvelous mouthful of sandwich happiness. The cheese steak is a sandwich utterly without pretension. It stand on its’ own in near perfect balance – not too much steak, not too much cheese. Caramelized onions add both to the aroma and to the sandwich’s umami. It is arguable as good as I’ve ever had anywhere.

Service is fast and friendly, with the staff starting on our sandwiches when we park the car. You tell the folks what you want, and they call you number a few minutes later.

So what’s not to like? For my own money, nothing. For those looking for atmosphere, there are plenty of places in town where you can feel both special and entertained. Sub-Conscious is not like that. Here, simple, wholesome food is made with care and really good bread. It is the perfect antidote to the Sunday brunch seafood frittata.

Sub Conscious
www.subconscious-subs.com
3209 Hillsborough St
Raleigh, NC 27607-5438
(919) 833-3495

From my Friend, Steve Dubner

"Maybe it was because I saw the headline early this morning not on the N.Y. Times's website or the Wall Street Journal's, but rather on Google News. I instantly assumed that the Onion had successfully landed a story on the home page of that fine aggregator. "Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize," the headline said. I chuckled, silently congratulated the Onion on its clever idea, and clicked the link."--Stephen Dubner, New York Times Web site, Oct. 9, 2009

And the hits just keep on coming

Ruth Marcus at WaPo

John Dickerson at Slate

Michael Binyan at the Times of London

Richard Cohen at WaPo

Even the Washington Post thinks BHO's Nobel is stoopid

From the very liberal Richard Cohen:

In a stunning announcement, Millard Fillmore Senior High School chose Shawn Rabinowitz, an incoming junior, as next year’s valedictorian. The award was made, the valedictorian committee announced from Norway of all places, on the basis of “Mr. Rabinowitz’s intention to ace every course and graduate number one in class.” In a prepared statement, young Shawn called the unprecedented award, “f---ing awesome.”

And it just goes on and on. The only real question left is whether or not BHO turns it down. Politically, it would be the right thing to do. However, my guess is that he's too vainglorious to do it. Everything is all about him.

An Affirmative Action Nobel Peace Prize

After reading this, I can't help but think that the good people at the Nobel Committee are giving their Peace Prize to President Barack Obama as an affirmative Action goodie. As others note, he hasn't really done anything.

I think this will be butt of even more jokes about his lack of accomplishment. But hey, he got a nice trophy.

9/11 as a National Day of Service?

Another 9/11 has come and gone. This year was different. Oh sure, grieving relatives still read a list of names of the victims and politicians still lamented the "tragedy". But something else happened to surface this 9/11: A "National Day of Service". Allegedly, everybody is supposed to take the day off from work and go clean up a park somewhere, then pose for the photo op and feel good about ourselves.

The National day of Service is just another salvo from the hand-wringing squishy left who are uncomfortable with actual war but just fine with “the moral equivalent of war”. That’s why 9/11 is endlessly referred to as a “tragedy” and a “crime” but never what it truly is: an act of war instigated by an irregular faction, no different from a pirate nation, against us. You see, It's okay to have a "war on cancer" but not okay to have a war with people who want to kill you. We should just talk instead. Talk is very therapeutic, doncha' know. We'll all feel better about ourselves and isn't that the goal?

When the self-absorbed, navel-gazing guilt mongers step up to propose another national day or service – or worse, a museum that highlights all the suffering in the world – I turn my ears off. I refuse to participate in penance for crimes I didn’t commit. National therapy isn’t my bag.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t compassion fatigue. I just don’t want to deal with fools who see every situation as a teachable moment, where they get to lecture me about what wrong with me and why I should me more like them. Own an SUV? Then you need a teachable moment.

The sanctimonious do-gooders that the baby boomers have become are nauseating. That's why I don't listen to them.

No, 9/11 should be about remembering what happened downtown and being pissed off. National Day of Service? Nah. Just remember to lock and load.

Are these two stories related?

Russia deploys air defence on NKorea missile tests

and

Russia says it tracked hijacked Arctic Sea all along - but questions grow over cargo

Perhaps what was on the boat was more than just timber. I have some sources that tell me that former President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea was about much more than rescuing a couple of former Vice-President's Al Gore's more dimwitted employees. Sources say that the Russians are a little more than freaked over the increasing out-of-control and paranoid Kim Jung Il.

Perhaps the Russians are just of leery and tired of the endless crisis manufacturing in the Korean north. The Chinese have even more to lose since any damage that befalls us, damages their economy mightily.

I'll think I'll keep an eye on that space. Something is definitely afoot.

Kennedy dead at 77

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) died yesterday of brain cancer. I made a great deal of fun of him over the years. Sorry to see him go. I was told by everyone who met him that he was a great guy.

Boiling the Ocean

I own a software company. Or, more correctly, I own the other half of a software company. What we do is power gift, rewards, loyalty and customer retention programs for retailers throughout North America. We’ll probably start working in Asia and South America later this year.

I’m the public face of the company, working with merchants. Most want simple programs – programs that reward customer for purchases with some sort of rebate. “Spend $100 and get $5 back” or something similar is relatively common. All of my current clientele uses the system more or less as it current exists. Oh sure, we tweak it for them, but we don’t change the way the system works. It’s an endless series of minor modifications that continuously upgrades and enhance the functionality. All these little changes make it better for everybody using the platform.

But every once in a while, I get a prospective customer that wants to transcend my current offering, completely changing the way the system works, in order to sell this new product to an undefined customer base. They have grandiose plans that are going to change the world. In these situations, I just nod my head and wait for them to stop monologue- ing. Then I ask this rhetorical question: “so you want me to boil the ocean for you? Is that right?”

They invariably say “no”, and the question often catches them by surprise. I usually follow up by telling them that is going to be incredibly expensive and going to take a long time. They typically respond with, “but think of how much money you’ll make with this great system I’ve envisioned. You develop it, I’ll sell it and will split the profits”. I then ask them if they asking me to underwrite the beta test of their business model. If they’re honest and say “yes”, then I politely decline and the conversation is over. If they start to sell me on what a great idea it is and how we’ll both make this huge pile of lucre, I listen politely, then decline. One actually said I was out of my mind for not jumping in and joining him in the project. I hung up the phone. I didn’t want to tell him that I have no intention of spending my time and my money on an unproven project that may or may not deliver any return ever. Boiling the ocean indeed.

***

I know little of the policy surrounding President Barack Obama’s (D) healthcare debate. I have read a few reasonably thoughtful articles, the best of which was written by John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods. In it, I saw incrementalist approach that would create little efficiencies here and there that would probably solve most of the perceived issues plaguing the American health care system. They were small, understandable things like medical tort reform and allowing health insurance companies to compete across state lines. More competition would likely lower prices. I saw Mr. Mackey as a kindred spirit of sort – make small changes over a long period of time to make everything work together a little better. Refine, don’t re-invent. That’s the way I work. I like it.

But most of the debate has not been thought. I saw the same angry town hall meetings on the evening news that everyone else saw. The looks on the faces of the hosting elected officials was usually that of incredulity or condescension. They couldn’t understand the outpouring of anger from their constituents. I can and do: the America people don’t want to boil the ocean. They see what I see: a giant, brand new health care system that might or might not work better than what they already have and that will cost an honest-to-God fortune.

Any system can be refined and re-engineered to be better and more efficient. Healthcare in America is no different than anything else. There are ways to streamline things. But re-inventing the system from scratch hoping it will work is not the best way to fix health care or anything else for that matter. The American people know this.

But maybe the American people suspect something else. Maybe they suspect that this isn’t about “fixing” the health care system in America. Taking any number of Mr. Mackey’s proposals and trying them out – slowly incrementally – would probably make things better. The ones that work, we keep, the ones that don’t work, we toss. No, maybe this is about taking over the health care system so that somebody else – some expert from a fancy college who works in Washington – can make decisions that are “better” that what we poor fools in flyover country can make. Maybe that’s where the anger comes from.

Maybe they know what I know: trying to boil the ocean is fruitless exercise.

Jonah weighs in

This bit from Jonah Goldberg basically nails the Democrats' problem with their Health Bill. Money quote:

The problem is that Americans don't like what they've heard about the plan, and Obama is incapable of selling, or unwilling to sell, it on the merits (perhaps because he knows the plan will lead to the single-payer system he has long sought but now denies wanting). That's why Obama spends most of his time either attacking critics or denouncing the status quo.

He's right. And President Obama is just not up to the job.

The natives are restless

This health care "debate" is shaping up to be a real mess for the ruling party. My opinions not withstanding (want more affordable health -- increase the supply of doctors), regular people are pissed off at the way the Democrat Party is trying to ram this monstrosity through with zero discussion or debate. When this bill goes down -- and it will -- it will mark the beginning of the end of Democratic Party rule in general and President Barack Obama in specific.

Here's a list of videos of rowdy town hall meetings (courtesy The Drudge Report). I expect this to get longer.

Protests spread over Obama health reform plans...
White House to Dems: 'Punch back twice as hard'...
SUMMER SHOWDOWN...
VIDEO: UNION THUGS UNLEASHED... PHOTOS...
6 arrested after St. Louis meeting... VIDEO...
Physicians jam meeting in Houston: 'Don't want socialized medicine'...
Tempers flare in Michigan...
Citing safety concerns, officials cancel Sen. McCaskill event...
PEOPLE SHOUTING AT PELOSI IN DENVER...

Ahh, democracy in action.

Wow, it's been a long time. Now that I've recovered my password, I can write again.

More to follow.

In the four months or so since my last post, several things happened:

• Barack Obama was elected president;
• Oil cratered;
• Credit froze, sending the economy into:
• A recession that has just manifested itself in Q4 of 2008.

While some are singing a siren's song of doom and gloom, I beg to differ, and I differ for a few very specific reasons. These are, in no real order:

• Oil cratered -- this is like a massive tax cut for regular people like me. It was way overpriced and I said so repeatedly in this space. I hope the speculators got crushed. Commodities are not an asset class;
• The Fed poured a spectacular amount of liquidity into the economy -- that much money sloshing around is going to have to find a home. Now that the banks have closed their books for the year, I think we'll start to see lending in both the private and commercial spaces;
• People are taking their losses -- it tough to say but some people have to lose money in a market like this. Housing prices do not go up forever. The people who thought that they could buy and flip houses continuously for decades have to take a haircut. They are starting to do so now. No money down is for suckers. The era of Carlton Sheets is officially over.

While I don't like the automakers bailout, there is still plenty to like. And with the Dow sticking its proboscis above 9K for the first time since November, I'm feeling encouraged since the Dow typically predicts conditions 6 months out.

Time to jump in.