The Bloated Belly

Thanksgiving, post-game

By The Hack

The Hack is not one for tradition, for a variety of reasons. But a few have snuck upon him, if only because he rejected some and joined or inadvertently started something else, which then repeated as annual events. In his dim mind, he can grasp now how traditions start.

Having hosted Thanksgiving twice by no means registers as a tradition, but if it becomes one, The Hack wouldn’t mind at all. It probably started back here in 2005, when a friend hosted a T-day “Festivus” of sorts, during which an assortment of stragglers and left-behinds assembled, collaborated on a meal, and, through the success and failure of the cooking process, had a great and truly merry occasion. The Hack and his better half then went elsewhere the next two years, adhering to more “traditional” obligations. But they missed the camaraderie of that 2005 celebration and its unforced vibe. Last year, the Hack and his better half decided to stay home for the holiday, and send out a general invite that basically said, “We’re not going anywhere. You’re welcome to come here to eat, drink and relax without any other expectation.”

 It worked. The better-half’s parents came up and were shocked they had nothing to do in the kitchen—likely a first. The Hack’s sisters, nieces and nephews, brothers-in law showed up. The Hack roasted a bird and all was good. This year, the same procedure was repeated. Sister and nieces and two friends showed up. The Hack did the bird again (with a twist—recipes coming) and all good. No pressure, just a come-as-you-are hangout. To The Hack, Thanksgiving is the most unique of Holidays. Family not required, just people who want to gather—whether it’s just two or 20—and be thankful for what they have, be it a little or a lot.The Hack and the mighty staff at Bloated Belly HQ hope everyone had a pleasant, relaxing holiday.

UP Show cancelled

By The Hack

In somewhat big news for restaurant industry insiders, Hospitality Minnesota President and CEO Dave Siegel announced minutes ago that the organization's board of directors voted to cancel the Upper Midwest Foodservice & Lodging Show. The event had been an annual tradition for 51 years. The Hack, for his day job, had attended the last six years, and witnessed its slow decline, even before the economy tanked. Grumblings were heard about its relevance, but supporters could also be found: even last year, the Hack heard good things from enough vendors getting leads that he thought the show would muddle through. Visit the Hack's day-job blog for Siegel's announcement.

St. Paul without Russo? That's crazy talk.

By The Hack

The Hack has semi-regular conversations with Lenny Russo at Heartland, and knows him to be funny, extremely smart, and extremely passionate about professional path he's chosen. His rants are never without a succinct point. This issue is a big one for restaurateurs in St. Paul.

Newspaper survival: Collusion?

By The New Guy

Well, collusion might be too strong a word these days. But not long ago, the thought of a meeting between the heads of media giants was viewed with immeasurable suspicion among journalism practitioners. Now, not so much. Just looking at my own little world being the editor/manager of a small trade publication has me reaching out to hither and yon to partner up with organizations and (gasp!) publications that don't compete directly with mine in effort to find some way to help each other gain attention and, in turn, eyes on the page.

Thinking about the virtual forest fire burning its way through tree-based journalism stalwarts across the country (in our neck of the woods, the Star Tribune recently declared bankruptcy), one would think it's high time for the heads of those companies to have a confab about what the future holds. Except a meeting of that kind is sorta illegal.

David Carr of The New York Times has a solid commentary today on just this very thing, and a few ideas on what form survival may take. I've gone back and forth on how much content a paper-based publication should supply on its Web site, but I find myself drifting more toward Carr's line of thinking: It costs money and time to produce solid, well-sourced journalism, and consumers of that journalism should pay for it. It is a product, after all.

The Web has yet to produce ad revenues to sustain a newsroom (or a social networking site), but Carr suggests that perhaps Big News shot themselves in the foot by providing much content for free in the first place. It's an argument to be made, but problematic: technology advanced too fast and furious, and many publicly traded media companies when times were still fairly flush were more concerned with profit margins than maintaining editorial staff and investigating just how to approach the Internet (The New York Times is lucky in that regard, but is soon facing hard fiscal decisions).

Many ideas are being tossed about, including a customized, printable newspaper by MediaNews Group, but the problem with that is many aggregators (Google News, anyone?) are supplying that service. But Carr points out that those aggregators should start paying those that generate the news, too.

It's an interesting debate, one that is increasingly urgent. An important part of any democracy is its transparency, and that transparency is supplied in large part by a free press. The free press needs money to operate, and now it doesn't have any.

Quick link...

Nice, quick read in the New York Times. A bit of a retread of what Michael Pollan has written about extensively, but a nice, short primer for the uninitiated. Discuss.