What Makes a Restaurant Great?

The NYT Daily podcast recently featured a delightful and interesting discussion about this topic with two of their restaurant reviewers, who basically created the top 50 restaurants in the U.S. The discussion made me think about what I’d expect from eating at a restaurant on this list, thoughts on what makes a restaurant great, as well as some other thoughts on eating out. I thought we could explore those topics in this thread. Here are some random thoughts to start things off.

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2025-2026 NFL Week 4

Seahawks face off with the Cardinals on Thursday. I hope the OL’s run-blocking can improve, and they can maintain decent pass-protection, in general and during play-action plays. In the last game, Darnold didn’t have any turnover prone throws or plays, and I hope he can continue that.

I’ve heard Pete Carroll talk about certain moments in a seasons where the team can fall a part or turn the corner. If they don’t win or at least play well against the Bears, the Raiders may be facing that. I have a hard time watching the offense. The OL isn’t playing well, but even if it did, I just don’t care for what I’ve seen from Kelly’s offense. The OL does need to improve, though. One thing that I really didn’t like was Pete hiring his son to be the OL coach. I heard Mike Holmgren say that the OL coach was the most important assistant coach. I’m sure not every head coach agrees, but I personally think that coach among the top three coaches, if not #1, in terms of importance. And I’m skeptical that Pete’s son is really good.

Will the 2026 and 2028 US Elections be Fair?

I hesitate to even ask this question–primarily because simply questioning the fairness and legitimacy of an election is a really serious matter….Well, maybe not for an ordinary citizen like me, but definitely for a public official. Still, I don’t raise this question lightly. To me, the evidence should be quite substantial to even raise the question. I definitely think that’s the case. To just cite one bit of evidence, Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election in multiple ways, and he still claims that he won the election. My understanding is that he has used this as a lithmus test for people that work in his administration as well. If he did this in 2020, why wouldn’t he do this in 2026 and 2028?

I’m going to use this thread as a repository of articles and posts that track this issue. Trump has said and done things already that raise serious questions about whether the upcoming elections will be free and fair. If you think I’m going too far with this, or if you think the articles or information I cite isn’t valid pieces of evidence, I hope you will chime in. Also, if you find articles that I missed, please let me know. (As is usually the case, I’m behind in my posting on this.)

2025-2026 NFL Week 3

Dolphins@Bills

I thought the Dolphins struggled to stop the Bills run game, but at some point, for whatever reason, the Bills got away from running the ball. I thought they should have ran more, sprinkling in pass plays. (A similar thing happened in the Falcons-Vikings games, with the Vikings struggling to stop the Falcon run game.) It just seems like the vast majority of OCs just want to pass the ball, or they’re just unwilling to run in over and over again, even if the defense struggles to stop it. Personally, I want an OC who has no qualms running it over and over again, even if this means really low pass attempts. I believe Jimmy Garrapolo had a playoff game where he threw the ball 8 times–attempts, not completions–and the Niners won. If the run game is really successful, if the defense can’t stop it, why wouldn’t you keep running it?

Robert Altman Thread

Criterion Channel is now streaming a collection of Robert Altman films, so I decided to start a thread on these films. Stylistically, Altman is probably most famous for features many different characters in his films and the use of overlapping dialogue, where characters talk over each other (which often occurs in real life). I should note that not all of these films have these qualities. If Altman’s films do possess features that are present in all his films, I don’t know what they are, but I hope to discover them as I watch these films.

What Does Intelligence Look Like Within the Context of Sports?

When I was younger, when people talked about an intelligent basketball player, I assumed the player was smart in an academic sense as well. People also speak this way now–for example, “He came from the Ivy League, so you know he’s an intelligent player.” But does being smart in the classroom mean someone will be smart on the field of play? I have my doubts about this, and I tend to think intelligence expresses itself in a specific way within the sports context.

Off the top of my head, here some aspects of the nature of intelligence within a sports context:

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2025-2026 NFL Week 1

I’m really look forward to this season, not only am I interested in seeing the Seahawks, but I’m equally interested in watching the Raiders. And I haven’t felt this way in a long, long time–probably going back to the 90s at least. I actually real hope for the Raiders, not that they will win a lot of games, but they will start playing better and become a solid team. I’m really hoping this happens, but I think their week 1 match-up against the Patriots is going to be tough. I really like Vrabel as a coach, and I think he’ll get the Patriots to play well. Watching some of their offense, it reminds of what the offense looked like under Belichick–good balance, and a good mix of spread and under center looks. I’m hoping the Raiders run defense is good (It looked awful in their first preseason game.), they play physical, run the ball well, and cut out the boneheaded plays. If they do this and lose, I can live with that. It would be a good first step.

With the Seahawks, I’m really looking forward to watching them, especially against the 49ers. My sense is that Klint Kubiak is as good as his father, Gary (or close enough), and the regular season games will start to show that. (This would be Klint’s 3rd year as the OC, not counting a partial season of being the OC in Denver.) If he is, the run game and the offense should be a delight to watch, especially the former. Kubiak’s match-up against Robert Saleh should be a good one (although I don’t have a good sense of how good the 49er defense will be as they have a lot of new, younger players). The match-up between Kyle Shananahan, with CMC fully healthy, and Mike Macdonald, in year 2 of his defense, should be really good, too. I can’t wait for this game!

Oh, I guess we should make some predictions, and initial power rankings of the teams. I’ll try to do that later.

Portland, Oregon 2025

Leaving the Portland airport, seeing the architecture of the homes and evergreen trees made me feel like I was back in Seattle. But as we drove into downtown Portland, two things stood out, distinguishing Portland from Seattle–namely, the Willamette River and the bridges, one after the other, a few rising high above it. Water features prominently in Seattle, but the water there is like an amoeba surrounding it, whereas in Portland, the Willamette is a strong line, cleaving the city in two, creating western and eastern sections. The Western side is more of the urban core, including the downtown area. The Eastern side is more suburban, with several portions of the longer streets and avenues filled with shops, restaurants and even movie theaters, creating a kind of charming main street vibe. I really like Seattle, but I might like Portland even more. The food scene seems just as good as Seattle, if not better, and they have probably the best bookstore I’ve been to. I want to talk about that store and also a used vinyl/cd/video store which I really liked as well.

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