Comments

1

If "everyone and their grandma is starting a streaming service" than we are not living "monopolist hellscape" by definition.

4

A good Slog AM. This is one of those Slog news roundups that leave me disturbed, unsettled, troubled. So I go back over the stories to see which of them left me with that taste in my mouth. The answer?

Oh, only about half of them. That John Cena apology to China though? Kinda like the forced confession the hijacked Belarusian journalist had to read, only with zero record of courage leading up to it.

6

AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CHINA DA DA DA DAAAAA

7

@2 Hi Xina!

8

"A proposed class-action lawsuit"

As in civil action, not criminal charges?

We have an police state focusing their sizable budget and resources fighting everything from imaginary sex trafficking (shaking down Asian women for free massages and asset forfeiture) routing the homeless, and permanently placing guards outside Jenny Durkan's million dollar home because she feels at risk.

Meanwhile, we have real life examples of wage theft in the restaurant industry that as @3 correctly points out is the most marginalized and powerless group in America who are having their minimum wages stolen from them, yet prosecutors and the police with their $200,000 a year salaries have either no power, or no interest in criminal charges were genuine exploitation is occurring? Can one the exploited workers having their wages stolen lie and say there was sex and an Asian women involved so the police will give a shit?

Don't tell me our elaborate police state is anything more than gun thugs out to protect the rights of the rich to crush the marginalized.

9

I worked for Zeke's for a day, years ago and they were the biggest squares/karens I'd ever delivered pies for(and ive worked for a few in my college days). Only pizza place I worked where almost the entire staff did NOT smoke weed. Also, Ive sampled pizza throughout the country and with the exception of Italian Family and maybe Big Mario's, Seattle is probably the worst pizza city I've lived in/experienced. I give it maybe a 2, with New York being a 10. Quick SLOG PIZZA POLL: Where do you rank Seattle as a pizza city, and what is your favorite pizza joint in Seattle(or anywhere in western Washington, i will drive for good pizza!)

10

@7 I don't hide behind fake accounts. I have one account here on SLOG and this is it. Thanks for playing!

11

@9 Seattle has no good pizza. I remember being psyched when I moved from Brooklyn to Seattle to try Piecora's since they said they were from Brooklyn. Their pizza was terrible!

When I lived in Seattle I would eat Pagliacci's AGOG when I craved pizza.

Seattle has no pizza and no bagels. Which is fine. There are things NYC doesn't have that Seattle does (and now that I live on the Oregon coast, the same reasoning applies).

Portland does have one pizza place i like that comes close to east coast pizza (Pizza Jerk) but they have a serious consistency problem. The first location had a bad fire. Then they had to replace the ovens. Now they are apparently replacing their ovens again. I haven't been to the second location.

It's a long drive from Seattle to Portland, though, just to get a pizza that might be good on the night you want it.

12

PS @9 Two more thoughts. I loved Via Tribunali (the original, on Capitol Hill) though that kind of pizza has nothing to do with NYC style pizza.

And Serious Pie did not exist when I lived in Seattle and I have never eaten there when I was still able to visit Seattle, so...

13

I think the MGM deal also includes all the outtakes from "The Apprentice."

14

@7

Sorry that person has an obsession with you.

@4

I think Mark Ruffalo remarked yesterday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, then issued a "correction" shortly afterwards.

15

I read the first sentence of the comment @11: "@9 Seattle has no good pizza." And I was all ready to satirically respond, "Yeah, and for that matter, Seattle has no good bagels." And how only a degenerate, inbred incel could like Eltana or Bagel Oasis or Rubinstein or... Well, you get the idea.

And then I go and read the rest of the comment: "Seattle has no pizza and no bagels." Y'know, in this day and age, it's so hard to satirize anything anymore.

I hope we can all agree there's at least one thing Seattle excels at. And that's complaining how everything in Seattle sucks.

16

RE: Sucking up to China

My prediction is stuff like what John Cena did is going to become more common. As China's consumer culture keeps growing, businesses and prominent people will kowtow to them more and more to "stay in their good graces" (i.e., keep Chinese customers buying American made shit).

The video game industry is already there. I read gamer message boards and see the confusion and dismay of American gamers as companies increasingly cave to China's demands--over the demands of US customers--because the Chinese consumers vastly outnumber the US ones. The video game companies know where their bread is buttered and it's NOT in the US anymore.

I don't know if this is just a trend in niche industries like video games, but I DO know that China desperately wants to be #1 on the world stage, and it's looking more and more like they've got the resources and the guile to do it. What's more, too many naïve and oblivious Americans think the US is unbeatable. They're gonna be caught with their pants down when the inevitable happens.

17

@15 You're projecting. I don't believe everything in Seattle sucks.

Seattle has the best coffee in the United States (though Portland/Oregon is a close second).

Seattle has the mountains and when the mountains are out, those days are glorious! I lived for those days, walking out of my apartment on Capitol Hill downtown and taking the ferry to West Seattle to ride my bike (or driving across the West Seattle bridge) and being able to see Rainier and the Olympics.

Seattle is the city I left NYC for - I chose Seattle, despite how very different it is from NYC and the east coast. Seattle is where I expected to live out my life. Instead I got seriously ill and had to leave. And if that had never happened, I am not sure I would be able to afford to still be living there.

I will never understand why criticizing a place (any place) is seen as useless complaining when in most cases its simply recognizing a reality and in many cases a desire for things to be better (not talking about pizza and bagels).

When I moved to Seattle people in Seattle complained all of the time about people moving there and wanted people to leave. The same constant complaint exists in Portland. As a former New Yorker (the city to which everyone moves) always perplexed me. Oh well.

18

Re: Pizza

The Independent by Madison Park is great, as is Mioposto, for a formidable wood fire oven date-night pie made with 00 flour. Fondi in Gig Harbor isn't Seattle but it's a strong choice in the Sound nearby as well. Near the convention center, Primo looks promising and is one I always wanted to try (other than it being an ESR restaurant which tend to be more style over substance).

These aren't your big ass New York style slice pies, which just won't taste the same due to the different mineral content of the water and the effect it has on the dough, but if you want a great tasting and satisfying pizza experience these are some solid options. For delivery or slice pies, well...it's Seattle.

19

xina @17: "@15 You're projecting. I don't believe everything in Seattle sucks."

Well, at least I haven't backed myself into a corner by taking an entire category of restaurant or food and claiming this most cosmopolitan, diverse, and dynamic city has no good examples of it. Especially if I were someone who hadn't set foot in this city since God knows when.

Now, to follow on Urgutha Forka's refreshingly thoughtful comment @16, I'll just say this. And nobody is forcing say this. Beijing has way better pizza and bagels than Seattle does.

20

@19,

Perhaps, but Seattle has way better Chinese food than Beijing.

21

@20: interesting - why so you think?

22

@19, I guess you missed @12. And chose to ignore most of my comment @17. And I've set foot in Seattle in the last 5 years, so there's that, too. But hey, keep at it. Have you ever left Seattle, ever?

23

@18:

Even New Yorkers dispute that "mineral water" claim - sounds like you just lifted all of that straight from the Wikipedia entry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York-style_pizza

24

@23: Doesn't sound like it at all. What an obscure and pedantic leap to a conclusion. Not to mention annoying.

25

@23. I've never read the Wikipedia entry, but any baker worth their salt knows how water temperature and mineral composition affects the fermentation of dough and its resultant aldehydes and rise that give real good dough that flaky steamy experience that separates a functional crust from something truly scrumptious.

I've worked in a few pizza places in Seattle and folks often prepare their dough without pride and mix the salt in with the yeast while proofing it, killing it and use unfiltered tap water at inconsistent temperatures.

Sure, anyone can get a batch of high gluten pizza dough by throwing it in a mixer, cutting it into balls, and shaping it on a rack and freezing it overnight, but that pizza is going to suck and nobody will want to eat the crust. Of course you can make delicious New York-style pizza and get some very fair approximations of the real thing, especially visibly, but you have to remember that yeast is a living thing and its nutrition and mineral content directly affects the content and amount of its gases and the rise of the dough, as well as oven spring. This separates truly great pizza from an average utilitarian slice.

It is true that different locales have different flavors to their dough based on the water, which sometimes is even better unfiltered. It's also ironic that you used Wikipedia to fact check that claim and then accused me of lifting it from there to discredit it. But you didn't even cite the your apocryphal claim correctly about "even New Yorkers"

New York–style pizza gets its distinguishing crust from the high-gluten bread flour with which it is made. Minerals present in New York City's tap water supply are also credited with giving the dough in metro area pies its characteristic texture and flavor.[7][8] Some out-of-state pizza bakers even transport the water cross-country for the sake of authenticity.[9][10] However, [i] many pizza makers dispute this fact[/i], noting that high-quality and true-to-form New York–style pizza is being found in more and more places.[b][citation needed][/b]

Anyway, here's another source for you. Step up the grits.

https://www.bakemag.com/articles/11985-the-importance-of-water-quality-in-baking

26

MGM is still a thing? Who knew? I thought it died with Judy Garland.

28

@10 There's only a few of you on here that resort to name calling instead of a rhetorical response but I guess you do both. Ha you did win that round and Im actually glad you arent the sock puppet.

29

I would only eat pizza if I lived i NYC!


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