Sonic has come to town…
What does this have to do with council members? Well, It was hot and muggy last night after work. I did not want to sit at home where I have no AC, so I went to see Hellboy 2 (which I recommend), and afterwards I was hungry. The new Sonic was on my way home, so I figured I would check it out. I had heard the stories of people waiting hours in line to get to this place when they first opened a month or so ago… I got right in. I think I got there just before the Drive-In area was closing. The Drive-thru line was .. massive.
So I order a burger, onion rings and a coke. The car-hop brings my food out, and there’s that awkward pause after she gives me my change where I think to myself “Am I supposed to tip?”
I end up giving her a dollar as she starts to walk away… and turn towards my food. It’s in a bag… not the tray on the window sort of thing I remember from the old A&W drive-ins. So I’m thinking… I just tipped for fast-food? I try the onion rings, battered style… decent size, still warm, crispy… and tasteless. I ate three and gave up. The burger was good, their limited-time special fire-something. Pepperjack cheese, smoked cheddar, bacon, and a “sweet & spicy habenarro” sauce. The sauce was pretty actually. And the burger was nice and juicy… which was when I discovered I had no napkins. Fortunately I always seem to have some extras in the Jeep. Oh, and no straw either. I dunno… overall, I wasn’t impressed.
So, back to the council member thing… this all reminded me of a new story from the Minneapoils Star Tribune Star & Sickle about former Minneapolis city council member Dean Zimmerman. He just spent 17 months in a federal prison in Colorado after being convicted of taking bribes from a developer. This paragraph here pretty much sums up what’s wrong with politicians in general…
Zimmermann was convicted in August 2006 of accepting an illegal gratuity in exchange for his support of a developer’s projects. He entered prison still contending that his downfall was more a product of overzealous prosecutors than his own wrongdoing. He also declared his intention to use his sentence as a kind of sabbatical.
He was caught, on tape, telling this developer how to skirt donation laws and such to funnel money to him, but he’s the ‘victim’ of overzealous prosecutors. I don’t think I can actually add anything to that.
Oh, and this also shows what’s wrong with the local paper and their very… left-leaning tendencies. What the heck is an “illegal gratuity”?
It was a bribe. Plain and simple.
If you were expecting some sort of long, drawn out rant, sorry. I wish I could say that how they handled this story, or how Mr. Zimmerman seems to have no remorse for his actions surprised me, but they don’t. And that kinda sucks.
2 comments ↓
Try the Slush type drinks. And yes the car hop gets a tip. At the Sonic’s way down south the servers have better training. Here no one has a history of how car hops should work or act.
[...] Don’t Forget to Tip Your Friendly Council Member Mostly a commentary on a news item, with some stuff bout Sonic thrown in. Ironically enough, one year later, Sonic is now one of my clients. [...]
Leave a Comment