It’s Monday, April 2, 2012 and let allergy season begin!

I’m not allergic to very much, but the stuff I am allergic to, I’m allergic to in a big way.

It’s nothing life-threatening, unless you count the potential of trying to drive a couple tons of pickup while sneezing my brains out. It is however, damned annoying.

Not sure what it is that my body objects to. Whatever it is, it’s not something that shows up every spring. Last year, spring in these parts was unusually damp and our mystery flora was digging it. Thus far, the 2012 spring looks to be a good deal less moist, so there’s a good chance that I won’t go broke buying Allegra and Kleenex.

1. There seems to be a mass-exodus from mainstream, corporate media going on, with CNN and Fox News taking the brunt of the loss.

   

   The ratings for March, 2012 show Fox losing about 17% of its prime-time viewership, but CNN took a massive hit with a 50% loss in its main demographic.

   Lots of talking heads (mostly from the mainstream media) are blaming it on viewers moving more to the online stuff because of ease and convenience.

   Which may be true, but I’m thinking this is only part of it.

   I don’t know a lot about marketing, but it seems to me that people will do stuff that’s easier and more convenient only if there’s a comparable value. My eldest daughter is the marketing scholar of the family and my good friend Jim has tons of practical experience, so I look forward to their input here.

   For instance, I’m willing to drive 260 miles round-trip to have my truck serviced. The two experiences I’ve had with the the local Ford dealer (Archie Cochran Ford, in Billings) have been 0 for 2 on the positive customer experience scoreboard. Fremont Motors in Sheridan, WY have been 2 for 2 when it comes to delivering the kind of service I expect. While it would be abundantly more convenient to go to the local dealer, it’s just not worth the failed expectations.

   My general impression with Archie Cochran is that they think they have a captive audience and therefor don’t really have to go that extra few inches to make the difference between adequate and superior. The folks down Sheridan way don’t seem to suffer from this. The last time I was down there, I had half the service department outside in the rain trying to find mounting points for my gun rack that would not interfere with the side air bags. This at no charge. The local dealership didn’t seem all that interested in helping me at all, to the point of quoting me labor for just looking.

   Anyway, so while the convenience argument isn’t without merit, I think there’s a much larger issue.

   I suggest that people aren’t getting what they want from the mainstream media and are looking elsewhere. Most of what passes for “news” these days is little more than commentary/opinion. The person writing the script or story seems more interested telling you what to think about a thing that happened rather than just the facts.

   

   It seems more important to make the story be about the proper thing. For instance, President Obama’s open-mike flub where he told the Russian President that he’ll have “more flexibility” after he’s reelected.

   If you can find the story at all on anything but Fox News, the story will be about how the republicans are attacking him over it. The story isn’t about his arrogance in claiming that he’ll still be in charge after the next inauguration. Nor is it about what appears to be him saying that he’s not presently negotiating in good faith.

   If you look at the story on Fox, it’s pretty much conservative talking heads opining (not reporting) and telling us what it means.

   I think we know what it means. That is, those of us who can still think independently and don’t need all our news wrapped up in whatever agenda we favor.

   But we like to be entertained too. That’s probably why comedian Jon Stewart was voted “Most Trusted Man in America.” This despite his obvious liberal slant on things. I guess we trust people who make us laugh more than we trust people who piss us off.

   But if you’re like me, you’ve pretty much abandoned the mainstream media because you believe they’re leaving something out. Take for instance presidential candidate Ron Paul. Search the Fox and CNN web sites for stories about him. There’s plenty of mention, but damned little about his message. It’s all about how many delegates he has and what that could mean for the convention. Romney, Santorum and Gingrich are quoted in abundance. Paul is, at best a footnote.

   Or, look at the coverage of the Occupy movement.

   

   The coverage from both ends of the mainstream media has been decisively negative. Instead of finding the people with legitimate, well-reasoned complaints, Fox portrays them as a collection of shiftless nutcases and the liberal media focuses on the confrontations and violence. Between both ends, the message is effectively irrelevanted.

   Then we have people who only seek out news that validates their convictions. If these are the people that the mainstream is managing to hold on to, then there may possibly be a return to true journalism.

   As long as they can find a way to make it pay.

2. 

   Been a while since we’ve been to a place worth mentioning. We’ve mostly been keeping to the places we like. We had a bad experience at one of them last week, bad enough that I felt compelled to call the manager and give him a ration of what for. He offered to send me coupons for free stuff, but I declined, in exchange for his promise to correct the problem. He said he’d have it squared away, so I’m waiting until next Sunday to see if he really does. If not, I will impose an embargo and make sure my my faithful readers (all four of you) know all about it.

   Saturday evening, we tried a new place, The Samaria Garden (no website yet) for dinner.

   The place features Japanese cuisine and is one of those places where the chef prepares the meal right in front of you. It’s not at all like Mongolian Grill or Hu Pot, where you load up a bowl and then watch the cooks slide it around on a big plate of hot iron. The chef here is preparing your meal and not some bowl of stuff handed him by a stranger.

   Cutting to the chase, I liked it. I liked it a lot. The chef and wait staff were both attentive and entertaining. Since my oldest daughter has a shellfish allergy, the chef prepared her meal first. If this put a kink in his show, it wasn’t at all evident.

   The food was excellent. The wife had the teriyaki beef, which at most places is little more than overcooked stew meat. Here it was a proper cut of beef, tender and cooked to perfection. The teriyaki sauce was flavorful enough to be present, without being overpowering.

   I had the scallops. As I’ve said before, scallops are hard to do correctly. You have got to pay attention in that just a few seconds is all the difference between firm, flavorful food and mush. Despite having five other meals going at the same time, the chef was mindful of this and scooped them from the grill at precisely the right moment. I scarfed them down with considerable glee!

   Our granddaughter had the chicken and while she’s not a huge fan of Oriental food, she plowed through her meal with gusto. This after spending a couple hours at the circus, eating popcorn and cotton candy. She even ate all her vegetables, which is something the chef should probably get a trophy for.

   Our son had the beef/chicken combo which he proclaimed as excellent. He too is a professional chef, so his endorsement has considerable weight.

   On a side note: I may have found The Skipper from the TV show, Gilligan’s Island!
   

   The wife (as does Wikipedia) contends that Alan Hale died in 1990, but it’s entirely possible that he, like Elvis is alive and well, hiding among us in plain sight.

   All the way across the board, The Samaria Garden provides a unique, fun and tasty dining experience. It’s a little on the pricey side, but considering the show you get and the individual attention, it’s well worth the cost.

   We’ll most definitely be back!

   They’re located at 3429 Central Ave in Billings. Their phone number is 656-0448 and they’re open Tuesday-Saturday 5pm-9pm.