Think Twice, Thrice, Four Times Before you Post

It's only been a few short years since we have braved the wild, wild West of social media vehicles such as Facebook and Twitter. I want to share with you something that just occurred in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, when an attorney posted a rant on social media and subsequently lost his job.

The attorney, who worked for a bankruptcy firm, apparently logged on to Facebook Wednesday, January 20 while stuck in Interstate traffic during an early morning winter storm. We've all been there - creeping along, or fully stopped, behind other drivers dealing with icy conditions.

Sadly, the traffic jam was caused by an accident which claimed the life of a corrections officer. Many people in the vicinity around southern Illinois knew this 22-year-old man. He was taking a 17-year-old male to a juvenile court appearance just before 8 a.m. and lost control of the transport van. According to The Register-News, the driver lost control on an extremely slick and snow-covered part of the highway, spun out and crossed the highway median. The van then slid into the path of a semi-tractor trailer and the vehicles collided. I assume the truck tried its best to stop, since it is reported the truck jackknifed.

The prisoner was hospitalized with severe injuries and the driver of the van died. Icy conditions caused five wrecks that morning. The attorney, stuck in traffic that morning, started his rant on Facebook from his car, assumably from his cell phone. Was he texting and driving as well? I don't know. Reportedly he blasted the driver who lost his life, and also police and EMS. The attorney criticized the driver for not slowing down, and also said of him "he might as well have been shouting Allah Akbar" - how bizarre.

Apparently, many people must have read his posts. At some point, he posted an update stating the driver who was killed was "rotting in hell." Residents reading the posts were so outraged, within two hours of reading this, people were planning a public protest. By last Friday, citizens were standing in front of the man's place of employment, in the snow, demanding an apology from the man. The town's newspaper printed a photo of this protest on the paper's front page with a caption that read "Say No Evil".

Standing on snow-lined streets, a group of citizens hoisted hand-made picket signs. They told a reporter they were braving the cold in support of law enforcement and to honor the dead officer.

The lawyer made an appearance to publicly apologize. According to the newspaper report, he regretted what he had done and made mention of we shouldn't post things under angry circumstances. Apparently, the damage had already been done and the apology came too late, or was not well received. Once it has been said, it's out there. A person has a hard time getting it back once that button has been pushed.

The attorney later either resigned, under pressure or not, or was fired. However it happened, he quickly lost his job because of this. "People need to learn what you post on Facebook has consequences," one protester said. A supervisor came out to talk to protesters, saying the person "is not a bad person, he made a bad decision...this spiraled out of control...there is no excuse for what he said."

Old Crown Coffee Roasters Gave Us Permission to Relax

Tucked under a yellow and blue awning in a shopping plaza on North Anthony Boulevard is a go-to place for students from the IPFW campus. I was invited to meet friends there, and had a slight problem finding it, because the signage wasn't obvious to me. But in the one-story building was an eclectic collection of roasted coffee beans in barrels, art-for-sale, old-time game machines, tables, chairs and a bar.

It's a coffee house, it's a bar. Beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, it's a restaurant. My friend from Fort Wayne said in the summer, the chef goes out to a garden behind the building and pulls fresh produce to cook and serve from the kitchen. The menu changes often, and my friend mentioned a savory chicken pot pie she was served there once.

Old Crown does serve wrap sandwiches, hot sandwiches, and salads for lunch. Normally I would have sampled something such as that, but I was there at a very in-between time and didn't really want to eat. We did have a nice snack of hummus and crackers that went very well with our drinks. One friend ordered a hot coffee drink. It contained pistachio liquor, cream, and a toasted marshmallow whipped cream topping. The house was out of the whipped cream, but the wait staff made a new batch just for us. I took a sample sip of this hot drink and loved it. I immediately wanted to walk out the door and go cross-country skiing.

My other friend ordered the Mochaholic. This was a cold drink featuring espresso, brownie liqueur, vodka, and chocolate shavings on top. This was tasty too - served in a dessert stem, it's in the photo above. $7.

They have a nice selection of beer, but I'm a wine drinker. I tried a California Monte Volpe Primo Rosso, looking for a darker, heavier red from the menu. I thought it was delicious, but it isn't a type I am used to and I discovered I had a headache later. I was probably just dehydrated with the cold. Wine was $5/glass.

Had we stayed a little later, I definitely would have had something from the dinner menu. This week in mid-January they were serving some Asian-themed items. On the menu was a honey sesame shrimp appetizer and a Korean ribeye. I would have ordered the Japanese clams and linguini (typing that just made my mouth water) $16, or the Bibimbap $15, also a traditional Korean dish. This one featured sautéed spinach, scallions, carrots, mushrooms, rice, sauces and spices with a fried egg on top. Leave out the egg and it's a vegan dish.

We lingered and talked. Students and townies seemed to come and go, bought coffee and roasted beans, and worked on their laptops with headphones. There was a little free library box in the front of the window area. I took a photo of the bean roaster, and it's a big, nice looking machine. The batch of beans, this one named Indian Monsoon Malibar, was just coming out of the roaster and it smelled wonderful. I'm glad my friends took me to check this place out. 3417 N. Anthony, Fort Wayne: (260)422-5282.

Trolley Bar Did it Right

My date and I wanted to dine out last evening, and then go see a movie at the Carmike 20 Cinemas in Fort Wayne. We went and saw The Big Short, which was excellent. It was an intelligent movie, about the real estate housing/mortgage fiasco that happened about ten years ago. We should all take lessons from this, to understand what happened in our country that made thousands of us lose homes and jobs. We have to learn from the past and from our mistakes so as not to repeat them. I haven't seen the other Oscar-nominated films, but that being said I'd still be happy if this movie won Best Picture.

I don't claim to understand all the complicated moves made by the banks, the bundled mortgage bonds, and the "shorts", bets made against the success of these bonds. The screenplay does its best to explain all of this but parts of it I didn't follow that well. It still does not take away for me the purpose and meaning of the film. The ensemble cast also gave outstanding performances.

But back to dinner. I've had several meals at the Trolley Bar over the years, and the food last night was the best. Our entrees came with a trip to the salad bar, and I tend to be very leery of said buffet-style choices. But it was excellent. The pewter plates were chilled. Lots of vegetables, dressings and other cold items were offered. Notable to me was the full crock of artichoke hearts. Just a small jar of them is so expensive! I took a ladle-full for my salad.

We chose a Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles, California - made by the Slow Press winery. I found it to be excellent, and reasonably priced: some restaurants really make their margins on wine prices, but that was not the case here at Trolley Bar.

My date has the seared, sashimi tuna, and it looked beautiful: that is a photo of the plate above. Maybe the only thing less than perfect about our meal was the asparagus he ordered. I think you can see a bit of it on a separate plate at the bottom of the photo - it was a bit limp and overdone. But it was still edible. I also think maybe we lingered over our generous salads a tad long for the kitchen, and it being a typical Friday night in Fort Wayne, the restaurant was very busy. I'm glad business is good.

I had an almond crusted walleye, and it was wonderful. The outside was crispy, but not really fried, and the fish inside was perfectly tender and savory. It was served with a very large "head" of broccoli on the plate, and we thought it looked a little strange, but it was cooked perfectly. I took what I couldn't finish home in a box, as I usually do (unlike the French, so I have been told).

Our server "M" did a wonderful job. I know her name, but I'm not sure she'd like me to post it publicly, so I'll refrain from doing so. Trolley Bar, in my opinion you have improved. Keep up the good work. You have a very convenient location on DuPont Road on the west side of the diverging diamond at Interstate 69.

Allegiant Airlines to Florida - Not Performing as Well this Year

I've been a huge fan of Allegiant Airlines' direct flights to multiple locations from Fort Wayne. It's so nice to buy a ticket and not have to make a connection through another city. Over the past ten years or so I've flown Allegiant several times - to the Orlando, Florida area; to Phoenix, Arizona; to Puenta Gorda, Florida, and there are other destinations I have not yet booked. Normally, the flights have left on time, except one time we hade a long delay departing Florida because it was cold and the airport or airline had no de-icing equipment.

But, a recent trip from Fort Wayne to Puenta Gorda resulted in my palatable disappointment with the airline. Once we got there, we had a great time in Florida: warm gulf waters on a visit to Sanibel Island, a wonderful day trip to Big Hickory Island, and a lovely stay at the upscale Hyatt Regency hotel in the Bonita Springs area.

But the experience of getting there and coming home was less than stellar. I wonder what's going on with Allegiant. The weather was not that bad, so they can't really blame anything on what was very mild winter weather. Mechanical issues with the planes? The airlines know the winter holidays are going to be one of the busiest times of the travel year. Airlines, get your planes in the shop and get them prepped and ready to go. In fact, get some extra planes ready, charter them from other carriers or whatever you have to do as a backup in case of potential mechanical problems or delays from other airports coming in.

My group was scheduled to leave Fort Wayne at 9:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve. We got a message as we were driving to the airport the flight would be delayed until 11:30 p.m. If you are a frequent traveler you are prepared to expect the occasional delay. But then, midnight passed in the airport with many patrons watching the ball drop on airport television screens instead of making their New Year's destination plans. Oh well, such is the fate of the commercial passenger. We arrived in Florida at 4:30 a.m. New Year's Day! Oy, that was exhausting.

But, we made the most of it, got a couple hours or sleep and enjoyed what we could of the sunshine on January 1. It's so nice to get out of the Midwestern cold winter and have a few fun days in lovely Florida. No complaints about that.

Had the return flight gone ok, I don't think I would have written this blog post. But when it was time to return on January 4, Allegiant's website was down. I tried off and on for a couple of hours to log-on and print or screen copy the required boarding passes, but that was impossible. Nor was it possible to reach Allegiant by phone - the recorded message told me there was at least an hour wait to speak to a human customer service representative.

The departure time of the flight was changed from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. I think it actually left about 1:30 p.m. Many passengers on that flight were planning to make it in to their workplace upon arrival. But with the seven-hour change in the arrival time, their work day was shot. Then, Allegiant did not have one of their own planes available. Apparently, the airline chartered a plane from Sun Country, a different carrier. Sun Country didn't seem ready for this, and so their plane was not catered. This means there was no food or beverages available on the flight. All they had to pass out to passengers was water and pretzels. We were planning to buy food for lunch or at least get a Coke or a juice, but no dice. Not a big deal on its own, but the effects of disappointments are cumulative.

I paid for assigned seats three months ahead of time on Allegiant. Otherwise a passenger just gets the luck of the draw for seats. Since I was traveling with children, I was willing to pay a little more so we could sit together and I could help to meet their needs.

But when the doors opened for the now Sun Country flight, the assigned seats flew out the window and it was general boarding - open seating. The seats I had paid for together were gone, and we had to find what seats we could and were not able to sit together. At the very least I expect a refund for the purchased seats. I gave our passenger information to a gate agent when we disembarked the plane, and then later I got on the Allegiant website and sent an e:mail about the issue and my request for a refund for the seat assignment payment.

That was January 4 or 5. Now it's January 13, and I have heard nothing from Allegiant about that refund. I expect I will, but I wonder what's wrong with them. Did everybody in their company take a vacation at the same time? Is everybody quitting? Are they that short staffed? I know Allegiant is supposed to be a discount carrier, and I accept that, but what happened on this trip is disconcerting. Allegiant, you used to be better than this. We need that direct carrier out of Fort Wayne. What happened - what is going on?