It's a headline worthy of the Onion:
Is it Ignatius Reilly? Is it Larry Groznik? Nope, it's old friend Thomas McNamee! As a premise for an article, welp, the HuffPo got what it paid for. When the Cod thinks about legacies of 9/11, there are not one, but two, wars that come to mind, not to mention lost lives, trauma, etc, before that whole post-9/11 improvement in customer service thing comes to mind. But it was actually Danny Meyer who got the whole post 9/11 warm fuzzy thing rolling -- back in 1985:
Is Thomas McNamee on glue? His narrative goes like this:
1) In the beginning was Le Cirque,* where the likes of Thomas McNamee would be seated in a broom closet.
2) Then Danny Meyer opened the first of an armada of restaurants that took customer service more seriously than the NY fine dining pioneers of the previous era.
3) Then 9/11 happened, which put things in perspective, and brought New Yorkers together and so,
4) Thomas McNamee should have no trouble getting a table at Babbo:
It is only the intrinsically risible nature of this logic that redeems it from being, like, Wurzel-level offensive. Is there a planet where you can swan into a popular and well regarded resto, announce "I have been listening to Bach, and thinking about 9/11, and now I would like to sit down and have you bring me Bucatini all’Amatriciana."? And the host is all like "Mr. McNamee, you had me at Bach. Right this way. Mr Stipe's party will just have to wait." Perhaps there is that planet, but it does not have a 212 area code. Play us off, Ms. Banks:
*I know, right?
I had forgotten about yer ole buddy McNamee. He's still at it.
Posted by: Marco Romano | Friday, 21 September 2012 at 09:12 AM