A quick trip to Houston today that I would just as soon forget — except for the fact I have to return for the same thing Friday — brought at least one pleasant surprise.
The reconstructedInterstate 10 bridge spanning the Trinity River, between Beaumont and Houston, has finally been completed after four years. Or perhaps, make that after 50 years as that is how old the bridge was. The structure arcs 75 feet above the river which along with the two lanes it had for so many years made it a little close quarters for my taste. I have long had this love-hate relationship with bridges which has eased somewhat over the years. Narrow bridges were never really my cup o’ soup so this fully-functional six-lane bridge, three lanes in either direction, makes traveling a bit more mentally comforting.
I think I was listening to Fred and A.J. on The Blitz, an early afternoon show on Houston’s sports-talk ESPN 97.5, and by the time I got to Anahuac on the return trip I realized I had already crossed the bridge a second time. I guess that’s the hallmark of a good road job. Or maybe it was the degenerate discussion Fred and A.J. were having which made me space out however many miles I had traveled. The Blitz discussion centered around an alleged one-night stand Sarah Palin had with NBA player Glen Rice in the late 1980s when she was a local TV sports reporter in Alaska. Rice was playing college hoops and was in Alaska for a tournament. Now, I admit that you are likely to hear anything on The Blitz, even some sports. That is why I tune in while driving during that time of day, it being such a well-rounded bastion of broadcasting that you just don’t see much of anymore.
As for Sarah’s supposed one-night stand. I say right here that I make no judgment of it on its face. But actually this alleged revelation comes via, where else but, the National Enquirer in the new Joe McGinnis book about Palin. This is the book that was being written while McGinnis moved in next door to the once almost 2/3-term (check my math) governor of Alaska.
The story, if you really want to know the nuts and bolts,is right here. Personally, like the old song says:
Now if she tries or has tried to be all hypocritical and sanctimonious about the subject, that might be a different matter. But to my knowledge, and that is just to my knowledge and that of no one else, I don’t know if she has either fessed up to the alleged affair or has been a hypocrite regarding this supposed happening. I speak of that particular subject. She has definitely been a hypocrite on other topics.
Nevertheless, this is surely one of those subjects that gets you off of talking about bridge construction in a hurry. Maybe that’s the Republican plan to prevent the president from talking about his jobs plans and getting millions of construction workers back to work. Of course, Palin was known as being for the “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it.
Wow, back to solid Democratic footing through all of that. I’m not sure how that happened.
Maybe it speaks lowly of my entertainment level but I was excited to see the newWhich Wich finally open in the Kroger Shopping Center at Dowlen and Folsom in Beaumont.
Not where I ate but an example of their bright though sometimes sterile interior.
I try my best to find a good sandwich that is not too laden with fat and needless carbs and sodium. That isn’t easy to do here in Beaumont, Texas, on the Upper Texas Coast, where you can go to the original Jason’s Deli or have a nice, fresh fried shrimp po-boy. Subways, we’ve got a few. More like we have enough Subways to build foot-long submarine sandwiches to the Sun. Don’t get me wrong. I like Subway and I appreciate that they give dieters a fairly decent variety of subs that aren’t too shabby. Even that variety isn’t enough though and that is a problem right here in River City, with a capital C that rhymes with P and that stands for “pulled pork.” Sorry.
All manner of sandwiches can be found here in Beaumont. But when it comes to restaurants which specialize in the sandwich, you are kind of SOL (Sandwich Out of Luck.) You’ve got your Jason’s, which I mentioned before, two of them. There is a Schlotzsky’s and a Wienerschnitzel and burgers out the Wazoo. We have a MacAlister’s. There were once two Quiznos and now there are zilch. I don’t know why. There are other little holes in the wall: Chuck’s Sandwich Shop downtown, which has a killer hamburger, maybe in more ways than one but I still like it; A fine gyro can be found at Endari’s Exxon on Gulf St. and I-10 East. There are others I am forgetting for sure.
So perhaps you can understand my excitement, or perhaps “enthusiasm” is the best word, over a new multi-sandwich shop. I think the best direction for a critique of this new place is direct. So here we gooooooo!
Food: I give it an “A.” Now I only ate one of their sandwiches out of one of their numerous categories. Mine was in the “Italian” group and was a grinder much to my order and liking. It was a very tasty mix of salami, pepperoni and capicolla on my choice of wheat bread which was toasted along with my other choices of provolone, deli mustard, light mayo, red onions, lettuce and pepperoncini. Looking later at the nutrition chart, if I had chosen the American cheese over the provolone, I would have had a grinder with 16 grams of fat as opposed to 19 grams. But hey, that wouldn’t have been right. This was an “Italian” sandwich and not an “American,” kinda sorta. The sodium was way over the top for me, which was to be expected along with the carbs at 54 grams from the wheat bread.
Not my grinder, but an image of the very tasty three-meat Italian sandwich.
Service: I would have to say “C.” First, if you have never eaten at this chain or particular place before, one finds a menu in the entrance way. Below the menu hangs above hoppers holding brown paper sacks. Printed on the sacks are the categories of sandwiches listed above on the menu such as chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, Italian and so forth. You take a sack and a little marking pen and check your choices for bread, size of the sandwich, toasted or not, extras such as double cheese or meat, then you “Work Your Wich” checking — at least in this particular store — off your pick from almost 10 cheeses, four mustards, three mayos, 10 spreads or sauces such as A1, BBQ, pesto, salsa, hummus and the like, six dressings, three types of onion, seven oils and spice and more than a dozen veggies. You can also orders these in a bowl with shredded lettuce and croutons.
Several people were along the line to help explain how to work the menu should this be your first time doing the Which Wich. Whether this is only for new stores I don’t know and I didn’t ask. I did the find these helpers to be just a bit pushy. Perhaps it was because of a growing dinner crowd, but I found their manner almost as much of a turnoff as seating, which I will discuss below. Once you make all your check marks, you then place your order and then your name is called, which in my case was in a more than reasonable amount of time. One does have to listen carefully though as it can be difficult to hear your name announced over the noise of the crowd.
ATMOSPHERE: No question, a solid “D.” The furnishings of this place give me the impression that you should order and get the hell out. There is limited seating. A few tables with backed-chairs are available but not many. There are several large tables with stools and a long aluminum counter also with a number of stools. Those stools. My oh my! Those stools are what gave me the most trouble in deciding between an D and an F. The seats are tiny in sitting area and have no back. If you have a big butt, or perhaps even a medium one and especially a bony one, I’d take my food to the comfort of my car, as was the decision I decided upon.
There is a fairly big TV hanging from the wall but I couldn’t see it because of the glare from the large restaurant windows.
Overall, I would have to give this place an A+ for cleanliness should I have chosen to make that a separate category because this place was doctor office clean. It was downright sterile.
Another big draw for me are several sandwiches specified on the menu as low-fat. A vegetarian choice also exists for those with such inclinations.
Which Wich Superior Sandwiches is a Dallas-based chain that appears from its Website to have about 200 franchises at the moment. The company’s founder, CEO and CVO (Chief VIbe Officer) Jeff Sinelli. The CVO had previously created and later sold Ghengis Grill, a Mongolian barbecue restaurant.
Sinelli says that he wants to “spread good vibes, in the form of superior service.”
“We want you to walk away from our stores feeling 100% renewed, refueled, and satisfied,” says CVO Sinelli. “There’s no reason to have an inferior experience at a superior sandwich brand.”
It is a very bold guarantee for the growing franchise operation to make. They might just make this goal and I certainly hope they do. While I felt plenty renewed and refueled upon eating, I couldn’t give the entire dining experience a 100 percent just because of the service and seating issues. But definitely, I will be back, next time armed with nutritional information from the Web even though I might be tempted with another grinder because it was so good. I will just plan on eating my sandwich at home or in my car.
Note: This was, as is my practice more often than not, edited online. If you read this and said “WTF?” before seeing this note, then that could be one reason. If you read this post after seeing this note and still say “WTF?” well, that’s the way the eight feet go deep.
There are times when something — some thing — appears so quickly and unexpectedly as well as makes so very little sense that one is perhaps too awed to be scared. This explains what happened to me this morning although I do admit to some quick fright.
I was driving from Beaumont to Nederland down the “Three-In-One Highway,” well, it should be called that because it is all U.S. Hwys. 69, 96 and 287 wrapped into one. To make matters more confusing the road veers off to another highway, this one Texas 347 which goes to Nederland, the Port Neches-Groves area and Port Arthur. I decided not to take 347 though and as I was just about to follow the exit signs I noticed electric cables which both ran across the highway and were strung along poles off the roadway were whipping up and down very rapidly. The cross arm of one pole appeared as if it were about to smash the Impala I drive for work as well as pound me in the process. During this whole episode, which may have taken less than 10 seconds, I saw something the size of a baseball but which was unrecognizable flying toward the windshield. I also could hear the UFO bang the car.
Immediately I pulled over after I was clear of the once-dancing pole and figured this must have taken place during a freak windstorm. That was even though I noticed no great amount of wind as I exited the car to see if any damage was sustained. There was no damage luckily. I looked back at the pole and saw the top half of it leaning at what I estimated was about a 25-degree angle toward the highway.
I figured I should call someone and let them know a pole was leaning toward the roadway and that the entire bunch of wires looked as if they might have fallen on me had I not stomped the gas pedal. First I called the police. This was not the 9-1-1 line but the office number and that turned out to be a colossally-poor exercise in communication.
The lady at the police station told me there had just been a wreck where I was. An 18-wheeler had hit an electric pole and the traffic was shut down, the police department person said. Well, not quite. It wasn’t shut down where I was and in the lanes where the “Leaning Tower of Electric Shock” bowed its crown dangerously toward some driver headed toward his or her shifts at one of the many prisons or refineries located just to the south of where I sat. I couldn’t make the police person understand that the pole could come off onto a car or the highway and dragging any number of perhaps hot lines with it.
Luckily, I was after a couple of tries, able to make the person with whom I spoke at Entergy-Texas — the local power company — understand the situation. They said someone would check it out. Since their repair people were probably in the area already, or at least on their way, I figured that someone would do something at some time. I also figured out that the bizarre show I experienced had something to do with the wreck on the other side of the highway, but which I could not see for myself. Always with the weird things I see!
On my return trip, the highway was backed up just north of Nederland as well as a good five miles from where the big wreck happened and the highway was likewise closed down just before an exit for a Farm to Market road near a cluster of prisons.
It turns out the wreck and, I have to suppose, the dancing utility pole on my side of the highway happened when a big truck carrying a large portable office building wrecked and took out six electric poles. That was the explanation of the wreck given by local TV station KFDM. Entergy-Texas said on their Web site that 169 customers in the area were without power and that electric service might not be restored until 10 p.m. this evening. The highways had been reopened but were about to be closed once again on both sides of Cardinal Drive between Martin Luther King Parkway and Hwy. 347. This information courtesy of a Beaumont Police Department press release. If traveling, bring your patience with you or else a designated driver.
The mystery of the great Southeast Texas “Pole Dancing” Festival is solved. I feel much better. Especially so since I am no longer on the highway or underneath any electrical lines.
That I ordered a sandwich today at Jason’s Deli — at the Original, as in first-ever Jason’s Deli — had nothing to do with the Beaumont, Texas,-based restaurant outfit being named by the Zagat consumer survey as best large chain with healthy options. In fact, it was downright depressing when I later looked up the “New York Yankee,” the sandwich I ordered, on the company’s online nutrition chart. I nearly fell out of my chair when I discovered the tasty pastrami and beef on rye carried with it a whopping 69 grams of fat and 1,189 calories. Thank goodness I have started eating Healthy Choice frozen dinners at night lately.
Billed as the “Gastronomic Bible” by The Wall Street Journal and its own PR people as “the world’s most trusted source for consumer generated survey information,” Zagat released its annual fast food survey today.
I try to choose from the much lighter Jason’s menu but light gets old in a hurry. Plus, I’m a Jason’s junkie. Having a great deli company like that based in your neighborhood is good okay, kind of like wicked fine only mo’ better.
Subway won that same category in the “mega-chain” group. The ‘way is, of course, famous for its different sandwiches under 10 grams of fat and which made Jared skinny. I eat at Subway too. However, Jason’s offer more than just sandwiches. Probably my favorite Jason’s is the “Quarter Muff Special” which includes a quarter muffuletta that is about the size of a double-meat Whopper and includes chips (I go for the Baked Lays), a pickle and a cup of soup. My soup “cup” of choice is actually a spicy and delicious seafood gumbo.
Likewise, Jason’s has breakfast items which I have yet to taste in the 15 years I have dined at the chain. They have one of the best salad bars to be found anywhere. Regardless of whether I eat at the salad bar or order something else I usually pickup about a handful of assorted nuts from their salad bar. J’s Deli also features all types of wraps and spuds and soups, as I’ve mentioned. I love their Black Currant Tea although they have several other types as well of other refreshments. I suppose they still sell beer at the original Beaumont stores but I am not certain. I haven’t noticed for a long time. Since lines tend to get long at both their Dowlen Road location and the original at Gateway Shopping Center off South 11th, it is quite handy they have a kiosk where you can use your credit card to get a salad bar order. Just step ahead of the crowd, place your order, swipe your card and get a big bowl from the counter.
A Jason’s Deli meal most times averages around $10 if you have a drink with it. Closer to $8 if you only want some iced water. Even though I think their tea is unmatched in most places, at least in this part of the country, I still think $2 is a little steep. Of course, you can refill and the dilligent and most times smiling Jason’s folks will cheerfully hand you a “go cup,” which is very useful in these scorching Texas days we have had lately.
I have to say I can’t agree with a lot of other Zagat survey choices. The news release announcing their survey gives the particulars:
“This year’s survey covers 103 chains as voted on by 6,064 diners. The typical surveyor dined at a fast food restaurant at least once a week. They weighed in on everything from breakfast to burgers and fries to frozen yogurt, separately rating each chain on the quality of its Food, Facilities and Service on Zagat’s signature 30-point scale as well as ranking their favorites.”
Still, some of those joints they weighed in on — some of which I may visit every now and then — are kind of baffling. I get the popularity contest of the top five mega chains, 1st to last, Subway, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell. The top “overall” ratings which include service, food and facilities for mega-chains are 1. Wendy’s 2. Subway 3. McDonald’s 4. Pizza Hut 5. KFC. That, my friends, is truly mind-blowing.
The survey did unveil some clever comments from the respondents and some appear as if they might land pretty much on the mark for some spots:
Rule #1: don’t look inside the burrito
Helping generations turn into obese diabetics
Consistently awful everywhere, but at least you know what to expect
They even fry the napkins
Major food groups are well covered: grease, salt and burned
Always entertaining – usually a brawl or arrest to watch
A new police chief has just been appointed for our city, Beaumont, Texas. Well, he is sort of new.
The new appointee is Major Jimmy Singletary who started his more than 40 years of law enforcement experience with the Beaumont police, serving 30 years before leaving for a federal position, according to TV station KFDM, Channel 6. I do not know the man although I have heard a little about him and all I have heard is positive.
Singletary currently holds the rank of major with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department. The stories I have seen so far online from Channel 6 — which reported yesterday that a “source” confirmed the appointment — as well as the other local media have failed to mention a few important facts which should go into a story of such magnitude. Well, maybe it’s just early. I hope that is the case because when a city gets a new police chief, its citizens/taxpayers need to know a few of the basic facts. It doesn’t matter if they have two officers or “262 sworn police officers and 37 civilians,” as theBPD Website points out. So we are left wondering about matters such as:
How old is the new pick?
None of the news outlets say. PublicData.com, the paid database I use to search various records such as driver license and criminal histories gives the only James Singletary I could find in Beaumont as being 63 years old.
How much does the police-chief-to-be earn as a sheriff’s major?
Databases provided by the Beaumont Enterprise which does not mention this in its online story — the paper has a “paywall” limiting news to those who do not subscribe — indicate Singletary’s 2008 total compensation was $103,149.00 with the Jefferson County sherifff’s office.
What will Singletary make as Beaumont Police Chief?
Again, another good question. The Enterprise‘s database shows current Beaumont Police Chief Frank Coffin had a total compensation amount of $121,703.68 in 2008, the most recent year available for the figures.
A few notable crimes within the city of Beaumont have made headlines this year including the death of 36-year-old Beaumont Police Officer Bryan Hebert, who was killed last month after the officer was allegedly killed by a man involved in a police chase. The suspect, 30-year-old John Nero, has been charged with capital murder.
But it is the police officers themselves who have perhaps drawn the most scrutiny from the public, and a little from the local media. One particular incident was caught on police dashboard camera in 2007 in which Derrick Newman, an African-American who was being detained by Beaumont police after a traffic stop, was allegedly struck 13 times by an officer. That officer, David Todd Burke, was fired in 2010, having been convicted of official oppression. A Texas appeals court affirmed that conviction on Wednesday.
Officer Cody Guedry was also convicted of the same charge in that incident but was given a new trial. He is currently working for the Beaumont police as a community relations officer.
So I don’t know if our local media have asked or plan to ask of Singletary, but there are some questions that perhaps inquiring minds would like to know, such as:
Do you think Beaumont PD has a bad reputation and if so, what do you plan to do to fix it?
Where do your opinions fall on the controversy over whether police actions should be overseen by a citizen review board or one that acts in an advisory role such as the committee approved by the city council?
Do you plan any major changes in how the department will approach its job? Any shake ups?
And finally, there are a couple of semi-personal questions that nonetheless need answering for a city’s people to gain the trust of its new chief. The first can be asked by reporters with a little tact. An honest answer by the new chief might go a long way in repairing harmed trust issues in the community between citizens and police.
Have you ever had use of force complaints filed against you? If so, how many and what were the outcomes and circumstances?
If the new chief is reluctant to answer such questions, which he really should not be even though it would not be unusual to have some, unfounded, use of force complaints against an officer who has spent as many years on the jobs as Singletary, then the media should go the Open Records route. Although I have lost much of the respect I once had of our only daily, the Beaumont Enterprise, they nonetheless performed well in sticking with a request Beaumont PD tried to derail on officer use of force documents. Perhaps the department does not keep records on use of force as far back as during Singletary’s first years with the department. But if so, they should make those records available because the subject is pertinent.
There are other people to be interviewed as well, of course, the officers of the local police union, sheriff’s deputies and former deputies and Beaumont officers who worked with or for the new chief. This is an instance where a “source” would be appropriately used if that source was very trustworthy. Others who would be of interest are local “gadflies” because they bring color to a topic that is too often bathed in “black and white” or “blue and every other color.” Oh, and don’t forget to ask Councilman Mike Getz, because he seems to be everywhere lately, including Jasper, where their own police department seems to be falling apart at the seams.
And there is this. Singletary, if he is 63, and even if he is not, he is not a spring chicken who should not be busting down doors and taking point in a SWAT raid. That isn’t to say he has or has not done this lately. I don’t know. But it is appropriate for the community to know this:
How long do you plan on sticking around as Beaumont police chief?
Even though all I have heard about the new pick is positive, I still believe the media needs to ask many questions of him and see if he answers those inquiries and what his answers might be. Perhaps you do not feel the same way, but I think that these are not insignificant questions. And believe it or not, we have a right to know.
