More Fresh Meat

For a fresh Rant…


I actually have three, no, make that four… Microsoft Word documents open right now, because my mind is racing (although I need to get some sleep so I can go to the theater today) and every single time I start to shut this computer down, dammit if I don’t find something else I have to bitch about.

For instance, look at this story from my beloved Local6 website:

MINEOLA, N.Y.—A shrimp a hibachi chef tossed at a man eating at a Japanese steakhouse ultimately led to the diner's death, his family claims in a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the restaurant chain Benihana.

Jerry Colaitis wrenched his neck when he ducked to avoid the shrimp in the chain's Munsey
Park restaurant, attorney Andre Ferenzo said in opening statements Wednesday.

Months after the January 2001 incident, the 43-year-old Long Island man died from complications caused by neck surgery he required afterward, the lawyer said.

Benihana lawyer Charles Connick said it was unlikely a chef who works for tips would toss food at customers after being asked not to, as Ferenzo claimed. Even if that happened, Connick added, the cause of Colaitis' death was an infection or neck injury unrelated to the shrimp.

Benihana chefs mix dining with entertainment as they grill Japanese food in front of patrons. Ferenzo said some of them have become more daring in recent years, but Connick said customers enjoy the experience.

"Some customers, especially dads and sons, want to catch the food," Connick said. "The evidence will show that it was part of the show."

Colaitis, of Old Brookville, underwent neck surgery in June 2001, but there were complications, and he had numbness in his arm, Ferenzo said. He died that November, a day after checking into a hospital with a 105-degree fever.

Flying SHRIMP?

Killed a man?

I’ve been to Benihana manyhana times before, and generally, if you don’t have 38C’s, toss out $20 bills from your wallet, or otherwise attract the attention of the grill chef by being a cute female, you are going to be relegated to the spectator section in the evening’s show.

That (being a spectator) is often still worth the effort, because some of these women just don’t get out much…er…um…never mind…

Next, I think that you should generally know what you are in for when you walk in the front door of the typical Benihana’s restaurants.

It ain’t cheep. For what you get, I think that it can be considered somewhat overpriced.

Perhaps this fellow should have kept on dining at Wendy’s, with the occasional trip to Waffle House, and he'd still be alive.

I say that if the poor plaintiff didn’t have enough sense to reach up and GRAB the shrimp out of the air with HIS HAND, then he also didn’t have enough active brain cells to avoid breaking his stupid neck trying to catch a piece of Dachshund’s turd in the same manner, accidentally flung up in the air by a lawnmower when he’s walking down the sidewalk past our friend’s Ozzie’s lawn maintenance activities.

Do YOU instinctively catch things in your mouth while sitting at a dining table?

I don’t—particularly after I’ve asked my fellow diners and the chef to not toss seafood at me.

Would YOU allow “social pressure” to make you snag a fresh morsel of food off of the grill ?

I might suffer an eye injury or get tossed into jail for kicking someone’s ass for throwing food at me, but I seriously doubt that I would die as a result of a “food catching induced” neck injury.