Counting Calories in NY

"$4.30 For a Tiny Slice of Poundcake??"

Even by New York's inflated prices, "430" ($4.30?) for the tiny slice of marble pound cake at Starbucks seemed like a rip(off).

It turns out, that's the number of calories, not the price.

In fact, everywhere you go in New York, there are now two numbers displayed: the price, and the number of calories.

Here's a bet: Minnesota will be doing this sooner rather than later (or does it already, and I've never noticed??).

P.S.: here's a shorthand for whether the kind-of-crazy looking New Yorker, talking to themselves, is really crazy -- or just talking on their (blue tooth-enabled) cell: in the subway, they're definitely crazy. Above ground . . . the odds are that they aren't.

Recession Casualty: Pretense

Starbucks vs. Burger Jones

One restaurant doesn't exactly make a trend, but the new burger joint new Lake Calhoun -- aptly named "Burger Jones" -- appears to be embracing an anti-Starbucks marketing strategy.

So, forget Starbucks' "Tall," "Venti," and "Grande" for "Small," "Medium," and "Large" (or, is it the other way around?).

If you order a burger at Burger Jones -- and that's pretty much what people do -- the choices aren't "rare," "medium," and "well-done," or gradations thereof.

The choices are: "some pink" and "no pink."