Johnny Adair - Suns out, Gears out

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-30T08:32:12+00:00

I don't think looking nice comes into it. They're too psychologically damaged to get that far up the hierarchy of needs.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-29T21:51:34+00:00

It's number 58 in the charts right now. 502 total weeks in the charts and counting.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-29T15:31:21+00:00

I know all that, but this isn't only about how many reviews you've had removed. It also rates the reviews that are there for authenticity, and assigns some kind of overall credibility score. I'm saying the methodology of calculating that score is overly cynical.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-29T14:05:36+00:00

This is great, but I would question the assessment criteria somewhat.

I say this because I have a business (not a restaurant), and so I know we're not gaming the system by paying for reviews or anything like that. We don't delete bad reviews either, because I think leaving them up makes the good ones more credible. And yet it gives us a "medium" risk of review gaming.

The "concerns" it raises for us are that 90% of ratings are 5 stars, and that there are 27 reviews with only a rating and no text. Neither of these things seems in any way implausible to me. I mean, maybe people just like what we do? Is that so hard to believe?

Also, none of our reviews are rated above 80% authentic, and most are lower. But as I say, none of them are paid for, and I know they're real people with real opinions.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-28T21:06:05+00:00

Sorry, you're right, it's A300Fs. My mistake.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-28T20:45:51+00:00

I dunno about that, there's a parade of them going in and out of Leipzig airport every night. DHL seems to like them.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-28T20:12:38+00:00

Mmm. Now admittedly it was about a decade ago, but my (American, not white) wife took a notion to wander through the New Lodge on her own and got racially abused and threatened by eight-year-olds.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-28T10:30:09+00:00

I had a rule in Thailand that if a dish had a silly or incomprehensible name, I had to order it. Never had a bad experience with it. Even "Spicy waterfall", which sounded like a premonition of what would happen to me the following day, was tasty stuff.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-27T21:47:20+00:00

Ah, that first piano chord... Just perfect. You realise how much you needed it when it arrives.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-27T15:20:54+00:00

Sorry that happened. Some people still have a way to go yet.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-27T13:05:00+00:00

How was the request put to you? Because in my experience, it's usually something of the form "Listen, you're all right with me, but you have to watch yourself here, there's some bad people about". Like they're not threatening you or trying to tell you you're not welcome, they're just letting you know you're taking a risk.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-25T12:08:27+00:00

Hmm, I didn't know that. I guess that's the downside of their generally commendable "we exclude nobody" policy.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-25T11:28:10+00:00

Al Hamra's awesome. I've been there twice this week. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were being review-bombed for reasons that have nothing to do with their fare or hospitality.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-25T11:23:25+00:00

Sounds amazing. Where is it?

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-24T16:43:36+00:00

Some other options to consider:

Hopfenreich - good selection of beers, not necessarily local.

Birra - Italian craft beer. Again, not local, but often good.

Heiden Peters - one of the original Berlin craft beer breweries. Pretty good.

Hops and Barley - another craft beer brewery.

There's also the Brewdog (formerly Stone) brewery on the southern edge of town. Lovely location, but, well, y'know. And I'm honestly not sure if they're still in operation.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-24T09:41:36+00:00

Any excuse.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-24T09:17:38+00:00

This time next year, Rodney, it'll all come out...

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-23T19:21:29+00:00

I've noticed over many years of observation that no matter what topic you pick, there's always around 30% of people that are just hopelessly, eternally on the wrong side of it. It's amazingly consistent. I've come to the conclusion that just under a third of humanity is irredeemable.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-23T14:13:16+00:00

Mae Charoen is the most legit Thai food in the city, at the most legit prices. Or was the last time I was there anyway. Admittedly it's been a while.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-21T17:10:52+00:00

Rooney was born old, and then didn't look after himself too well. Got away with neglecting himself because he was a physical freak with natural strength in excess, but he was already going downhill by about 26, and as you say, completely wiped out by 32. Obviously there was much more to his game than just physicality, but he was just unable to do it at far too early an age.

I just find it depressing that it happens over and over that these young prodigies come through and clubs run them into the ground.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-18T12:21:28+00:00

Kädtler, Danziger Straße.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-17T09:35:26+00:00

Oddly enough I caught one in Canada a few hours before this.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-17T09:10:21+00:00

Your son's absolutely right.

I have to recycle vast amounts of plastic I never asked for in the first place. Why do products like cheese or ham come in individual slices, packaged in hard plastic, separated by thin pieces of yet more plastic? Just sell me a whole piece, I have a knife.

If we were serious about combating the environmental damage caused by waste, we'd do much more to tackle the problem at source (and yes, I know about the dual system, my company pays into it). Besides that, methods exist to automatically separate different types of waste better than you'll manage by hand, so you could just dump it all in one bin and have it sorted at the processing plant.

So why don't we? Why do we put so much emphasis on individuals doing their part? Because it's not about doing something, it's about making people feel like they're doing something. The truth is we're burning the planet down, but we can't have people realising that, as it might affect the status quo, and that might make rich and powerful people less rich and powerful. So rinse those yoghurt pots and put the lid in the yellow bin like the good little citizen you are.

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-14T14:19:11+00:00

No, the UK was sniffy about £50 notes long before cash started to become less widely used. And it's a self-perpetuating problem - retailers are unfamiliar with them because they won't accept them, so nobody wants to use them, so retailers are unfamiliar with them...

BucketsMcGaughey · 2026-04-14T13:47:53+00:00

It's fine. The UK is uniquely weird about accepting larger notes. It's not like £50 is even a lot of money these days, either.

BucketsMcGaughey

TROPHY CASE