| Griping about Luby's
Sorry, Luby's managers. Whiners agree with Marcille Magness, who complained recently about the cafeteria chain's new serving style. The restaurants have replaced institutional-looking metal steam tables with smaller ceramic dishes set under heat lamps. The change may have improved the food's appearance, but readers of this column say it isn't keeping it warm. Cool is not the new hot "Luby's food looks better" and "the quality is much improved in general," says Tom Schneider, but "the entrees ... are lukewarm to cool about 50 percent of the time." Customers would "much rather have tasty, warm food than a pretty display," says Judy Thompson. Henry Joseph Swartz has "stopped eating there after 15 years." Karen Zink says, "Bring back the old steam tables, and you'll bring back many customers!" And what's with the menu changes, asks Charles LeBlanc? He misses the cheese enchiladas, "one of the five best enchilada plates served in the Houston metropolitan area!" Champions in Champions Cindy Jones raves about the "not fancy" but "clean and cute" El Paisano Mexican Restaurant, "where the food is wonderful" and "the waiters are the most attentive we have experienced." Plus, it has "a great selection of beers." Paul Egner is "enthused about the change of ownership at StoneGate Prime Steaks & Seafood" on FM 1960 West.
Beyond a shadow of a drought
By then, it had rained in Rupanyup - half its entire rainfall for the year in one week. The community gathered in the main street for its annual New Year's Eve celebration when nature put on a sound and light show and down it came. It didn't put water in the dams - the earth was too cracked - but the trees were refreshed, the birds were singing, there was a wet track for the Murtoa races. And they got the rain in Mildura, and while Howard Jones is deeply sceptical of politicians and believes the great myth of irrigating northern Australia is just that - a myth - he is "more optimistic" because he believes at last the politicians are waking up. But the rain didn't get as far east as Bairnsdale and Benambra. The iron grip of drought, mental as much as physical, is still upon them, not to mention the fires smouldering nearby.
Winter Antiques Show Frames Donald and Rosie, $2.5 Million Kid
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump may still be feuding, but they are yoked as a couple at the 53rd Annual Winter Antiques Show at New York's Park Avenue Armory. Photos of Rosie and Donald sit side-by-side in a French 1890 double-oval picture frame priced at $2,650 at the Associated Artists booth. It is one of the cheapest items at the show, which is open from today to Jan. 28. With 75 international dealers, the show offers countless juxtapositions as curious as that of Rosie and the Donald, from cow weathervanes to African masks to Tiffany lamps. ``The Winter Antiques Show is one of those marvelous comings together, like a reunion of sorts,'' said Florida-based tribal-art and folk-art collector Jane Katcher. She'll be speaking at the show on Sunday about her folk-art collection.
Microsoft: Windows Vista end of an era
REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 26 The Windows Vista operating system, five years in the making, is Microsoft Corp.'s last major software product made the old-fashioned way, the company says. The complex, time-consuming process of crafting computer code line-by-line, which prompted repeated launch delays, is a thing of the past, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said. .
Trade shows arming for war of 'art'
An art show by any other name would sell as many trinkets. Or would it? Maybe the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show doesn't want to take any chances. It has plugged the word "art" into its name to become the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show. .
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