Denny's Grand Slam PR Mess

Personally, I think that Denny's has never discriminated. They offer bad service slowly to people of all races, colors, and creeds.

In this day and age, I can't believe the following:

1) There are business managers who would still openly discriminate (assuming this is true)
2) People still go to Denny's expecting decent service.

Seriously, I didn't even realize they were still in business. But I guess you have to have somewhere to go at 4 AM when you're drunk and hungry.

Of course, who knows, maybe Osama has a hankerin' for a Grand Slam or Moons Over My Hammy from time to time. I've seen more unsavory looking characters than him sipping coffee there in the middle of the night.




Florida Denny's Sued After Bin Laden Remark By Jane Sutton
Thu Apr 28, 4:14 PM ET



Seven Arab American men filed a $28 million lawsuit against a Denny's restaurant in Florida, saying the manager kicked them out and told them, "We don't serve bin Ladens here," their lawyer said on Thursday.

They sued the restaurant owner, Restaurant Collection Inc., and former manager, Eduardo Ascano, saying they were harassed, humiliated and refused service at the Denny's in Florida City, southwest of Miami, in January 2004.

Lawyer Rod Hannah said the men had not ruled out an additional lawsuit against the Denny's chain, which paid about $54 million in 1994 to settle a discrimination suit filed by black customers.

Denny's said the allegations were without merit. Restaurant Collection could not be reached for comment.

The Florida lawsuit said the men visited the restaurant early in the morning of Jan. 11, 2004, and after long delays, were seated, given menus and served drinks.

After waiting more than an hour for their food while later customers were served, they asked twice about their order. The lawsuit said Ascano told them "Bin Laden is in charge of the kitchen." Asked about the reference to the al Qaeda leader, he swore and told them, "We don't serve bin Ladens here" and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said that violated Florida's Civil Rights Act by discriminating in public accommodations and that the owner was negligent in retaining a manager with a record of treating customers rudely and in a discriminatory manner.

The lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court on April 22 and asks for $4 million for each of the seven men, who live in the Boca Raton area. They are of Egyptian, Lebanese and Syrian descent and all but one are U.S. citizens, Hannah said. One owns a restaurant.

"They are all earning a living and are respectable and respectful citizens," Hannah said.

CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS

The two sides gave conflicting accounts of police involvement in the incident.

The lawsuit said a police officer who was a patron in the restaurant shouted at the plaintiffs to "Get out! Get out" and threatened to arrest them when they asked her to make out a police report about the restaurant manager's behavior.

Denny's Corp. said "the guests became so enraged with the franchise manager trying to address an unfortunate delay in service that a police officer who happened to be dining in the restaurant during the late-night incident found it necessary to eject the party for their extreme behavior."

No arrests were made and the plaintiffs' left after paying for their drinks, their attorney said.

Restaurant Collection is a Florida company that owns the Denny's franchise where the incident took place. Denny's Corp is a chain based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and has 549 company-owned and 1,036 franchised restaurants in the United States.

Denny's Corp. said in a statement that the discrimination allegations were without merit and that it was confident the company would be vindicated.

After the 1994 settlement with black patrons who said they were denied service or made to pay in advance, Denny's apologized and has greatly increased minority ownership of its franchises and minority hiring at restaurants and suppliers.

The men first filed a complaint with Florida's Commission on Human Relations, which said in January there was reasonable cause to believe they had been discriminated against.

A real article about the movie industry....

The article mentioned below was an April Fools joke. But, maybe it won't be soon. It seems that the movie industry is up in arms over bad box office the past few weeks.

While I doubt this trend will continue (There's a little sequel to Star Wars just days away from the theaters), perhaps the industry has itself to blame.

Has anyone in Hollywood actually priced out a trip to the movies these days? Unless you eat before hand, smuggle in your own food, or have the will power to abstain, the price of the ticket is the least of your worries (although $11 for two people at a matinee is still steep). When a popcorn in a small lunch bag costs a little less than $4, a soda is in the $3 range, and a bottle of Aquafina (tap water, for crying out loud) is the same, you're lucky to get out of the theater for less than $25 bucks for two people, probably closer to $40 if you have a family. Then you have the ultimate humiliation of paying that much money to sit through 10 minutes of commercials (not trailers, commercials), including one for that $3 bottle of purified tap water they'll sell you in the lobby.

For the same price you can buy a box of microwave popcorn, buy a new release on DVD, buy a few 2 liters of soda, and half a dozen assorted movie boxes of candy, and have enough money left over to rent a second movie for a double feature. Plus, you can skip the commercials, pause the movie, and see the film with the proper color and aspect ratio that your local theater never seems to be able to reproduce. And if you don't want to keep the movie, put it on Ebay and make some of that money back.

Hey, the picture's lousy, adjust the tracking!

According to my favorite DVD review site, DVDFILE, the movie industry is worried that they may fall victim to the piracy that has allegedly reduced music sales, is going to extreme measures to protect High Definition DVDs against piracy. The plan, detailed here indicates that the discs will be encoded with serial numbers that will be tracked at the point of purchase.

I'm not sure I believe this is actually true, but if it is, I don't imagine that the plan will go far. Copy protection is one thing, but having a serial number follow you wherever you use the disc won't fly with your average consumer. Besides, how would this work in the rental business, where the same copy would be used by tons of different people.

The movie industry has done a smart thing with their sell-through prices, so much so that I doubt your average movie viewer is going to be making copies of every disc that comes down the pike. If the HD discs match the DVDs currently in use, it will be some time before a HD DVD burner is affordable and useful to the public. And since you can buy a DVD for cheaper than two tickets to the movies, I don't think people who didn't pirate before are suddenly going to now.