Yelp Theory

Which people and why?

I first linked to Yelp in June 2008, according to a search of “yelp” in my Gmail account.*  I apparently jumped on the bandwagon when many did:  2008 was a banner year for Yelp, the first year Yelp received more pageviews than Citysearch.  Since 2008, I, like so many others, have come to rely on Yelp as my primary source for deciding where to eat and drink.  Let me share some Yelp tips I’ve developed over the past few years.

*In case you’re wondering, this is where I linked, suggesting a decent pizza place near Madison Square Garden, where, aside from Koreatown, good food is hard to come by.

To start, never trust the star rating of a Mexican restaurant that serves margaritas.  Too often, the margarita-serving Mexican restaurant gets most of its four or five-star ratings from patrons whose number one concern is the quality, size, and cost of the restaurant’s margarita.  Too often, these patrons couldn’t care less about the food.  Or their tipsy post-margarita state makes their food assessments (of everything but the chips and salsa) unreliable.  Not all margarita-serving Mexican restaurants, of course, suffer from an inflated rating.  Run a search of the reviews:  if, say, only one-out-of-six reviews mentions the revered alcoholic drink, then the risk of inflation is mitigated.

Monday Medley

What we read while taking multiple small steps…

• The summer of gun violence continued at the Empire State Building this week, though this time it was the police who did a lot of the damage.

• In other sad news, this week also saw the deaths of Neil Armstrong and Tony Scott. Ben Zimmer at Language Log addresses the alleged flub of Armstrong’s first words on the moon. Meanwhile, Tyler Cowen excerpts a bunch of fascinating articles on Armstrong.

• Ron Paul will not be speaking at the Republican National Convention this week because he doesn’t fully endorse Mitt Romney, but he held his own rally last night in Tampa. What is the future of the libertarian wave he helped start? Rand Paul, meanwhile, will be speaking about defense spending tomorrow.

• Michael K. Williams, who played Omar Little on The Wire, opens up about his past.

• 53 jokes from Arrested Development you may have missed.

• Will Leitch on Lance Armstrong.

• Roger Ebert discusses Gene Siskel’s disdain for “Lip Flap,” which sounds pretty much like small talk.

• What can the Pussy Riot sentence teach Americans?

Monday Medley

What we read while Mega Millions disproved rational choice theory…

• John Calipari won his showdown with Rick Pitino, the ex-Wildcat coach and Calipari’s former mentor. Of course, the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry predates those coaches. Chuck Klosterman, meanwhile, fears what a Kentucky championship could mean for college basketball’s future. John Gasaway ain’t buying it.

• It was a rough week for fans of President Obama’s health care law, as the oral arguments at the Supreme Court did not bode well for the individual mandate, which puts the entire bill in jeopardy. Molly Ball of The Atlantic and Jonathan Chait at New York are already wondering what will happen if the bill gets struck down. Orin Kerr opines on the individual mandate oral argument. Meanwhile, health care keeps getting more and more expensive, with few solutions in sight.

• Speaking of The Atlantic, its Facebook timeline now stretches back into the 19th century.

• Splitsider remembers the greatest April Fools’ Day joke of them all.

• How did the Daily Mail become England’s biggest paper?

• Senator Rand Paul, fresh off blocking more needless drug laws, blocked a bill ramping up sanctions on Iran.

• Who killed last summer’s debt deal?

• Someone speaks up about fraternity hazing at Dartmouth. We’re just glad to see a prominent university other than Duke come under fire for once.

• A Marxist analysis of modern capitalism. And speaking of modern capitalism: An underage prostitution ring, brought to you by Goldman Sachs.

• Is there a separate legal system in America for Muslims? It certainly seems that way sometimes, based on what people pay attention to.

• Kurt Vonnegut’s response to the burning of his books.

• Two interesting looks at copyright law: A story on Apple’s war with Android, and a look at how copyrights kill books.

• Speaking of Android: Is it an Android phone or a condom?

• Tyler Cowen reports on remembering e-books compared to paper books.

Monday Medley

What we read while the Egyptian government REALLY cracked down on Tebowing…

• Christopher Hitchens, a great writer whose passionate defenses of atheism and attacks on the sanctity of religion were a source of pleasure for some at this blog, passed away last week. His intellectual contributions were certainly impressive, and many will miss him, but Hitchens was also a profoundly controversial figure whose ardent support for the Iraq war was, in the words of some, an unforgivable mistake, which should not be glossed over. After all, Hitchens was never one to pull punches in the wake of someone’s death…

• In other death news, world leaders from both ends of the spectrum died this weekend: Vaclav Havel on the one hand, and Kim Jong Il on the other.

• Why to buy your books online.

• Alan Sepinwall delivers his 11 favorite television shows of the year. Meanwhile, Longreads has its 10 best, umm, long reads of the year.

• In the political world, a surprising endorsement for Ron Paul, and a history of Ron Paul. Meanwhile, 60 Minutes botched its interview with President Obama.

• IFC ranked the ten most underrated comedies of all time. Also, an interview with Anthony Jeselnik. And Louis C.K. answers plenty of questions on Reddit.

• For those who remember Lost, a character analysis via peanut butter sandwiches.

• Tim reviewed Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding last weekend. The Millions dives into one of the novel’s main plotlines and its relation to past works.

• Tyler Cowen on whether we are stagnating aesthetically.

• The website is in French, but these family holiday cards spell hilarity in any language.

Monday Medley

What we read while sexually harassing Herman Cain back…

• Two economists, including NPI-favorite Tyler Cowen, explain the NBA lockout.

• In better basketball news, Chuck Klosterman came up with a somewhat controversial list of the 50 greatest college basketball players ever.

• Friend of the blog Ben Cohen profiles previous subject of the blog (and we wish one day friend of the blog) Jon Scheyer.

• Bill Simmons and Entertainment Weekly each look back at the career arc of Eddie Murphy, who might possibly return to SNL after all these years (or maybe not).

• In other comedy news, Hannibal Buress is getting written about in the Times (as part of it’s new regular comedy column)!

• It’s about time someone explored why humans’ biggest potential foe is the octopus.

• A look back at the reign and downfall of Muammar Qaddafi.

• Mike Bloomberg’s disdain for and condescension to OWS is getting old and ridiculous.

• Another reason to dislike the Redskins.

• ESPN’s go-to SEC profiler Wright Thompson looks at one of the weekend’s big winners: Les Miles.

• Et tu, Jon Huntsman?

• Daniel Kahneman has a new book out, and William Easterly is excited about it.

• A truly disturbing story about how the Internet helped cause–and then solve–a murder.

• Finally, an awesome look at how the way we’ve followed baseball hasn’t changed as much as you’d think in the last century.

Monday Medley

What we read while Boston mourned…

• Last Wednesday was possibly the greatest night in baseball history, with Boston and Atlanta finishing epic collapses with blown saves in the ninth. Nate Silver put the odds of all that happening at about one in 278 million. Bill Simmons live-blogged the night from a Boston perspective, while Joe Posnanski summed up what it all meant to baseball. Even the venerable Roger Angell was amazed…

• Meanwhile, Obama did something that was almost certainly illegal and also probably stupid.

• New York Times Magazine ran its Food and Drink issue this week, which included Michael Pollan answering interesting questions on “food mysteries”  and Tyler Cowen on how to eat decently at seemingly lousy restaurants.

• Atul Gawande wonders why coaching isn’t a more prevalent practice.

• We came across this oral history of Wet Hot American Summer a few weeks ago, but shamefully forgot to link to it until now.

• In other comedy news, NPI-favorite John Mulaney talked The A.V. Club and New York Magazine runs an oral history of the Upright Citizens Brigade.

• Chuck Klosterman breaks down the plight of a fantasy owner.

• We really hope this story isn’t an illusion…

Monday Medley

What we read while scoring on Hope Solo…

• Breaking Bad finally returned from its long hiatus last night, with a stellar season premiere. In preparation, Bryan Cranston sat down for interviews with The A.V. Club and Alan Sepinwall. Sepinwall also interviewed Aaron Paul. Meanwhile, Vulture counted down the ten tensest moments in the show’s history, and broke down Walter White’s moral decline. That moral decline has, according to Chuck Klosterman, made Breaking Bad even better than The Wire (we wouldn’t go that far).

• Speaking of great television (and continuing Monday Medley’s recent run of oral histories): a brief history of Friday Night Lights, which concluded its run on NBC last Friday (as John S wrote about).

• 17th century guides to ladies’ decorum are sure to be entertaining.

• Tyler Cowen opines on the level of consumer surplus we get from the Internet.

• Louis C.K. was surprised by his multiple Emmy nominations. And every adult from Modern Family (even Ed O’Neill this time!) was nominated.

• Scott Tobias looks at the current state of Conan O’Brien’s career.

• What’s the deal with that crazy Sarah Palin documentary?

Monday Medley

What we read while Oprah commenced Phase Two…

• Bob Dylan celebrated his 70th birthday last week, and John S wasn’t the only one to mark the occasion. The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and American Songwriter were among those to rank his best songs. Time also included a list of his worst. The Independent listed 70 reasons why Dylan is the most important figure in all of pop culture. All Things Considered even examined Dylan’s role in legal writings.

• On the more depressing side of the music front, Gil Scott-Heron, the “godfather of rap,” died. Known mostly for “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” (and now, for young folk, for being sampled by Kanye West) Heron was a prolific artist of all sorts despite problems with drug addiction noted in Alec Wilkinson’s profile of him last year.

• Jeffrey Toobin tries to pinpoint Fred Wilpon’s role in Bernie Madoff’s theft and manages to get Wilpon to criticize all of his star players in the process. Tom Verducci, on the other hand, manages to get Wilpon to discuss how much he’s going to cut the team’s payroll. Across town, Jorge Posada’s recent antics don’t change his place among the greatest catchers ever (something John S highlighted last year). And David Cone talks about his love of advanced statistics.
• Tyler Cowen continues to be the man of hour, getting a glowing profile in this week’s Business Week.
• Do conjoined twins share a mind? There is video demonstrating that they do. While the conjoined twins’ parents were faced with a challenge, another set of parents created their own challenge by choosing to raise their child genderless.

• Stop blaming Facebook for your online behavior… and start spelling your status updates correctly.

• Wright Thompson tries to get to the bottom of Harvey Updyke, the man who may or may not (well, he almost certainly did) have poisoned the Toomer’s Corner oak trees at Auburn. L. Jon Wertheim takes a look into the sordid legacy of Tiki Barber, including the best Anne Frank reference since Arrested Development went off the air.

• How accurately does Parks and Recreation portray small-town politics, and (in the comments section of aforelinked article), does it matter? Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler gives Harvard’s 2011 Class Day Speech mentioning that Boston College (her alma mater) is the Harvard of Boston.

• Lester Freamon as Othello and Jimmy McNulty as Iago? Sign us up, even if it does require a Transatlantic flight.

Monday Medley

What we read while they were walking with their feet ten feet off of Beale…

• Bob Dylan stirred some controversy by playing in China despite censorship of his set list. Maureen Dowd accused him of selling out, but many, including Sean Wilentz, rushed to his defense, essentially calling Dowd “Mr. Jones.” The case is obviously complicated, but Dylan is right.

• Tyler Cowen speculates why Brazilian emigration rates are so low compared to other South American countries.

• Cowen’s colleague, Bryan Caplan, had his book Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids published this week. Will Wilkinson finds his central argument bewildering. And Caplan responds. Motoko Rich offers a critique of sorts in the New York Times.

• Caplan also offers some thoughts on philosopher Jason Brennan’s The Ethics of Voting in which he argues that there is no duty to vote: John S is on board.

• Today is Tax Day, meaning that rich people are going to complain about paying taxes, despite the absurd advantages that rich people have in this country.

• Is higher education the next great bubble?

• Whose Line Is It Anyway? is sort of making a comeback.

• Norm MacDonald has been making the interview rounds to promote his new show, Sports Show with Norm MacDonald, leading to awesome interviews like this one.

Monday Medley

What we read while everyone said “winning”…

• If you’re not excited for baseball season yet, then you should probably stop over at Joe Posnanski’s website: His tribute to the late Duke Snider (as well as his investigation of the 1955 MVP award), along with his look at the career of Jeff Francoeur certainly have us excited for spring. And if you don’t have a baseball team to root for, here’s a very helpful flowchart…

• A few weeks ago, John S described how impressed he was by IBM’s Watson, so you can imagine his surprise when the supercomputer lost to someone from New Jersey (Hint: It wasn’t Tim).

• Speaking of technology, 3D printers are cool and now being used for food.

• Finally, someone has highlighted the brilliance and wonder that is Bill Raftery.

• Some passive-aggressive emails from Donald Rumsfeld to Condoleeza Rice.

• The Obama Administration’s decision not to defend a federal law (the Defense of Marriage Act) is not unprecedented.

• An NPI-favorite comic makes his Conan debut.

• NPI-favorite blogger Tyler Cowen has some interesting theories on why the quality of fiction is decreasing faster than the quality of non-fiction.