March Madness Housing Madness

This Washington Post article details how housing for the teams participating in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is determined by the team seedings. The net-net is that the higher seeds get the better hotels, but instead of it being that the top seeds are in a Marriott and the bottom seeds are in a Hyatt, it's more like the top seeds are at the Four Seasons and the bottom seeds are at a Motel 6 the next town over. This is just wrong. All of these games are being hosted in cities of a decent size (I mean, they need a 15K+ seat basketball arena) and putting some in a dump while the others are in a fancy hotel just isn't fair. I know the NCAA caters to the big power conferences, but some of those 10 and 11 seeds come from the Big 10, Big 12 and Big East, too. I'm sure the Illinois team (a 12-seed this time around) is probably a bit ticked off they had to stay in a place so much worse than their higher seeded brethren, for example. It seems like this would be really easy to fix and the NCAA should be ashamed of such outright favoritism.

So What Exactly IS an Emergency

Earlier this week, I had the misfortune to cut my hand badly enough that I needed to go to the emergency room. I went to Newton-Wellesley's brand new ER, actively bleeding, but not expecting to be seen right away since you never are. However, amid the brand new chairs, the flat screen TVs, the wood styling and vaulted ceilings, I noticed that I was the only person actually "wounded" in the whole place. Sure, there were other people that didn't look that great, but there were no other bandages, no limping, no fluids spilling onto the tile floor. From the time I first signed in until I was treated it was EXACTLY three hours. During that time, a nice woman for the hospital explained that all cuts were "fast-tracked" but there had been a lot of ambulances coming in which was why the flow of people in the waiting room actually being treated was pretty much nil. When I finally saw the doctor, I asked her what would have gotten me in any faster, and her response was that if I had actually severed my digit, I might have been bumped up a few spots. I also noticed that this woman was the ONLY doctor actually in the ER. There were plenty of people to take your blood pressure or get your insurance card, but not actually treat you. So while the hospital is patting its back on how nice the facility is, I would gladly sit in the old, dingy waiting room and give that money to actual healthcare providers who could speed up the throughput on the place. It, of course, goes without saying that there is also the chronic problem of folks coming to the ER when they should just go see a primary care physician, but that's a whole other story.

Why is Dunkin' Hiring Rachel Ray

Why in all that is donut holey is Dunkin' Donuts hiring Rachel Ray as a spokesperson? Dunkin' Donuts doesn't need any celebrity endorsements, it's whole appeal is being the food of the working stiff, and how does having the omni-present Ray hawking munchkins help anyone? She is more over-exposed than Emeril (she's on the boxes of Ritz and Triscuits in my pantry for some reason) and she, you know, cooks! Isn't the point of going to Dunkin' that I don't have to make my own food, or even my own coffee? Her whole message is how easy it is to cook! So unless the hook will be DIY recipes that have Dunkin' pastries as a main ingredient, I don't quite see the allure of bringing her on-board.

Boston Continues Overreacting to Aqua Teen Stunt

As if the City of Boston hadn't embarrassed itself enough with the whole Aqua Teen nonsense and their humorless approach to the aftermath, the city council is now looking to legislate their way to avoiding these incidents from reoccurring by licensing marketers. While this is another laughable response, it is also completely unrealistic to implement (how do you decide who is a marketer - if I put the name of my business on my delivery truck, am I a "marketer"?) and will make Boston a backwater that national outfits decide isn't worth the additional expense to even bother advertising here.

Dunkin' Devotion

This Boston Phoenix article delves into the unique connection between New Englanders and their favorite purveyor of coffee and pastries. Since I moved to the Boston area I have always been a huge fan of Dunkin' Donuts, both from the consumer experience (their stuff tastes good), as well as admiration for the way they do business. I even did my major paper for my MBA on the threat of Starbucks and Krispy Kreme to their dominance. One thing they do mention in the article is that they do switch up their menu depending on locations of their franchises. And although I have seen them on the streets of Rome and the subways of Barcelona, it was only on a recent visit to Puerto Rico that I noticed a difference in their menu, when I treated my family to a pineapple, a guava and a quesito donut on our outing to Fajardo.