Marilyn Haggerty's amazing Olive Garden review and the subsequent viral shitstorm

"kids shove plastic Solo cups in school chainlink fence to spell out NEVER FORGET"

There was a little french casual cafe in the town I covered, like an order-at-the-counter place with crepes and quiche and stuff like that, and I was there right when the Iraq war was ramping up, and there started to be a minor phenomenon of assholes driving buy and yelling shit out the window at the place -- "Go back to France" etc. Ironically the owner was a woman from Vietnam who was married to a Vietnam vet. She wouldn't let me write about it though, I guess out of discomfort or slight fear. The one that got away.

kevin hoffman isn't from minnesota btw:

Kevin Hoffman will be the new editor-in-chief of Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages, Village Voice Media announced today.

Hoffman, presently the managing editor of VVM's Cleveland Scene, will take over from departing City Pages editor Steve Perry early next month. Perry announced yesterday that he is leaving the paper to pursue other opportunities.

A 1998 graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, Hoffman worked for the Associated Press and the daily Wilkes-Barre Times Leader before receiving his master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in May 2001. He briefly worked at the weekly Cleveland Free Times before being hired as a staff writer at Scene in January 2002. He was promoted to the managing editor position at Scene three years later.

During Hoffman's tenure at Scene, the paper took first-place in general excellence in the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards and was named the best weekly in Ohio in numerous state contests. Hoffman himself has won numerous awards for his writing, and his story "Soul of the Brute" was included in Penguin Books' Notes from the Underground; The Most Outrageous Stories from the Alternative Press, published in 2005.

Hoffman, 30, will be in Minneapolis next week to meet City Pages staff. He is married to Erin Hoffman, an attorney specializing in constitutional law.

Kevin Hoffman: yet another thing about Village Voice Media that sucks.

oh my god he sounds like the worst

bleatreader 8 hours ago

Is the city pages that is making fun of this person the same city pages that published a review of a new My Burger, a fast food burger joint, when it opened in calhoun-isles a couple of months ago?

Flag Like ReplyReply Joel 7 hours ago in reply to bleatreader

You mean the review with the stunning insight of: "The chicken sandwich was very well-seasoned; not overloaded with mayo like most chicken sandwiches you find. Even the French fries tasted fresh. Our only complaint was with the onion rings, which didn't really taste very oniony."

oh at first I thought he wrote that review. that would have been much better.

he's now trying to say they were "celebrating her wit" on twitter and not making fun of her

http://bluntcard.com/images/1243460812og.gif

When your badges are "Cleveland Scene" and "Missouri Lifestyle," there isn't much ground to stand on with the OG lady.

Photos I shot in Grand Forks last August:

http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/198765_10150254678891596_681036595_8157387_113781_n.jpg

http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/285496_10150254660526596_681036595_8157258_206086_n.jpg

http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/184022_10150254654821596_681036595_8157181_2440973_n.jpg

the great thign about the original article is how coolly matter-of-fact it is.

something about it was kind of hypnotic.

like you are literally being hypnotized by her

"You watch the waiters in white shirts, ties, black trousers and aprons adorned with gold-colored towels. They are busy at midday, punching in orders and carrying out bread and pasta...."

*goes into trance*

i like her writing!

damn el roco and the bronze boot look way fucking cooler than most bars here in mpls

the great thign about the original article is how coolly matter-of-fact it is.

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Friday, March 9, 2012 11:25 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for real, i kept thinking "this isn't lolzy, this is some hemingway shit"

fuck the condescension, matter of fact small town old lady wins

They are busy at midday

^^this is the part of the line that really sells it for some reason, i can't quite put it in words

wkiw marilyn

sure but i still wish this was Neil Michael Haggerty's amazing Olive Garden review and the subsequent viral shitstorm

Antony Hegarty's Olive Garden Review
Julie Hagerty's etc.

it felt more proust than hemingway to me

i like her writing!

― art dealin' thru the west coast (tpp), Friday, March 9, 2012 3:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the great thign about the original article is how coolly matter-of-fact it is.

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Friday, March 9, 2012 3:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for real, i kept thinking "this isn't lolzy, this is some hemingway shit"

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, March 9, 2012 3:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this this this all this. she's a better writer than he is!

the great thign about the original article is how coolly matter-of-fact it is.

yeah, i'm missing the part where she's oohing and aahing about how great the olive garden is; she just basically says "yup, there's a new olive garden, the waiters wear uniforms, soup warms you up when it's cold."

"and yes - several black olives"

The chicken Alfredo ($10.95) was warm and comforting on a cold day. The portion was generous. My server was ready with Parmesan cheese.

As I ate, I noticed the vases and planters with permanent flower displays on the ledges. There are several dining areas with arched doorways.

she writes in a really self-aware and intentional version of that semi-autistic yelper's style we all made fun of on the yelp thread

Like Robbe-Grillet, but with more of an emotional payoff.

Here's the thing about that: When you write steadily for 40-plus years, you get good at it.

Clowning on the style/content of writing like this: totally cool
Clowning on this particular review with friends/on a message board: fine
Clowning on the review in a professional-level forum: douchey as fuck

It's just one of those core comedy rules: if you're picking on someone who's perceived as having less power than yourself, chances are good that it's gonna come off to a lot of people as bullying.

Possibly because it's bullying.

It is, but the fact that this shit is being published/posted indicates that some people aren't perceiving it as such or just don't care if they are.

Shee-it. I read that review. It seemed perfectly competant and suitable for the town where it took place and the audience it was aimed at. If you don't know anything about middling-small towns, then all that means is you've stumbled across your own ignorance, not that this review was anything odd or weird.

ppl being entertained by the most mundane things, even off the "all time" comedy films thread

I think the horse is dead, Morbs, you can put the stick down.

saw it move

Ta-da:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/for-a-professional-midwest-palate-a-first-taste-of-a-dirty-water-dog/?src=tp

She was flummoxed, though, by a bilingual sign on the cart in Arabic and English that said “Halal food.”

“I don’t know what that is,” she said.

The concept was explained.

“I’m Lutheran,” she said, “so that wouldn’t apply to me.”

Ms. Hagerty promised to revisit Mr. Abdelbaky’s cart on her next trip to New York. And she said she was looking forward to dinner at the Times Square location of the Olive Garden on Thursday.

“It will be, shall I say, interesting to see if it’s any different,” she said. “It’s pleasant to dine at the Olive Garden.”

Ok this woman has an awesome sense of humor.

Hell yes.

So now what, a book deal? A food network show? How does this shake out?

I would pay money to have her roast Guy Fieri et al over a slow fire. In her understated way.

i don't get why this is a thing but that kevin hoffman dude is a dick and i am gonna follow this story vaguely in the hope that he gets his comeuppance

yeah he kind of needs to be fired

It made the WSJ.

The highest honor:

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/HC-GQ603_Hagert_BV_20120312172702.jpg

i don't get why this is a thing but that kevin hoffman dude is a dick and i am gonna follow this story vaguely in the hope that he gets his comeuppance

I completely agree, he was so obnoxious and condescending.

His condescension strikes me a as narcissism of small differences kinda thing, tbh.

What I like about Marilyn: She appears to have managed to sustain a successful career in journalism without either being laid off or getting burned out, something which I gather is really at the heart of alt press's contempt. She also seems like she would be a lot of fun to eat with, provided the food doesn't get in the way.

What I don't like about her: The sense that a meal with her could turn out to be a live reenactment of this. In an article about the News Room (in Mpls.), she referred to some of the clientele as "swishy." Just like everyone else, I only tolerate homophobia in my own grandparents and no one else from their generation.

What I don't like about this thread: "Why is that it's always people from the midwest who seem most intent on making fun of rubes? It's like, dude, you're in Minneapolis." (Oh hey, check out the dateline on that Onion article!)

Also, playing attack dog on all other local media is sort of KH's beat.

(Not defending at all. Just explaining.)

Marilyn Hagerty, turning swords into plowshares and fury into support.

I spent $93 on dinner for 2 people at Applebee's and was impressed by the large portions and tasty entrées https://t.co/mLLJMFAtW1

— Insider Food (@insiderfood) October 21, 2023

It took me a an embarrassingly long time to realise Marilyn Haggerty was not Merle Haggard. For a moment I thought I’d found the greatest thread of all time

Some people go to Florida. Some prefer Arizona. Maybe Texas.

Then there are those who prefer a motorcycle or sled ride over to the Snow Sled Inn near Crookston.

They go there by sled when the snow piles up. Many get there by motorcycle the rest of the year. They talk, they eat, and they just hang out.

Everybody seems to know everyone else. At least that’s how it was on a recent stop there with my niece, Joanne Jensen of Sacramento, Calif. She was hanging around on one of her occasional visits to the “hinterlands.”

Like Richard Ford narrated by Sam Elliot.

lol