Where's the Beef?

David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
| Raven Guru Marketing http://www.ravenguru.com/

Where's the Beef?

Much to my wife’s disappointment, I decided to check out a few local restaurants to see if any could peak my interests during the holidays. We ate out four consecutive days. We did find one restaurant that we will return to again. Flavors, an Indian restaurant, was surprisingly good with an interesting buffet. My wife was delighted when the cooking began again. For Christmas dinner we had prime rib roast, roasted Brussels sprouts and hasselback potatoes. That was followed by Fettuccine with in house smoked salmon and vodka cream sauce, roasted cabrito, black-eyed peas and caviar for New Year’s day, French onion soup, patty melts, pan seared steaks, iceberg lettuce wedges topped with in house apple smoked bacon, thinly sliced red onion, Roquefort cheese and Russian caviar, waffle potatoes and finally Italian beef sandwiches. Yes, I concluded the holiday meals with a sandwich. I had a bit of rib roast and au jus left over from Christmas and I wanted to make an Italian beef sandwich. First I had to make giardiniera or mixed pickled vegetables. Next I baked a pair of hoagies. Then I shaved about three quarters of a pound of the rib roast and covered it with hot au jus. The sandwich is meant to be eaten hot and wet. On the bread I layered provolone cheese, wet roast beef, homemade giardiniera, more au jus and the final slice of bread. This is a gloriously messy and tasty sandwich. Oddly, it is not the beef that makes the sandwich but rather it is the giardiniera. Just about any beef roast and good au jus will do but the sandwich gets its distinctive nature from the giardiniera. It takes three days to make but is worth the time. The recipe of the week is Giardiniera. Enjoy!

Essential

It was interesting to see that net neutrality has become media driven story. It was also interesting to see that its resolution would determine the fate of the Internet. A wrong decision would destroy the Internet. Cable news can be overly dramatic. Please note the following essentials:

  • It is essential that the Internet remain free – try telling that to the ISPs that charge for access or even Netflix for its subscription services.
  • It is essential to the growth of the Internet that the government has nothing to do with it – how soon we forget that the only reason the internet exists is because of the government.
  • It is essential that free market forces determine the direction of net neutrality – and how long will that take? If the service providers pursue predatory pricing and discriminatory application delivery, what will be lost as consumers try to impact behavior? How much time and effort will it take to shape net neutrality using market forces?
  • It is essential that access is equal for all – capitalism is never about equality for all. The internet continues to evolve economically and has never been about equality. It requires equipment for access (computer, cable modem, etc.), a monthly service agreement and lots of time.
  • It is essential that main stream media news boil net neutrality down to a single thought – success or failure.   

Thank goodness only the last of these essentials is true.



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