Mustard’s Last Stand
I got tipped off to this one by my son Joe aka Whiskey Joe aka Joey Pants (by the way, if you’re looking for some summer reading, pick up his book, which has been getting good reviews around the country). Anyway, Pants knows I love a good tube steak and I like to save a buck, so he told me to check out a story about how Costco hasn’t raised the price of its famous hot dog-and-soda deal since 1985. It was a buck-fifty then and it’s a buck-fifty today, Buck.
The company's current CEO once floated the idea of a price hike to Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal. Sinegal’s response? "If you raise the price of the effing hot dog, I’ll kill you." Last year, Costco CFO Richard Galanti declared the combo will stay at that price forever.
With everything else going through the roof, at least you can count on one bargain in these wacko nuts times. And this ain’t no rinkydink weenie. It’s an all-beef quarter-pound mambo—plus free refills on the 20oz. soda. Economists say with today’s food prices, the combo should cost at least three times as much. But Costco understands that keeping the dog cheap is a smart traffic builder for the store. They produce their own Kirkland brand dogs in California and Illinois and sell more than 100 million of ‘em a year—about four times more than all MLB stadiums combined.
So a coupla other things roaming around the rhubarb patch. Sansabelt Sibilia called into headquarters to report that in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, a clerk at Douglas Wine and Spirits told him that the town has banned nips—which account for about 30% of their business. The guy says a lotta people buy the little nippers and take them to their boats to enjoy a nice day on the water. But just so you know, as good a friend as Joe is, you can't trust a guy who wears Sansabelt pants.
I just picked up a copy of the book called Last Call at Coogan’s: The Life And Death Of A Neighborhood Bar. Coogan’s was a legendary Upper Manhattan spot that attracted all kinds of colorful people. The kind of place where a surgeon could be on a stool next to a custodian and have a helluva time doing the yabba-dabba-do for hours. Sadly, it’s closing time for another old standby. So it goes.
Keep your dukes up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp2JKXBhP6M
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