PATERNALISM IS AS PATERNALISM DOES.

If you approve of the policy goals, it's Good Paternalism.  "Guess Who’s Big Mad They Can’t Buy Junk Food With Your Tax Money Anymore."  Pajamas Media contributor Tim O'Brien continues, probably approvingly.

Food stamp users in Florida are waking up to some big changes that took place in their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that took effect April 20. The entitlement program’s beneficiaries can no longer use their EBT cards to purchase soda, energy drinks, candy, and “ultra-processed prepared desserts” such as Twinkies, cookies, cupcakes, and other packaged sweets.

They can continue to use their taxpayer-funded, free-food cards for fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, dairy and other staples. They can also use their EBT cards for coffee, tea, bottled water, and sport drinks. On the snack side, they can use their EBT cards for granola bars, freshly prepared baked goods, and packaged “breakfast” foods such as toaster strudels and breakfast biscuits.

The federal government did not implement the restrictions, even though the state of Florida’s SNAP program receives subsidies from the government. Rather, this a state policy which is being implemented under a waiver program from the Trump administration.

It's For Your Own Good (Moocher edition).  It's always For Your Own Good, for arbitrary values of good.  People go into public service to traffic for the good of others boss other people around.  "Wise Experts know better than you, dear reader, what 'disinformation' on social media is, what additives to cigarettes are dangerous, how much beer you should drink, and whether your business ought remain open during flu season or not."  And whether your public assistance can go for potato chips and Pop Tarts.

POPULAR OPINION INFLUENCES POLICY.

In "Trump Just Made the Worst Possible Deal… Except for the Alternatives,"  Michael Smerconish contends, "Once the conflict started, the United States faced a difficult reality: no clear path to victory, no public appetite for a prolonged war, and no support for a large-scale ground invasion. The result was an imperfect agreement that satisfies almost no one—but may have been preferable to the alternatives. The memorandum ends active hostilities, reopens the Strait of Hormuz, and creates a 60-day window for broader negotiations."

Reason's Michael Petti argues, "Compromise With Iran Isn't 'Surrender'."  At the moment, the only compromise that seems to be holding is the movement of ships and goods through the Strait of Hormuz, which is mutually beneficial trade at work, something possible with or without diplomacy.  "Both sides give something up and both sides get something in return."  Mr Petti notes,

The United States and Iran were unable to defeat each other in the first round, and, staring at an unacceptably costly escalation, they came to the table. While a final deal hasn't been agreed to, the ceasefire memorandum commits both sides to giving things up, with the U.S. promising to lift all economic sanctions if Iran negotiates away its nuclear program.

Strictly speaking, the ceasefire memorandum commits both sides to sixty days of palaver that might lead to somebody giving things up, that is, if the palaver lasts that long.

PROGRESSIVE PRIMITIVISM.

That's the answer to Frances MacGuire's question, "Could High Fertilizer Prices Change the Face of Farming?"  It's the usual sort of Common Dreams wishful thinking dressed up as sustainability.

The global disruptions caused by the war in Iran have brought renewed focus to the vulnerability of global fossil fuel supply chains. But what has received less attention is how the war also highlights the vulnerability of industrial agriculture supply chains reliant on massive amounts of chemical fertilizers and other inputs. Like oil and gas, these frequently travel long distances through turbulent waters.

A big advantage of renewable energy technologies like solar is that sunlight doesn’t have to pass through the Straits of Hormuz. The same can be said for many of the inputs required for agroecological and regenerative farming systems. The development of these approaches would see a food system that is not only less vulnerable to the supply chain shocks being felt today, but would be better for the environment, human health, and animals. It would be healthier, kinder, and more resilient.

That was mostly true of North American agriculture in 1926, and almost surely true of North American agriculture in 1826 or 1726.  Oh, wait, the lady said "healthier, kinder, and more resilient."

Perhaps, if you lived.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS.

It was a slow Tuesday night for a waitress named Lily Thompson.

Oпly a haпdfυl of cυstomers filled the diпiпg room, aпd the staff moved qυietly throυgh their roυtiпes. Aroυпd 7 p.m., a tall yoυпg maп weariпg a Milwaυkee Brewers hoodie aпd baseball cap qυietly walked throυgh the froпt door aпd politely asked for a table пear the corпer wiпdow.

Most people iпside the restaυraпt barely пoticed him.

The young man noticed that Ms Thompson looked tired.

At oпe poiпt, he пoticed the exhaυstioп iп her expressioп aпd geпtly asked how her eveпiпg was goiпg.

At first, Lily simply smiled aпd said she was “haпgiпg iп there.”

Bυt somethiпg aboυt his kiпdпess made her opeп υp.

She briefly meпtioпed her mother’s illпess, the pressυre of sυpportiпg her yoυпger brother, aпd her dream of becomiпg a пυrse someday if she coυld ever afford school.

Jacob listeпed carefυlly withoυt iпterrυptiпg.

That's Jacob Misiorowski, who you might have heard of.

He left a large tip and a note of encouragement on the check.  “Keep pυshiпg forward. Hard work aпd heart always matter.”

She still is, at the restaurant, as is he, on the mound.

Many of the young men who play professional baseball have hardscrabble backgrounds, and the grind of coming up through the minor leagues is its own kind of grind.

ETHANOL FAILS ANY REASONABLE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS.

Matthew "Slow Boring" Yglesias, who argues with but mostly votes for Democrats, correctly details that argument.

Uisung Lee, Hoyoung Kwon, May Wu, and Michael Wang from the Argonne National Laboratory say that [ethanol lowers greenhouse gas production] because improvements in corn yields have eliminated prior concerns. By contrast, Tyler Lark, Nathan Hendricks, Aaron Smith, and Holly Gibbs say that the land-use changes induced by ethanol mandates (i.e., turning more acreage into growing corn) mean that “the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the [Renewable Fuel Standard] is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24 percent higher.”

The thing is, even if you use the Argonne numbers, this still comes out to something like $160 to $190 in costs per ton of carbon dioxide abated. Using less generous math, of course, the cost is essentially infinite because you’re raising emissions.

Beyond the specific carbon accounting, though, there are without a doubt significant environmental impacts of growing dramatically more corn. This means extra pesticide in the water and corn grown in space that could otherwise be used for conservation or recreation or housing. In a world of growing electrification, that land could also be used for utility-scale solar and wind projects that are dramatically more energy-dense.

All this carbon math really hinges on the fact that the amount of land dedicated to growing corn goes up, which happens because the biofuels mandate pushes up the price of corn, making it lucrative to grow more corn.

The primary cost here is simply that turning corn into gasoline makes food more expensive.

As we noted, directly, in the price of beef, and as multiple researchers called attention to, directly in the price of other food grains as farmers plant more corn and fewer beans, grain grasses, and substitution toward rice takes place.

LET'S PUT A PIN IN THIS.

Mamdani's grocery store will fail.  In The Daily Economy, Jimmy Licon gets to the heart of the matter.  "Without price signals and profit discipline, inefficiency isn’t a risk — it’s a guarantee. Persistent higher costs leave taxpayers with the bill."

Now it might be that New Yorkers' tax dollars will offer the wretched of East Harlem relief at the checkout counter.  Existing grocers in the neighborhood are calling attention.

Mayor Mamdani's plan to open a city-run grocery store is facing pushback from East Harlem grocers, who say the area is already saturated.

About 45 grocery stores are within a 35-minute walk of the proposed site. pic.twitter.com/X2E33bEjM8

— Amanda Macias (@amanda_m_macias) May 5, 2026

Best case scenario, the mayor can point to his constituents "benefitting" from the lower sticker prices at Gastronom N^o. 1, while those exploitive capitalists lose business, and people in Chappaqua and Scarsdale and East Otto pick up the tab.

Even if shoppers save a dollar over Food Bazaar, that pound of apples will include appropriated tax dollars, food waste, labor distortions, and a thousand other costs that will make it wildly more expensive than the sticker would indicate. The real price is far more expensive than a market competitor’s, even if the shelf price doesn’t show it.

And over time, it's likely that Gastronom N^o. 1 will become even more a drain on those taxpayers.

The price of apples is a secret language, the communication of a billion bits of dispersed, organic, intuitive knowledge of costs, trade-offs, and alternatives. All that information, over time and geography, quietly working away in the minds of Washington apple growers and migrant fruit pickers, beekeepers and cider makers, interstate truck drivers and NYC shelf stockers, is infused into the price sticker on a pound of apples in a market-driven grocery store. And Mamdani, like hubristic dreamers before him, thinks he can wipe all that away, slap on a price that looks like success to the voters, and hide all the rest in your tax bill.

Whose tax bill, though?  Isn't New York already shedding population and tax base?

LET'S START THINKING ABOUT SUMMER.

Over the years, we've noted the evolution of May Day from a north European fertility ritual to a political event.

On the itinerant circus, that used to be the traditional beginning of the travel season, and a "First of May" was a novice trouper who had a lot to learn.  There are still itinerant circuses, and some of them have been on the road for some time this season.

In political economy, the first of May is the celebration of socialist labor.  Tsar Vladimir has ditched the Soviet era parade, in favor of a wallow next week in the Great Patriotic War, although European socialists still use the day, which commemorates a strike put down roughly in Chicago, to call attention to the unfinished business of the class struggle.

Well, why not?  Christmas in northern Europe might have adopted existing rituals of the winter solstice.

That noted, the traditional Maypole of those fertility rituals, which has also been toned down in order that kindergarteners can wrap streamers around the upright for the tether ball, became the Maibaum at gathering places of German ethnic and cultural societies.

We're experiencing a spring that has been on the chilly and rainy side of late, and the year is off to a stressful start.  But the beer gardens are opening, the evenings are getting longer, and the itinerant circuses are on the road.

AYATOLLAH-MAHT?

Victor Hanson suggests Iran's government has imploded.  It could be worse than that.  "It is one thing for the people to be ruled by globally feared autocrats armed to the teeth, but quite another to be governed by humiliated, now-impotent incompetents and buffoons."

Sooner or later, the mullahs' control over information in the country is going to run afoul of reality.  State radio can broadcast the latest demands they are making of Israel or the United States all they want.  Sooner or later the people might start asking "Where are those concessions from infidels?"  Probably just before they start asking "Where is rice at grocer?"  "When your country faces the prospect of hunger riots, you are not winning the war."

Turn over the fissile materials.  Stop funding proxies elsewhere in Asia Minor.  Compensate the Gulf Arab states for those damaged hotels.

Let the anaconda's coils tighten.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEATH CULT.

Isn't a non-government actor interfering with waterborne commerce committing piracy?  "Ocean Defenders Collide With Industrial Krill Trawler in Antarctica."  Apparently because with less whaling, there are more hungry baleen whales about, and somebody has to protect their opportunities to feed.

“The krill fishing industry is fully aware of the damage they cause, such as killing whales in their nets, yet they do all they can to greenwash krill products,” said Bob Brown Foundation Antarctic and marine campaigner Alistair Allan. “We applaud the brave actions of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, who are ensuring that the plunder of krill does not go unchallenged.”

“Krill is violently sucked out of Antarctica’s fragile wilderness all for products we don’t need, such as fish farm feed, pet food, and supposed health products,” Allan added. “It’s time for the world to boycott all products with krill in them.”

It is not for the likes of Ocean Defenders to determine what their neighbors "don't need."  Fish farming might take the pressure off natural fisheries, pet food keeps cat ladies from being crazier, and "supposed health products" could refer to Big Pharma's products or to the stuff of nature cures.  The luxury beliefs of environmentalist wackos can be deadly.

A SMALL STEP TOWARD A STATE OF GOOD REPAIR.

After a couple of weeks of unrelentingly gloomy posting, here's an encouraging development.  "Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Is Single Handedly Bringing Society Back From The Brink By Enforcing A Business Casual Dress Code And Not Allowing Hats In The Dining Room."  That's Barstool contributor Captain Cons, with a ringing endorsement of the house rule.

I, for one, am thrilled about this even if it's been a rule for a while. Unless you're new around here, you know I am in favor of enforcing guardrails on our society. I don't need to dive deep into the sociological impacts of how we speak, dress, and act, but plenty of folks far smarter than me have done the research. The research says if we comport ourselves better in public, society improves.

It is the cluster of institutions and norms that reinforce middle-class habits that matters.

There are still a few holdouts.  "Ruth’s Chris Asks Adults to Dress Like Adults, and the Internet Has a Full Meltdown."  Well, yes, and David Manney knows why.  "Twenty-five years ago, the very idea that a nice restaurant would even need to set a dress code for normal folks would've sounded completely ridiculous."

Chili's decided to distinguish themselves by mocking Ruth's Chris.

A chain restaurant built around burgers and margaritas took a shot at a steakhouse for having standards. The hypocrisy is thicker than their queso.

Ruth’s Chris made clear their policy reflects the experience they intend to provide, which includes maintaining an environment that matches the price point and expectations of their guests.

Business casual isn't a burden; it's the baseline for a place charging top dollar for eating cow.

This entire episode exposes how deranged parts of our culture have become. To many of our friends on the left these days, I'm apparently a male chauvinist because I open doors for women, help carry heavy bags, and still say, "Please, may I?" and "Thank you."

I taught my daughters those same habits without even realizing how much it mattered. Years ago, we stopped for gas in southern Ohio during a wedding trip. They used proper manners with the cashier, who stopped what she was doing, praised how well-mannered they were, and credited their upbringing. That moment sticks with me because it shows how rare basic courtesy has become.

Standards only disappear when people stop defending them.  Just as we have been saying for years.  "Perhaps that was necessary, there being reasons to question traditions being followed simply for their own sake, and that might have been what the Consciousness Revolution was all about.  But when evidence accumulates that your experiment against reality has failed, maybe it's time to restore the norms and the signals.  I repeat: restore.  It's not about turning clocks back, it is about achieving a state of good repair."

TRUTH IN PACKAGING.

Immediately before the Festive Season, home improvement store Menards settled a lawsuit.

Recently, Menards agreed to a multi-state settlement totaling over $4 million after regulators determined its 11% rebate advertising misled shoppers. Wisconsin received $750,000 under the agreement, along with changes that clarified and simplified the store's terms.

The presentation was the core issue; signs highlighted a reduced price that appeared to shoppers as immediate. At checkout, they paid the full price, with the savings arriving weeks later as a store credit after mailing the applicable forms. Many customers believed the discount was instant, not after paperwork and weeks.

When a store advertises a discounted price, it suggests you can pay that lower price today. A rebate suggests a delayed benefit tomorrow. For years, Menards blurred that distinction, leaning on bold percentages while burying the mechanics in smaller, fine print.

Legally precise language didn't repair the emotional response; shoppers compared shelf prices and made informed decisions based on what they found. Later, they learned that the deal worked differently. Even customers who eventually received credit felt they were misled because of the expectations formed at the shelf, not in the mail weeks later.

The settlement demands clearer signage and extends the rebate claim window to at least one year, reducing the odds that customers might miss out after the fact.

On the one hand, stores promoting a net price after rebate have been around for years, and many of them use a variation on the send-in-a-ticket for a store credit rather than awarding the discount at the cash register.  In some ways it's less troublesome than clipping coupons to get the lower price at checkout, and it's less intrusive than having your telephone number or your electronic mail on file to qualify for the lower price.  On the other hand, when your store's tagline is "You'll save big money" and that jingle is on a continuous loop right there with the Festive Season mix, somebody might interpret that claim as meaning a bargain now, not later.

A CASE FOR MORE CAPITALISM.

Common Dreams contributor Ginger Cassady, a blonde with the Rainforest Action Network, gripes, "Oreo’s Sweet Image Hides a Bitter Truth About Forests and Human Rights."  Why?  "Oreo may seem harmless. But when palm oil is sourced from destroyed rainforest or land taken without consent, the cost is not just environmental—it is human."  That's what markets, property rights, and rules of contract are for.  Their absence leads to bad outcomes.

Oreo is marketed as “milk’s favorite cookie.” But behind that familiar blue package is a supply chain tied to rainforest destruction and violence against the people who defend their land.

Mondelēz International, the corporate giant that makes Oreo, has built a global snack empire worth nearly $40 billion a year. Its products line grocery shelves across the country. What most consumers never see is the palm oil that goes into those products—or the damage connected to its production.

Catch the non sequitur bridging those paragraphs?  The "people," presumably tropical natives, don't have the property rights to "defend their land," which would mean selling the palm oil on their property to the highest bidder.  That highest bidder might well be Mondelēz,  but the blonde ginger would rather rile up readers by invoking the grasping food conglomerate rather than the absence of property rights that lead to the destruction of the rain forests, with the ultimate depletion of the palm oil, and thus, the Oreo.

PĄCZKI DAY, FASCHING DIENSTAG, MARDI GRAS.

You don't have to wait until today to enjoy a pączek or two.

Maybe there will be a few on hand for the next day or so as well.  Waste not, want not.

ROSENMONTAG.

As we've noted previously, "Why should Mobile or New Orleans or Rio monopolize the street parades? There's usually a fun one in Köln."  Or several.  One paid tribute to the horsecar!

Photo by Stephan Anemüller © KVB/ retrieved from Stadt Köln

Yes, as Karneval winds down, some of the parade floats tend to the raunchy, and those can surely be seen again this year.  We'll keep it fun this year.

Kölner Rosenmontagszug 2026
Unattributed photograph retrieved from Festkommitee Kölner Karneval.

And yes, there are pączki in the larder. "If you don't eat at least one pączek, you will be unlucky all year long." I'm taking no chances.

WHAT'S THE MOSLEM VERSION OF A KAREN?

In "First They Came for the Plastic Pigs, but I Was Not a Plastic Pig, so I Said Nothing," Robert Spencer of Pajamas Media sees a creeping caliphate ... in Italy.

This time, it's not about the tempting odors from the smoker wafting into your house, the way it can be Stateside.  Mr Spencer suggests it's the followers of Mohammed seeking to impose the same empty life on their neighbors they live themselves.

Nowadays, however, the warriors of jihad are not besieging the cities of Europe and attempting to breach their walls. Instead, the conquest is taking place in a vastly different manner. Leftist open-borders policies have allowed millions of Muslims to stream into Europe, where the European left’s dogged commitment to “diversity” and “multiculturalism” has foreclosed on any effort to convince the migrants to assimilate and adopt European values. Meanwhile, as adherents of a supremacist ideology, those migrants are doing just the opposite of assimilating.

The latest example of this is a dispute in Italy over a most unthreatening item, a plastic pig. The European news service Remix News reported Thursday that “a plastic pig displayed in the window of a newly opened delicatessen on the Piazza dei Signori in the Italian city of Padua has triggered a local controversy after a senior representative of the city’s Muslim community called for its removal, arguing that it is offensive and inappropriate.”

The loutish pig in question is actually the Italian cousin of the happy, chef’s hat-wearing pigs that adorn the signs of barbecue joints all over our own fair land, and is no more offensive and inappropriate than they are. But if you’re trying to establish and enforce the principle that everyone must always and in every case bow to Islamic sensibilities, then the Padua pig might end up becoming a thorn in your side.

Remix notes that the pig, “placed in the window of the deli Mortadella… e Non Solo, is used to advertise the shop’s sandwiches and cured meats, which are primarily made from pork.” Nothing offensive or inappropriate about that, but Salim El Mauoed, who is the regional vice president of the Muslim community in Padua, nevertheless “urged both the shop’s owners and local authorities to intervene, describing the display as ‘in bad taste’ and offensive to Muslims who pass through the area.”

Now, you might notice that “Salim El Mauoed” is not exactly a conventional Italian name. The man is from somewhere else, yet he does not hesitate to dictate to the Paduans regarding the kind of items they are permitted to have in their shops. Should he succeed in compelling the deli Mortadella… e Non Solo to remove the plastic pig from its window (as well as from its logo and promotional materials), it is not remotely inconceivable that Salim El Mauoed and his fellow Muslims in Padua will then demand that Mortadella… e Non Solo stop selling pork as well. If you can get a beer or a glass of wine at this deli, those are going to have to go, too.

Salim El Mauoed issued his demand in the name of “diversity,” but ultimately, the “diversity” for which he stands is decidedly monochromatic. He says that the plastic pig in the window is “in bad taste” and offensive to Muslims who might pass by, but he has no concern whatsoever for the possibility that some native Italians might find the removal of the pig to be just as offensive and inappropriate as he regards the pig itself. The Padua of Salim El Mauoed’s dreams will be entirely stripped of material that is offensive to Muslims, but the sensibilities of everyone else will not be taken into consideration.

Maybe Mr El Mauoed ought light a candle to Saint Anthony of Padua, see if that will help.

The reason I seek the Moslem version of a Karen is that a few years ago we documented the woke wine women of Austin, in the act of gentrifying a neighborhood, who were less than happy about weekend impromptu car shows with tailgating and ethnic music.  Those protests of immigration operations?  Support them in the abstract, but keep their traditions out of the neighborhoods we're taking over.  When the Salims of Padua tell the local wine women to cover their heads and abstain from the mortadella, let it be said that the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS, MAKE TZATZIKI.

A week after the Sycamore Tom and Jerry's restaurant serving Chicago-style gyros and all sorts of other foods suffered a catastrophic fire, the owners announced plans to continue in business, using temporary quarters (a restaurant that has had multiple owners offering multiple varieties of food: thanks, Illinois taxes) until they build a new eatery at their existing location.

In a social media post Saturday evening, the restaurant said it secured a temporary location at 265 W. Peace Road in Sycamore – the former Eggsclusive Cafe – with plans to reopen by early March. Work is underway to prepare the space so the restaurant can resume serving customers as quickly as possible.

Sarah Meyer, Tom & Jerry’s general manager, said the restaurant’s management team first looked at the space on Feb. 1 before signing a lease two days later. She said workers have been inside the location most days since.

“We are still overwhelmed with grief, but I think at this point we are all so busy making plans that we are just forging ahead,” Meyer said.

The Sycamore Road restaurant suffered an electrical firing in the ceiling.  Details about the anticipated reopening, which might be by increments such as no drive-through or a limited menu, will be forthcoming.

A THIRD PLACE LOST.

Last Saturday, the Tom & Jerry's restaurant in Sycamore suffered a major fire.  The building is condemned.  We'll see what transpires for rebuilding.

There are a number of eateries in the State Line trading under the Tom & Jerry (as in the cartoon characters) banner.  I don't know who has rights to the theming.  The restaurants do not comprise a chain, nor are they under common ownership.  In addition to the now-closed Sycamore restaurant, there are others in Belvidere, Loves Park, Machesney Park, and Rockford that appear to be affiliated, and there was once another in DeKalb.

The menu at each is what you'd expect of a Chicago area fast casual eatery: Gyros, Burgers, Ribs, Hot Dogs, Italian Beef and Chicken, with other offerings.  The DeKalb and Sycamore locations served as useful third places as the managers let patrons linger and some of the regulars knew each other and caught up on things there.

THOSE AWFUL WOKE WINE WOMEN.

The Militant Normals have been running an information operation for some time, and it's having an effect.  Clyde McGrady, opinion columnist for New York's Times, complains, "Vocal Trump supporters are demonizing Renee Good, her partner and their allies, with some even using an acronym: AWFUL, or Affluent White Female Urban Liberal."  The horror!

Beyond labels and name-calling, the death of Ms. Good and the protests and anger in its wake have sparked a response from many on the right that is particularly targeted at white women in the streets, even though men have been just as involved. A majority of college-educated women, including white women, have long been skeptical of President Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, and that skepticism has been growing, according to exit polls after the 2024 election. And for months now, such women are attracting the ire of the president’s supporters.

Liberal white women are only the latest group to be on the receiving end of right-wing animus.

"Right wing animus" being the one kind of lumpenproletarian authenticity that doesn't get an indulgence from the Church of Intersectionality.  Pajamas Media's Scott Pinsker has none of it.  "The Same New York Times That Called Trump a ‘Nazi’ and ‘Fascist' Objects to THIS Hateful Word for Women."  Nor should he.  "Yet there’s nothing sexist about disliking Karens. (News flash: Most women don’t like Karens, either.) Disliking their behavior doesn’t make you a sexist."  I lose track, there are some guys now referring to "Karens" as "Jessicas" (perhaps as in Jessica Yogamat?)

AFTER SIXTY YEARS OF MODEL CITIES AND THE GREAT SOCIETY.

A holiday honoring a prominent civil rights leader ought be occasion for taking stock of the reforms his movement called for.  Let's visit the North Milwaukee neighborhood.

It is deeply troubling that the only Black-owned grocery store on Milwaukee’s north side is now at risk of closing, just six months after Pick ’n Save shut its doors. Now residents are facing yet another blow: Aldi has announced the closure of its northwest side location, giving the community just a two-day notice. This is not an anomaly. It is a pattern.

Each closure widens the food access gap and deepens food apartheid across our city. When corporations exit neighborhoods like ours, they do so quickly and quietly, protecting their bottom lines, not community stability. Short notice is not accidental, it is strategic. It limits public response, avoids accountability, and leaves residents scrambling to meet basic needs.

The authors, urban lobbyists Melody McCurtis and Nateya Taylor, use language deeply troubling to Tyler "Zero Hedge" Durden.  "This go-round, the media is replacing their loaded 'food desert' term with 'food apartheid'. Because, hey, when there isn't a World War II or full blown civil rights style crisis on the media's hands to all them to argue their ideologies...why not just invent one?"  In his view, "Grocery stores operate on thin margins and avoid areas where safety is a liability."

A WELL-DESERVED RETIREMENT.

Yen Ching to close after 4 decades in DeKalb.  The family business serves good food, and some years ago they moved from downtown near the railroad crossing to near the university.

After being in DeKalb for nearly 44 years, Yen Ching has decided to close its doors.

The restaurant is owned by husband and wife John Yin and Marilyn Yin. Their only other staff member is Marilyn’s sister, Caroline Zinger. John serves as the sole chef, while Marilyn manages the restaurant’s finances and paperwork.

Yen Ching is an Asian restaurant in DeKalb that offers authentic Chinese cuisine with items such as sweet sour chicken, egg drop soup and crab rangoons.

John Yin began working in his family’s restaurant at the age of 10, which made it second nature for him to manage an entire kitchen on his own. Although there have been other employees over the years, none ever proved to be a complete fit.

“We’ve had employees, but over the years we realized the easy way is to do it yourself,” Marilyn Yin said.

Even when things get hectic, as it often does at an eatery with a strong local following, the ladies manage to stay cheerful.  This year, the owners will be offering lunch Tuesday through Sunday and dinner each day.  The regulars, which include long-time DeKalb residents from all walks of life, wish them well.