By Steve Rhodes

There’s so much villainy afoot I don’t know where to begin.
So let’s start with McRib.
“McDonald’s McRib sandwich, despite several supposed farewell tours, is back for another limited run, serving an enthusiastic group of devotees,” Phil Rosenthal writes in the Tribune on the marketing magic of scarcity.
“Hard to fathom they would be that hungry for a pork patty pressed into the shape of a small slab of ribs if it were a menu staple.”
Is that so? Wouldn’t McDonald’s – and McRib fans – dearly love for the pressed pork patty to be a regular menu item. What prevents that from happening? Could it be . . .
. . . actual scarcity?!
It may be hard to fathom, but a friend who works as a food industry analyst and consultant once explained to me that there actually aren’t enough pigs in the world to support McRib as a regular menu item.

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Posted on October 26, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Let’s take a look at the inbox this morning, shall we?
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“Leaders from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an award-winning farmworker group, and from the Student/Farmworker Alliance, will be in Chicago this week for three days of workshops, events and protests calling on Trader Joe’s to do its part to end human rights abuses in Florida’s tomato industry by joining efforts spearheaded by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW),” the coalition and alliance say in a press release issued this morning.
“The CIW and the nation’s four largest fast-food companies, three of the largest food-service companies, as well as grocer Whole Foods, have all reached Fair Food Agreements, which improve pay and work conditions for Florida tomato pickers. Thus far, Trader Joe’s has refused to participate in the campaign.

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Posted on October 25, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

“As thousands of Illinois social service agencies, hospitals, schools and vendors were waiting months for overdue payments from the state, Gov. Pat Quinn’s office pushed out a $285,000 payment to a prominent Chicago Democrat last month, just two weeks after a settlement was reached in a lawsuit, state records show,” AP reports.
“Former Chicago alderman Martin Oberman and four other lawyers were the winners in a lawsuit that forced a special election last fall to fill the last 60 days of President Barack Obama’s term in the U.S. Senate. As governor, Quinn was named as a defendant, and therefore the state was required to pay legal fees after a federal appeals court ordered the special vote.”

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Posted on October 24, 2011

By Natasha Julius

Wow. When we said we needed to breathe new life into this old dog, we didn’t think anyone would take it seriously.
Market Update
Well, if nothing else, Intelligence shares seem to be on the rise.

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Posted on October 22, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

“Hershey customers, conscientious consumers, and students will gather in front of the Hershey Store on Saturday, October 22nd, to collect petition signatures to Hershey’s CEO John Bilbrey demanding that the company make a commitment to buy ethically-produced cocoa this Halloween free of forced labor, child labor, or human trafficking,” the Raise the Bar Hershey Coalition and Chicago Fair Trade Coalition have announced.
Well, it’s too late I’m sure for this Halloween – that cocoa is in stores now. Nonetheless, is it unreasonable to ask as consumers for products free of forced labor, child labor or human trafficking?
Who out there really feels comfortable consuming goods produced by human misery?
If the price of a Hershey bar has to go up as a result, so be it.
Or maybe there’s another way . . .

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Posted on October 21, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

I just wrote this e-mail to esteemed Beachwood colleague Tim Willette:

Re: Khadafy
(that’s the spelling I still prefer and insist on)
Looks like we elected John McCain after all!
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No, seriously, not like I didn’t want Khadafy and bin Laden, um, dead, I guess. But Dems using it to bolster Obama’s re-election makes me very uncomfortable. I’m sure Glenn Greenwald will articulate why better than I can right now.
Then again, with troops in Iraq coming home over the next few months – right? we’re outta there? – foreign policy weirdly will be Obama’s strength . . . even if we kill more civilians with drones than we ever have . . . and the detainment/rendition regime has been extended far beyond Bush . . .

Occupy City Council
“I absolutely support the Occupy movement.” Joe Moreno, who happens to be my alderman, writes in the Huffington Post. “I believe that what these people are doing is the very definition of courageous. The people camping and marching should be admired for doing something that many people are too lazy or fearful to ever even consider . . .

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Posted on October 20, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Let me say first that – in a sports fan kind of way – I hate the St. Louis Cardinals. Not because I follow the Cubs (I decided I was no longer a “fan” a few years ago), but because I have long found the Cardinals (like the White Sox) to be unlikable in so many ways, starting with manager Tony LaRussa. What a whack job. Truly one of major league pricks of the game and – if you read Three Nights in August you know this – sort of a psychopath (like so many “successful” people).
So it’s kind of a big deal for me to admit that I finally have to give in and give LaRussa and, indeed, the entire Cardinals organization the props he and they deserve as they get ready for the opening game of the World Series tonight.
Damn. The last time the Cards won the World Series was in 2006 with an 83-win team – one of their worst teams of recent vintage. Sounds familiar. The 2011 Cardinals made the World Series? I still don’t even know how they got into the playoffs, but I’m quite certain that LaRussa – and more obviously general manager John Mozeliak – must have had something to do with it.

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Posted on October 19, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Things are running late as they are wont to do on Tuesdays; a really fun time at the venerable Beachwood Inn last night. Thanks in particular to Beachwood contributors J.J. Tindall, Jim “Coach” Coffman and special guest Allison Hantschel from First Draft.
Beachwood Bill, you are a hero. You and your fellow Occupiers have already changed the world.

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Posted on October 18, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

1. “Five Things We Learned: Bears-Vikings.
The most salient being No. 4: The Bears aren’t the worst team in the NFC North. They also aren’t the best, or the second-best, and only the third-best by default.
But just like the Bears were heading to the Super Bowl after beating Atlanta to open the season and everyone needed to be fired after losses to the Saints, Packers and Lions (as well as barely beating Carolina), the notion that this team has turned it around and Mike Martz is a genius again and the defense rules and the team’s problems at offensive line and wide receiver are solved is more ridiculous than Devin Hester.

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Posted on October 17, 2011

By Natasha Julius

If the money’s right, we’ll come out of retirement for the weekend.
Market Update
Bad news for Chicago’s NFL market: S&P has downgraded Bears futures from “Credible” to “Shit Out of Luck.”

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Posted on October 15, 2011