NABDad

I was doing IT 30 years ago.

Back then you'd post a question on USENET and get an answer back from the guy who wrote the program you were asking about.

My go to.

Sounds like Twice Baked Potatoes.

My mom used to make them. My wife does too.

To be extra fancy, use a piping bag with a star tip when you fill them.

Never got it. I never did much drinking there.

Back in the olden days, my order was:

Potato skins

Salad

Filet mignon

Deep Dish Apple Pie

It broke my damn heart when they stopped offering that dessert.

They're fishing for answers in the answer pond,

Except, they've actually dropped their lines in the stupidity toilet.

Yep.

Sometimes the answer you need is to the question you didn't ask.

Edit: I'll add that I've tried buying restaurant branded potato skins from the grocery store, and they were absolute crap, worse even than the frozen ones that the restaurant was microwaving.

I don't think there's going to be any way to buy what the restaurants purchases, unless you're able to buy in bulk, or find someone who's willing to sell you some that "fell off the truck"

My wife would kill me if we wasted any part of the potatoes.

We've done a couple things with the insides. Sometimes we pan fry the bits in butter with some sauteed onions to have at breakfast the next day.

Last time was the first time I used a melon baller.

When we saw the almost perfect potato balls, it was almost automatic to deep fry them, add a little salt, and just eat them like that.

You mentioned TGI Fridays.

When I was in college, we'd go to Fridays all the time, and the food was incredible.

Then, over the years, it turned to shit. We stopped going.

One day, we were craving the memory of what it was and decided to give it anorher chance.

When we sat down, the manager stopped by our table to thank us for coming in and informed us that they had changed their process. She said that in recent years all their food was being prepared off-site, frozen, and just microwaved to order at the restaurant. However, they recently went back to doing all the prep from scratch in their kitchen.

The food was incredible! Exactly what we remembered. We started going back.

Then COVID hit. The Fridays that we would go to shut down.

The last time we went to a Fridays, the restaurant was empty, the staff was disinterested, and the food was shit.

Where does Applebee's get their potato skins?

I'll give you instructions for making potato skins.

1. Since you referenced food from Applebee's, first you're going to need to wean yourself off whatever drugs you're on so you can tell the difference between food and what Applebee's sells.

2. wash and dry some potatoes.

3. pierce the potatoes several times, all around the outside with a fork.

4. bake the potatoes in a preheated 400° F. oven until you can easily insert your poking fork all the way to the center of the potato (probably about an hour, depending on the potatoes).

5. take the potatoes out of the oven and let them cool down.

6. slice each potato in half

7. scoop out the insides of each potato, leaving about a quarter inch thickness for the skins. Last time I did this, I used a melon baller and deep-fried all the potato balls.

8. deep fry the scooped out skins at about 375°. I prefer beef tallow for frying.

9. when they are golden brown, take them out and set them aside to drain.

10. cook bacon until crispy, then brake it up into small pieces.

11. arrange all the fried potato skins on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

12. season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

13. fill each potato skin with shredded cheddar cheese, and sprinkle bacon pieces on top.

14. bake in the oven at 350° until the cheese melts.

Serve with sour cream and chopped scallions.

I'd argue that you shifted the goal posts when you suggested that civil fines would be a possible path to punishment.

That's all I was responding to. I never suggested that pardons would come into it.

I'm biased, because I work for a non-profit health system.

We have definitely been absorbing hospitals. There seem to be four major categories they fall into:

1. Hospitals that are doing well and fit very well with the system's goals so they make a very positive addition to the system.

2. Hospitals that are surviving, but struggling and unable to compete against the for-profit bohemoths that are breathing down their neck.

3. Hospitals that have failed because they simply couldn't compete and are leaving a community without any viable options for healthcare.

4. Hospitals that have failed because they were bought up by venture capitalists, assets sold off to benefit the VCs, and bankrupted when they couldn't pay the debt that the VCs incurred for their purchase.

My employer is far from perfect, but there is no question that the single overriding mission is to provide healthcare. We are not a real estate mogul masquerading as a hospital system.

I couldn't read the entire article, but the initial premise seems like something promoted by the for-profit healthcare industry to try to distract from their financial rape of their patients and communities.

Scribbled on the whiteboard in the office.

jk