I'm Peter King and Your Not

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

Fenian, here's what Lugnuts is referring to...january 2005....

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week

"Is Sports Illustrated paying tonight?'' Mitchell asked me last Thursday night. We were seated at a new Philadelphia steakhouse, Barclay Prime.

"Yes,'' I said.

Uh-oh. That's trouble. An NFL player, a former first-round pick with some dough, has a blank check. At least he thinks he does.

Mitchell then took the menu out of my hand and said to our waiter, "I'll be ordering for Mr. King."

He ordered me Kobe sliders, and the Kobe cheesesteak sandwich, which I'd heard some legendary stories about. The waiter, Matthew, said there was some really fancy cheese, some really interesting imported mustard and even a dollop of lobster thrown in for good measure. Because they're sporty, I guess, the place threw in a half-bottle of champagne with the cheesesteak. Uh-oh.

The sliders were White-Castle-sized mini-burgers, only round. Two to an order. Just phenomenal. The meat was terrific -- tender and tasty.

Mitchell likes to go to Barclay Prime Saturday nights before home games and he knew quite a few people there. He signed a few autographs, shook a lot of hands, accepted lots of good-lucks. Living large, as they say.

And here came the cheesesteak. Very good. What beef. Incredible beef, really. So good and so big that I couldn't finish.

A shame, seeing as the cost of said cheesesteak was $105.

That is not a misprint.

Worst abuse of SI expense account by yours truly since 1991, when Phil Simms ordered a $75 glass of brandy the week before the Scott Norwood Super Bowl in Tampa, and, of course, I had to buck up and have one with him.

Please go easy on me, Time-Warner Business Dept. I have been good, really good. But it's the playoffs and Freddie Mitchell had a chance to be a really good hero story this week. I promise I won't ask for anything for Christmas this year.

The bill, with tip: $449.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please


I'm sorry I implicated Ruth's Chris in that mess. Apologies.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

Kobe beef is a long way from the dripping rotting flesh they call hot dogs in most press boxes -
Just saying - PK thinks his eating habits impress his readers. Time Warner should start sending a bill to Starbucks each week.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

How about his multi-season rant about a particular hotel chain (he named names) that had the audacity to charge him to use their workout room.

That went on for probably years.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

T-minus 2 months and counting until Egg Nog Latte Season.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

So maybe PK is doing a public service. After all, how else would we know these things?

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

There is absolutely nothing ethically wrong with picking up a check for the people you cover.
Nothing.
Zero.
And it certainly doesn't become unethical because you might have MORE money to spend.
This is just dumb. Read McCambridige's book, or "You Gotta Play Hurt."

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please



Last Tuesday afternoon, my daughter Mary Beth and I were preparing to fly from South Bend, Ind., to Cincinnati on a Delta Connection flight. We planned to continue on to Newark from there, and then drive home. We got to the airport at 2:45 p.m. for the 4 p.m. flight. At about 3:25, Mary Beth said she was going to get yogurt pretzels. "Hurry back," I told her. Well, she tarried, and finally, at 3:40, I told the agent to page her, which he did, and then told the guy I was running to find her. I found her. We sprinted back, went through security, and arrived at the gate at 3:46. "Flight's closed," the gate agent announced. Rather than explain anything -- you have to board within 15 minutes of flight time or you risk surrendering your seat -- his co-agent commenced putting us on the next flight. The 4 p.m. plane would have put us on the ground in Newark at 7:40; the next flight wouldn't get us there until 12:30 a.m. Mary Beth begged for them to open the door. The two guys said nothing. Stone cold. The second agent just continued typing furiously. I saw how unresponsive they were and knew we were cooked. I knew the flight was full, and there were two standbys, or more, and figured he'd just given away our seats at 3:45 on the nose, even with me running to get Mary Beth.

We'd gotten to bed at 3:30 Monday morning because of a two-hour, 48-minute Delta Connection delay in Cincinnati Sunday night, then Mary Beth stayed with two students in a dorm at Notre Dame Monday night, and heaven knows how much sleep was had that night. She was fried. Anyway, I finally spoke up and said, basically, that you guys saw me run to get her, and the South Bend airport is no bigger than a postage stamp, and, really, you knew I'd be right back, and you gave away the two seats to standbys anyway? "Sir, if you don't want seats on the next flight, you can take your business elsewhere," Idiot No. 2 said. I simmered. He printed out the tickets for the later flight, handed them to me, and the biggest two aviation numbskills in Indiana history walked outside to close up the commuter flight.

An older fellow who was in the waiting area for another flight then walked up to the counter and proceeded to start screaming at my Delta foes, who stopped in their tracks. "What you just did is the worst thing I've ever seen done by an airline!'' Mr. Neutral Onlooker yelled. "I will never fly Delta again! I will tell people I know never to fly Delta again! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!'' To which Idiot number 2 replied: "Would you like us to call security?" He didn't have to. A female security agent came over and asked what the problem was, and Mary Beth told her how evil the two clowns behind the counter were. At this point, the two agents walked outside, and then the first guy stood behind the plate-glass door and made faces at us -- raised eyebrows and phony smiles, head moving smugly from side to side -- and announced loudly and mockingly, in a sing-song way: "Good-bye! Good-bye! Enjoy your flights!''

The later flight began its taxi to the runway at 3:55. Western civilization was saved. Gold stars to all involved! You were five minutes early!

You know, when you fly a lot, as I do, you need to have thick skin. Things happen. I waited out a five-hour delay in Orlando last summer because the crew didn't show up. I didn't make a peep. Things happen. But 99 percent of the the time, you're treated with some kind of common decency, even in the longest of delays. And here are two uncommunicative, unresponsive, totally unprofessional slugs, who can't spend 10 seconds explaining what happened but who can threaten to call security and mock our anger. All they had to do, even one of them, was to explain exactly what happened, which they never did, and say they're sorry, but rules are rules, and we had to be there at 3:45, and we weren't. I would have been angry, but not volcanic. Things happen, but in 24 years of flying for my job, I've never been treated like this, and I will not accept being treated like this.

The only thing you can do in a case like this is to not fly the airline. And so my little protest will be just that, a little protest. But it will be real. For the next year, until Feb. 23, 2005, I will not fly Delta. My guess is that will cost them maybe $5,000 in business. If Mary Beth goes to college in a town serviced by Delta, she will not fly the airline for one year either. I'm sure Delta will get a chuckle out of this protest. My only hope is the airline disciplines the two numbskulls -- I just wish I'd gotten their names, but Delta can figure out easily enough who they are -- for costing the company a few G's.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

21, thanks for reprinting that. Of all the stunts King has pulled, that was the worse, times 10.

It truly gives an insight into the man, that he thinks that he's above the rules. Rules are for suckers, the little guys. Rules are for other people, not the King family. When that bitch daughter needs her yogurt pretzels, rules and regulations be damned.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

Of course. Because anytime somebody disagrees with you or sees something as "open for debate," it's just dumb.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

Dear PK,
If you don't like being charged eight bucks for a bottle of water or being charged for a workout room use, don't stay there.
Step down from your bully pulpit; it's not there for you to piss on humanity.
Sincerely,
the rest of the world.

 

Re: Hey PK - Next Time Say Please

based on google search it appears that PK has fans at other sites also. This is classic:


By now, King had descended into blustery self-importance, a man far removed from his days as a plain old beat writer. He started criticizing fellow passengers on airlines, taking one family to task for daring to travel from the West Coast to the East after 8 PM and inconveniencing him with their "noisy" children. Again, he was deluged with complaints, with readers pointing out that families have numerous reasons for travelling at all times, including emergencies, family deaths, and plain old expense.

In September, we got this from King. "I, as well as most of my flying companions on an American flight from Newark to St. Louis last Thursday, would like to thank the graying 307-pound gentleman in 5B for drinking two red wines while waiting for takeoff, then sucking down a double rum right after takeoff, then inhaling the turkey-on-croissant, then snoring for the final 60 minutes of the trip, emitting a guttural sound, and the foulest drunk's breath on earth. We're hoping you had quite a nice headache when you got to work, or home, that afternoon. One question: what kind of life, or job, do you have, to be drinking heavily at noon on a weekday?"

Ignoring the fact that King looks way over 250 lb. himself and no doubt his breath isn't always Colgate-fresh, how on earth does King work out that this guy was drunk on two glasses of red wine and a double rum? The guy weighs 300 lb.! At that weight, you can drink a brewery and hardly notice it -- I know I've tried! How does King know the guy hadn't been working all night? What gives him the right to call this guy out on a prominent media behemoth like CNN?