Discussion of Robin Garr's Lynn’s Paradise Café review

Does every comment have to be parsed out in minute detail?

I understand that you like the essay format. I'm more of a Q&A guy.

Does every comment have to be parsed out in minute detail?

I was just seeking Robin's clarification to what seemed to me a pretty ugly remark. I'm still not sure that's how he meant it.

Let's leave room for expressions, figures of speech, hyperbole (within reason), injections of interesting historical factoids, etc. Not everything someone says is perfectly literal and not everything is a one-for-one response to something else that was said.

Yes, let's do that. Can I also ask for that same courtesy?

Conversations get bogged down, such as this one, which started out as a review of a restaurant in the Original Highlands.

I'm not the first, second, or even third who drove this thread off topic.

I understand asking someone to back up a claim that seems outrageous, but equating Robin's statement with the residents of Norton Commons being racists? Really? Leaps like that go too far and are seemingly made only for effect.

Perhaps I worded my post poorly. But, I don't think I'm the one who brought up the topic of race. I did state it more explicitly. Is it better to leave accusations of racism politely implicit and understated? Perhaps with a wink?

Ehhhhhhhhh....I'm having a hard time disagreeing with anything Steve H. is saying.

schools that positively suck,

Over-generalizing and positively insulting, especially to my family of public school teachers. I don't feel like my comment merited this response. I didn't say one bad thing about Norton Commons - I simply said we like where we live and sometimes dislike the idea of living elsewhere - and you proceeded to rip the entirety of all urban life - including our schools, which do one hell of a job of educating every kid that walks through their doors, because that is their mandate - to shreds. Uncool.

schools that positively suck,

Over-generalizing and positively insulting, especially to my family of public school teachers. I don't feel like my comment merited this response. I didn't say one bad thing about Norton Commons - I simply said we like where we live and sometimes dislike the idea of living elsewhere - and you proceeded to rip the entirety of all urban life - including our schools, which do one hell of a job of educating every kid that walks through their doors, because that is their mandate - to shreds. Uncool.

Steve,
You are not aware as you didn't have kids in school here, but in Louisville this overgeneralization is absolutely false. Several of the very top ranked schools JCPS are in urban areas: Brown School, Manual, Male , Meyzeek and Noe are all downtown and excellent schools. Meyzeek and Noe Middle schools are much higher ranked than Westport Middle School which serves as the "resides" school for my suburban area on the far East End. Come to think of it - this may even be the resides school for Norton Commons middle schoolers too ....

Deb

[Robin Garr]

high(er) crime rates, schools that positively suck, parking on the street, every-other-house-on-the-block-is-a-rental, hit and miss pride in ownership.

Great demonstration!

thought this was suppose to be a discussion of Robin's review. Something seems to have lost its way....

So back to the topic:

We love the kitchy-ness of Lynn's and go every couple of years, primarily for the experience, not the food. ( Note: we are not big breakfast-out eaters) When my teen was 10, we went for their annual New Years Pajama Breakfast. Guests and servers alike were wearing PJs. What a hoot!! We had a blast- she thought it was the coolest thing ever! This was a good reminder: we'll have to take our 7 year old next year.

We also took our Korean clients there Derby week for breakfast- they loved the place.

Deb

Never understand the need to disparage any neighborhood. I live in Oldham County, but love going to many places in Louisville and think no less of anyplace if it is different than my own choice, which was largely driven by proximity to work and schools we liked.

I personally like Lynn's, Wild Eggs, Verbena and Panera. Feel fortunate to live in a town where all these choices are available, and feels petty to have to slam one place to elevate one's own lifestyle preference.

schools that positively suck,

Over-generalizing and positively insulting, especially to my family of public school teachers. I don't feel like my comment merited this response. I didn't say one bad thing about Norton Commons - I simply said we like where we live and sometimes dislike the idea of living elsewhere - and you proceeded to rip the entirety of all urban life - including our schools, which do one hell of a job of educating every kid that walks through their doors, because that is their mandate - to shreds. Uncool.

Seconded. As the husband of a public school teacher at a high-risk school, it is demeaning and frustrating to hear someone categorize JCPS as "schools that positvely suck," when most of the teachers at those schools give their lives, free time, sanity, and souls to doing everything they can to make sure that children from family situtations and socio-economic backgrounds that are utterly beyond anything you can imagine have the ability to learn and grow in a safe environment - perhaps the safest environment these children have ever or will ever see. Is it more of a challenge to teach these children than, say, your average middle-class white kid from the East End? Yes. Does that mean that the schools that service those high-risk, diverse children "suck?" Emphatically, no.

Are there flaws in our public school system? Absolutely. The "performance" of schools, with regards to standardized tests and the like, is only one way (and very, very flawed IMHO) to measure schools. To ignore both the sacrifices most JCPS teachers make and the education and environment supplied to thousands of at-risk children and categorize the system as "suck[ing]" is both shortsighted and, frankly, offensive.

Oh, and, I like Lynn's. Sometimes.

I live in a school district (not JCPS) that under performs by my standards as well as the standards other concerned local citizens. On one of my more cynical days, which are not all that uncommon, in private discussions with school board members, I probably have mentioned that our schools suck, or at least something close. In school board meetings, I have publicly called for improvements to our schools and made specific recommendations. I have also told them they are not performing well and failing our students and the entire community. . Part of my assessment is most likely tinted by having lived in way over performing school districts for most of my adult life. Obviously, there are a lot of stakeholders who play a significant parts in whether a school system succeeds or fails. Taxpayers, parents, students, teachers, administrators and school board members, state and local government, the judiciary, and probably a few other entities that I'm overlooking at the moment, all affect performance for better or worse.
So, just to be clear,when I state my school system "sucks", I am not implying or saying teachers suck, although a few of them do. I think a few in this discussion have missed this important distinction. In fact, I more likely to point accusatory fingers at the other participants in the education business model as failures.

BTW, I've driven by Lynn's but have never eaten there.