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Interview with Notorious Speakeasy Owner

6 Mar

Well, he says he isn’t one— not anymore. Jim Meehan founded PDT (or “Please Don’t Tell”) in May 2007. The concept was novel and really cool. Situated in the heart of NYC, patrons got to enter the drinking establishment from a secret door in a phone booth in Crif Dogs. Reservations began to fill up immediately and haven’t stopped. PDT is always full and the buzz has remained surprisingly strong, given NYC’s notoriously short attention span.

Meehan and two other partners took to redesigning an old bubble lounge in the heart of the East Village. Crif Dogs had a liquor license they weren’t using, so that made getting licensed much simpler. The phone booth came about as a pragmatic point. If the group offered another entrance from the street, they would need another liquor license. Now, PDT and Crif do business from the same address, but with completely different concepts. Genius!

For more of the fascinating interview, see here.

Jim Meehan, owner of PDT

No More Daily Deal Sites

5 Mar

This simply must stop. It takes but a simple knowledge of rudimentary economics to understand the concept of “market saturation.” Basically, it means the amount of a product or service that has been distributed throughout the market. In the case of daily deals sites— you probably think of Groupon and Living Social first— I believe that the market is too saturated. Or it’s getting there quickly. Two more well-known companies recently unveiled plans for their versions of daily deals.

1) The New York Times: Calling their new service TimesLimited, the site will work more like Gilt Group than Groupon. Rather than needing a critical mass before the deal becomes final, the Times will offer a select number of deals for a limited amount of time. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Deals will come from select Times advertisers. The company will aim for slightly more “upscale” deals and will not be tied to the upcoming paywall (coming “shortly”).

2) Bing: You may remember that Google launched its own deal platform shortly after Groupon rejected a bid from the search giant. Well, Bing decided to get in on that action as well. With Bing Deals, they hope to integrate information on your location with all of the daily deals going on nearby. You can purchase the deals from your computer or from a mobile device.

Changing Hands

Gabrielle Giffords on Morning of Shooting

5 Mar

The office of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords released a photograph of the Congresswoman speaking with two constituents in front of a Tucson Safeway, just minutes before a deranged gunman shot Giffords and 18 other people.

Gabrielle Giffords with constituents

In the photo, which was released by Giffords’ office to Facebook, Giffords speaks with Jim and Doris Tucker of Tucson. Jim Tucker was later wounded in the attack, but survived. Six of the shooting victims died of their injuries.

Giffords has been undergoing speech, physical and musical therapy. Her condition continues to improve, and she’s been singing her favorite songs and speaking with friends.

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2 Really Weird Places to Try to Grow Drugs

5 Mar

I saw two stories in the past few days that made me wonder, why did you think this was the best place to make drugs? Here’s the two spots:

1) Inside a day care center: Katrina Epperson and Christopher Webb were about to open a 24-hour day care center facility for the little ones in their North Carolina community. To supplement that income, they had apparently been making meth inside the same house where they planned to open the day care. State officials visited the house twice before granting the license, but didn’t notice the meth. Police realized something was amiss when they saw how much pseudoephedrine— a common ingredient in meth production— the couple bought.

2) The Basement of Bloomingdale’s: This incident occurred in Washington DC. Police were conducting a routine patrol of the area when they noticed the back door to the basement of the building was opened. Upon confronting the man inside, they determined that they had enough probable cause to investigate the area. They found a large marijuana cultivation operation in the basement, along with distribution supplies.

The accussed

The accused from the first crime

Meet the World’s Most Typical Person

3 Mar

In case you haven’t heard, National Geographic has been spotlighting our world’s increasing population over the year. In a short while, the world will reach 7 billion people. But if you had to identify an average person on the planet Earth, what would they look like? This video has some answers:

  • He would be a male— they still outnumber women
  • He would be right-handed, with a cell phone, but no bank account (just 25 percent of people have one)
  • He would make less than $12,000 per year.
  • He is 28 years old and Chinese (han Chinese)
  • By 2030, though, that typical man will come from India

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