This article about the Western Culinary Institute reminds me of my experiences with its graduates back in my restaurant days.  I don’t recall any of them lasting long; one thing you apparently don’t learn in cooking school is the speed necessary in a busy kitchen.  The article says that the WCI is misleading potential students about how lucrative their career prospects will be; I would add that the hopeful Iron Chef wannabes should be aware they are paying actual money to aspire to perform dangerous and back-breaking labor in a filthy, stifling, and cramped environment, with drug-addled maniacs screaming and yelling at them — waitstaff and kitchen staff alike.  They’ll get roped into double shifts and shafted by greedy management and owners and the chances of their ever seeing overtime or any decent wage are laughable.  I see WCI students downtown, in their chef coats and houndstooth pants, proudly carrying their knife cases, and feel sorry for them.

Thursday morning I was walking to the bus stop when I passed a parked car with its driver’s side door open.  I was a little startled because the car was empty and no one else was on the street, then I noticed all the broken glass on the street.  The rear window had been smashed to gain access to the front door lock, and the thief had apparently left the door open after abandoning the ransacked vehicle.  I felt sorry for the owner, imagining having to discover the violation early on a cold morning.

Finally, I’m sorry that the Oregonian can run an article on Portland bloggers, and neglect to mention Michael Totten.  Even if one disagrees with his views — and in these over-politicized days, it would take more time to pin him down on the spectrum than a knee-jerk assessment would provide — he is travelling to dangerous places and reporting on them to a wide audience, and is writing stuff that matters.  He’s arguably as influential, especially in a global context, as any Portland blogger.