Eddy Coello’s defense attorneys: Wife Tina Adovasio drove him to kill her

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Lawyers for a Bronx ex-cop charged with murdering his wife tried a blame-the-victim strategy that fell flat Friday.
Eddy Coello’s attorneys tried to get the charge reduced to manslaughter by arguing the victim made their client fly into a rage and choke her.
They said Coello suffered an “extreme emotional disturbance” because his wife berated him.
But Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio wasn’t buying it.
“They fought all the time. What was different?" Fabrizio said. “Is this open season on every marriage?"
Assistant District Attorney Edward Talty noted that the defendant was calm and collected in the days after Tina Adovasio died, not emotionally disturbed.
Testimony in the trial ended Friday with a Westchester County medical examiner on the stand, as defense lawyers suggested that Coello, 41, could have strangled Adovasio without intending to kill her.
There were no fingernail marks on Adovasio's neck, the autopsy doctor testified as a motionless Coello looked on with his hands clasped under his chin.
Defense lawyers and prosecutors will deliver their closing statements Monday. Coello chose not to testify.
Teenagers riding all-terrain vehicles found Adovasio’s body on March 16, 2011, in the woods off the Taconic Parkway in Yorktown Heights. During a phone call to an ex-girlfriend, the former Bronx housing cop confessed that he "snapped" and murdered his wife, the woman testified jurors last week.
Adovasio’s father said he was never fond of the suspect. "It's not only that he killed my daughter, he ruined the whole family," said the dad, Frank Susco. "I never liked that bum when I first met him. I threw him out."


By Daniel Beekman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

T.O.T. Private consulting services: Ex-cop Eddy Coello arrested by NYPD police on day he skips murdered wife Tina Adovasio's funeral

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T.O.T. Private consulting services: Ex-cop Eddy Coello arrested by NYPD police on day he skips murdered wife Tina Adovasio's funeral

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/eddy-coello-person-of-interest-in-wifes.html

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/police-convinced-husband-killed-bronx.html

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/bronx-mother-vanishes.html

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/edwin-coello-ex-nypd-cop-with-abusive.html

Jason's Deli - Soup and Sandwich

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Last night, I grabbed a quick dinner over at Jason's deli with Raffy and ended up with a lukewarm bowl of chicken pot pie along with a delicious beef sandwich and au jous.  The chicken pot pie at Jason's deli is usually delicious, but whoever prepared my soup didn't warm it up enough.  The sandwich was really good, but the au jus was a bit too salty.  Overall, good dinner for about $8.  I still think Jason's is overpriced.  Village parking is atrocious.

Little Caesar's $5 Hot N Ready

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Wow, why would anyone ever buy frozen pizza when they can drive to a Little Caesar's and grab a $5 large pizza to go?  The pepperoni pizzas here are $5 EVERYDAY, and are absolutely delicious!  Served with a side of ranch dressing, Leaney and I chowed down a couple of pieces of pizza as well as the new Caesar wings (also only $5 for 8 wings).  I can't believe how cheap these magnificent pizzas are, but is it just me...or is the entire business model now geared towards poor people?  All their locations (in Houston) seem to be located in fairly sketchy areas.  Definitely no complaints if that's what it takes to sell me a $5 pizza.  My only concern is ... where is the bigfoot?

Lenny's Subs - With Bacon Please

To contact us Click HERE
Earlier this week, Leaney and I went over to Lenny's to use one of our obscure coupons.  For $9, we got 2 subs, chips and a cookie.  Great deal, as these subs are loaded with freshly cut deli meat, a pile of veggies, and not enough sauce.  Yup, not enough sauce.  For some reason, my sub was stacked full of fixins, but was overly dry because there was no sauce in it!  I definitely asked for both mayonnaise and mustard, but the lack of any oil/vinegar or a third sauce (like the sweet onion teriyaki at subway) really just made this sub not quite hit the spot.  At the same time, I'll definitely return, especially since I have a STACK of buy 1 get 1 free coupons.  Hopefully my next sub will get a bit more TLC&S (Tender love and care...AND SAUCE).

T.O.T. Private consulting services: Ex-cop Eddy Coello arrested by NYPD police on day he skips murdered wife Tina Adovasio's funeral

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T.O.T. Private consulting services: Ex-cop Eddy Coello arrested by NYPD police on day he skips murdered wife Tina Adovasio's funeral

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/eddy-coello-person-of-interest-in-wifes.html

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/police-convinced-husband-killed-bronx.html

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/bronx-mother-vanishes.html

http://privateinvesigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/edwin-coello-ex-nypd-cop-with-abusive.html

Jason's Deli - Soup and Sandwich

To contact us Click HERE
Last night, I grabbed a quick dinner over at Jason's deli with Raffy and ended up with a lukewarm bowl of chicken pot pie along with a delicious beef sandwich and au jous.  The chicken pot pie at Jason's deli is usually delicious, but whoever prepared my soup didn't warm it up enough.  The sandwich was really good, but the au jus was a bit too salty.  Overall, good dinner for about $8.  I still think Jason's is overpriced.  Village parking is atrocious.

Little Caesar's $5 Hot N Ready

To contact us Click HERE
Wow, why would anyone ever buy frozen pizza when they can drive to a Little Caesar's and grab a $5 large pizza to go?  The pepperoni pizzas here are $5 EVERYDAY, and are absolutely delicious!  Served with a side of ranch dressing, Leaney and I chowed down a couple of pieces of pizza as well as the new Caesar wings (also only $5 for 8 wings).  I can't believe how cheap these magnificent pizzas are, but is it just me...or is the entire business model now geared towards poor people?  All their locations (in Houston) seem to be located in fairly sketchy areas.  Definitely no complaints if that's what it takes to sell me a $5 pizza.  My only concern is ... where is the bigfoot?

Lenny's Subs - With Bacon Please

To contact us Click HERE
Earlier this week, Leaney and I went over to Lenny's to use one of our obscure coupons.  For $9, we got 2 subs, chips and a cookie.  Great deal, as these subs are loaded with freshly cut deli meat, a pile of veggies, and not enough sauce.  Yup, not enough sauce.  For some reason, my sub was stacked full of fixins, but was overly dry because there was no sauce in it!  I definitely asked for both mayonnaise and mustard, but the lack of any oil/vinegar or a third sauce (like the sweet onion teriyaki at subway) really just made this sub not quite hit the spot.  At the same time, I'll definitely return, especially since I have a STACK of buy 1 get 1 free coupons.  Hopefully my next sub will get a bit more TLC&S (Tender love and care...AND SAUCE).

El Real - Puffy Tacos

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Underneath the fried egg in the picture, I ordered the puffy tacos from the converted cinema now known as El Real.  I looked up and down the menu, and knew that the puffy taco was my only choice.  I did have a choice of stuffing, so I went with the pulled pork, adding a fried egg on top for just another buck.  The tacos were very good, stuffed with meat and served in a shell that is hard to describe.  It's almost like a really, really thick soft taco....but not sure how accurate that is.  I also tacked on a couple of margaritas, which were good, but not strong enough.  Overall a pretty good meal, and the beans were excellent!

Google Accused of Anti-Romney Bias

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Is Google showing its liberal bias when its image search for "completely wrong" yields photo of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney? Actually, no, the company said: it's based on comments Romney made last week.
Google said that the unintentional result happened because the Google algorithm was fed Romney comments last week about how he was "completely wrong" when he said earlier this year at a fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans were "victims" dependent on the government, according to CNN.

The algorithm associates popular news headlines with their images, and hence the "completely wrong" search term gained traction.
"Clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, now and then you're going to say something that doesn't come out right," Romney said last week after the secret video of the comments were leaked to the public. "In this case, I said something that's just completely wrong."
There are such things as "Google bombs," or intentionally negative search results (see "santorum") but this does not appear to be the case.
Despite the plausible explanation, Fox News drew attention to Google's "left-leaning" company culture, and talking head Sean Hannity questioned the company's possible bias.
The truth is that comments made by candidates become part of their search results. Romney's words were tagged to his image, but voters will likely decide who to vote for on their own and not by Googling candidate photos.    

NBC NY

Queens DA Expects Grand Jury in NYPD Shooting of Unarmed Motorist

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The Queens District Attorney on Thursday told the mother of an unarmed motorist who was fatally shot last week by a New York City Police detective that a grand jury will likely be convened to determine if any criminal charges should be filed.
In a 30-minute meeting with Cecilia Reyes and her two attorneys, District Attorney Richard Brown “advised us that it is likely that a grand jury will hear this case” in the shooting death of National Guardsman Noel Polanco, attorney Sanford Rubenstein said.
In a statement, Brown said while the investigation is in its early stages, “I told [Polanco’s family] that when we conclude our investigation I expect that we will present all of the facts to the grand jury.”
A law-enforcement official said that this is the most delicate investigation involving an NYPD shooting in Queens since Sean Bell was shot and killed by police the night before his wedding in 2006.
Not all police-involved shootings go to a grand jury, and there is no time frame for when a decision will be made to convene a grand jury.
“All I want is justice. I don’t want this to be repeated for anyone, and I just want this to be done the right way,” Reyes said. “They are really going to work on this, they are going to investigate this and I have faith that they are going to do this.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday after an event, NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly reiterated his belief that the shooting, which occurred during a traffic stop near LaGuardia Airport last week, will have to be presented to a grand jury.
“Not every case goes before the grand jury,” he said. “I believe that this case has to go before the grand jury.”
 
Polanco, 22 years old, was shot once in the abdomen by Det. Hassan Hamdy, 39, after police pulled him over for driving erratically, officials have said.

Hamdy’s attorney, Philip Karasyk, has said his client saw Polcano “lunge” toward something under his seat and believed “he was about to be met with deadly force,” when he fired the fatal shot. Hamdy looks forward to telling a grand jury his version of events, Karasyk said.
A funeral for Polanco is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Eternal Love Baptist Church in Corona, Queens. The Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver remarks.
“He was a great child. I never had any problems with him. He was just a beautiful child,” Reyes said. “I guess no mother is ready to say good bye to a child. It’s hard. I don’t know how I am going to handle this.”


 WSJ

Beirut - Hezbollah Says It Sent Drone Over Israel

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The leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Thursday claimed responsibility for launching a drone aircraft that was shot down over Israel earlier this week, saying the UAV had been assembled by Hezbollah men using parts provided by Iran.
The rare admission by Hassan Nasrallah raises regional tensions at a sensitive time when the group’s backers, Syria and Iran, are under pressure.
Nasrallah said the drone sent Saturday was named the Ayoub, honoring both an Islamic prophet (of patience) and a “martyr” by the name of Hussein Ayoub.
“Today we are uncovering a small part of our capabilities, and we shall keep many more hidden,” Nasrallah said in a televised address. “It is our natural right to send other reconnaissance flights inside occupied Palestine … This is not the first time and will not be the last. We can reach any place we want” inside Israel, he said.
Several hours earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed a finger at Hezbollah. ”We’re determined to defend our land, air, and maritime borders, just as when we foiled Hezbollah’s attempt to send a UAV into Israel,” Netanyahu said during a tour of the border with Egypt.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said the UAV’s incursion into Israeli airspace was a failed mission. Speaking to Israel Radio, Gilad, a top aide to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said that the drone had failed to gather any intelligence or damage Israel’s air defense superiority.
The UAV was identified from a distance, and the IAF waited until it was flying over open space before it neutralized it, he added.
The UAV was shot down over the Yatir Forest in the northern Negev after it entered Israel from the skies over Gaza. Officials believe it was launched from Lebanon and flew south over the Mediterranean before turning inland over Gaza.
On Sunday, a former commander of Israel’s drone unit said that the foreign UAV couldn’t have filmed anything that wasn’t already available on Google Earth, despite claims to the contrary by Iran.

Israel - 44 Arrested in $1B Money Laundering Ring

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The Israel Police today announced that it has uncovered a gambling and money laundering ring which had a turnover of over $1 billion over the past two years.
The police said that the ring was a new financing channel for many criminals, which replaced the financing from Trade Bank, before it crashed.
In pre-dawn raids, the police arrested 44 persons suspected of managing the gambling and money laundering ring.
The arrests were made in Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, Holon, Rishon LeZion, and other cities.
The arrests were made on the basis of intelligence about tens of millions of dollars obtained through illegal gambling operations by criminal gangs in central Israel.
The Police set up a team to follow the money and the suspects, and discovered that the proceeds were obtained through a website "Donbet".
The Police said, "Donbet was a growth engine that is suspected of financing criminal gangs in Israel."

Donbet allegedly provided many criminal gangs a new source of financing following the closing of Trade Bank after the embezzlement by Esther Alon in 2003.

Donbet reportedly had a turnover of more than $1 billion over a 30-month period, on which the main suspects made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. The suspects allegedly used various means to launder the proceeds.
The Police estimate that Donbet yielded to criminals $6-7 billion over its five years in operations.
Donbet operated under a legitimate camouflage with icons and links to gambling via credit cards, effectively misleading thousands of gamblers who could only use the website by buying a pot loaded by field agents via word of mouth.
Players could bet on almost anything, including international sports events, such as Spanish and English football matches, and tennis, as well as poker and blackjack. Many gamblers quickly lost thousands of dollars on the site.
The Police say that this was one of the largest and most complex money laundering investigations ever carried out against organized crime in Israel.

The suspects are accused of money laundering, gambling, criminal conspiracy, and violations of the Combating Criminal Organizations Law (5763-2003). "There is no doubt that the investigation could damage an important means of financing for top criminals in Israel, and the state could make tens of millions of shekels from the seizures," said the Police.

Lawsuit Filed In Federal Court To Stop Bloombergs War Against Bris Milah

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Several Jewish organizations and three rabbis filed suit today against the New York City Department of Health (DOH) seeking an injunction against regulations that would illegally inhibit and unfairly criticize a form of circumcision that has been safely practiced by Jewish people across the world for thousands of years.
The suit argues that the DOH is attempting to discourage the practice known as metzitzah b’peh (MBP) by requiring all rabbis who perform the ritual, referred to as mohelim, to distribute a form stating that MBP can lead to serious health risks. That regulation violates both the rights to free speech and freedom of religion.
“Not only is the Department of Health wrong about metzitzah b’peh, it is trying to enforce its erroneous opinions on the people of New York City,” said Hank Sheinkopf, spokesperson for the group.

“By essentially starting a public intimidation campaign that forces private citizens to spread the government’s beliefs, they are shaking the core of our democracy. We believe the courts will stop this overzealous government overreach and keep them out of our speech and religion.”
The suit argues that “the government cannot compel the transmission of messages that the speaker does not want to express—especially when the speaker is operating in an area of heightened First Amendment protection, such as a religious ritual.”
The lawsuit is supported by affidavits from experts in infectious diseases, epidemiology and statistical analysis that question the assessment and methodology of the DOH in forming its opinion about the safety of MBP.
The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan and asks to stop the DOH from implementing its regulation. The organizational plaintiffs are the international Bris Association, Agudath Israel of America, the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States & Canada; the mohel plaintiffs are Rabbi Samuel Blum, Rabbi Aharon Leiman and Rabbi Shloime Eichenstein.
As the suit states on the DOH’s own theory, there have been eighty-four cases of HSV reported in infants over the past five years, and 79 of those cases arose in females, uncircumcised males or males whose circumcision did not include MBP. Yet the few cases that might possibly have arisen after MBP have been the sole focus of the Department’s regulatory attention, leaving entirely unaddressed the other risks of HSV which accounts for well over 90% of reported cases. After correcting for the Department’s methodological errors, these expert affidavits demonstrated that HSV arises no more frequently after MBP than it does in newborns who did not receive MBP.

Jason's Deli - Soup and Sandwich

To contact us Click HERE
Last night, I grabbed a quick dinner over at Jason's deli with Raffy and ended up with a lukewarm bowl of chicken pot pie along with a delicious beef sandwich and au jous.  The chicken pot pie at Jason's deli is usually delicious, but whoever prepared my soup didn't warm it up enough.  The sandwich was really good, but the au jus was a bit too salty.  Overall, good dinner for about $8.  I still think Jason's is overpriced.  Village parking is atrocious.

Little Caesar's $5 Hot N Ready

To contact us Click HERE
Wow, why would anyone ever buy frozen pizza when they can drive to a Little Caesar's and grab a $5 large pizza to go?  The pepperoni pizzas here are $5 EVERYDAY, and are absolutely delicious!  Served with a side of ranch dressing, Leaney and I chowed down a couple of pieces of pizza as well as the new Caesar wings (also only $5 for 8 wings).  I can't believe how cheap these magnificent pizzas are, but is it just me...or is the entire business model now geared towards poor people?  All their locations (in Houston) seem to be located in fairly sketchy areas.  Definitely no complaints if that's what it takes to sell me a $5 pizza.  My only concern is ... where is the bigfoot?

Lenny's Subs - With Bacon Please

To contact us Click HERE
Earlier this week, Leaney and I went over to Lenny's to use one of our obscure coupons.  For $9, we got 2 subs, chips and a cookie.  Great deal, as these subs are loaded with freshly cut deli meat, a pile of veggies, and not enough sauce.  Yup, not enough sauce.  For some reason, my sub was stacked full of fixins, but was overly dry because there was no sauce in it!  I definitely asked for both mayonnaise and mustard, but the lack of any oil/vinegar or a third sauce (like the sweet onion teriyaki at subway) really just made this sub not quite hit the spot.  At the same time, I'll definitely return, especially since I have a STACK of buy 1 get 1 free coupons.  Hopefully my next sub will get a bit more TLC&S (Tender love and care...AND SAUCE).

Best Authentic Chinatown Nyc Soup Dumplings | Chinatown Nyc Soup Dumplings | Chinese Food Menu Nyc

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Most American Chinese food is a serious abuse and fried. Vegetables and spices are more or less, rather than the main basis for some dishes. Moreover, the American Chinese food, you order takeout when you do not embrace the entire empire in China's vast differences found in many areas.




In China, there are eight different Chinese cuisine, the corresponding region from their source. You can enjoy authentic from any of these areas food in China: Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and Anhui.


A soup dumplings, dumplings or the traditional name, the Shanghai steamed meat with oil (pork, crab, shrimp, etc.) and paste soup broth. Once the dumplings are steamed into a liquid paste soup, which is how the soup inside the dumplings. One such explosive packed with juicy soup dumplings bite into an addiction!

Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae Recipes | Big Ice Cream Sundae Ideas

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For a rich chocolate ice cream1 vanilla ice cream recipe (no vanilla)175 g (6 oz) plain chocolate
For the chocolate sauce Letters200 grams (7 ounces) of pure chocolate, cut into pieces50 g (13/4oz) unsalted butter175 ml (6 fl oz) strong coffee

To sundae
1-2 tablespoons of vanilla ice cream or 23tbsp2-3 Italy cantuccini / biscotti biscuits or small sponge fingers, broken1 small chocolate chips, crumbledTablespoons Marsala


Melted chocolate gently in a microwave oven or over a simmering pan of water into the bowl until it is good, smooth. It is left to cool slightly. According to the left of vanilla ice cream recipe, stir melted chocolate into the batter add butter, then let cool. Into an ice cream machine, stirring about 20-30 minutes, until the ice cream has become a thick, scoopable. To make chocolate sauce, gently melt in the microwave or in a simmering pan of water over a bowl of chocolate and butter until it is good, smooth. Stir in coffee and cool to room temperature, but not in the refrigerator to cool, or will be set.
When you are ready for your sundae, layer some of the chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream or cream, and cantuccini / biscotti cookies in the sundae glass or small sponge. Pour chocolate sauce and Marsala in the coffee

Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson

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I've said before that one of my favorite kinds of books is the collection of occasional essays by a novelist -- preferably, collecting twenty or thirty years worth of random non-fiction from someone much more comfortable with fiction -- and so I was very happy to see Distrust That Particular Flavor, which is precisely that.

Gibson has written about two dozen pieces of journalism, speeches, introductions, and other odd lengths of string since about 1990, and they are collected here, in the kind of stylish package that adds a couple of pages between each piece to make the covers just that much farther apart. The essays and speeches here are all more or less dated, since what people ask SF writers to do is talk about the future, and nothing dates more quickly than non-fictional futures.

But these are all Gibsonian futures, with his spiky wit and wry viewpoint, which makes them at least as interesting as the actual future that we did receive. And, as is also usual for this form, he provides a short afterword to each piece, talking about when it was written or what has happened since or something similarly interesting. It's not Gibson fiction, but, for me -- and I'm at least three novels behind -- it apparently is better.

A Flurry of Back-Dating

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Yes, a bunch of posts just went live this afternoon, dated over the past week. No, I probably can't adequately explain why I did it that way, so I won't try. (It has to do with plans and expectations, and how they change over time -- real introspective crap that no one would care about.)

The point is that the books I read in September are now (mostly) covered here, with a few stragglers to come "soon." And I intend to work more forward than backward in the coming days -- but, as always, I make no guarantees.

Jason's Deli - Soup and Sandwich

To contact us Click HERE
Last night, I grabbed a quick dinner over at Jason's deli with Raffy and ended up with a lukewarm bowl of chicken pot pie along with a delicious beef sandwich and au jous.  The chicken pot pie at Jason's deli is usually delicious, but whoever prepared my soup didn't warm it up enough.  The sandwich was really good, but the au jus was a bit too salty.  Overall, good dinner for about $8.  I still think Jason's is overpriced.  Village parking is atrocious.

Little Caesar's $5 Hot N Ready

To contact us Click HERE
Wow, why would anyone ever buy frozen pizza when they can drive to a Little Caesar's and grab a $5 large pizza to go?  The pepperoni pizzas here are $5 EVERYDAY, and are absolutely delicious!  Served with a side of ranch dressing, Leaney and I chowed down a couple of pieces of pizza as well as the new Caesar wings (also only $5 for 8 wings).  I can't believe how cheap these magnificent pizzas are, but is it just me...or is the entire business model now geared towards poor people?  All their locations (in Houston) seem to be located in fairly sketchy areas.  Definitely no complaints if that's what it takes to sell me a $5 pizza.  My only concern is ... where is the bigfoot?

Lenny's Subs - With Bacon Please

To contact us Click HERE
Earlier this week, Leaney and I went over to Lenny's to use one of our obscure coupons.  For $9, we got 2 subs, chips and a cookie.  Great deal, as these subs are loaded with freshly cut deli meat, a pile of veggies, and not enough sauce.  Yup, not enough sauce.  For some reason, my sub was stacked full of fixins, but was overly dry because there was no sauce in it!  I definitely asked for both mayonnaise and mustard, but the lack of any oil/vinegar or a third sauce (like the sweet onion teriyaki at subway) really just made this sub not quite hit the spot.  At the same time, I'll definitely return, especially since I have a STACK of buy 1 get 1 free coupons.  Hopefully my next sub will get a bit more TLC&S (Tender love and care...AND SAUCE).

Reviewing the Mail: Week of 10/6

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Hey, kids! Books!

I get books in the mail because I review books on the Internet -- but, since I could never review everything I see, I also do these weekly posts, every Monday, to list what I've just seen and (I hope) describe them in such a way that people who will like them realize that and leap forward to clasp those books to their bosoms. But, to reiterate: I haven't actually read any of these books yet, and I might not manage to read any specific one of them. But that never stopped anyone else from pontificating about things they don't know, so here goes:

Leading off this week is The Hive, the middle volume of a graphic album trilogy from Charles Burns that began with X'ed Out (see my review). If you want to know how important a cartoonist Burns is, see his masterpiece Black Hole -- he's the best cartoonist we have now about the uneasy, everything's-changing side of adolescence, with its messy emphasis on the physical in all its horror and splendor. You probably don't want to read The Hive without finding X'ed Out first, but that's no hardship: both are short, with crisp, uneasy Burns art presented well on big pages -- the physical (and partially story) influence for this series is Tintin. The Hive is a hardcover from Pantheon, officially hitting stores tomorrow.

Vertical, the masters of publishing interesting manga, have sent me a stack of books this week, all of which I think are either publishing this month or came out recently:

• There are two volumes of GTO: The Early Years, which reprint pre-Great Teacher Onizuka stories by Toru Fujisawa (the series as originally published back in 1995 in Japan, before it turned into the GTO series proper), Volumes 14 and 15, which complete that series and bring it up to the "official" beginning of GTO.
• The Flowers of Evil, Volume 3 continues Shuzo Oshimi's creepy story of obsessed middle-schoolers and their unhealthy relationships
• And The Drops of God: New World jumps forward hugely in Tadashi Agi and Shu Okimoto's story of wine and filial duty to leap into a segment of the story set in the US and featuring lots of US wines. (This seems to be a bid to grab a larger American audience, but it seems odd: are there that many Americans who only drink American wine and also would be interested in a Japanese story about wine? It strikes me that cultural monomaniacs would retain that reflexive anti-foreigner sense in other areas as well.)

Noted New Yorker cartoonist Victoria Roberts has turned to fiction with After the Fall, a heavily illustrated short novel about one very rich Upper East Side family who suddenly find their fortunes turn and have to live in Central Park. It looks to be more whimsical and fun than serious and dour, though -- in keeping with the rococo, faintly out-of-touch with reality air of Roberts's cartoons. After the Fall is a hardcover from Norton, coming November 12th.

Beth Revis's YA science-fiction trilogy "Across the Universe" -- which began in the novel of the same name -- concludes with Shades of Earth, coming from Razorbill in January. Our young protagonists, Amy and Elder, reach the target planet of their starship, to find new dangers and threats, as one usually does on far-flung alien worlds.

And last for this week is Bowl of Heaven by SF heavyweights Gregory Benford and Larry Niven [1], coming as a Tor hardcover next week. It's big-idea hard SF -- a crewed interstellar expedition discovers a half-Dyson Sphere, surrounding a star and heading to the same target star as the human ship. Of course our heroes go to investigate the gigantic ship, and of course they encounter complications -- so many that the last page of this book teases Shipstar, the next book in the series.

[1] I nearly called them "twin" heavyweights, but then remembered Benford is a non-metaphorical twin himself, and decided that would be confusing.

Jason's Deli - Soup and Sandwich

To contact us Click HERE
Last night, I grabbed a quick dinner over at Jason's deli with Raffy and ended up with a lukewarm bowl of chicken pot pie along with a delicious beef sandwich and au jous.  The chicken pot pie at Jason's deli is usually delicious, but whoever prepared my soup didn't warm it up enough.  The sandwich was really good, but the au jus was a bit too salty.  Overall, good dinner for about $8.  I still think Jason's is overpriced.  Village parking is atrocious.

Little Caesar's $5 Hot N Ready

To contact us Click HERE
Wow, why would anyone ever buy frozen pizza when they can drive to a Little Caesar's and grab a $5 large pizza to go?  The pepperoni pizzas here are $5 EVERYDAY, and are absolutely delicious!  Served with a side of ranch dressing, Leaney and I chowed down a couple of pieces of pizza as well as the new Caesar wings (also only $5 for 8 wings).  I can't believe how cheap these magnificent pizzas are, but is it just me...or is the entire business model now geared towards poor people?  All their locations (in Houston) seem to be located in fairly sketchy areas.  Definitely no complaints if that's what it takes to sell me a $5 pizza.  My only concern is ... where is the bigfoot?