Quarter

Time is marching on. It’s April 1. And while I half considered the notion of writing something ridiculous in the spirit of the holiday, it just wasn’t in me. Plus I knew you would see through it anyhow.

Actually, I had something pretty thoughtful on deck, going back to our earlier conversation on Albany, restaurants, and class. However that had to take a back burner as I cranked out a story for my All Over Albany feature this week. If all goes well, you can read the fruit of my efforts there on Tuesday.

I had also half-thought that the Times-Union might have their 2013 Best of the Capital Region ballots up this morning. So part of me liked the idea of holding off on my regular post in order to do something super timely and topical. But that didn’t happen either.

Luckily, April 1 marks something else of note besides a parade of fools. It begins the second quarter of the year, which means we are leaving the first quarter behind us. And I have to say, the first three months of this year have been awesome for the FLB. Thank you all for sharing the stories on Facebook and Twitter, and bringing new people to the blog.

Just in case you missed them, here’s what resonated in the first quarter of 2013.

11. Serendipity
What a way to start the year. With one of my Yelp reviews being selected by Real Actors Read Yelp. Every now and again, I’ll watch this actress read my words and still chuckle. She’s brilliant. And this is hysterical.

10. Dispatches From the Supermarket Wars
This post came before the launch of Healthy Living Marketplace up in Saratoga and focused mostly on Price Chopper and ShopRite. But damn, there are a lot of grocery stores in our small corner of the world these days. Right now it’s a lot of fun, but I don’t see this ending well.

9. Don’t Play Cards With Seitan
For those who remember my cholesterol lowering schemes (that totally paid off) from the beginning of this year, one of my special vegan treats was the Noob Roob at All Good Bakers. It is made with locally produced seitan. My bottom line is that a well-made vegan Rueben is a whole lot more satisfying than lesser versions of the sandwiches that actually include corned beef.

8. AskTP – Doing Just Fine
Could it be that Steve Barnes has improved my readership by taking the FLB off his blog roll? Certainly this post where readers asked why a link to my blog was removed from the sidebar on Table Hopping got a lot more attention than any other Ask the Profussor, ever.

7. The Bestestes – Glossy Mag Edition
I’m quite glad that people passed around this list for Best of the Capital Region. It’s too early to tell if any of our picks rose to the top in this glossy local magazine. It wasn’t as big of a push as the  annual Times Union poll, yet still did very well for itself.

6. The Thing About Olive Garden
It’s not about chains. It’s about liars. And places that over-promise and under-deliver. Thanks again to Chuck Miller for taking this issue of what makes food lovers hate Olive Garden and tying it up in a nice, pretty bow for me.

5. Class Is In Session
Who says that blogs can’t be the source of thoughtful interesting conversation? After years of studying the local dining scene, I finally was able to craft a hypothesis about why it looks the way it does. And I’ll be coming back to this theme again soon.

4. Arrogant Bastard
Be careful what you put into writing. I fired off a regrettable note late one night on Facebook. And as you may have learned, when I feel badly about something, I am compelled to share it with the world. So I reposted the note for all to see and offered a public apology for being a dufus.

3. The Joy of Troy
Just this past weekend I was in Troy. I had dinner. Walked along the river. Enjoyed a glass of wine at the Charles F. Lucas Confectionery. And I had planned to get a FroYo at Dante’s, but was running late. This post is about another perfectly lovely excursion to the Collar City.

2. Dealing with Detractors
Some people have no sense of humor. It’s kind of amazing. But there was a referendum of my existence in the comment section of the Table Hopping blog after the Real Actors Read Yelp video was released. I was happy to respond to all my critics. Some didn’t think I should acknowledge them, but I respectfully disagree.

And at the top of the heap?

1. Breaking Down the Brownie Filled Donut
Even if I didn’t misunderstand Mr. Dave’s original post on the subject, this still would have made the blog. Dunkin’ Donuts is disgusting and totally over-priced for what it is. This wasn’t always the case. And I think it’s trading off its former reputation. People are just too busy these days to notice. Then they come out with this monstrosity with a list of ingredients so long that it took sixteen lines of text to contain them all in paragraph form (over eighty lines to list them one by one).

Thank you all again for making this first quarter so memorable.