There you go opening up a whole can of worms...

I was only able to come in towards the end, so I missed most of it, but that was pretty cool. Loved the emoticons by the way! ; )

Emoticons are evil. Cutesy, pink evil. Very undignified, too.

I had to do something to get your attention. No one was commenting. EL

I was bound and gagged (against my will), but I worked one hand free for a short time to send my two brief comments before they wrestled me to the floor to stop me from swerving the chat.

The masking of great fresh fish with too many ingrediants is common. Years ago I went to Peter Merriman's on the Island of Hawaii and was disappointed because every dish was so loaded with sauces, etc. the fish was lost. But people flock to the place so EL and I must be in the minority.

I noticed when I went to the restaurant search the number of stars is huge above the review. Too bad for Real Seafood. I imagine diners will be put off by the two and a half out of four and skip the review. And the items that knocked it down are, based on my past experience, the dishes alot of people would end up ordering and enjoying.

How about a top ten list of locally owned seafood restaurants in Annapolis since the search for seafood restaurants in Annapolis comes up empty?

Good idea. I'll put it on the list. EL

Oops! Wrong place.

Unfortunately the blogware doesn't allow me to move it over. EL

I want to work where YumPo does.

More seriously, it would have taken dismantling my security measures to participate. The time and effort that would take combined with my poor impulse control means I'll rely on gossip.

By the way, after EL's last comment to me in the live chat, I was laughing so hard I couldn't post my answer before time ran out.

: - {

How about a chat without a pre-set topic?

Therein madness lies. :-) EL

How about a chat without a pre-set topic?

That is what most of these threads turn into.

I would have chimed in but had to get off the Web, the boss's boss is in town this week.

I followed along for 15 miniutes or so from the begining but couldn't add anything relevant as I didn't partake of any RW offerings.
Was a cool format though and will try to contribute to the next one.

So what do you want to talk about? EL

how about talking about unknown restaurants that are popping up.

Best local carryouts in various parts of Maryand

Get some chefs/servers online and ask them how the economy is effecting them.

What trends are they seeing locally.

Where do chefs go to eat.

Items that you don't dare admit that you eat.

Old haunts that remind us of the true baltimore.

Best crab soup. either cream or beef based

Best fruit and meat dish that you have had.

How do you judge a dish. By this I mean when you eat a meal what do you take into consideration. TExture, style, flavors

Flavors you don't ever want to try again.

Worse combo meals. What were they thinking.

What we can do to be better customers

"Where do chefs go to eat?"
Jack's Bistro

Patty -- Many of those have been Top 10's...

I will try to be available for next weeks, and as patty asked, I can shed some light on how the economy has affected servers and bartenders, but there are other factors that have affected it over the last 10 years that have longer lasting downsides.

The best live chats usually have a few topics. That way, more people participate. Check out Carolyn Hax's live chat archives at The Wash Post - Tell Me About It. Good flow.

Bacon Girl, I agree that the WaPo chats have good flow. It helps that all questions are held, and not instantly posted online. That way, the moderator can decide whether or not to answer a given question (a good way to filter out those that might be lewd or defamatory), and, if time is running out, a question can be held for response in a blog or column in the near future. Also, the question and answer are posted at the same time, which cuts down on the confusion. Because yesterday's Sun chat used specialized software, the effect was not unlike Windows Instant Messenger, in which questions and answers pop up in random order as soon as they're sent in.

I tried at one point to follow the chat in real time, but it was hard to follow, with new questions (and their accompanying annoying sound effects) constantly interrupting the flow. Also, there were two polls ("Was your RW a success?" and "Was your RW experience a success?"), and the software jumped back and forth to display the results of each poll. Since I couldn't figure out the difference between the two polls at first, I kept wondering why the "Yes" response kept jumping from 100% to only 38%.

How about a conversation on T.S. Elliot and Economics?

T.S. Elliot didn't know much about Economics, and didn't he live mostly before Keynes, anyway?

Yet every morning Ben Bernanke wakes up and thinks

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

'cause Ben Bernanke knows T.S. Elliot

Laura Lee, he could do worse. And has, most days.