EZEtoGRU

I have a vacay place in Rio and flew down here for the free Madonna concert. 
I was here for the 100 Year Anniversary Celebration of The Copacabana Palace. That resulted in over 200 arrests of pickpockets and assaulters in the area. 
The Madonna show, as mentioned, is also outside The Palace. 
Here’s hoping it goes on without (too much of) a hitch!
 

You got scammed dude, it happens to the best of us. Move on and don’t make the same mistake again. Sorry he got one over on you. It sucks. 

Just a moment...
BROADWAYDIRECT.COM  

Kosher-adjacent?

I do agree with this.  I really enjoy some international foods (ie Indian, Thai, Mexican) that use spices we are not accustomed to in traditional US cuisine as long as the level of heat is not too high.  However, food that is overly hot is not appealing to me.  Some foods are spiced so overly hot that the flavor of the dish gets lost in the heat.  Only my opinion of course.  
To me, there are some hot sauces and chili that greatly enhance the heat level without actually contributing much to the foods flavor.  
 

Here's another example of the spicy food conundrum.  I'm currently on a Delta flight back to Michigan.  Along with the main course, a small salad was also on the tray for my lunch.  They provided a tiny bottle of Spicy Tomato/Chili salad dressing to pour on top.  No non-spicy alternative was available.  I'm not picky about salad dressings.  I can eat French/Ranch/Thousand Island/Blue Cheese/Oil & Vinegar/Many others....but I don't want spicy dressing on my salad.  I did use the dressing on the salad but frankly I do not desire my salad to be spicy.  Very irritating.

I was at a nice Jewish Deli today in the downtown area of Ft.  Lauderdale. It’s called The Top Hat. I’ve been multiple times in the past and have always enjoyed it. Today I had the Matzo Ball Soup (Excellent!)  and a nosh plate of Mac N Cheese. Nothing on the menu suggested the Mac N Cheese would be served with some spicy kick to it…and being a Jewish Deli I certainly didn’t expect it. But it was spicy. 
 
Having been raised in the Midwest in the 60s,  spicy foods really weren’t part of our regular diet.  Mac N Cheese certainly was never spicy. 
 
I guess I got a nostalgic thinking about how our cuisine is evolving in the US. We can’t expect standard American fare (think Mac N Cheese, Meatloaf, Pot Pie) to be made in a tradition way anymore. 
So many things are served spicy now. Everyone serves hot chicken now. So many salty snacks have red hot versions.  There’s a gazillion different brands of hot sauce at the grocery store. 
 
Im sure this is all a consequence of more international influence on our cuisine…particularly from Asia and Mexico. Of course nothing stays static. There is always evolution and I really do enjoy the much wider variety of foods  we have available to us now compared to the 1960s. But sometimes you just want to have a traditional Mac and Cheese like mom used to make. It’s getting harder and harder to find😢. 
 
By the way, I do recommend The Top Hat. Most of the food is solid there. I’ll go back there again and again.  Just not for the Mac N Cheese.
Deli | Top Hat Deli | Fort Lauderdale
WWW.TOPHATFTL.COM Top Hat Deli is modern deli by be nice restaurant group. Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  

That may well be...but I do know that plenty of Jewish deli restaurants offer Mac & Cheese.  

Really?  I've been to many Jewish Deli Restaurants that offered Mac & Cheese...useually as a side dish.

Personally,
Food can be flavorful and have some spiciness, without being so hot that my sense of taste is burned off my tongue…. 
 
I also try my best to avoid extremely spicy food, but not because I don’t like it, but because of my philosophy on spicy food:
If it’s hot going IN, it’s going to be just at HOT coming OUT 🔥🚽

I do agree with this.  I really enjoy some international foods (ie Indian, Thai, Mexican) that use spices we are not accustomed to in traditional US cuisine as long as the level of heat is not too high.  However, food that is overly hot is not appealing to me.  Some foods are spiced so overly hot that the flavor of the dish gets lost in the heat.  Only my opinion of course.  
To me, there are some hot sauces and chili that greatly enhance the heat level without actually contributing much to the foods flavor.  
 

The cynic in me says that on a US Legacy 3 airline I would need to taste test the dressing before taking their word that it was in fact 'spicy'. One hot chilli in the room when they made it, sure, a lot, or actually any heat in the dressing, maybe not! (And as an aside, to me spicy and hot are not the same thing, there are combinations of aromatic spices that flavour foods that aren't in the least bit hot. Of course there are some cuisines where the two go together, Sichuan being one,)

This is an outrageous slander of the great British culinary tradition.
Actually, no it's not. It is, however, slightly unfair to say that the idea of food actually tasting like something had completely passed the country by. Curry houses have been popular in the UK for decades, and chicken tikka masala is called a national dish of the country. I haven't been there for years (sorry Jamie) but there was, and perhaps still is, much stodge on offer.

Honestly, the first time I was really conscious of this was when I started habitually watching Wendy Williams the last few years of her show. No matter what food she was talking about, there was some kind of mention of her adding hot sauce to it.
 
I have never been able to tolerate anything more than the slightest bit of spice although there are times while I don't even mind a dish being slightly too spicy just because I'm in the mood to have something out of the ordinary.
and when Stop & Shop was having a clearance on all sort of stuff in January, I got a couple of bags barbecue potato chips for $.67 apiece (full size) and basically ate each one in three sittings. Not that that is particularly spicy, but that's about as hot as I usually like to go. 
 
but just reading articles and watching TV shows the last few years I have seen how hotter, spicier foods have become much more common.

Did you ask the server if it was supposed to be spicy @EZEtoGRU?
Reminds me of this place by me Dinosaur BBQ. All their side dishes have a little extra ingredient added in which you aren't expecting.
Buffalo BBQ Restaurant & Catering
DINOSAURBARBQUE.COM  

Cute...but where's the beef?
 

Like most every issue/question with a provider, I just prefer honesty.

It would have been an even better story had Cumming's leather chaps been ass-less. 
Grabbing a full cheek would have really meant something!

Assuming your LEO friend was able to look up this information in a manner available to anyone, I'd say nothing.
If your LEO friend is using information systems in an unauthorized manner -- in other words, using his position at work to look up information about people when he has no business reason to do so -- you might want to remind him that he's putting himself at risk and that you don't want information gained in that manner shared with you.

The latest inflation report is not a huge deal. Look…inflation is way down from where it was. The final push to get it to target levels will be a slog. As long as oil stays high, it will be slow-going. 

When I went last month, GI Joe's sauna was still closed and some say may never reopen due to the fire
I went to both Stock and Campus and Campus definitely had more people. The lap dance area wasn't that public or at least didn't look like it was that public. Given the strong USD exchange rate against the CAD, whenever a dancer came up to me, I said yes to a lap dance. Cost was $20/song and I just did 1 song unless I really liked the guy. 
The last time I went to Montreal was back in 2006 and back then, Campus patrons weren't allowed to touch the dancers during the private lap dance. How things have changed! 

The ideal time for Thermas is always between 4pm and 8pm, on any day. Fridays and Saturdays are the most busy.
Most boys arrive between 4 and 5 and around 7 many already start to leave.
Glad you still had fun! 😊

The latest inflation report is not a huge deal. Look…inflation is way down from where it was. The final push to get it to target levels will be a slog. As long as oil stays high, it will be slow-going. 

"The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% over the previous month and 3.5% over the prior year in March, an acceleration from February's 3.2% annual gain in prices. The data matched February's month-over-month increase.
Both measures came in ahead of economist forecasts of a 0.3% monthly increase and a 3.4% annual increase, according to data from Bloomberg."
So, 0.1% higher on both the previous month forecast and the annual forecast.  When I went to pull up the report I thought I was going to see inflation back in the 4% to 5% range.  I guess overreaction is the name of the game.

I took Brightline from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale last week.  My Premium ticket cost $32.  A Premium Class ticket entitles you to an Uber ride to your departing station and from your arriving station (I think there is a five mile limit for each segment).  I made use of Uber on both ends with the costs being fully covered by Brightline.  According to their calculations, the Uber costs were just over $30.  If this is accurate, that means my resulting train fare in Premium Class was $2.  BTW, the Premium ticket entitled me to an alcoholic beverage and a small snack (potato chips and a candy bar).  I declined both but I could have had them if I wanted.  How is Brightline making any money?  I'd be interested in seeing their financials.  Who is funding this project?
FWIW, the train seemed only about 10% full on this segment.  After Lauderdale, my train was stopping in Palm Beach and then Orlando.  This was my 4th time on Brightline and none of the trips have been very full.  I hope they can make a go of this...but I really wonder.