Pee-Eye's Waste of Ink, NY Times's 36 Hours

Been a while since I've seen a sentence this convoluted, this downright awful, in a Major Daily Newspaper:

The menu is fairly short, and because of the constraints of the kitchen being in another part of the building, much of the offerings are dishes that can be cooked ahead and held in a serving area until they're ordered.

It's part of a 1,200-word review by our good friend, the hapless and hopeless Leslie K, describing her unhappy meals at Prelude, the glorified lunchroom at McCaw Hall. Makes you wonder: what's "fairly short"? How far away's this remote kitchen? Down the hall or down the street? What exactly gets "cooked ahead" there, and by whom? How's it delivered to the "serving area"? In tubs? On plates? Does it get stirred? Reheated? Nuked? By chefs or by servers? So many questions, so little space. Wait, 1,200 words, right? But Ms. K, still writing for the Pee Eye because her husband is the paper's graphic design editor, spends most of her generous editorial budget whining about service that's too slow or too fast, depending on her mood. Newspapers are cutting back, we understand. Fewer editors, smaller news holes. What a pity that the few remaining writers (whose words are actually printed) get the same laissez-faire treatment--complete indifference--as the paper's multitudinous "reader blogs" (over 250 titles, a baker's dozen about food and wine). Blogs you can take or leave; they're free. Readers who pay for print media deserve better than this.

Changing papers now. They're baaaack, those clever writers from Noo Yawk, and this time they seem friendly. Last year's NY Times reporter--a year ago to the day--could only complain about Cascadia's miniburgers. This year, with Cascadia closed and a new awareness that, gee, you can use the Internets to check menus and stuff, a more reasonable itinerary: the SAM Sculpture Park, Matt's In the Market, ZigZag Café, Café Presse, Volunteer Park, Center for Wooden Boats, downtown library, Quinn's, Neumo's. Barely a whiff of condescension in the whole piece.