126221 Thu Sep 19 14:08:17 -0700 2002 9 9 New Orleans 0 684992 I miss Tom Fitzmorris's columns and message boards. Hope he's okay and just on vacation (must be a long one). Does anyone have the skinny?? John in Austin Thu Sep 19 14:08:17 -0700 2002 0 JakNomad 1 684994 Tom is still here, still writing his Menu Daily, and still creating controversies on his Ask Tom board. Link: http://www.insideneworleans.com/restaurants/content/restaurants/food/asktom2.html Fri Sep 20 10:33:21 -0700 2002 684992 0 Creole 2 685002 I've never visited Tom's board; I followed the link above to his discussion site. What a disappointment! Instead of food-related opinions & interesting tidbits, I found thread after thread of invectives, complaints, and tirades. What a bore. It made me happy that chowhound.com exists, and happy that Jim Leff/moderators occaisionally intrude to provide editorial guidance. Hooray for Chowhound.com. Mon Sep 23 14:06:54 -0700 2002 684994 0 Hungry Celeste 3 685008 Actually, if you can get through all that stuff you mentioned, there is a lot of New Orleans restaurant and cuisine knowledge to be gleaned from that board. Not only is Tom quite an expert on those things (besides being a pompous, rude, denigrating know-it all) but 90% on the posters on that site are locals who are very into New Orleans food (many are local chefs, restaurant owners, wine merchants, wait staff, and others in the retail/wholesale food business) - unlike most food message boards that are populated primarily by visitors asking the same questions over and over. Since most of the posters are locals and many are "in the business," you will find much stronger held opinions as well as arguments over minutiae that most visitors would not understand (or even care about if they did). Also, unfortunately, as you mentioned, the trolls are also out in force on that board - some being quite entertaining and showing a real flair for "creative" writing and others being . . . well, not so entertaining. As far as editing/censorship goes, occasionally the site administrators on the Ask Tom board try to rein in the more outrageous posters, but it seems that many of those posters on that board are so passionate that it creates even more problems. As a local, I go to the Tom board to increase my knowledge/awareness of the local food scene and I come here on occasion to offer my meager advice to visitors. This board has rarely added anything to my personal knowledge of New Orleans or Louisiana cuisine and restaurants (since most of the posters here are not locals), but I also realize that visitors would have a very difficult time discerning anything useful to them on the Ask Tom board. Tue Sep 24 09:29:49 -0700 2002 685002 0 Creole 4 685010 I once lived in New Orleans. I will always miss it. I get Tom Fitzmorris's daily e-mail to pretend to keep up. When he broadcast his show over the Internet, I occasionally listened. I agree, basically, with Creole's description of Fitzmorris. Over the years, I have had many misgivings about his relationship with what he writes about as well as his relationship with places that host his "eat club" dinners. He is a good example of what is good and bad about being a food critic willing to show his face. It is interesting that Fitzmorris has recently come up for discussion on chowhound, because the other day, he made a little dig towards chowhound. He wrote about "being a gourmet", and he proffered that a gourmet is more than just a chowhound. Of course, he then goes on to say that the differene between a gourmet and some who just eats out, is that the gourmet cares about what's on the plate, not the atmosphere. As an exercise in rhetoric, it was useless. His AskTom board has not effectively answered his question, nor addressed his little jab at chowhound. Instead, it has degenerated into a series of attacks on Tom. Well, anyway, I have no idea where I am going with all of this. In then end, I also agree with Creole that chowhound does not address the New Orleans food scene as well as Tom. I guess, given all of Fitzmorris's baggage, I just think chowhound *could* address it better. Rob Tue Sep 24 10:13:03 -0700 2002 685008 0 Vital Information 5 685012 Re: "being a gourmet," this has been a pet peeve for years. The word has had almsot all use worn off of it. As a self-atttribution it is exceedinlgy annoying and rude. No food writers today seem to know (or at least, understand) the disctinction Liebling made in "Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris" in which he delves into being a gourmand. Worth a read (and he is still one the best food writers this country ever produced----a short list). The use of "gourmet" these days calls to mind the comments of a Yale english Professor years ago who railed against the term "pseudo-intellectual" because it was redundant. He insisted that "intellectual" was pseudo in itself. Tue Sep 24 14:09:31 -0700 2002 685010 0 Hazelhurst 5 685016 Rob, After reading your post here I decided to take a look at Tom Fitzmorris' board again. (I tried looking at it the other day, but there didn't seem to be enough useful information to make wading through everything worthwhile.) I don't know that his post about being a gourmet was supposed to be a shot at Chowhound since it actually seemed to be aimed at the readers of his own board. Tom seems like he knows some good information (I thought his soup list was excellent), but he seems to be too wrapped up in attacking his own readership to be of much use. The context that he used the phrase "chowhound" seemed appropriate ("as opposed to the chowhound who just likes to eat all the time."). His usage of it is the exact same connotation I got from the word before I ever started frequenting this board. Besides, if it was a shot at Chowhound, it seems de rigueur for certain people to promote their chosen representative group term by bashing some other group (like the Chowhound bashing of foodies on the homepage). As for the people on his board not answering his question and attacking him, I think they addressed the intention of his question. He made a parallel that if you had any technical problems with the board and actually said something about them, then you weren't a gourmet. Yeah, I think my response to that would sound a little hostile too. Anyway, I'm not sure what my point is either. I do know I won't be returning to that board again. (If you have a link to his mailing list I would appreciate it though. He does seem like he'd be better in a forum that only allows him to speak since he just doesn't seem to play nice with others.) I also know that I find the whole term thing silly. Call me foodie, chowhound, gourmet, gastronome, or bon vivant; it's all the same to me. At the end of the day I still recognize and chase good food in most forms, yet still have the occasional craving for Taco Bell. It's weird, I know, but people are much more complex than the labels placed on them, or even the labels they choose to place on themselves. Mario Tue Sep 24 20:43:26 -0700 2002 685010 0 IamJacksBrain 5 687238 Tom I respect your opinion so i sought out on Monday 6 months ago my monday fair of red beans and rice. Top 10 Fury's great stuff so I continue to go each Mon. and the past 3 months I a single or divorced recently 48 year old male I continue to allow myself to be abused. what was once the best has turned to salt. Litarely SALT thats what the flavor has become do another test of taste their chicken fried has become the same salt. My weakness fried chicken and red beans I still walk to stay in shape 2 to 4 miles aday. then I splurge and get salted. Over 40 trying to control that high blood pressure thing. Paul ps saw you at Anselmo's loved it. Tue May 20 23:35:58 -0700 2003 685010 0 PAUL 1 684998 The website appears to have had some trouble for a few days, but his daily e-mail continued last week (following a week in New York). I often disagree with Tom and he is a bit of a know-it-all, but he's the only one promoting daily talk about dining in one of America's great dining cities, and for that I thank him. Mon Sep 23 00:14:32 -0700 2002 684992 0 Leo in B.R. 1 685094 The "Ask Tom" board was moved from a server in CA to a different server (in the mid-west?) As a result of that move, they've had problems with logging in with your original nickname, the links going to the wrong and non-existent pages, and just a feeling of general turmoil over there. Also, that board is mostly unmoderated. I've noticed that most (60% +) of the post there involve bickering and belittling of Tom and poster's grammar, so much for nettiquette. Those are the "posers" of the board, inflating themselves with insulting post under the guise of "keeping up" the standard of the board. With all of that said, there is also useful info to be gleaned at the board. Tom's restaurant reviews and articles. Also, there are helpful people on the board with good info, if you can ignore the posers on the board. Tue Oct 08 11:03:48 -0700 2002 684992 0 Maillard_R