Today's Suggestion to the World:

Never preface bad news.

Everyone has to deliver the bad news occasionally. When you do, start with the worst part, keep it short, and never preface it with long explanations.

Pretty simple, right? But, we always went to preface the bad news with a, "sit down for a minute, I need to explain something that happened, that probably is not too good," type sentence, which gives the recipient 10 to 20 seconds to consider dozens of catastrophes waiting to befall him. Remember the war movies where two stoic looking military men are walking up a long driveway as mom watches from a kitchen window? She knows why they are coming but the 20 seconds it takes for them to get to the front door and deliver the news are the longest she will ever have. That's what it's like for the recipient when you ramble on about things before getting to the point.

I had some good news to give my wife the other day and I was "prefacing" away to the point where she finally interrupted and said, "Is the end good or bad?" I said "good" and continued with my too-long introduction. Don't do that with bad news.

Say it, then explain it. That way the recipient knows exactly what the subject is.

The Problem With Polls . . .

Polls are accurate up to a point. They are indicators of public sentiment. But the devil is in the details, the details being: how the polling question is asked, or when, where and to whom a question is asked. For instance, Republican candidate, Mitt Romney is doing terribly in our poll of "Who Will Be the Next President". But 80% of our readers are from the Fort Worth area and Mitt Romney has relatively low name ID here. He is spending his advertising dollars in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina where, to finish the thought, he is doing very well in the polls.

The problem with a "Best of" poll, as in the case of the hamburger poll, is that the results can not reflect all the intricacies. What I mean is that name identification is a factor that can't be weighed in a poll like this. Which is why, when a newspaper does a "Best of" poll for restaurants by category, I consider them mostly popularity contests, not best food contests. Usually, you get a better idea of the real Best by asking the food editors where they spend their money.

Kinkaid's has been around a long time, has a loyal following and I like their hamburger. It is my first choice for all around value, plus, I love the simplicity of the place. But does it have the best hamburger? If you weigh in the factor that Fred's has a lot less name ID but still received (as I write this) 25 % of the vote, it made a very respectable accounting for itself. Tommy's isn't what it once was and it doesn't surprise me that it isn't doing well.

By the way, for those of you interested in this kind of thing, Tradesports is a fascinating way to follow trends in sports and politics. Essentially, Tradesports is a futures market for events. Any event can be traded. I am told that they are better indicators of future events because of the seriousness of those putting their money into their prediction.

And that's it for the hamburger poll. Kinkaid's is the winner but Fred's is a top choice.

Coal Vines in Southlake -- Good and Fun

We went to Coal Vines in Southlake on Saturday night with some friends and found a great new place to get pizza and wine! It is a great concept – a wine bar that boasts gourmet pizza and a fun atmosphere. Wine Bars in general tend to have a little bit of a pretentious atmosphere about them and usually don’t serve much more than cheese, fruit and bruchetta and sometimes salads. Pizza places like to serve beer -- if you are lucky you can get a glass of cheap table wine. Coal Vines gives the best of both worlds. And the pizza was fabulous! We split the White Pizza Special which was ricotta, mozzarella, garlic and tomato slices on what was arguably the best crust I have ever eaten. It was thin, crispy on the bottom, with about a ¼ inch of chewy soft texture under all the toppings. The wine selection was equally good, with a variety of prices. The only negative about the experience was the wait -- the hostess told us it would be 30 minutes and after 45 minutes and seeing about 4 tables that were empty we went up and had to ask to be seated. They have patio seating and this is a great place for a casual date or to go with a group. The prices were good - $15 for a large pizza which we split between 4 people.

Guest Post by RJS