Suddenly my wife's parents, who have long been seen as Ozzie and Harriet in our lives, seem downright hip for what they've been willing to eat without complaining.

[OT]
Hey GeorgeR, a friendly note. when you use the QUOTE function, it is considered extremely rude to then go and CHANGE the quote to make it appear that the OP said something they did not say. I've seen huge flame wars erupt over stuff like this and most of the boards I frequent prohibit it.

To clarify, Antonius did NOT specify Italians in his note about "mob influenced" restaurants.
[/OT]

As for the complainers, I dont feel any problem chastising their pettiness, espeically if it was my step dad, anything to get his goat was good with me He was a chronic complainer and more to the point, he was one of those who went into a meal (or car purchase, or any other transaction basically) knowing full well that he was going to make up baseless claims and accusations in order to get a refund or discount. I once walked out of a restaurant where he tried this and walked home after telling the waiter what he was trying to do. Hoo boy was that a fun night!

I think Octarine has it backwards which in any case suggests why George R changed his original post in response to Antonius' complaint (creating, however, the problem that Antonius' post is still there quoting the original version of what George said). I don't think there's a problem with revising to reflect later comments, though I tend to leave more of an explanatory trail for precisely that reason-- so there's no possibility of mistaking thoughtful revision for bad faith.

In this case, I would use my godlike moderator powers to delete Antonius' post as no longer referring to what's actually there, except that I think it will be useful to leave this up as something we can reference in the future. So, anyway, if I revised per a later comment, I would add something like "Edited to reflect comment about X," just to undo a little future confusion.

Octarine wrote:[OT]
Hey GeorgeR, a friendly note. when you use the QUOTE function, it is considered extremely rude to then go and CHANGE the quote to make it appear that the OP said something they did not say. I've seen huge flame wars erupt over stuff like this and most of the boards I frequent prohibit it.

To clarify, Antonius did NOT specify Italians in his note about "mob influenced" restaurants.

MikeG:

Thanks for the useful intervention, which I just saw when previewing the following message. I leave it up to you to decide what the appropriate action is regarding deletions but I am displeased with the idea that any might come away from this all with the idea that I doctor quotes with malicious intent. As you know, I don't. I just hope no one took a quick look at this sub-thread and has gotten the wrong impression.

A
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Octarine:

I'm confused by your comment cited hereabove. The short comment I had on GeorgeR's third point is accompanied by a direct quote of the passage in question from the original post by him. He has since emended his text and I will soon delete my comment with the old quote.

Antonius

brotine wrote:Sometimes it's just better to take the elderly relatives to a (groan!) buffet

Not always a solution. My FIL never considered a buffet a real restaurant. He wanted to sit down, have a drink, and be waited on.
That's what going out to eat was all about.

Sorry for the misunderstanding . This is why I disagree with being able to edit posts. It opens to door for mistakes and for abuse, NOT that there was any abuse in this case, but I have seen some pretty egregious examples of it in other forums (fora?).

Actually, Antonius, once it's been replied to you can't delete your post (well, you can remove all the text, but you can't completely remove the box it was in).

I, on the other hand, can delete any or all, but as noted, I think I'm going to leave it up so that someday I can point to it as how these things can lead to misunderstandings. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Sorry about causing the confusion. I changed the post in response to Antonius' comment.

He was right. I wasn't thinking when I initially wrote it and I thought it appropriate to change the post.

There was no intent to make it look as if Antonius had misquoted me -- I never thought of that possiblity.

Again, my apologies to all.

Moderator -- do what you think best to clarify things.
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Follow-up: I acted on MikeG's suggestion and made a second change to my original post. The quoted section now includes the following remark:

[this paragraph edited to reflect comment by Antonius]

I hope this clears things up.

George R

I guess I would also avoid eating with people who do this. There are many things external to the actual food that can make a meal unappetizing. If someone complains too much, just for the sake of complaining, why put yourself through the headache while trying to enjoy the food?

I realize that you have to spend time with the in-laws, and you can't completely avoid them, but by taking them out of the restaurant or other venues where they could boss around people, you will remove their soapbox on which to complain, which will make your meeting with them better for everyone.

Save the good chow places for people who will enjoy it.