mexican restaurants with $20 entrees

It should not cost 20 dollars for a single chile relleno.

I am pretty sure the whole idea behind 40 dollar meals at mexican restaurants is to equate mexico with europe, which fits right in with California loving europeans and mexicans more than the rest of America. I suppose the next thing we'll see is gagillionaire mexican aerospace engineers drinking cabo wabo at their places "en baja" partnering with Airbus to underbid Boeing to supply jets to the last remaining American airline.

Look, it's got to start somewhere and my guess is a 20 dollar chile relleno is just the place.

for the record $40 should get a family of four both full and drunk at a mexican restaurant.

That said, the 20 dollar chile relleno I had yesterday was pretty damned tasty, and herein lies the dichotomy - I'm going to buy some EAD stock and a bottle of cabo wabo now.

van halen

I know I know I know. you're thinkin' Boutros, will we lose van halen if we get california kicked out of the union? I've wondered too.

In fact I've thought long and hard about it. here's what I've come up with:

1) Despite an awful lot of rocking, van halen sucks. No matter what anyone says, they haven't had a great album since 1979 and even that is a stretch by about a year. what really sucks about van halen is that they're like a soap opera instead of like a proper rock band where someone dies and it's over. kinda like cheap trick, except that I'm pretty sure cheap trick has always rocked, hasn't really kicked anyone out and back into the band multiple times, and no one has died (and they're from illinois, which is staying put).

2) Even despite 1) above, it's pretty clear that losing van halen is a real risk for kicking california out of the union - but then it dawned on me:

there are lots of great hard rockin' bands from outside of the united states.

iron maiden comes to mind. so do the scorpions. plus i'm pretty sure that sammy hagar lives in mexico most of the time already anyway.

so it's not all bad. that's all I'm saying. and on the plus side, well, eddie van halen could be denied a visa for the US during his coke binges.