It's big news, this, at the restaurant, the Oiler's ill fated night out.
If you're not familiar, there's the news story here: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Oilers+players+refused+massive+bill+Calgary+restaurant+owner/2397784/story.html.
The boys, they've discussed it, added the bill up and double checked the math, they're arguing that the Oiler's behaved badly, they should have just paid the bill, it all adds up.
The owner, he's thinking the Oiler's might have had some cause for complaint. I'm with him.
First of all, how did this make the news? Even in a small town like Calgary, it's definitely not news. But there's something deliciously spiteful about hating the Oiler's, that inane, childish rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton, and the press knows their audience. No, it's definitely not news, but it'll sure sell papers....
Second of all, there's a certain whiff of half truths about it all. Not that I suspect that the Oiler's are in any way paragons of virtue or good manners, I've never even considered it and would be surprised if any of them were. That's not what they're paid for. But there is something very suspicious about Maurizio Terrigno's claim that he would "donate the money to the Earthquake relief fund...". I'd like to see the receipt for that, and be reassured that the charity wasn't being run by his brother.... Note the interview charge he attempted to levy on the Globe and Mail...
Third of all, he's just alienated a very affluent clientele who not unreasonably expect some discretion and privacy when they're dining out.
Maybe that was the service charge they refused to pay. In any event, as costly as it was for them in terms of bad publicity, I suspect it will prove even more costly to the restaurant owner. Read the comments following each of the articles, others have found as well the faint whiff of sulpher in Maurizio's claims and I'll be not a little surprised if it doesn't cost him a fair measure of business, if not the business itself.
I'll end with this by Mark Twain:
"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."