Medical-themed restaurants get all malpractice on each other

The fact that “hospital food” is synonymous with inedible hasn’t stopped the opening of two different medical-themed restaurants. Taking the theming even further – one is suing the other for malpractice.

Heart Stoppers Sports Grill in Del Ray, Fla. — which opened in December –  is being sued by Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Ariz., over who has the right to have waitresses dress like “nurses” and “decorate the premises with a heart defibrillator and a dialysis machine. Make the tables look like wheelchairs, put salt and pepper in pill bottles, and present the bill in a plastic first-aid kit.”

The menu idea associated with this (and I use the word idea very loosely) are things like Chili Chest Pain Fries and The Heart Stopper, a 3-pound burger. At the Heart Stoppers, the menu warns "consumption of our food will definitely lead to obesity" and there is a standing offer of free food to anyone over 350 pounds.

"I’m 90 pounds away from eating for free," said a half-joking, 260-pound Dan Pagano, who was finishing up his $8.25 half-pound burger and fries at Heart Stoppers. Pagano, who writes service orders at a nearby car dealership, has been eating at Heart Stoppers twice a week since it opened.

Lawyers for Heart Attack claim they are “the originator of the medically themed hamburger grill and restaurant.” (Is that really something to brag about?) They also say there are 30 similarities between the two restaurants including the EKG heart monitor imagery on the signage to the free food offer for customers over 350 pounds.

Heart Attack fare includes the Singe & Double-bypass burgers and Flatliner Fries™.

Can we health care reform both of these places out of business before I get sick?

Advertisement

My kind of law firm

 

I don’t know who these people are or whether or not they’re any good but their ads are GENIUS!

 

P&G has devil of a time collecting damages in Satan case

That $19.25M they were supposed to get? Turns out that:

1. The jurors guesstimated the amount based on what they think the lawyers charged.
2. The judge — not the jury — gets to decide what, if any, lawyer fees can be awarded.
3. The original judge thought it would be a cold day in … well you know … before P&G collected even if they proved the case.

The Satan Desk at Brandweek has the full details here.

When Tigger socks are outlawed, only outlaws will wear cheerful Disney branded cloth on their feet

Last year Toni Kay Scott, a student at Napa Valley’s Redwood Middle School, was sent to an in-school suspension program (with the wonderfully Orwellian-name of Students With Attitude Problems). Her crime? Violating a dress code by wearing socks with Tigger on them, along with a denim skirt and a brown shirt with a pink border.

Said code requires clothes with solid colors in blue, white, green, yellow, khaki, gray, brown and black. Permitted fabrics are cotton twill, corduroy and chino, but not denim.

To no one’s surprise a lawsuit has resulted. I fully expect Lee, Levis, Disney and (RED) to file amicus curiae brief on behalf of Ms. Scott. I, on the other hand, will try to trademark the phrase Students With Attitude Problems.

Jury Duty, II

It really is fun. Part of what’s fun is that it’s a fascinating exercise in storytelling. You watch a lawyer build his/her case and reveal things knowing full well that you are only getting a small part of the story and that even when both sides have finished you will only have an approximation of what happened, one that’s constrained by what’s can be admitted under the rules of evidence. It’s also fun because I have power to decide an issue that will have no impact on me whatsoever. So far I am impressed by the professionalism of everyone involved: the other jurors, the judge and the lawyers. Watching a court case really is good clean fun.

The hardest part for me is restraining my reportorial instincts. There are clearly a lot of interesting stories abutting the main one we’re hearing and I would love to track them down and get more information. Also I would love to research the background all on my own, but I don’t get to. Unlike being a reporter where you get to decide what the story is or isn’t, being a juror means having the story or stories told to you. While I’m trained to be an observer, I am also trained to be a fact ferret and this time the ferret has to stay home.