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Activity Summary
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Reviews Written: 303
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Member Visits: 14,360
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Total Visits: 251,156
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davidmanning's Recent Opinions
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| Date Written |
Review Title |
Product / Topic |
Product Rating |
Review Rating |
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Jan 3, 2009
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Should You Use The Krups Burr Grinder on Your Precious Coffee Beans?
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Krups Santa FE GVX2 Electric Burr Grinder
in Coffee Grinders
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Very Helpful
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Jul 20, 2008
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Strips of Gummies!
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Kasugai Gummy- 5packs of apple,muscat,orange,grape,pineapple Favors
in Food and Drink
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Very Helpful
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Apr 4, 2008
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Five Guys - Expensive, Good Burgers and Great Fries!
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Five Guys Burgers and Fries
in Chain Restaurants
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Very Helpful
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Apr 1, 2008
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Compact, Good Photos, Excellent Optical Zoom... Olympus Stylus 780 Delivers for Casual Photographers
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Olympus Stylus 780 / µ Digital 780 Digital Camera
in Digital Cameras
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Very Helpful
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Feb 28, 2008
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Sugar Cookies without the Effort, from Betty Crocker
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Betty Crocker Cookie Mix, Sugar, 17.5 Oz Pouches (Pack Of 12) - 016000306301
in Food and Drink
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Very Helpful
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 View more opinions by davidmanning
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About davidmanning
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 Need help with Epinions?
Of course you do.
Stock Boilerplate About How I Rate, If I Rate
So I figure I should at least let people know how I am going to rate you should you stumble into Restaurants and Gourmet.
Okay, before I get into that:
Here's a handy list of all my restaurant reviews:
Manhattan by neighborhood, everywhere else
piled at the end. Pick and enjoy.
And beers, too, if you're into that sort of thing:
So. If you're going to write about Beer--any beer--you really ought to have the basics covered if you expect the Very Helpful Seal Of Approval and Self-Esteem Booster. This means you talk about all aspects of the beer. No, I don't care if you're reviewing Pabst Blue Ribbon or Hanssens Oude Gueuze, treat 'em the same:
Basics: what style the beer is, where is it made, what's the alcohol content (if known)
The judging categories: how does it look, how does it smell, how does it taste. Just saying "it's bitter" or "it tastes funny" will get a mocking comment from me.
Your overall impression of the beer. How do you think it stacks up, and why did you reach that conclusion?
If you feel the need to give me your life story or some long-winded trivial information about the beer, keep it brief, please? Better yet, point me to the website from where you lifted the info; no sense repeating it in detail or, worse yet, claiming it as your own.
For restaurants, just tell me about your experience in as much useful detail as possible. Nobody expects you to write like the Times food section, but are complete sentences and paragraphs that follow logically so much to ask? Unless you're dining with really hot females and will provide me with their photos, the personal details and your topics of conversation while waiting for the waitron will be skimmed. Or mocked. Or both.
Also, please, for the love of all that is holy, don't list the entire menu in the middle of the review if you can't comment on the dishes. This goes double for chain restaurants. Point me to their website if you can, and mention the couple of interesting dishes that you noticed ("not every restaurant has pig's feet, but there they were, among the jalapeno poppers and veggie nachos, for $4.95") or trends within the food ("apparently being vegetarian puts you at the right hand of their god here, since a dozen or so entrees contain no animal flesh whatsoever" or "the steakhouse serves seven different cuts from the steer, from a 10-ounce ribeye ($16.95) to the massive 40-ounce 'prime rib for two' ($45.99). Gluttony reigns supreme here.", for instance). Basically don't waste dozens of lines listing out every last thing, especially if there's a copy of it on the web elsewhere.
Talk about what your companion(s) ate also, and "it was good" is not exactly painting a picture in my head. Ask yourself, what was good about it? What spices and other flavors did you taste? Was it appropriate? Did something not work, or work especially well?
Above all, just have fun. If you take yourself seriously around here you really need to unplug the computer and head to the bar. Without your notepad, I should add. If I find the time to read your review and you act all high and mighty--especially if you get things factually wrong--I probably will find the time to mock you.
In other words, if you use common sense, write what you know, and don't pretend to know more than you actually do, we're going to get along juuuust fine.
One last thing: I generally get very, very bored with chain restaurant reviews, so if you want me to rate Burger King or T.G.I. Friday's, you'll have to convince me by the first paragraph why I should burn five minutes on the 450th review of a place like that.
I'm scared of the mighty Mississippi, apparently.
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