"One thing’s certain: Comet is really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live." - Kriston Capps, Online Food Association blog.
https://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/fair-and-balanced-breakfast-august-14-2009/
That's a comment that appeared on a DC-based food blog in 2009.
The Washingtonian is obviously a magazine about DC. Its motto is "The Magazine Washington Lives By." Comet Ping Pong is in DC. So why would would anyone running a food blog based in DC say "One thing’s certain" about Comet - it's "really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live." The comment is a play on the magazine's motto, but it also may say something about Comet Pizza. Apparently, it's for "certain" that it's not something for "most people."
Kriston Capps of "The Online Food Association" blog was discussing a contest that the Washingtonian held in 2009. Readers voted on the best pizza places in DC. 32 places competed, and readers got to choose between two places at a time in a playoff with brackets, until one place would eventually be declared the winner.
The OFA blog apparently made the remark about Comet after it lost its contest to a restaurant called Piola. OFA linked to an image showing a "pizza pool chart," but that image no longer exists. And The Washingtonian's main page for the pizza contest no longer exists either.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6007/pizzapoolchart2.jpg
https://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/restaurants/bestbites/13172.html
On the Washingtonian's broken link page, there is a message that says, "Page Does Not Exist, But Here Are 404 Pandas For Your Enjoyment," and the image of 404 tiny pandas. Pandas showed up in at least a couple of the jimmycomet Instagram photos.
You have to wonder why the OFA blog would single out Comet Pizza for that remark. The image the remark linked to is gone, so one can only speculate. But one possibility is that Comet has a reputation for being seedy, at the least. A look at the acts that have performed there and the wall art would suggest that, as would the public jimmycomet posts.
And a note on the "Online Food Association" blog, too. While it sounds like an industry group, it's actually made up of prominent, high-powered young professionals. Kriston Capps is a contributor to The Atlantic, and Ezra Klein (of Vox and "journolist") and Matthew Yglesias (who worked for Podesta's Center for American Progress) also blog on OFA.
I came across the blog and the pizza contest after finding an entry by Yglesias that links to a story that discusses how John Podesta had a job that involved slaughtering pigs to earn money while in law school.
https://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/killer-of-pigs/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24575_Page3.html
There's a thread about Podesta butchering pigs here:
https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1443931
Yglesias writes about the Washintonian's pizza contest:
"Washingtonian magazine is currently running a DC pizza bracket of some kind that foolishly lets the audience vote on which pizzas are best. Pizza, however, is best understood as a draconian autocracy in which the masses should be told which pizzas are best. That said, contemplating the question simply brings home the fact that in my almost six years of living here, Washington has been transformed from a deplorable pizza town into actually quite a good pizza town."
Yglesias also lists places which he says have good pizza, and Comet is one of them. So is that possibly why Capps says Comet is " really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live" - because most Washingtonians can't judge really good pizza? It's hard to say without seeing the image Capps linked to that no longer exists. But it doesn't sound like it. Capps didn't add that he thought Comet had terrific pizza. It seems more likely he was referring to something else about Comet that makes it "really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live."
And on pandas and pedophilia, here's something:
"Pedobear is an Internet meme that became popular through the imageboard 4chan.[1] As the name suggests ("pedo" being short for "pedophile"), it is portrayed as a pedophilic bear.[2] It is a concept used to mock pedophiles or people who have any sexual interest in children or jailbait.[3][4][5] The bear image has been likened to bait used to lure children or as a mascot for pedophiles.[3][5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedobear
The bear pictured is a brown bear, but it seems possible that panda bears could be a variation on the idea.
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comeonpeople ago
I don't understand why you think it means anything other than the literal, that the Washingtonian readership doesn't live geographically near Comet. Why on earth would you assume "he was referring to something else about Comet" that means "it's not something for "most people""? That's a big, and unnecessary, leap.
But you'd be wrong, it's very popular, including among parents.
Pandas are a big deal in DC because of the National Zoo and the pandas on loan from China. Whenever there is a pregnancy or baby the whole city goes nuts and it's on the news all the time.
Psalm100 ago
Well, it's actually clear that the literal meaning about distance can't be the entire point.
The DC suburbs aren't "really far from where most of Washingtonian‘s readers live." (Italics in the original).
As someone else mentioned, it has to also mean something like the suburbanite readers of the Washingtonian being "uncool" versus the "cool" Comet Ping Pong, and that puts a distance between them, which is a much greater distance than the physical one, which isn't that much at all. We're not comparing the DC suburbs to a place across the country or across the world.
I'm also sure that the place is popular, but that still doesn't mean that many people don't refuse to go there or take their children there. The more you look at it, the more you see CPP cultivates serious weirdness, and that weirdness is largely of a sexual sort. Ultra liberals - the Hollywood artistic and intellectual types - are likely to go there and take their children there. And then there are the ping pong tables that might attract some families who go there with some reservations. But many other people are going to stay away like many people always thought there was something off about Michael Jackson.
Pandas figure in two jimmycomet instagram photos, and one is very sexual. "Panda Head" magazine also has had events at CPP, including one "all ages." But PH magazine is also pretty weird.
comeonpeople ago
The majority of the readers live in Virginia, not DC: http://pdf.washingtonian.com/pdf/1_p_quick_guide.pdf
It's truly bizarre to see this stretching to assume he meant metaphorical distance. It's a throwaway line in a blog list, not a piece in a lit mag.
If you say so. Who needs evidence? Just say it and people will believe it.
Psalm100 ago
That line, though, was in reference to Comet Pizza losing out to Piola Pizza in their popularity contest match-up, and Piola is also in DC and so not where most of Washingtonian's readers live, either.
Piola is closer to Virginia than Comet, but Comet is less than a mile from Maryland, where according to your link 40% of Washingtonian's readers live.
In either case, though, we're only talking about two or three miles.
Neither restaurant is that far from either the Virginia or Maryland border on foot, much less by car. And presumably many of Washingtonian's suburban readers work in DC and in the course of the day might be in the neighborhood of either or both pizza places.
Comet being "really far from where most of Washingtonians readers live" just isn't true in a physical sense. And in a physical sense, it is really no further than Piola is.
Edit: And keep in mind, too, that the comment is playing off of Washingtonian's motto: "The Magazine Washington Lives By." Lifestyle is meant by Washingtonian, not distance. The blogger seems to be referencing the irony of most of the magazine's readers not living in DC proper AND Comet being not part of most of Washingtonian's readers lifestyle at the same time.