<\/p>\n
I thought you might be interested in this: It\u2019s the World\u2019s Best Tree!<\/p>\n
No. Not the best example of this species of tree. Not the best species of tree.<\/p>\n
The. World\u2019s. Best. Tree.<\/p>\n
This decision was made by a committee of appointed experts, without any apparent judging criteria, and that may or may not award second place to a tree in a different country \u2013 for a bit of variety, you know \u2013 after a \u2018normalisation process\u2019 is applied to the voting data.<\/p>\n
Makes you want to visit the World\u2019s Best Trees, just to post on social media, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a sucker for this sort of thing, we had the announcement of Asia\u2019s Best Restaurants<\/a> recently. Fully nine of them are in my adopted home-town, but they include one that I\u2019ll never visit again because it was so average, and another that\u2026well, maybe, but only after a bit of arm-twisting.<\/p>\n It makes for headlines though. And it\u2019s a great marketing tool for those appearing on the list. But I think it\u2019d be better known as Asia\u2019s 50 Hardest Restaurants to get a Booking For Now. Fortunately there are plenty of others worth trying that aren\u2019t having the joy sucked out of them by serious foodies with their Instagram devices.<\/p>\n It is good motivation for me to get out and discover some others, at least.<\/p>\n You\u2019re on track to see the launch of the World\u2019s 50 Best Restaurants <\/a>soon in your neck of the woods: Melbourne, April 5 – mark it in your calendar.<\/p>\n Read all about it in The Age here<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m rather impressed that the futility of the exercise was noted in the story: \u201cDespite the absurdity of attempting to compare and rank millions of restaurants around the world the brilliant simplicity of the list made it\u00a0an instant hit.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s restaurant reviewing for the simple-minded social media generation! We\u2019ve seen how well dumbing things down goes for American presidential elections, so now let’s ruin the restaurant industry too. And if the sheer number of wannabe Ferran Adrias ruining\u00a0my dining enjoyment with their ill-advised foams and mismatched ingredients is any indication, it’s already happening. Picasso’s suggestion that you need to\u00a0‘Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist,’ clearly applies in the kitchens of the world too, though it’s a shame so few aspiring chefs seem to agree.<\/p>\n But it is hard to argue with numbers: When the event was held in New York, it apparently \u201cresulted in over US$73 million\u00a0worth of coverage\u00a0with a reach of 13,476,821,864.\u201d Impressive, galaxy-wide coverage then, reaching nearly twice the world’s population? Does E.T. agree it\u2019s finger-licking-good? Or just more marketing bumpf? I\u2019ll let you decide – but remember 13b people\/visiting aliens can’t be wrong.<\/p>\n In the meantime the World\u2019s Best Elbow belongs to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I thought you might be interested in this: It\u2019s the World\u2019s Best Tree! No. Not the best example of this species of tree. Not the best species of tree. The. World\u2019s. Best. Tree. This decision was made by a committee of appointed experts, without any apparent judging criteria, and that may or may not … Continue reading World’s Best Bumpf<\/span>