I was ratted out…by my own wife…on Facebook.
This tale of snichery begins on Wednesday when I had a free lunch.
I went to Joe’s Real Barbecue in downtown Gilbert on customer appreciation day.
I got in line with several hundred other people at 11:51 a.m., shook owner Joe Johnston’s hand as he worked a very long line and thanked him for the free lunch, one of 6,000 that he had prepared for the free lunch and dinner day.
About five minutes later, the line passed by Mrs. Joe who handed me a coupon for a buy-one, get-one-free breakfast at Joe’s Farm Grill.
By 12:27 p.m., I was in the restaurant door. In a minute or so I was handed a bulging pulled pork sandwich on a plate with beans and coleslaw.
By 12:38 p.m. I had eaten everything on my plate, watched a swarm of young mothers feeding their toddlers and was heading for the exit.
Why did I do it?
Well, because I could.
I’m no longer the editor of the Tribune. That means I’m no longer covered by the Tribune’s strict code of ethics, which prohibits journalists from accepting gifts and free lunches.
And what a better place to get a free lunch than at Joe’s in downtown Gilbert.
Free at last.
Or am I?
I still occasionally write for the Tribune, and my editor is Le Templar who led the newsroom group that developed the code and became the go-to guy when ethical questions came up in the newsroom.
Maybe he wouldn’t approve.
Oh, well, I’ll just keep my mouth shut. If I don’t say anything it won’t be an issue.
“Honey,” my wife asked later Wednesday evening. “How long did you stand in line at Joe’s?”
I gave her the times that I had written down in my reporter’s notebook.
“And where did the line go to?”
I told her, even drew her a map.
She had pressed the send key before it occurred to me to ask why she wanted to know.
“Jess Harter was asking on Facebook,” she explained, referring to the Trib’s eating out reporter.
Oh, no!
Jess blogs about everything. Everyone in the newsroom and East Valley will know I got a free lunch.
I have only a hazy understanding of how my wife got into sharing her deepest secrets AND mine with Jess because I don’t do Facebook.
But it has something to do with newsroom office manager CJ Coppola and my wife being friends and CJ and Jess are friends and now for reasons that reveal much about the tell-all-no-matter-how-irrelevant age we live in, my daughter in Baltimore and my son in Claremont, CA. are pretty much up to speed on the East Valley restaurant scene.
Anyway, my goose is cooked. So I’ll just do what politicians do and apologize for an error in judgment and promise not to do it again. (Wait. Scratch that last part.)
If you have read this far, you are also a victim of this age of blogs that don’t shed light, but often shed heat.
I’m not going to shed heat, but I will share an opinion.
Joe Johnston and Mrs. Joe have to be the coolest people in the East Valley.
A few Saturdays ago, my wife and I went to the downtown Gilbert park to look at that huge marble or granite ball that floats on water and decided to try Joe’s new place, the Liberty Market, which is just caty corner from the barbecue restaurant.
A lady was cleaning nearby tables and my wife asked if she would give ours a once over.
“Do you ever see Joe?” my wife asked the help.
“Yes, I go home with him every night. I’m Mrs. Joe,” the table busser replied.
Doesn’t that tell you something about the Johnstons?
The best known and probably the most successful restaurateurs in all of Gilbert and she’s cleaning tables on a Saturday and he’s working behind the coffee bar.
They, as much as anybody, have made downtown Gilbert one of my favorite happening places.
Try not to laugh. A few months ago I would have laughed, too.
But that was before the park, before the Paul Bunyan-sized bowling ball that floats on water, before the Liberty Market opened, and before I got my free lunch.
I’ll have more to say about Gilbert’s town center in a future column. You’ll just have to wait.
Or you can read Jess Harter’s blog.
Actually, the Tribune ethics policy says news room journalists shouldn’t accept free items that aren’t available to general public, nor free items provided to such journalists with the intent of influencing their coverage in any way. Joe’s Real Barbecue offered a free lunch to anyone who showed up Wednesday because the restaurant was celebrating an anniversary. Jim standing in line and getting a free sandwich like everyone else was quite ethical, from my point of view.
Jim, you have a very wise wife. How is it that you (and my husband) are the last few males in the East Valley not on Facebook? I am sure she will show you how to navigate because nearly everyone felt inept the few times we used it (remember the first few times you used the computer?), but dogone it, it’s fun. No more excuses. I’ll even friend you.
Oh, she didn’t rat you out, she posted. Big difference. Very big difference.