The Pollyeye's Boycott Bandwagon

As you can read below in the post from the BG News, Pagliai's Pizza and Campus Pollyeyes experienced a boycott (via Facebook) following a sign posted opposing the ordinances. As you can also read, the whole thing was a big misunderstanding and the owners did not approve the sign's posting or even have a political stance on the issue.

The boycott was an interesting example of the effect of Facebook. People likely were invited to this group, read the page and then joined the "boycott" without ever seeking out the other side of the story. Despite an article in the BG News, as well as posts from the owner on the Facebook site, 352 people “like” the boycott page on Facebook and a wall post from November 12, stating “That's too bad, I love their food,” shows that some people are still unaware that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

How much money has this local business lost due to this misunderstanding? The power of Facebook compelled at least 352 people to pledge to avoid Pollyeyes without any real evidence besides a posted sign, long removed by the time most of the members joined.

The thing I find most interesting is that 352 people (mostly students) jumped on the boycott bandwagon, but the combined total voters for the two on campus precincts was only 654, less than double the amount of boycotters.

The point being that while 352 people were ready to speak out against Polleye's “discrimination,” those same people likely did not even show up at the polls to vote on the ordinances.

A map of Bowling Green pizza places

Here is a list of the pizza places available in Bowling Green. Each location offers a unique pizza, with quality ranging from awful to delicious. So if you are in the mood for pizza, but not for your usual, pick a location at random and enjoy (or not.)

View Pizza Places in Bowling Green by Cheesy in BGeezy in a larger map

Students, community members boycott Pagliai's Pizza




Pagliai's Pizza located on 945 South Main Street,
Bowling Green, Ohio

The BG News November 2, 2010

By Brian Bohnert
Reporter

A local business is the subject of a Facebook movement for a boycott due to allegations that the business has taken a strong stance against a set of antidiscrimination ordinances that are on the ballot for the Tuesday's election.

Pagliai's Pizza is being accused by the Facebook group known as "Boycott Pagliai's (Pollyeyes) Pizza" of placing a sign outside of the establishment that urges people to vote "No" on Propositions 7905 and 7906. The ordinances are designed to grant protection against discrimination in housing, public education, employment and public accommodations to groups not already protected at a state or national level. These ordinances, if passed, will prevent discrimination based on factors such as gender, sexual preferences, pregnancy, veteran status, marital status, gender identity and being HIV positive.

"The ordinances publicly affirm our city as a welcoming community that stands behind the rights of individuals, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, to work, live, go to school, raise a family, start a business and put down roots without fear of discrimination," according to the ONE Bowling Green website. ONE Bowling Green is a grassroots organization set up by members of the community to back the ordinances.

"Boycott Pagliai's" currently has 310 members who are concerned with ending the discrimination that the restaurant is accused of promoting. One member is University sophomore Cherno Biko.

"I was invited to the page fairly late in the game," he said. "It was created on Tuesday, and I began commenting on Friday morning."

Being concerned, Biko said he called Campus Pollyeyes, a pizzeria under the same ownership as Pagliai's Pizza. He spoke with someone to gather more information as to whether or not the business had a specific stance on the two anti-discrimination ordinances. The answer Biko said he received was extremely surprising and unnerving to him.

"[The employee] explained to me that he thinks that there are enough laws on the books and that he did not support the anti-discrimination ordinances," Biko said. "After that moment, I became personally invested in the boycott."

Biko also mentioned this was a hard decision for him to make because he has always been a fan of Pollyeyes.

"As a former patron of that restaurant, it was saddening to realize that I would never again eat one of their famous stuffed breadsticks," Biko said.

The issues on the ballot are important to Biko, and he feels if a business is standing strongly against these ordinances, than it is hurting the community and the world in the long run.

"This is a problem," he said. "People who oppose these ordinances are sending the message that I am not worth protecting, that only my blackness should be protected, not my sexual orientation or my gender."

However, management of the local pizzeria had a much different story. Acting president of Pagliai's Pizza, Scott Nicholson, said this was all a misunderstanding and the placing of the political sign was an action carried out by one single employee. Since then, the business received an abundance of negative feedback from it, he said.

"It was done by one individual that took the liberty upon himself to put that sign out there," Nicholson said. "We do not take a political stance on these issues, and we under no means discriminate."

The sign was placed outside while Nicholson and his wife were on vacation, he said. Once he found out the sign was there, he immediately ordered that it be taken down.

"We actually received a call from a good friend of ours about the sign and once I got the call, I made some calls and had it taken down immediately," Nicholson said.

He said that the business has been serving the community of Bowling Green for more than 40 years, and it has made a point of treating everyone fairly and equally.

Nicholson, assuming ONE BG was behind the boycott, wrote a letter to the coalition, explaining the placing of the sign was simply a misunderstanding.

However, ONE BG was not apart of the effort, Nicholson said.

The creator of the Facebook page still remains a mystery, Biko said.

The boycott may or may not have any long-term influence on Pagliai's business, but Biko knows for sure he will be voting for a cause that is important for him and his community. This is much bigger than just a movement against a pizza place, he said.

"I am glad that we can learn from our past," he said. "I am glad that the road to justice was already paved, and I am glad that my community bravely chose to walk that road."

World's Greatest Pizza Twirler

At a Little Caesars promo, acrobats from all over the country competed for the title of best pizza twirler. More than 1000 people came together to show off their skills. The event was held in Lansing, Michigan, home of Little Caesars owners, Mike and Marian Ilitch. Winners received a lifetime supply of Little Caesars pizza and $10,000. I think it's fair to say this guys got dough.

Pizza delivery woes

Have you ever ordered a pizza and when you opened the box, you found that the cheese had slid off the pizza to one side of the box? This happens a lot when I order from Myles. I always think that perhaps the driver was engaged in some sort of action movie chase scene with an attack helicopter firing rapidly at the driver, but after seeing this video, I am going to be a bit more skeptical when my pizza arrives mangled.

The video is labeled "pizza delivery fail," but in the eyes of the delivery guy, this is more like a "pizza delivery win." The speed at which the guy picks up the pizza from the ground and puts it back in the box is uncanny. I also love that he puts it back in the hot bag and acts all cool while waiting for the resident to come to the door. He doesn't just pick it up and leave the box out, he actually puts it back in the hot bag. That is just perfect to me, clearly he couldn't have dropped it on the ground, he hasn't even taken it out of the bag.

The ground there doesn't look all that clean, I'm curious how much dirt and gravel was left on that pizza when he scooped it up. He didn't have time to pick anything off, so likely the resident would have had some visible gunk.

The whole thing leaves me wondering how often this has happened to this delivery guy, because his recovery was nearly flawless. Do they teach that skill during delivery driving training?

I would like to see a followup to this showing the reaction of the resident as he or she watches what happened to the pizza. Someone get on that please.

Pizza in the News Roundup

There have been a couple silly news item this week revolving around pizza, so I figured it was a good opportunity for story time.

First up, we have a police officer from Gowanda, NY whose hunger nearly landed him in jail. According to WIVB.com, a broadcast channel out of Buffalo, the police officer accepted free pizza as payment for dropping a traffic ticket.

The former officer, Jason Miller, was charged with official misconduct and ended up with 3 years probation following a sentencing on Thurs., Oct. 14. WIVB states that "Miller has also admitted in the past to staging his own shooting by shooting himself in his bullet-proof vest."

In North Liberty, Iowa, an intoxicated man was arrested after assaulting a peace officer with a pizza box on Thurs., Oct. 14.

According to KCRG-TV9, Michael J. Koski, 40, threw a pizza box and glasses at a responding officer before attempting to make a run for it. Koski was taken down by a taser and handcuffed, but he still continued his assault by attempting to bite an officer's knee.

Koski faces charges of assault on peace officers, public intoxication and interference with official acts.

Bowling Green isn't without its own pizza related crime. According to a Bowling Green Police Divison report, a pizza delivery man was attempting to make two deliveries within the 900 block of Klotz Road. After receiving no answer at either residence, he returned to his vehicle to find three pizzas and a hot bag missing. One of the residents who allegedly ordered the pizza denied making the call. The other could not be reached.

I find all of these acts of pizza related crimes to be on the ridiculous side. First of all, if you are police officer and you take a bribe of free pizza, you are some kind of stupid. You aren't good at being a cop and worse, you aren't even good at being a crooked cop on top of that.

Second, why would anyone think a pizza box was a good weapon? Was it Mr. Koski's goal to knock the officer unconscious with a cardboard box? Did he think the 0.5 seconds it would take the officer to knock the box aside would give him time to run away? I am sort of surprised that the man didn't explode when he was tazed, because the amount of alcohol he had to being drinking sounds like it should made him combustible.

Finally, the Bowling Green Pizza Caper of September 2010 was clearly the work of a crack team of vault busters. I just picture the cast of Ocean's Eleven sitting in a bush, waiting for unsuspecting delivery driver to attempt his delivery. I actually hoped we would see more premeditated pizza burglaries following this one, but unfortunately the pizza bandits never went serial.

System of A Down! "Chic n' Stu" An awesome song about pizza!