(Maybe this should be on the "Restaurants" or "Politics" or [other] thread and, if so, I apologize for its misplacement =)

You think we've got it bad here in Central OK?

I was just listening to an NPR/BBC report regarding the "New Urbanization" that's going on over there in England. They started talking about "Pubs" and "Publicans".

Turns out that (on the other side o' the pond) huge corporations (not necessarily brewers/distillers, in some cases simple property managers) actually own the pubs and charge the pub operators rent PLUS require the pub operator to buy all their beer/etc. from them at the prices they set for that week/day.

How cool is that? For the landlords . . . Sounds sort of like an American Gasoline Filling Station arrangement.

Viva Sean Cummings and that little place in Midtown that starts with a "M" plus the rest of them.