• US Open at Flushing Meadows in Queens, NY: No Service for the first several hours I was in the grandstand. Spotty coverage after that.
• Lollapalooza ’08: My phone was pretty much worthless. My phone claimed it had signal, but I couldn’t make or receive calls and sending text messages only worked some of the time.
• Aragon Ballroom during a Beck concert: No Service inside
• Soldier Field at the Bears/Vikings game (10.19): Internet (EDGE and 3G) didn’t work for most of the game.
• Lakeshore Drive around Illinois Street: Guaranteed dropped call here.
• I-290 a few miles West of the city: Call dropped

Note that AT&T has a knack for failing when you need your phone the most (e.g. when you need to find your friends in a large crowd). Sometimes I’ll have five bars of signal and the phone will spontaneously drop to No Service. I’m loathe to take conference calls when I’m on the road because of the likelihood of the call dropping. I never had this problem with Verizon. I’ll be updating this list as AT&T continues to disappoint.

I’m impressed that A.C. Slater doesn’t totally lose it while listening to Miss Teen South Carolina respond to an interview question with a completely incomprehensible answer.

Speaking of groceries, I really like Panozzo’s, the local Italian market down the street from me. It’s a small neighborhood market. The people there are very friendly and the service is great. They have a great selection of salumi and a decent selection of cheeses. Whole Foods and Sam’s Wines and Spirits both have better cheese selections, but you can’t beat the salumi at Panozzo’s. Panozzo’s carries the artisan La Quercia Rossa prosciutto. It’s made in Iowa, but even bests prosciutto made in Parma.

They don’t have the big sport bottles of Panna that I like, but you can buy those by the case at Sam’s Wines and Spirits. I’ve also found them for sale individually at Target of all places.

[via Chicagoist]