Details, and other stuff, here.

If anybody wants to -- politely, or not at all, please -- encourage him to take me up on my offer:

1. My next class is this Saturday (Friday if he's a beginner), and

2. His restaurant's contact page is http://www.aziarestaurant.com/contact.htm .

This is a great idea- I think that educating people is definitely the answer. Even if he takes your class and doesn't want to apply for his permit, or choose to carry he will have a new outlook on the law, and a greater appreciation for the people who do carry.

That would be my hope.

KInda along the lines of what I was thinking when I saw this. The only thing that has me wondering is what about his level of awareness? He needs to bump it up about 5 notches before he even thinks about packing.

Joel, was that really you on the MNspeak thread regarding this situation?

If so, did I come off as sounding a little over the top with my posts?

Yup, and yup. And, the world being what it is, sounding a little over the top gets magnified in that echo chamber, to mix a metaphor.

I can't view your post at work(stupid websense). When I saw this on the news last night I was thinking this would be good oportunity for a learning experience. Thank you Joel

It strikes me as odd that he's been in the news twice in a week. Earlier, he stopped a pair of people who had bilked one of his restaurants out of $470 and were at another trying the same thing.

He stopped the guy by putting him to the ground in an alley and holding him for the police. He was quoted in the paper as being a Judo practitioner.

Fast Forward to several guys with improvised weapons beating and mugging him.

Since I cannot get to Joel's Livejournal from work (Nor Elegon, but for some reason MGT and TCC are OK ) Am I the only one making the link?

It wasn't twice in a week; the dine-and-dash event was July 10: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1403277.html

The July 10 Story was last updated: September 05, 2007 – 12:33 PM

I see that the attack occurred Tuesday morning and I read the Dine and Dash story Some time Tuesday or Wednesday. So, I had a time line error there but it was an odd connection in my mind.

I was probably wrong, given the time of the second incident. But it IS odd that he's been in the news for BOTH events in the last week.

Thanks for pointing out the timing of things.

Apparently not.

http://www.wcco.com/video/?id=30923@wcco.dayport.com

The news people also asked Pham if he thought the two incidents may have been related and Pham said he had no idea.

The more I read about this, the more I think Pham isn't telling us everything he knows.

I doubt there's much connection to the dine-and-dash boys. I'm guessing that there's a debt issue here, or maybe a bit of gay love drama. Or possibly disgruntled employees.

I sent a get-well-soon note to Pham (via his restaurant's site), nevertheless.

Seems unlikely. A couple of low-rent AA dine-and-dashers having the juice or the bucks to get a gang of six-to-eight non-AA folks to tun a guy up for them? Even L&O couldn't get away with that. Or gaybashing, or random thuggery, or a loan shark, sure. I'm curious, myself, but I'm guessing I'll never know without doing a fair amount of legwork that, itself, wouldn't make it better than a 50-50 chance, and would probably be far more trouble than it would be worth.

Still, I kinda like the loan shark idea. I don't have the slightest idea if it's true, but it does fit with the (very limited) facts at hand.

Last time I was at Azia he had a "...bans guns..." sign in the window. Not a legal sign but a sign none the less.