The Pittsburgh Business Times and The Philadelphia Business Journal conducted a poll among Pennsylvania businesspeople, with the results printed in today’s Oct. 19th edition. Here is Mr. Cook’s reply to the poll quesion asked, “What is your biggest economic issue in this presidential election?“

To me the biggest economic issue is balancing the budget and eliminating wasteful spending while trying not to increase taxes. We can’t really afford huge new government initiatives. To raise taxes, the government would have to earn people’s trust as to how the money would be spent in a responsible fashion, not in throw-aways like the stimulus and corporate giveaways like Solyndra or GM, or huge new programs like health care reform that was pushed through without broad-based support or adequate funding. I support Romney. I was once hopeful for Obama, but he has been a disappointment on the items I mentioned in the first point. I also like Romney’s focus on people striving to achieve and creating jobs, as opposed to a government entitlement and dependency mentality being expanded in the current administration. Obama’s economic plans and job creation attempts appear to have pretty much been unsuccessful. Time to give someone else a chance.”

– Lin Cook, CEO, Marketing Support Network

To read more about the poll results and various viewpoints from businesspeople across Pennsylvania, read the full article HERE, written by PBT Web Producer Paul J. Gough.

I was very happy to go to the Beach Boys 50th anniversary tour not once, but twice.  I went once in Atlanta on a business trip with old friends Ron and Pete, and once to Blossom Music Festival in Ohio with my wife.  The pictures are from Blossom.  Saw the Boys once on Labor Day weekend, and that’s the kind of event that makes the summer end in a special way.  Make sure you find a special way this weekend to end your summer.  I will see you at PNC Park on Monday!

This blog post offers the first employee, vendor, current or former client, or friend of MSN (we have to know who you are) two tickets for the Tuesday, September 4th Pirates game at 7:05 against the Houston Astros!

Please call the office and ask for Julie Pennington x173 to claim your prize.  First call from someone in those categories here in Pittsburgh gets the tickets!

Many Americans work hard all year, and Labor Day is a celebration of the work ethic of America.  Marketing Support Network is a labor of love for most of the staff here, and clients and prospects that visit see a difference in the positive attitude here described as quite different compared to what they see in other similar companies they have visited or used.

This post is a Happy Labor Day to our staff and all those who enjoy their work.  Our staff has some of the hardest working, nicest, friendliest, most caring folks out there, who take excellent care of our clients in a very special way!  Have a great time on your boat (hoist up the John B’s sails!), or at your family picnic, rib fest, outdoor concert or sporting event!  Here in Pittsburgh we have the Heinz Field and South Park rib fests, Pitt & Steelers football, and playoff seeking Pirates baseball.  Let’s go Bucs!  Happy Labor Day!

All photos taken by: Lin Cook

 American Flag Image Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We start off 2012 with the countdown of our road food top 10.  Road food is a delightful combination of food, memories, and down home atmosphere.  It is, to me, as Anthony Bourdain would say, the “good stuff.”  This week starts off the best of my best, Lin Cook’s best of roadfood through the summer of 2011.  My apologies to Rehoboth Beach, which surely would have had several entrants.

Southeastern Florida is full of fun spots to dine.  There are beautiful higher end spots like the old school, and now sadly departed, Martha’s On The Intercoastal, and the fun but faux Cuban Bongo’s Cuban Cafe where I was accosted by scary bouncers with ear pieces.  But, when we are thinking road food, it has to have at least a little bit of Mayberry.

The Rustic Inn is a family favorite.  It is the kind of place that I would never go by myself.  You have to go in groups, and the bigger the better.  And, with our family, bigger is normal.  The Rustic is usually very crowded, and it has several different seating areas, each with its own vibe, including waterfront dining. There is a wide variety of types of folks there from couples on dates to families with small children to retirees (like love bugs in an August Orlando) to herds of guys who look like they are having a fantasy football draft.  All with different goals and expectations and all looking like they are finding them met at the Rustic.  A sure sign of gastronomic success!

There is a wide variety of food, including all kinds of seafood, all good or better.  You can really chow down at the Rustic.  The portions are large.  The selection is larger: the dinner menu is nine pages!  But at the Rustic, it is all about the crabs.  I am partial to the golden crabs, which are caught relatively locally along the Florida and Carolina coasts.  The Old Bay crabs are great too.  The crab sampler, with four different types of crabs, is a lot of fun, as are the combo platters where you can mix and match beef and various forms of seafood, primarily lobster, shrimp, and, of course, crabs.  Stuff your face on the Admiral platter!

The most fun is the wooden crab hammers.  Everybody loves to pound them on the tables, and the staff calls the troops to pounding in celebration of birthdays.  People love the vibe so much that bratty little kids can pound their table to death and almost all their table neighbors think it is cute.  Let your kid try that at the local TGI Fridays and see how long you last!  A sure sign that the Rustic should be in my top ten – one of the hammers has a special place on my dresser.  My only other restaurant icons are a plastic bobbing lobster from Yoken’s Restaurant in Portsmouth, NH, and the J.C Strobel bobblehead from the Beacon Restaurant in South Carolina.

A good crab house is where friends and family linger, making noise, picking at crabs, pounding their hammers, laughing and having fun.  The Rustic is such a place, and it deserves its place in the Lin Cook Roadfood top ten. Here’s a pound of the hammer to my family, especially my sister Tricia and her husband Ralph, frequent partners with my wife and I at the Rustic.

Stop back next week, y’all, for number nine.  Think Florida if you are in the sub freezing weather here in the northern American tundra!  If you are at the Rustic tonight, pound your hammer for me!

The term “roadfood” is trademarked by Jane and Michael Stern of www.roadfood.com, and is used by permission.  They are the founders of the roadfood movement.  Check out their books on Amazon, and head out on one of their food tours!

MSN is featured on the PBT website home page slide show today at http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/.  We are also featured on the slide show here: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2011/09/21/slideshow-hr-leadership-awards-luncheon.html along with information about Jan Mackowiak being the winner of one of the Pittsburgh HR Leadership awards at the PBT lucheon yesterday.   Jan, unfortunately, could not be there as she is cruising the northeastern U.S.  and Canada this week, but a cream puff was eaten in her honor!

MSN’s CEO, Lin Cook is quoted in this week’s Pittsburgh Business Times with his advice regarding our country’s current economic crisis:

“Business functions best in a stable and sustainable economic and pro-business environment. Large government programs are not sustainable as the source of their funding means removing money from the economy, going into debt, or printing money, none of which are solutions for long-term economic growth. Until we get politicians who recognize the detriment of increased government requirements, such as the recent health care legislation and increased taxes, we will continue to struggle economically. There is no free lunch.”

To see the full article, go to their website and access the issue in PDF format from the home page.

Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant looks like something from another time because, well, it is.  The Leiper’s Fork location was founded in the 1950s and was a grocery store, gas station, and restaurant.  As time went by, the restaurant became the focus.  You could swear you were in Mayberry here, except that we had just gotten off of a tour bus with Jane and Michael Stern and about 50 other people.  Great down home food, cool ambiance.  Local favorites include fried green beans and pickles (the latter a very occasional favorite of mine), and several kinds of chess pie.  There are favorite local sandwiches like fried bologna and pimento cheese.  I was there during the day but in the evenings there is live music, which in the Nashville area just has to be good.  They opened a second location in downtown Franklin and just recently, one in downtown Nashville. The pictures are very charming of the new locations.  I am sure they are great as well and I hope to visit them, but their expansion is just another sign of America’s obsession with expansion and making money.

The true road food places are those who stick to their one location with mom and pop at the helm.  Duplication is rarely as cool as the original.  Just ask McDonalds or Primanti Brothers here in Pittsburgh.  I left Primanti’s off of the list just because of that.  They lost the real Pittsburgh feel when they opened a location in Florida, despite the fact that I was treated like royalty when visiting there during a Steelers playoff game.   Puckett’s in Liepers Fork is still a great place with its original charm, but just make sure to get there soon before it just becomes another nice place to stop after work with music and a wide selection of beers.

The term “roadfood” is trademarked by Jane and Michael Stern of www.roadfood.com, and is used by permission.  They are the founders of the roadfood movement.  Check out their books on Amazon, and head out on one of their food tours!