When social columnists tolerate fries

First impressions are just that - first impressions. Maybe they're accurate, maybe they're not.

Take a look at this January 9 post, written by Michael Barnes, the social columnist at the Austin American-Statesman. (That's funny - when I think "social" and "Austin," I think Connie Reece, one of the principals at Every Dot Connects. But that's just me.)

In the process of discussing the BCS Championship Game, Barnes said the following:

Meanwhile, if you can believe it, Kip, gallery owner Jeff Kirk and I played NTN Buzztime electronic trivia. Now, you’ve probably read how Kip and I, along with former Paramount Theatre/State Theater bigwig Dan Fallon, would play NTN on Sixth Street at BW3, now called Daddy’s Bar & Grill. It was our lowbrow release...

Hold it right there. A "lowbrow release," "if you can believe it"? Perhaps this is an unfair picture, but you get the feeling that Barnes would prefer to watch cricket rather than the obnoxious behaviors of American football.

But, for what it's worth, Barnes and his friends reacquainted themselves with the lowbrow game...and loved it:

So the three of us...plunged into our first game, a simple set of 10 questions. We were hooked. Kip won a round. Jeff won a round. I won a round. Eventually, we were placing in the Top 10 in the country. Ah, the unquenchable fires of competition. A great deal of fun and, again, swell Aussie’s service.

But Barnes had to suffer one more problem of immersing oneself in the unwashed masses:

But those grease-drenched fries! Ick.