LAST EDITED ON 04-05-14 AT 10:56 AM (EST)

LAST EDITED ON 04-04-14 AT 09:23 AM (EST)

This has been asked before, so by now it's largely rhetorical. But it’s still an enigma. To me.

Just how do they stay in business? Are notoriety, lying, assaulting customers, bad food, and slave driving the staff really the ingredients of a successful business model?

Is appearing on national TV to demonstrate just how bad a restaurant what it takes?

Can they possibly be catering to the actual tastes of people in Scottsdale?

My mother was an entertainment columnist for a local newspaper where I grew up, and would write reviews on local restaurants. She visited one place and wrote a gently negative review (she was a gentle person), and the place closed within two months. She assumed (probably correctly) that her review contributed to their failure, and she felt very bad about that. I mean, if you write an honest review you have to stick to your guns, but still, she felt bad.

So, if in the real world all it takes to kill a restaurant's business is a bad review in a local podunk rag, how do Amy and Semy manage to stay open with their sins exposed for the world to see?

Self-delusion and rewriting history might be why they would entertain the notion of inviting Gordon back, or appearing on Dr. Phil. but they can’t be why they are still in business.

BTW, my money is on them walking off the set during the Dr. Phil interview. And how about the ratings for the Judge Judy show if she could get them in her court? You don’t lie to Judge Judy, no sir! Ma’am!