In “Don’t They Have Better Sh*t to Do?” News:

DC Councilmember Mary Cheh is planning to change the city’s health inspection system so restaurants would receive letter grades on their compliance with food safety and health requirements. Local businesses would have to post their A, B, C or worse in their front windows or menus. [average student]

Cheh notes that Los Angeles has a similar system, and that it has led to fewer food poisoning cases. New York City also will begin phasing in such a system over the next two years.

Well, if LA is doing it….

We’re not health inspector experts here at FDC, but is it fair to assume that if there is a “poison case” at a local DC restaurant- that that restaurant’s likelihood for survival from that point forward is low?  For instance, if someone goes to eat at Jimbo’s House of Sushi and dies of food poisoning, it’s not going to be the letter “F” on the window post-poisoning that brings Jimbo’s House of Pain to its knees.  It’ll be the fact that nobody will want to dine at a place that has a reputation for killing its patrons. Or are we missing something?

The DC GOP, critics of the system, say that a restaurant shouldn’t be given a letter grade based on one day of health inspections.  They argue, “Her legislation would grade a restaurant’s single day health standards and ignore the remaining 364 days of the year.”  That in itself is a terrible argument, although we appreciate the complex math they pulled off.  Let’s be honest, if you’re not up to snuff on Monday, it’s probable that you won’t straighten your e coli problems out by Wednesday, Thursday or the following Tuesday.

What critics should’ve pointed out, had they been more clever, is the fact that if by chance the health guru inspecting their establishment is having a bad day, due to inflamed hemorrhoids or a wife that’s about to leave him – it’s fair to say that no matter how clean that restaurant is that day, they won’t be judged fairly.  Look, if your a health inspector about to head off to work and your wife tells you she’s cheating on you with the one-legged lawn boy, it’s pretty clear that no matter how spotless Wong’s House of Ribs is, that inspector will not be doling out any letter grades of “A” that day.

Bottom line, the system is flawed, although a very clever tipsters points out, “it might be about time the Armand’s menu had some accurate info on it.”  Point taken.