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T R E 4 5 O N

The revolution will be supervised.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

People are complicated. Love is not.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

We still have time to mess this up!

You can’t love your country only when you win.

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Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Serial Asshole

Serial Asshole

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Remember that Harvard Business School jackass we talked about last night who was spending his time and the school’s resources to harass a small business owner. The story gets better and better- after getting a negative reaction from the entire world, he posted an apology on his web page and then emailed an apology to Ran Duan. And then this happened:

According to emails provided to Boston.com by Sichuan Garden’s Ran Duan, Edelman sent three messages to the restaurant’s Yahoo! account on Wednesday afternoon.

First came an email that included an apology.

About an hour later, an email that included an apparent racial slur.

“You may have won the battle, Duan, but at least we can agree your menu is a little less slanty-eyed.

“Thank you.”

Fifteen minutes later, a final email explaining that the seemingly racist email had been sent accidentially in an effort by Edelman “to make light of the situation to a small group of students.”

edelman-folo-2
edelman-folo-3

So basically, he was sitting around with another group of budding young sociopaths and decided to make a racist joke about the email he wanted to send, and ended up accidentally sending it. Then, in his apology for the racial slur, he tries to blame Duan for not informing him how the website works.

In addition, this is not the first restaurant he has hassled in this way. This guy should probably spend less time emailing restaurants in the next few days and a little more time polishing up his vita.

*** Update ***

Boston.com has retracted the story.

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    Actually, there may be some kleptocrats and vulture capitalists (Bain, etc) with whom Attorney Edelman’s stock has risen.

  11. 11.

    Suzanne

    Good Lord, what a complete tool.

    I think it’s okay to object to being overcharged—FSM knows that if that had happened to me at a big box store that I would do the same thing—but he sure was a combative dick about the whole thing. And the fact that he turns out to be a complete racist in addition to being a combative dick is not surprising.

  12. 12.

    Patricia Kayden

    This is sad. Thought only smart folks worked at Harvard. Not folks who do not understand how emails work.

  13. 13.

    Cervantes

    “Make light of”? “Jovial response”? That “small group of students” of his must be quite the coterie. We can only hope that everyone he included knows how lucky they are.

    Anyway, with all the Internet expertise he has brought to the Business School, I’m sure he knows how to retire an e-mail address. Or if he does not, he will learn quickly.

  14. 14.

    Mandalay

    Well at least he has issued an pretty decent apology on his web site (though he didn’t really have any choice):

    Having reflected on my interaction with Ran, including what I said and how I said it, it’s clear that I was very much out of line. I aspire to act with great respect and humility in dealing with others, no matter what the situation. Clearly I failed to do so. I am sorry, and I intend to do better in the future.

    I have reached out to Ran and will apologize to him personally as well.

    But from looking at the entries on his blog, he seems to spend his life doing what he did to the restaurant. He scours web sites looking for discrepancies and errors, then pounces. Well bully for him, and I’m sure that Mr. Ego catches some real wrongdoing, but why the hell is he doing this smalltime nonsense through Harvard Business School?

  16. 16.

    Mike J

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Thought only smart folks worked at Harvard.

    I can see you are unfamiliar with Harvard, and especially the business school.

    Don’t forget, Dershowitz is at Harvard law.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    Boston.com has an update
    Earlier tonight, Boston.com published a piece suggesting Harvard Business School Professor Ben Edelman sent an email with racist overtones to Sichuan Garden. We cannot verify that Edelman, in fact, sent the email. We have taken the story down.
    Looks like they received an email from the professor

    Cole, will probably get an email soon but he doesn’t read emails so …

  18. 18.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Mike J: Don’t forget the old adage:

    “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t teach, administrate.”

  20. 20.

    Petorado

    It seems in business and politics these days that power is merely the ability to be a complete a-hole to others.

  21. 21.

    beltane

    Edelman sounds like he has some sort of personality disorder. Edited to remove the rest of my post. I don’t want this guy coming after me.

  23. 23.

    mtmofo

    boston.com has taken down the story because they can not confirm the prof sent the offending e-mail.

  25. 25.

    beltane

    It’s a little interesting that Edelman’s story was all over FB but I have yet to see a mention of the torture report.

  26. 26.

    Groucho48

    Wait! He apologized for sending the racist email, then, apparently, claimed it wasn’t him who sent it?

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    All together now: “He sounds nice.”

    Just a blip on the way to a nice hedge fund job and at long last, halfway decent compensation.

  29. 29.

    Cervantes

    @Groucho48:

    No, the wording is significant. The editors are not saying he claimed not to have sent it. They are saying they can’t verify that he sent it.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    @mtmofo: Gosh, that would be just the first time this year Cole has flown off the handle about something that turned out not to be true. Or the 500th — I’ve kind of lost track…

  32. 32.

    J C

    He’s also an absolute moron. Enter is the same as clicking on a submit button on every single form on the internet. Nobody puts a comment that pressing enter is the same as clicking because every website works that way. You’d have to intentionally write code to specifically prevent that from happening.

    Ben Edelman is the epitome of what happens when you combine ignorance and arrogance.

  33. 33.

    Heliopause

    Quick question for internet bigbrains who follow these things closely: how exactly did this non-story become an internet sensation? Who pushed it out there, and who abetted that individual in pushing it? Or was its ascendence just one of those inexplicable phenomena?

  34. 34.

    SatanicPanic

    So I went to yelp to check out reviews for this restaurant, and some clown is all “I’m giving this a 1 star because everyone else is giving it 5 without going there, take your political opinions elsewhere, Yelp is for food reviews guise” Yelp is so fucking ridiculous

  35. 35.

    scav

    So, there’s no verification he sent any apology either? The first of the three, let alone the third of the three. Or are only the embassing bits left hanging unclaimed in the æther? Where the bloody hell are the plausible liars anymore?

  36. 36.

    mai naem mobile

    This guys probably going to go after the Globe but if you were faking the first email why would you send the second “apology.” Not sure but i wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being an email from him. My parents had a small business and so do other members of my family. This guy just likes screwing people. There’s something minor wrong and these kind of people want to be comp’d 50%. My sister had a mother/brat kid running around at her business. The kid fell and the mom who happened to be a lawyer told my sis to pony up $500 for the ER copay or she would sue and,well, she assumed correctly that my sis’ insurance deductible was $500 so you might as well give me the $500 and my sis did.

  38. 38.

    scav

    @efgoldman: Well then, we must suddenly be surrounded by a vast ocean of Mensa-level über-deities for the first time in recorded and unrecorded aeons. Ah well. Maybe we can hope for a residual niche ye olde falsehoode shoppe right next to the buggy-whip makers.

  39. 39.

    Heliopause

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t remember exactly where I saw it first, it might have been TPM or some such, and when I saw the headline I thought it must have a deeper backstory so I clicked into the article and, no, there’s no deeper backstory, it’s just some asshole bitching about four bucks and he somehow got the whole internet to care. I was just wondering if somebody had some insight into how he managed this.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @Heliopause:

    Ran Duan is on the Boston media radar; he’s an up and coming bartender who’s an expert on pre-Prohibition cocktails, makes his own high-end bar ingredients (cuts his own ice from a 300-pound block!). Presides over elegant bar sharing space with one of his family’s restaurants.

    Recent Boston magazine article on Mr. Duan (and tell me this wouldn’t send you out into the night for one of his cocktails).

    From the outside, Sichuan Garden II looks like any other garish Chinese buffet lining the interstates and strip malls of America’s suburbs. But there’s a reason why Boston’s bartending elite can often be found inside, swaddled in the shadowy hues of The Baldwin Bar. Helmed by 27-year-old Ran Duan, a graduate of Providence’s Johnson & Wales, the mahogany-lined tavern is a study in fastidiousness and craft cocktail virtuosity. Sodas, bitters, and mixers are all made in house, lining one end of the bar in a battery of tincture bottles and repurposed light bulbs. The cocktail menu changes two to three times a month depending on the produce available and Duan’s own whims. Even the antique glassware and adornments—like his collection of 19th century julep strainers and Napier jiggers—are constantly swapped out for returning guests and special occasions. Duan’s pet project might share the first floor with his family’s restaurant, but the two concepts couldn’t feel further apart.

    He also handles customer relations. Thinking maybe he got another of Edelman’s nastygrams and mentioned it to a friend either in the press or who passed the story along.

    Edelman might have picked on someone more media-savvy than he was expecting.

    Waiting to see how many other incidences of “sheriffing” small business come to light.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @Heliopause:

    Another feature that made the story internet-bait: a privileged villain (HBS prof! whingeing over $4.00!) it’s easy to sneer at. And this one left a paper trail.

    Lot of discussion that that’s one of the factors the discredited Rolling Stone article may have had going for it initially — fraternity boys at a hard-partying and elite university who allegedly attacked a young woman. Vampire squid and expensive lawyers in the making. Although RS’s story could not be verified.

    Lucky for this kerfuffle, Mr. Edelman is nothing if not verbose.

  49. 49.

    scav

    @efgoldman: but now we venture into the realm of Philosophy. Wouldn’t Ye Olde Falsehoode Shoppe be required to have outdated (or post-dated) prices and specs posted on their website? Wouldn’t they in fact have to be sued if the product or service delivered was as described? Discuss.

    Also. Ye Buggy Whip Makers site is still optimized for Gopher. But you should see how they handle their default whip and click action behaviors . . .

  50. 50.

    TriassicSands

    I read the stuff about this jerk last night, but I’m just not willing to spend any more of my time reading about such a gigantic asshole. I hope he is publicly exposed for the POS he is and I hope his employers/superiors chastise him for bringing bad publicity for himself and everyone and thing he is associated with. And I hope he gets salmonella.

  53. 53.

    Anne Laurie

    @Heliopause:

    I was just wondering if somebody had some insight into how he managed this.

    I first saw the story on NYTimes‘ reporter Josh Barro’s twitter feed.

    My personal suspicion is that not everybody wants to, or feels competent to, discuss the CIA torture report… but everybody feels free to have an opinion about a Harvard professor being a douchecanoe to a small business over a $4 overcharge.

    C. Northcoate Parkinson’s second or third law — it got a chapter in his famous book — states that the amount of time a business committee will spend discussing an expense is inversely correlated to the cost. IIRC, Professor Parkinson’s specific example in the early 1960s was that a proposal to spend $50,000 on a building extension would pass in five minutes on a unanimous voice vote, but the succeeding proposal to spend $50 on a new bike shed would be debated for several hours, get tabled for further discussion, and probably cause an irreparable break between several of the committee members. Because nobody would know enough to debate the extension — or want to be exposed as not knowing enough — but everybody would have an opinion on the best/cheapest/fastest way to add a bike shed.

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    @Anne Laurie: I can’t quit you, BJ.

    Shall I take your response as an indication you’re happy living an a brave new world of confirmation bias?

  56. 56.

    different-church-lady

    @Elizabelle: Now me, I was already thinking about checking the place out, simply because I love me some Chinese food. But the guy does vintage craft cocktails?!? It’s now on the pilgrimage list.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    @Anne Laurie:

    I think that’s true. It’s comic relief from the torture report and one of the first truly funny things to happen since the midterms, which put a damper on BJ and most thinking people.

  62. 62.

    different-church-lady

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I do love this city sometimes…

    It is stunning how things have changed since I first came to this big city as a spring chicken far longer ago than I care to account for. But as much as I appreciate the move away from tweed and windbreakers, I do think the pendulum has swung more than a wee bit too much. Can’t we have sophisticated bars and still have bookstores too?

  63. 63.

    BruceFromOhio

    Nowhere does it state that pressing ‘enter’ will also be the same as clicking.

    Translated: It’s *YOUR* fault that *I’M* such an asshole!

    Related: Daddy only hits you because you make him feel bad!

    Gaia, save me, these two-bit ratfuck criminals are all the fucking same, every single Gaia-damned one of them. Like rabid possums crossing a freeway, why they are not run over by buses and trailer trucks everywhere they go is an endless mystery.

  64. 64.

    Tom Levenson

    Just a late add to the thread to note that (if I recall correctly) associate professor is a pre-tenure rank at Harvard Business school (as it is, or used to be, at all Harvard schools). If so, this is an interesting test case: will this guy’s evident assholery cost him tenure? Or will it guarantee it?

  65. 65.

    Major Major Major Major

    @different-church-lady: I was talking about San Francisco. Seems like everybody is out tonight since tomorrow is supposed to be a no-go for basically every commercial activity. it feels like the day before thanksgiving as far as Wednesdays go.

    I presume you meant Boston, I haven’t been there since… 2004? Sorry to hear it’s gotten as bad as here.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tom Levenson: What is his academic reputation? A good one could cover a multitude of sins as I am sure you know. (ed. No implication that you have a multitude of sins or a stellar academic… wait… I’ll shut up now.)

  68. 68.

    divF

    @Major Major Major Major:
    To explain Major^4’s comment for those who haven’t heard: tomorrow we’re expecting a rainstorm of epic proportions in NorCal. 4 in. of rain along the Bay, double that in the coastal mountains, winds gusting up to 40 MPH. Schools are closing, businesses are closing, and everyone is being told to keep off the roads if at all possible.

    ETA: If this isn’t a bust, we will get above the annual average rainfall for the fist time in three years. Plus 2-3 feet of snow in the mountains. Cautious optimism about being able to flush our toilets next summer.

  69. 69.

    different-church-lady

    @Major Major Major Major: Ah, sister cities. I was last there in 2007 and loved it.

    The New Hispterism, in my view, is a mixed bag. The swung cat used to hit a bookstore, and now it hits a cocktail bar or a celebrity chef. Through it all the only thing that’s constant is too many Irish Pubs on every corner.

  70. 70.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Anne Laurie: Have experienced exactly this first-hand, with a seat at the table. A million-dollar budget gets three minutes of discussion and is passed unanimously. A $5k performance award to a nominated candidate with an exceptional performance rating gets twenty minutes with two actions items and a followup agenda item at the next scheduled meeting.

  71. 71.

    kc

    Boston.com now says it “cannot verify” that Edelman sent a racist email. It has taken that story down. You should edit your post.

  74. 74.

    FlyingToaster

    @Tom Levenson:

    Just a late add to the thread to note that (if I recall correctly) associate professor is a pre-tenure rank at Harvard Business school (as it is, or used to be, at all Harvard schools).

    It is. He’s up for tenure review next year.

    If so, this is an interesting test case: will this guy’s evident assholery cost him tenure? Or will it guarantee it?

    HerrDoktor (Harvard BA/MS/PhD) says it’s 50/50 at HBS. It’s bad publicity this minute, but if it impresses either incoming prospects or prospective donors, he’ll sail right on in. Ditto at Harvard Law.

    In Arts&Sciences, he’d be out on his ass already, and some visiting schmo would be handling his finals.

    Academia: the most vicious possible infighting for the lowest possible stakes.

    And Ram Duan is a personality in the local foodie crowd; it would be like attacking Mary Chung over in Cambridge, or Ming Tsai (now at PBS). To Edelman: ya gotta know your target, dickslap.

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    @different-church-lady: Concur. Hipster urbanism is so very, very parochial. Overpriced two-bedroom condos, artisanal cupcake and sriracha shops, and restaurants that are all soooo the same. And yet businesses that are what people actually need to live, like dry cleaners and delis and liquor stores get driven out by rising rents. Barfola.

    I don’t wanna live in Williamsburg. I wish it would stay over there.

  77. 77.

    Tree With Water

    @Mike J: Hell, yes. If the CIA is dismantled piecemeal, both Yale and Harvard should be part of the deal and shut down in turn.

  79. 79.

    divF

    @Suzanne: That’s why I like Berkeley. With little effort, this town could have been way too twee, except that there are enough head cases eccentrics with time on their hands to drive out all but the most persistent developers. So the butcher, baker, and dry cleaner are all still here, where they have been for decades. Oh, we have our tony restaurants and celebrity chefs (Alice Waters), but even they are low-key. And no craft cocktail bars, AFAIK (but then I don’t get out much).

  80. 80.

    beltane

    @Suzanne: I am so old that I remember when Williamsburg was a place where no one wanted to live. Now I subscribe to a site that chronicles are the unique and irreplaceable family run businesses that are closing down in NYC on a regular basis. Someone should write a book about the lost bakeries of New York because these places were often incredible treasures, never to return. Gourmet cupcakes are for people who grew up with Hostess and don’t know any better.

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tree With Water: Why leave out Princeton? Or the rest of the Ivy League? Or the Little Ivies? Or the rest of the country’s private LACs? Come on, if you are going go after the Man, you gotta go big or go home.

  83. 83.

    Major Major Major Major

    @divF: I am actually going to the video game bar though. That lot sat vacant for years because the supervisors wouldn’t let any chains in. Good to see something interesting there.

    ETA: just got spit on and called a fag. Lovely city we have here.

  84. 84.

    Suzanne

    @beltane: I was born and on Long Island, and I lived there until I was nine and my family gave up on the winters and the traffic and the rat race. I still go back semi-regularly, and I fantasize about moving back, but I know that much of what was awesome about it is gone.

    I don’t love Arizona, but a good lifestyle is affordable here.

  85. 85.

    gwangung

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Why leave out Princeton? Or the rest of the Ivy League? Or the Little Ivies? Or the rest of the country’s private LACs? Come on, if you are going go after the Man, you gotta go big or go home.

    Yeah! We Stanford alums can be as douchey as the rest of ’em!

    (And I’ve proven it on many occasions!)

  87. 87.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mike J: I know really nice people who went to Princeton. OTOH, one of them once conned me into letting a bunch of Nassoons stay in my apartment in Germany for a night. The fuckers woke up my orderly German neighbors with their early morning loud American-ness.

  90. 90.

    different-church-lady

    @Omnes Omnibus: Hey, what the hell, let’s throw in the Washington Post and the New York Times while we’re at it. And the Fed. The whole banking system too. In fact, let’s junk all of American democracy and start over. What could go wrong?

  97. 97.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: Aha. I either missed that episode or it didn’t stick.

    In my world, the night before the incident was rather wonderful. Drinks and a capella singing outside in a medieval city. The ladies loved it.

  100. 100.

    Suzanne

    In unrelated news, I just drank some generic NyQuil straight from the bottle, since I lost the dosage cup.

    I. Am. Klass.

  104. 104.

    divF

    @Major Major Major Major: Thanks – car is in the garage. I live halfway up into the hills, and the people who remodeled our house before we did kinda overdid it with the reinforced concrete on the uphill side, so I don’t even have to worry about mudslides.

  105. 105.

    Jordan Rules

    I wonder if he threatened Boston.com with something, the retraction seems weird given the 3rd email. I wonder what the journalist standard for verifying emails would have been decades ago when we still had a few.

    If I were this guy’s friend, or even family, I wouldn’t want his stupid ass anywhere near me or anything I am responsible for.

  108. 108.

    kc

    @Jordan Rules:

    Pretty sure the second and third emails ate fake.

    I believe they were submitted through a form on the restaurant website. Be easy to spoof Edelman’s email address.

    I guess news pubs just don’t bother fact checking jackshit anymore. If it feels good, run with it.

  110. 110.

    different-church-lady

    @kc:

    I guess news pubs just don’t bother fact checking jackshit anymore. If it feels good, run with it.

    Keep in mind that Boston.com is no longer a news publication — it’s now a place where the Boston Globe dumps nearly unsupervised (and most certainly unedited) clickbait crap. They moved all the actual news to BostonGlobe.com, but hardly anyone seems to know about it.

  112. 112.

    different-church-lady

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It is another opportunity for you to express your disappointment with something.

    Why are you trying to take away my only pleasure in life? Why?

    ETA: but seriously, have you seen Boston.com lately? It’s an embarrassment.

  115. 115.

    different-church-lady

    @kc: Well, they did retract it. But it is new nature of the sight to just have their writers/contributers/whatever-they-consider-them-now use it more like a blog than a news site — post first, vet later, if at all. The results are inevitable.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @different-church-lady: And I want a pony. I really don’t know exactly what made you go all trolly, but that is where you have gone. I used to find your comments interesting, but your troll turn has changed that. You just bitch. Why would you spend that energy on being an asshole?

  120. 120.

    different-church-lady

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’d like to believe the answer is that I’m seeing a lot of lazy thought, intellectual shortcuts, misplaced credulity, bias confirmation and epistemic closure coming out of this blog lately, and sarcasm is my way of expressing that belief.

    Or it might be that I’m an asshole. I’m not really in a position to have a decent perspective on the matter.

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @different-church-lady:

    I’d like to believe the answer is that I’m seeing a lot of lazy thought, intellectual shortcuts, misplaced credulity, bias confirmation and epistemic closure coming out of this blog lately

    Lately? Christ, you are an idiot. I am sorry I ever took you seriously.

  123. 123.

    Eric U.

    isn’t this whole thing actually over a dollar? I think they mistakenly offered to refund him 3 bucks, but he wanted 4.

  124. 124.

    scav

    It’s interesting how remarkably less impressive christianity seems the more one observes the behavior of those wearing ‘church’ emblazoned upon them. The bit complaining about echo chambers was an especially solid giggle, given the impressive acoustic reverberations of most naves.

  127. 127.

    SRW1

    Can I just say that whatever Prof Edelman’s actual extent of assholery, this thread appears to contain some other examples of having missed the point at which disengaging might have been the superior option?

  128. 128.

    brantl

    Even beyond what an asshole this guy is, what dipshit doesn’t think hitting ‘Enter’ will send something on a website. Dumb as rocks, this one is.

  129. 129.

    J R in WV

    Someone above said “never complain about the food!” and I agree. Just suffer in silence. Once we went to the local upscale restaurant, spouse ordered best steak,extra rare, and I ordered duck breast, well done. They mixed it up, I got bloody duck and she got done through the middle steak.

    Her steak was still reasonably edible, I didn’t want bloody duck atall. So I got some extra side, had room for dessert. It’s all good. We still go there 2 or 3 times a year. It’s fun, usually the food is spot on, anyone can make a mistake. And the drinks are strong.

    WE often see friends and enemies there, too, for a bonus.

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