I hope Hooters, the restaurant chain, makes it.
I’ve only been to a Hooters once, and I can’t see its appeal. (Note: At the one a friend took me to in Pittsburgh several years ago the women who worked there hardly rocked my world; they were a tad portly and I would never have flirted with any of them on an airplane or at a party.) I think anything interesting and fun in this world–sex, sports, working, practicing law and life generally–is exciting and valuable to me only if I can participate in it directly or (at a minimum) learn something from it so that I can participate later. So Watching Anything has not cut it for me much. I watch little TV. I don’t think strip joints are sexy. And I think porn, in the main, is sad. I love sports, too. I would just rather play them than watch them. There are quite a few athletic things–team sports or solitary–you can do your whole life.
But I loved reading (a form of watching, in this case) a few years back about the reaction my local community had to successful plans to start a Hooters here up on a hill near Interstate 15. Many of the transplanted Midwesterners in San Diego County (that is a big part of the population here) often hate things like Hooters, medical marijuana and anything that might smack of New York, LA, urban multi-culturalism or the often “distasteful” side of commmerce, marketing or the First Amendment. While my own Midwest-based family is a culturally liberal tribe of mainly moderate Republicans, I grew up with and do still like the more reactionary Heartland folks–but they often blow tubes over stuff like Hooters. And it’s comical. I am entertained. They generally lose those battles. That, folks, is something I will watch.
Meanwhile, Hooters, the restaurant chain, obviously has been onto something all along–even while I don’t get it. It is reevaluating things. See in Time “Hooters’ Big Experiment: New Menu, New Decor and a New Target Audience“.
Hooters Plans for The Future.