Saturday 24 September 2011

Tapas Quiz Night, Question #9/?



Question: You are the reservations manager for a restaurant called “APPETIZERS Bar” (the English equivalent of the Spanish TAPAS). On one afternoon like any other, the following happened:  
At 15:15 a Mr. BROWN walks in and reserves a table for 19:45;
At 15:00 a Mr. JONES walks in and reserves a table for 19:15;  
At 15:45 a Mr. ROBERTSON walks in and reserves a table for 20:30;  
At 16:15 a Mr. SMITH walks in and reserves a table for 19:00;  
At 16:30 a Mr. TAYLOR walks in and reserves a table for 19:30;  
At 15:30 a Mr. WILLIAMS walks in and reserves a table for 20:00;  
And at 16:00 a Mr. WILSON walks in and reserves a table for 20:15.  
By which order would you jot down these reservations?  

Answer:
OPTION 1: JONES, BROWN, WILLIAMS, ROBERTSON, WILSON, SMITH followed by TAYLOR, is if you happen to be working in ANY restaurant in the world, except the most extraordinary one of all;  
OPTION 2: SMITH, JONES, TAYLOR, BROWN, WILLIAMS, WILSON followed by ROBERTSON, is if you happen to be working in Ocean Club’s Tapas Bar in PdL.  

As the “APPETIZERS Bar” is NOT “TAPAS Bar”, the correct answer is then OPTION 1: JONES, BROWN, WILLIAMS, ROBERTSON, WILSON, SMITH and TAYLOR.

In the question, it seems like I’ve given you a lot of information to digest and analyse, but in fact it isn’t.

It’s just describing SEVEN people walking, separately, into a restaurant to make a dinner reservation.

I just chose the CRITERIA of listing the surnames by alphabetical order, and that’s why, on a first look, it looks like it’s all jumbled up and complex (just a side note, the way you present information is VERY IMPORTANT to reach goals objectively).

The CRITERIA with which one lists things is the crux of this post. The logic and the reasonableness of the chosen CRITERIA are of the utmost importance when it comes to analyzing the veracity of the “Tapas reservation sheets”.

What CRITERIA would you then choose to write down the reservations as per question?  

Logic, and all restaurants in the world except one, says that you would take note of the reservations by the order they came into your restaurant.

According to that, your reservation sheet would look something like this (we’ll pretend that desired eating times are needed, which we know they aren't, pretend that contact numbers are not and, as is obvious, what is written in between parenthesis wouldn’t appear, but we've I put in just to help you):  

JONES - 19:15 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:00)  
BROWN - 19:45 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:15)  
WILLIAMS - 20:00 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:30)
ROBERTSON - 20:30 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:45)  
WILSON - 20:15 (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:00)
SMITH - 19:00 (walked in the restaurant at to reserve 16:15)  
TAYLOR - 19:30 (walked in the restaurant at to reserve 16:30)

Mr JONES arrives first, which means he gets the noted first, using the most logical of CRITERIA, which is first come, first served, or in this case, noted.

Mr SMITH, although wishing to have his meal before, appears in the listing after Mr BROWN simply, and LOGICALLY, because Mr. BROWN makes his reservation before Mr. SMITH.

If for anything else, the reason for ordering reservations by the times they are made is because, for example, when Mr. WILLIAMS makes his reservation nobody in the world can guess if Mr WILSON is to appear or not.

He does, but we only know that after he walks in.

Nobody did come after Mr. TAYLOR, did they? He was the last one to reserve, thus is the last person on the list for the day.

Irrefutable logic, right?

Wrong. In the OC, reservations are, according to the Tapas Bar management, to be noted in the order in which the clients want to have their meals.

Why do we say that?

The first three “Tapas reservation sheets” seem to be templates, in which there are boxes of 4 lines for each quarter of an hour, from 19:00 to 21:00.

But is it really so? We’ve discovered that the apparently handwritten “Das 7 p.m. ás 9 p.m. Mesas lá dentro – 4 Mesas com 4 pax máximo” on the top of the May 1st, May 2nd and May 3rd “Tapas reservation sheets” clarify absolutely nothing with the exception that it confirms that these pages are photocopies of each other:

 
This would reinforce the thesis that we were before an unique template that was used from May 1st until May3rd.

However, a closer analysis (and not that attentive of one) at that shows that it isn’t exactly a template.

Look at how the differently the times are written down each day (left column. May 1st, center, May 2nd, right, May 3rd):
  Will enlarge the 19:15, and the 20:15 times so that you can better see what we’re trying to show you:
 
It’s unquestionable that each one was written separately.

They’re NOT copies of each other.

So, EVERY single day, whoever was responsible for the reservations would write down the times, defining then, and only then, the 4-lines-per-quarter-of-an-hour “reservation” blocks.

This means that it was EXPECTED to have only an average of 4 names, or less, per each “quarter of an hour”.

If, on a particular day, it happened that all supposed 20 vacancies wanted their meal at 20:30, then all this work of anticipation, and so neatly done, would have been rendered useless.

Here we have to go back to our “doodle” post, where it was shown how “boring” it must have been to work at Tapas.

You had time for doodles, and now, it seems, you had time to write down the times in a preemptive manner.

But it wasn’t just any writing down the numbers on blank spaces. Oh no. Please do take notice of the numbers “7” and “8”.

The number “7” is typed, identical in all 3 entries, which means it was already in the template, while the “8” is handwritten.

That is a big difference. It means that with the “7”. whatever number for the minutes that was there was tippexed, and written over, while the whole number that was where the “8”s now are to be seen, was totally tippexed.

To our Portuguese readers, to “tippex” is to pass on “white corrector”.

It seems that the Tapas, besides having its own separate reception, it also had it quite well equipped with stationary. And with a photocopier.

So we have someone, who takes the time, and the care, to tippex numbers beforehand, EVERY single day on what are supposedly reservation sheets.

I would like to remind you that anywhere in the world, “reservation sheets” are documents NOT meant to be subject to any inspection or external presentation. Their purpose is to register reservations. As such, they are INTERNAL working documentation, to which practicality is given primacy, which certainly is not given to neatness.

If that were the case, the lack of care for neatness in the last 3 reservation sheets would’ve resulted in severe punishment, or possibly heavy fines.

On the previous post, Question #8, I showed, or tried to show, how irrelevant it is to book meals with a quarter of an hour precision.

A time specification is required in restaurants that, as I said, wish to make as many servings as possible, and want an idea from when on they should consider a guest is late, so that they can get some profit out of what is to be then considered as an unused table.

As a reader exemplified, restaurants are that when a table vacates and whoever reserved isn’t there, they lose their turn and go to the end of the line, so to speak.

When a time is asked, it's NEVER more precise than half the hour.

I believe that in the U.S., restaurants that have a daily high occupancy rate, in order to maximize the use of their tables, don’t accept reservations at all (the finest restaurants do reserve, and if what we see in the movies is true, do it with weeks and months in advance), but do, when you walk in, give you an electronic gadget that lights up and vibrates when there’s a table for you.

That way, you can always spend some money in the bar while you wait…

You run a business to make a PROFIT, that's the bottom line.

Ok, let’s disregard the complete lack of logic and usefulness of filling in quarterly hour reservation times, and consider them essential.

You may then say that the Tapas could have filled in the customer's surname in according to its “box” as the reservations appeared. This way, the sequencing is not per whole page, but only per each “quarter-hour” box.

This would, indeed, provide some logic to the sequencing as it appears, as I said, on the first three reservation sheets.

And we’ll leave at that, although there are other some details that contradict this, but we'll leave these for another post. There are, however the three other reservation sheets. And they throw this whole logic straight out the window.

On these, nobody has, strangely, decided to write down the times before the guests appeared to reserve, like it was done with the first three.

But the times ARE SEQUENCIAL.

Look at how they appear for those 3 days:
  
Friday, May 4th: 19:00, 19:30 followed by 20:15 
Sunday, May 6th: 19:00, 19:20, 19:45, 20:00, 20:15 followed by 21:00 
Monday, May 7th: 19:00, 19:15, 19:45 followed by 20:30

It's not possible to establish any coherence in the time intervals, or their respective spacing within the pages, with these last three reservation sheets, except for the fact that they’re CLEARLY sequenced in the order in which the clients wanted to have their meals.

If for the first three reservation sheets we could have the excuse that there are blocks for each quarter of the hour, for the last three, the CRITERIA used is clear: simple and straighforward sequencing according with the desired meal time.

This means that in our little exercise, the reservations, if made in the TAPAS Bar way, would have been written down the following way:
  
19:00 – SMITH (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:15)
19:15 - JONES (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:00)  
19:30 - TAYLOR (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:30)  
19:45 - BROWN (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:15)  
20:00 - WILLIAMS (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:30)  
20:15 - WILSON (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 16:00)  
20:30 - ROBERTSON (walked in the restaurant to reserve at 15:45)

Seemingly impossible, Mr. SMITH, who arrives 45 minutes after Mr. WILLIAMS, to make a reservation, is to appear first on the reservation list.

This listing would ONLY be possible if the people who made the reservations arrived in the EXACT same order of the time that they wanted to have their meals, otherwise it would be COMPLETELY ABSURD, as only after is known the TOTALITY of reservations for the day is it possible to order the names by desired meal times, the CRITERIA used to list the reservations on the "Tapas reservation sheets":
 
So, for the "Tapas reservation sheets" to be filled the way THEY WERE, with the SEQUENTIAL CRITERIA they present, it would have been necessary, on those various days, for the people who wanted to reserve to have been standing in the queue in the EXACT same order in which they WANTED to have their meal!

And this, when all these people are supposedly strangers to each other.

Coincidence or what? That’s stretching the concept of coincidence even beyond the McCann margin of tolerance for coincidences.

Other than this, I can only see two other possibilities for it these listings to be feasible.

One would have been in auction-style bidding for hours. Whoever was responsible for the booking would address the “crowd” and ask “Let's start with who’s for 19:00? Please step aside and come forward…

This would be practical but rather unfair. If one wanted to dine at 21:00, one would have to bid for an earlier hour just to make sure that one would make it and be able to have a meal at the renowned Tapas Bar.

Also, I just can't see how it would be possible for people to be able to get the 21:00 timeslot, which some did get, without surpassing the 20 available seats figure.

There was a queue wasn't there?

The other possibility would have to have been for this whole "reservation process" to be done “military” style.

In this, the Tapas management would come out, this time to address the whole line and inform “The reservations today are up to this gentleman/lady. The rest of you please go home and try again tomorrow”.

And then turning to those that remained in line “And you, you lucky nincompoops, do organize yourselves in which time you want to have dinner, and be quick about it as we have many other important and useful things to do such as doodling and tippexing…”

Is either possibility feasible? Well, as we’ve seen, in “McCannland” it’s like with Peter Pan: ALL is possible as long as you believe in it.

No, not really. You really don’t have to believe. All you have to do is pretend that you believe, and defend that, regardless of reason or logic.

And preferably with some help from your friends. INFLUENTIAL ones, mind you.




Post Scriptum:
For those who've tried to fool others with the vain attempt of stating that we were running out of material, let me disappoint you by telling you that there's still very much to be shown about these fake reservation sheets.

For example, this post, and this post alone, makes it there to be four or five additional pertinent questions.

Can you see them?

Well, they have to answered if these documents are to be REAL, otherwise... they're NOT.

21 comments:

  1. He tells a tale adds a detail.

    They were so worried to prove that the people were there that they ended up revealing that they weren't.

    Truth is like olive oil in water... no matter how much you stir it will always rise up to the surface.

    Keep going, please.

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  2. Interesting that in the same sheet there is the continental number one '1' and the English number 'one' without the stroke.

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  3. Look at the 8s!

    In the first two columns, the 8 is written with two circles, while on the third is one continuous line.

    This means two different handwritings.

    But look at the 08.30 entries. They're all "circled" 8s. The 08.30 entry differs from the other two entries on that day.

    Look also that the same thing happens with the 08.45 entry on the first column. This 8, unlike the other 3, is written "continuously".

    There are two different people filling in the same information, that of the booking time, on the same sheets.

    Why?

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  4. Textusa reminds me a lot of Dr. House, a TV series that I love and follow.

    Check this out:

    On Fox Broadcasting (http://www.fox.com/house/)
    “the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one”

    On Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_House):
    “House's character has been described as a "misanthrope", a "cynic", a narcissist and a "curmudgeon". “
    “In the series, the character's unorthodox diagnostic approaches, radical therapeutic motives, and stalwart rationality have resulted in much conflict between him and his colleagues.”
    “The character is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes.”

    Brilliant people are always victims of the most despicable of envies.
    Textusa, please do continue to fascinate us with your “stalwart rationality”.

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  5. Well Kate did say "they had been working really hard" when asked whether they wanted to go out and search.

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  6. The BHs have kept on telling us up to now "the Tapas dinners happened, so get over it!"

    I now say to BHs "your cover has been blown, so get over it!"

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  7. These sheets scream out: FORGERY.

    Scotland Yard DON?T PRETEND YOU'RE NOT READING THIS!!!

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  8. This is very serious. This is material evidence of criminal behavior on the part of the Ocean Club. They've intentionally obstructed justice. The names that appear on these pages are also accountable. Mr Edmonds has inclusively come out to say that that he subscribes the McCann's version of events. All the others have remained in silence up to now. If you add up OC Staff and guests, there's a lot of guilty consciences out there. No wonder now about the amount of support the McCanns had and are able to maintain although there isn't a soul who hasn't seen through them. There's a lot of silent guilty consciences because all of them have a lot to lose. What a mess. I don't think that ever a death had such repercussion in the lives of so many people, than Maddie's.

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  9. Anon Sep 24, 2011 8:26:00 PM

    Sorry to correct you, but I think you mean "FAKE". To forge something you have to have an original to copy from and hope no one notices the difference. There's no such thing as an original. These are FAKE sheets. Their intention is to mislead. There were no dinners as shown, so there were no such things as reservations.

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  10. I think we all thought that there was something wrong with these sheets. The two different templates, the two different handwritings, the nonsense about the drinks.
    We had no reason to suspect the OC of any wrongdoing so we took the discrepancies as odd and inexplicable behavior. As we thought that the OC was on “our side” we didn’t demand much from them. We took for granted that they were being true and only gave some attention to their statements when they contradicted the T9. But deep down we knew that there was something wrong with the booking sheets. At least to me they didn’t make sense, but as I thought they were from the good guys, I thought to myself that there was some logical reason for them to be that way, and that it was me who was unable to see better. Then comes Textusa and clearly explains that it wasn’t my fault at all, but they seemed wrong because they were wrong. They were manipulated documents. And unlike Insane tried make me believe that this was nothing but a conspiracy theory, I found that the fact there were all these people involved, things became clearer instead of confusing. Textusa’s pieces of the puzzle fit neatly together and make absolute sense. As it makes sense the hysterical reaction from all those that feel they have to do something to stop Textusa. As they lack any reasonable arguments they can only try and attack her credibility. They’ve unable to contradict with facts. The best I’ve seen them do was on Joana’s complaining about Textusa getting a surname wrong, which is very little against the amount of evidence that the blog has posted. They’ve resorted to calling her unspeakable things, here and on other sites. It’s up to you and me to believe them or not. I think Textusa is brilliant and absolutely logical. She’s made me follow this case like a mystery novel and it seems that all this holds little mystery to her. I fully understand the rage some feel. I would too. I don't because fortunately I'm not in anyway involved so I rest assured that my name won't pop up one of these days.

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  11. McCann and friends, you can fool many for a long time, but you can't fool all for all time.


    When I say friends, I mean, namely, all those in PDL who helped this couple to arrogantly forfeit Justice.

    It's now clear that PDL (Ocean Club and Brit residents) behaved like a school where all its pupils decide protect a colleague from the teacher's punishment.

    But we all remember when we were back in school, that when we did this, we did this for a reason. It was either because we were afraid of the consequences of not protecting, because we had something to gain from doing it or because we also had something to hide.

    I'm not seeing how could the McCanns threat anyone into protecting them or how could anyone could gain from this. Out of all people present in PDL, only the McCanns profited from this.

    The other people that profited from this, in money or in social relevance, were not the Portugal at the time: the McCann family (strange the lack of involvement from the Healy family), Clarence Mitchell, Jim Gamble, Edgar, just to name some.

    So it was not out of fear for themselves nor out of personal gain that this protection started, because this protection did start in PDL and not in the UK. The decision to make what was to be known as the Smith Sighting on the very same evening and the statements from the Tapas employees on the following day show that.

    We're left with all having something to lose. What could it be that would make a "whole" town participate in the cover-up of a minor's death? I think Textusa has made pretty clear what her opinion about that is, and I agree fully with her.

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  12. Anon 9:38:00, thank you for your correction. I agree with fake. What I don't agree, and that's got nothing to do with you, is the FAKE investigation that the SY are conducting. Kate's book was published beginning of May, and we're at the end of September. It's been almost FIVE months and no results from something that takes FIVE minutes to smell a fish. Just turn to the PJ Files page with the pictures taken on that night and you can see IMMEDIATELY that reality and the McCann's story are not one and the same. So this silence from the SY can only mean that they're cooking up ANOTHER excuse for not bringing the couple in for interrogation. These booking sheets are complete FAKE/FORGED/PHONEY/BALONEY, but are only a little compared with the EVIDENT EVIDENCE piled up against the McCanns. Scotland Yard with their silence is doing EXACTLY the SAME as whoever made these sheets up did: help the McCanns. If they want to prosecute but can't, someone in SY should take the same courageous attitude that GA did and resign. The PJ were unjustly called inapt and incompetent. What are we to call SY for this? I pray I'm wrong, but unfortunately I don't think I am.

    Anon 8:26

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  13. God bless you all!

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  14. Outstanding blog! Insightful posts and very interesting responses. Congratulations all around!

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  15. Is there anything that isn't suspicious about these lists?

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  16. thanks Textusa for your great analysis of this case.

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  17. Um Império vergado à vontade de plebeus.
    Inglaterra, aonde o Sol nunca se punha, dominando, com mão de ferro, todas as gentes, vê-se agora dominada por tão poucos.
    Uma vergonha do tamanho desse mundo outrora governado, o mesmo que hoje afasta o olhar para evitar reconhecer a humilhação

    Google translator:
    An Empire bent to the will of commoners.
    England, where the sun never set, dominating, with an iron fist, all the people, now finds itself dominated by so few.
    Shame on the size of that once ruled the world, the same as now looks away to avoid acknowledging the humiliation.

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  18. A word to the future generations that will read this I don't know when. I ask you not to pronounce any quick judgement on our sanity. The beginning of this third millennium can be characterized as that of the abuse by a few of what is one of the most beautiful ideals that humanity has ever conceived, that of democracy. Those few, by greed or simple evil, quickly understood that those who controlled information, or to be precise, the media, controlled the herd-effect, and could then easily manipulate whole societies. This meant clearly that there would be different sets of values to be applicable to each one of the various different casts. Casts whose merit resided solely on the ability to deceive crowds into electing them through a purposefully highly complex political party machinery. Such is life today, and I hope you will be shocked by all this Maddie case, because that will mean that with you it's all so different. That's our hope, and, hopefully again, the legacy of this blog.

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  19. it's clear, the reservation lists (May 1 to 3) were made in a rush to answer a police request. wonder which excuse the OC gave to the police for not having them ready to be handed when were requested. that's why who was in charged of filling them had time to typex and doodle.
    Only who don't know the Algarve could believe that a restaurant like the Tapas in the OC request bookings for dinner. that looks like a coffee shop to support the swimming pool during the day. like all other restaurants with same service, at night the dinners were served based on " first arrive, first served". Is like that in August, why should be different in May (low season)?
    The lists after May 3 look more real, not because the restaurant use to have them but because the restaurant knows, the police ask them. that is the only reason I see, to have take away registered in a reservation list and all the mess that is on the lists after May 3. those lists were filled by the waiters of the Tapas. And what is amazing for me, is that at the time, the OC was full of journalists, polices and all sort of people searching Madeleine and news. All shops around talked about how they increased their business. None eat at the Tapas? no any journalist book a dinner in the Tapas? A joke, if was not so serious. Felicia Cabrita admitted she had a drink in the Tapas but they refused to serve food. I believe if there was no food for journalists, there was no food for guests as well. If the mess was installed, was for everybody.

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  20. I think Textusa pointed out in a previous post that the reason for the doodle was to highlight the page intended to be filled in for 3rd May. This was because, as shown above, the handwritten headers on top of all three sheets was identical because they were all photocopies and therefore identical.

    The sheet for the 3rd was the only that had to be carefully filled in so had to be identified in a discrete way so only those involved in the preparation would know what it meant.

    I have always thought the sheets leading up to the 3rd were written by a British person with the typical rounded letters and the following ones in a continental style.

    As there would not really be any booking sheets someone from MW invented the idea? Once started someone decided to take over and try to make them more realistic?

    Anyone calling in a restaurant for a take away is not included on a booking sheet. Names are not even required as they either pay by cash or by card at the time of collection. They normal procedure is to write the order on a duplicate slip and one give to the chef to cook the food and the other retained by the waiter/receptionist to add up the bill. Also not required is the number of people intending to eat the food.

    There must be a reason why the names of the take away eaters were included along with the others. Did any of these people volunteer their names or were they all taken by surprise? Why were some of these names not interviewed if they were there that fateful night?

    The other question that comes to mind considering the tippexing, were these sheets really used for another function?

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  21. i think that lists make sense at the millennium, since all guests come on half board ( Breakfast + dinner) but sometimes guests drop out the buffet due to the poor quality of food and service and go to the menu. the lists could be to write down who goes with menu because that had to pay a separate bill at the check out. I have the feeling that the millennium is in some way involved on that mess.
    in the absence of witnesses stating without doubts, the dinner happen, what could be left to show the police, supporting the dinner.... the booking lists, with guests meticulously picked up . All shared the services of the nannies, at night or during the day. All in some way, meet the Tapas 9 on the previous days. Was it only during the tennis lessons or the creches walking in and out?

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