Posts from — December 2011

Other American industries may be struggling, but the US bourbon business is chugging along nicely, reports Mickey Meece in the New York Times (12/25/11). Bourbon is indeed a quintessential American product, having been decreed as such by the US Congress in 1964. The good news for distillers is that "people here and abroad are drinking more of it these days. Global supplier sales of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey are expected to reach $3.8 billion this year, versus $3.7 billion in 2010," according to Euromonitor International.

"Bourbon is growing at a faster rate than the total spirits category and outperforming most of the other spirit segments," says Danny Brager of Nielsen. "It is the people’s drink … It doesn’t get more American than whiskey," says Fred Sarkis, a bartender at the Sable Kitchen and Bar in Chicago. However, its most loyal consumers traditionally have been older, white males. While there may be nothing wrong with that, makers are now trying to expand the market by introducing "infused flavors like cherry and honey."

Jim Beam, for instance, now offers "black cherry" and "honey tea" flavored whiskeys under the Red Stag label. "It’s the real deal," says Frederick Booker Noe III, a master distiller and great-grandson of Jim Beam himself. Jack Daniels has also rolled out a honey-flavored whiskey, which reportedly is "resonating with African-Americans, Hispanics and women." In any case, American whiskey — flavored or not — is also playing well overseas, accounting "for about 70 percent of the $1.1 billion" of distilled spirits exports, with India and China seen as particularly enticing growth markets.

Steven Smith "is one of the biggest players in modern tea history," reports Nancy Keates in the Wall Street Journal (12/24/11). Steve is, in fact, credited with "holding a key role in what’s been a renaissance in the US, with tea sales soaring to about $7 billion this past year from less than $1 billion in 1990. He’s responsible for many of the original blends for two top-shelf brands: Stash, now owned by the Japanese company Yamamotoyama; and Tazo, which Starbucks bought in 1999. His own company, Steven Smith Teamaker, sells small-batch teas in restaurants and stores like Williams-Sonoma, Zabar’s and even Eddie Bauer."

That may sound like tiny tea-leaves, but James Norwood Pratt, author of The Tea Dictionary, says Steve is one for the ages. "In no generation in the past 5,000 years have we had more than a few people like Steven Smith," says James. "He makes astonishingly good blends." Steve’s remarkable journey began in the 1970s, and has taken him "to India, Sri Lanka, China, Ethiopia, Egypt, Sumatra and South Africa, spending weeks in a region doing three tastings a day, with 200 cups per tasting." He says his technique involves choosing a base — either black or green tea — and then thinking "about flavors he has recently tasted or smelled that intrigue him."

His Eddie Bauer blend included "dried Douglas fir needles to give a campfire taste." For Starbucks he came up with a caramel tea latte formula" involving "burnt-caramel sauce from a gourmet chocolate company." He says it tasted great but didn’t ship well — the butterfat got clumpy and Starbucks killed the idea. These days, he’s "experimenting with aging teas in Pinot Noir and whiskey barrels: The teas absorb the moisture from the barrels and give off the alcohol’s scent." Such exotica was born of a rather extraordinary, ordinary experience. Steve says "his strongest tea memory is drinking sweetened Red Rose at his grandmother’s after school, the whole house filled with the aroma."

In "A Case For Irony," Jonathan Lear "offers a psychoanalytically tinged reworking of the whole ironic category," reports Andrew Stark in the Wall Street Journal (12/22/11). Traditionally, we appreciate two types of irony — situational and verbal. Situational is where something deliciously unexpected happens and verbal is where something delectably unexpected is said. In situational irony, the key is that "one’s expectations lead to their own subversion" In verbal, it’s "a contrast between what is said and what is meant."

Jonathan’s interest is in the ways in which both kinds of irony help us "come to know things about ourselves that we did not know before." He cites this "old psychoanalytic joke" to make his point about verbal irony: "Last night at dinner with my mother, I made a terrible Freudian slip, a man tells his friend; I meant to say, please pass the salt, but what I actually said was you’ve ruined my life, you manipulative witch." What this tell us is that "the need to be civilized … buries our true thoughts deep in our unconscious mind until one day they burst through."

To illustrate situational irony, Jonathan uses the example of a married woman who vows not to ask a single, male friend to go for drinks, but then does so anyway. In this case, the irony grew out of the woman’s resentment over her expected behavior, which built to a point where she took "the opposite course." His point is that "such moments of irony — whether they involve true meaning bursting through civilized surfaces or true desire erupting through social constraints — can be therapeutic." The better we understand such ironies, he argues, the closer we are to "who we really are."

Robert Trivers argues that deceit is essential to our survival in "The Folly of Fools," as reviewed by John Horgan in the New York Times (12/25/11). Robert is a Rutgers sociobiologist well known for, among other things, the idea that "families roil with conflict because parents share no genes with each other and only half of their genes with their children, who unless they are identical twins also have divergent genetic interests." In his new book, he focuses on lies and self-deception as a "deep feature" of not only the human condition, but also life itself.

For example, he notes that Anglerfish "lure prey by dangling ‘bait’ in front of their jaws, butterflies deter predators by adopting the coloring of poisonous specials," that "possums play possum" while "cowbirds and cuckoos avoid the hassle of rasing offspring by laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. Even viruses and bacteria employ subterfuge to sneak past a host’s immune system." He describes a "primordial arms race between deceit and deceit-detection" that, at the human level," given our "big brains and communications skills," makes "us master dissemblers."

Even as babies, "we learn to cry insincerely to manipulate our caregivers." As adults, we "seize on facts that bolster our preconceptions and overlook contradictory data." We even deceive ourselves, and "the more we believe our own lies, the more sincerely … we can lie to others." This can affect our health, because the effort required to sustain our lies (e.g., "a daughter’s insistence that her alcoholic, abusive father is a good man") can "drain energy from our immune systems." Robert extends his argument to include the "false historical narratives" perpetuated by political leaders as well as the lies he tells himself. Unfortunately, he’s not kidding.

Olive Garden is careful to say that its menu is "Italian-inspired," but not "authentic," reports Sarah Nassauer in the Wall Street Journal (12/21/11). This usually means adding meat or cheese to a dish that otherwise might qualify as the real deal. The restaurant chain’s chefs sometimes start with "real Italian dishes," discovered on trips to Europe, such as a "pasta dish with olive oil, garlic and herbs" they enjoyed in Northern Italy. The chefs deemed the dish "really rustic but still kind of normal," which is a good place to start, but not quite Olive Garden. To make the cut, dishes must be "cravable."

To that end, they tried adding chicken and roasted tomatoes, but diners didn’t bite. So, they added a "rich cheese sauce, spinach and either a beef or chicken topping," and that worked, apparently because "Americans have a strong preference for meat and cheese." It also makes the dish seem like a better value. Sometimes the efforts to strike a balance between sophisticated concepts and familiar fare happens in baby steps, like calling gnocchi a "traditional Italian dumpling" and adding it to soup. Gnocchi previously had failed as a standalone dish, with marinara or cream sauce. Pesto also met resistance as "too oily, bitter and green" and capers as "too unexpected."

In other cases, the chefs simply go too far, as with "a pear and gorgonzola ravioli with shrimp," which apparently was too "culinary forward." Then there’s the "seafood in a white wine and marinara-saffron broth" which fortunately has just enough appeal to "a crucial clientele" willing to spend $17.75 for a little exotica (Olive Garden dishes average around $13). To help further the "Italian-inspired" experience, "Olive Garden is building new ‘Tuscan farmhouse’ restaurants with stone exteriors (images), adding to its roughly 750 US locations" and is "testing a "Tuscan pallette of ‘warm colors’" at existing restaurants.

Wendy’s appears poised to become America’s second-biggest burger chain, despite having fewer stores than Burger King, reports Julie Jargon in the Wall Street Journal (12/21/11). In fact, Wendy’s has just 5,800 outlets in the US, compared to Burger King’s 7,200, and "has gained on Burger King without opening more restaurants." But its "same-store sales are forecast to rise 1.1 percent, while Burger King’s US and Canada sales will drop 3.9 percent," according to Technomic Inc. McDonald’s, meanwhile, "has almost four times the US systemwide sales than either of its direct rivals."

This turnabout is partly because of "weakness at Burger King, which analysts say has suffered in recent years from a series of management and ownership changes, a lack of menu development and an over-reliance on young adult customers at a time when high unemployment hit that market hard." Wendy’s, however, after its 2008 acquisition by Triarc, "began an 18-month process of interviewing customers" who told them "they liked the idea of fresh foods with as little processing as possible and ingredients they were familiar with."

Resulting changes included salads with apples, pecans and asiago cheese, and skins-on fries made with Russet potatoes and sprinkled with sea salt. Wendy’s also switched to "a looser grind of beef to make its burgers thicker and juicier" and "refashioned its trademark square burgers with softer edges after customers said those burgers looked processed, even though they were fresh." Andrew Ofisher, a customer, said the new style was "more like a normal burger, not like a fast-food burger … There was actually a pink part to it; it wasn’t burned to a crisp." Burger King, with 12,400 restaurants worldwide, still has twice as many restaurants as Wendy’s on a global basis.

The existence of the Higgs boson could have cultural, if not practical, applications, suggests Matt Ridley in the Wall Street Journal (12/19/11). But before either can happen, we need to have at least some understanding of what Higgs boson is. Unlike other scientific discoveries, Higgs boson doesn’t lend itself to shorthand understanding the way black holes, genes, or vaccination do. Nor does it readily translate into metaphor, in the manner of light year, Darwinian or DNA. That’s probably because Higgs boson has to do with "the mysterious manifestation of the field that causes matter to have mass." Indeed.

In hopes of connecting this abstract concept to the real world, William Waldegrave, a British science minister, in 1993 challenged an assembly of scientists to explain on a single page what Higgs boson is and why we should care. Hundreds attempted, and five (link) were picked as winners, among them David Miller, who used Margaret Thatcher entering a room of supporters as a metaphor. The supporters are uniformly distributed until Lady Thatcher enters, at which point they "cluster around her," stopping her progress.

"Once moving, she is harder to stop, and once stopped, she is harder to get moving again," David wrote. He also compared the situation to "a rumor spreading through the party, causing a wave of local clustering." Matt says the only point here may be knowledge itself, but also notes that satellite navigation wouldn’t work without the theory of general relativity, which otherwise might seem esoteric. From a cultural standpoint, he suggests that "the way a bureaucracy impedes, delays and weighs down a simple course of action could henceforth be described as Higgsian," and those who impede progress be rebuked, as in "Don’t be such a Higgs boson!" Could be just what we need in 2012 …

Snow may be plentiful, "but the mystery of how snow forms is still unsolved," reports Elizabeth Weise in USA Today ( 12/19/11). We do know — and have known since the 1930s — that "the shape snow takes depends on the temperature … From about freezing to 25 degrees Fahrenheit, the snow forms as flakes. When it hits about 23 degrees, the snow forms into needles, and at about 22 degrees into hollow columns. When the temperature drops to about 10, flakes start forming again. But when it gets to -8 or so, it’s once again columns. At -30, snow stops forming altogether."

So, perfectly formed, six-sided, symmetrical snowflakes are actually quite rare. "People think that every crystal is perfect, but far from it," says Kenneth Libbrecht, a Caltech physics professor. "Most of them look like sand, but mixed in with that are these beautiful structures." Kenneth "has spent much of his career feeding the public’s endless fascination with the beauty and mystery of snowflakes." He jokes that this is work suitable only for tenured professors like himself. "There are no grants; you can’t get funded for it," he says. But Kenneth has published seven books of snowflake photos, including "The Secret Life of a Snowflake," for children.

When Kenneth sees a "nice" snowflake, "he picks it up with a paintbrush and puts it on a glass slide and into his microscope to photograph … His photos of those frozen crystals of water graced more than 3 billion US postage stamps in 2006 and a Swedish stamp in 2010. He has also authored numerous papers on the molecular dynamics that dictate how ice crystals grow." He admits that despite its various forms, snow usually doesn’t feel all that different when you’re in the middle of it. The only exception is snow that forms at about 5 degrees, known as "stellar dendrites," which are "flat plates with barbs." These flakes pack lightly and are way fluffy. You get a couple of billion of them on a good slope, says Kenneth, and you’ve got a skier’s paradise.

Michael Mandel thinks "that today’s economy favors big companies over small ones," reports the Economist (12/17/11). Michael, who is chief economic strategist for the Progressive Policy Institute, offers three reasons. First, "economic growth is increasingly driven by big ecosystems such as those that cluster around Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system." Second, "globalization puts more of a premium on size than ever before," and third, "many of the most important challenges for innovators involve vast systems, such as education and health care, or giant problems, such as global warming."

It’s also true that bigger companies "have a big advantage in recruiting today’s most valuable resource: talent." In addition, they "are getting better at flattening their heirarchies and opening themselves up to ideas from elsewhere. Procter & Gamble … gets most of its ideas from outside its walls … 3M like to conduct lots of small experiments, just like a start-up. But it can also mix technologies from a wide range of areas, and if an idea catches fire, summon up vast resources to feed the flames."

On the flipside, it’s also true that big companies "are less comfortable with disruptive innovation — the kind that changes the rules of the game." They tend to excel at "incremental innovation (i.e., adding more bells and whistles to existing products)." What’s more, "sometimes the best ideas start small, spread widely and then transform entire systems" (e.g., Apple, Google, Facebook). Perhaps most important, what matters "is not so much whether companies are big or small, but whether they grow." The key to innovation, then, "lies in allowing vigorous new companies to grow big, and inefficient old ones to die."

A funny thing happened to Louis C.K. on his way to his latest comedy special, reports David Carr in the New York Times (12/19/11). Normally, Louis’s performances are carried on cable television. But this time, he decided to distribute his work himself, and turn a recent Beacon Theater show into a package of streams and downloads his fans could buy for five bucks via Paypal and watch whenever or however they wanted to. He didn’t impose any digital-rights restrictions, meaning that, once downloaded, "it was there for the pirating — and some went right to the torrent sites and did so."

But, by Louis’s count, about 200,000 fans have paid the five dollars so far. After expenses, he figures he has cleared a cool $750,000 to date. He also "owns the rights, and the long tail of buyers in perpetuity." Louis says he just did the obvious. "I went at this like a consumer, just looking at human impulses," he says. "I buy lots of things online and I had a focus group of one. I thought about it, and five bucks seemed almost free and I figured if I took out the hassle, most of the speed bumps, it would almost be like hitting a link and streaming it."

In a chat on Reddit, he addressed the piracy issue directly: "I think it is really interesting that I brought the price so close to stealing and made the movie so easy to get and made it so clear that it’s a human offering that it sparked a debate about pirating," he said. "To steal from someone and not feel bad, you either have to be a sociopath or view the act differently." In other words, Louis "changed the subject from whether it is OK to game a big corporation to whether it’s morally appropriate to simply take the work of an artist that other people have paid for." The result, says Louis, did not surprise him: "People have been paying for what I do for a long time now," he observes.