Salt. The food police have everyone running scared of good old sodium chloride, but it’s incredibly important from a culinary perspective as a flavor in and of itself and as a flavor enhancer. Salt intensifies other flavors in every dish by hitting the fifth taste known as umami; without salt, most foods will taste bland, flat, or even stale.
# 2008 Jun 17
The New Yorker profile of Keith Olbermann:
Why did Olbermann need to end his commentary by telling the President of the United States to “shut the hell up”?
“Because I can’t say, ‘Shut the fuck up,’ that’s why, frankly,” Olbermann responded. The line stayed in.
# 2008 Jun 17
The wires are reporting that Tim Russert died from a heart attack today. He was 58.
# 2008 Jun 13
I’ve got nothing to add to the iPhone commentary, so a few links from around the web:
Mike Davidson on the choice facing consumers:
This sounds overly simplistic, but I really do think Apple just split the mobile world into two choices: settle for a free phone or buy an iPhone. There just aren’t many reasons to do anything else.
Greg Storey on the now required in-store activation:
I used to hate AT&T for all it’s dropped calls and day-late text messages and voice mail delivery, now…well I don’t know what you call bile inducing rage against stupidity.
Gizmodo with the rest of the bad news:
We just talked to AT&T’s President of National Distribution Glenn Lurie, who gave us all the pricing and activation details for the iPhone 3G, which won’t be getting special treatment anymore. It will be using all AT&T’s standard voice and data plans, which means $30 for unlimited 3G data for consumers, $45 for business users, on top of voice.
Khoi Vinh on the price drop vs. Apple stock in the last drop:
I can accept that painful but predictable phenomenon to a certain extent, but here’s where it really hurts. Take a look at the price of Apple stock over the past year, and note that the value of my iPhone is now way less than just one share of AAPL.
I’ve got nothing to add to the iPhone commentary, so a few links from around the web:
Mike Davidson on the choice facing consumers:
This sounds overly simplistic, but I really do think Apple just split the mobile world into two choices: settle for a free phone or buy an iPhone. There just aren’t many reasons to do anything else.
Greg Storey on the now required in-store activation:
I used to hate AT&T for all it’s dropped calls and day-late text messages and voice mail delivery, now…well I don’t know what you call bile inducing rage against stupidity.
Gizmodo with the rest of the bad news:
We just talked to AT&T’s President of National Distribution Glenn Lurie, who gave us all the pricing and activation details for the iPhone 3G, which won’t be getting special treatment anymore. It will be using all AT&T’s standard voice and data plans, which means $30 for unlimited 3G data for consumers, $45 for business users, on top of voice.
Khoi Vinh on the price drop vs. Apple stock in the last drop:
I can accept that painful but predictable phenomenon to a certain extent, but here’s where it really hurts. Take a look at the price of Apple stock over the past year, and note that the value of my iPhone is now way less than just one share of AAPL.
# 2008 Jun 10
Amusing anecdote from the Emmy Award winning Ken Levine:
I was trying to work out a thousand things at once when this extra comes up and announces she would not like to be hit with any pies. Please place her accordingly. I said, if you don’t want to be in the pie fight then we’ll just replace you. No, no, she said in a very prim voice, she’d do it, but I was to instruct all the other extras to spare her specifically from any incoming pies? I said, I would see what I could do.
Okay, I know I’ll roast in hell for this but I did instruct the other extras. And when cameras rolled this girl got pelted with hundreds of pies. From all directions. Just bombarded. (It seems that she had managed to annoy all of them too.) I look back at that episode and the sight of her just getting blasted with pies makes me fall on the floor laughing every time. Like I said, I know there are not going to be any harps where I’m going.
# 2008 Jun 09
NY Times article article on ballpark food mentions the origin of the Schmitter sandwich, a concoction I’ve yet been brave enough to try:
Also not to be missed is the Schmitter sandwich from McNally’s, an outpost of an 87-year-old Germantown tavern at the end of Ashburn Alley. It’s not named for the Phillies legend Mike Schmidt, but rather, I was told, after a long-gone McNally’s customer who always ordered it with Schmidt’s Beer, the now-defunct Pennsylvania brand.
# 2008 Jun 08
Kottke on TBS inserting “mini-commercials” into their programming:
They paused the TV show, ran a little mini-commercial for some show that no one cares about, and then returned to the last two seconds of the segment before going to commercial. Jesus Christ. I realize that Time Warner doesn’t actually care about the people who watch their shows and that television programs are just the networks’ way of getting people to watch advertising, but this is too much. Do these things actually work or just piss people off in droves?
# 2008 Jun 04
Disinfectant wipes routinely used in hospitals may actually spread drug-resistant bacteria rather than kill the dangerous infections, British researchers said on Tuesday.
Over the years I’ve developed a distrust of antibacterial cleansers based on the fact that the people I see obsessing the most with antibacterial products are the ones who get sick all the time. Ipso facto, antibacterial products will kill you.
Also, I once read The Andromeda Strain which basically makes me an expert on bacteria.
# 2008 Jun 04
Whether you are a desperate dieter or just someone looking to drop another few pounds in time for beach season, here’s a tough stat to swallow: According to the FDA, the average American takes in 82 grams of added sugars every day. That’s 20 teaspoons, which contribute an empty 317 calories to our already calorie-saturated diets.
Sure, some of that comes from soda, but even if you’ve traded regular Coke for diet, whole milk coffee drinks for low-fat lattes, and you barely touch the booze, you could still be taking in 20 percent or more of your calories from beverages. Add a few of those other indulgences in — or consume one of the liquid disasters listed here — and you can suddenly be sucking in a few days’ worth of calories through a straw!
At the top of the list? Vitamin Water. Because why take 30-seconds to look at the label when it says “vitamin” right in the name! It must be good for you!
# 2008 Jun 03
SETPA’s lowering the rates on weekends/holidays and thankfully, they’re eliminating the surcharge when you buy the ticket on the train. The onboard surcharge was especially stupid because it’s all but impossible to buy a ticket at a station on the weekend. The ticket window is closed, and there’s no automated ticket machines.
My friends and went into the city at a reasonable hour last weekend and actually took the train and this is only going to encourage such behavior.
# 2008 Jun 03
These are all the posts on scotttroyan.com during June 2008. Recent posts are listed here.
All contents copyright 1995-2008 by Scott Troyan unless differently noted.