Advertising pop-ups are the curse of the web. And there’s probably nothing more painful than waiting for a commercial to run its course before you are allowed into a gated site. Still, there are some classy ads out there. Check out this personality test on Maker’s Mark bourbon.
Archive for March, 2007
How Henry Ford learnt to make cars—quickly
This simple, no-frills YouTube video makes a delicious claim. That Henry Ford picked up the principle of assembly line production of cars by looking at the supply-chain management of the humble South Indian oota—where 10-12 items are served on a plantain leaf to dozens of people in next to no time.
Can anybody—anybody!—review food?
The once-genteel discipline of restaurant reviewing has turned into a free-for-all. Internet food bloggers (floggers!) rip apart restaurants even before the wrinkles have been ironed out, slamming the food, the furniture, the cutlery.
“Everyone has become a food critic. They think they’re real big shots. They probably can’t even make scrambled eggs. My wife and children eat here every day. Do you think I would serve them disgusting food?”
Public service or freedom expression gone too far at the hands of online amateurs?
Read the full article here: Food bloggers dish up plates of spicy criticism
Long live the career smoker
As a non-smoker who believes that the ostracism of smokers has gone a little too far, I just loved these paragraphs by Dave Eggers in Esquire’s Book of Great Writing.
When “Woody” Wilner [the lawyer who sued and won against the tobacco companies] says in conversation and in court that smokers are “weak”, he is of course right, but he also couldn’t be more wrong. Smokers are the most stalwart and persevering people there are. Who but someone with a will of iron could bear such pressure—the sneers of strangers, the glares of his sons and daughters, the bitter, seething comments of the people who are forced to tolerate him and his aura—such decades-long opprobrium?
Who else would be willing to leave his office twice an hour to stand in the cold or rain to suck smoke from a paper tube? Who else would be willing to forgo going out to dinner, to movies, to any public place where smoking is not permitted, for fear that the urge will strike and not be quenchable?
Who but a giant could look at a dying wife, a pleading family, and a young son who will soon lose his mother and whose fate you hold in your yellowed fingers—will this boy lose one parent or two?—and yet still continue? Who but a man of outrageous fortitude, a will of steel, a mind of golden labyrinths?
A tobacco death requires years of meticulous attention and constant, obsessive care; it is perhaps a marvel of mortal achievement. When you die from smoking, the death is yours.
***
Excerpted from “Long Live the Career Smoker” from Esquire’s Big Book of Great Writing, Hearst Books, 2003
Are you good enough to deserve a room here?
Its owner Charles Henn has a PhD from Cambridge. He doesn’t shake hands with guests. He hangs a sign outside saying “Sex tourists not welcome”. He throws out guests who complain. Louts and degenerates are not welcome. Coasters warn you: no sleaze, no yobbish behaviour, and keep your feet off the couch.
Welcome to The Atlanta in Bangkok where “miscreants and catamites” will be tossed out, and which caters to a certain kind of clientele: writers, academics, and discerning travelers who seek rest and comfort in refined surroundings among like-minded people.
Read the fascinating article here: No room for the wicked
If wishes were horses, coasters could be…
These coasters, according to Scary Ideas, were printed using a special invisible red ink, which spreads only when moistened. The Mumbai Traffic Police placed at tables and bar counters in Mumbai’s prominent bars. When a customer places their moist glass of alcohol on it, the red ink starts spreading and the face starts to bleed.”
Courtesy: Scary Ideas
The emulsified high fat offal tube
# Is a ban on straight bananas in the offing?
# Will the British sausage be renamed as “emulsified high fat offal tube”?
# Will the “Bombay Mix” have to be renamed because of the change in the city’s name?
# Is the pint as a measurement of beer doomed?
# Are the cleavages of British bar maids in danger?
Are “po-faced pen pushers” also known as “barmy Brussels bureaucrats” or “meddling eurocrats” running riot and changing the way the Brits live and eat and drink?
Read the full story: Guide to the best euromyths
Chinese chow is so mean
Chinese food has had its fans and fanatics, but it has never gotten away from the bad publicity fetched for it by MSG. Now a new consumer report says chinese chow isn’t quite as healthy as we all assumed. A typical battered, fried chicken dish with vegetables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat.
On the citizen journalism site, Now Public, Victoria Revay has five suggestions toeat Chinese and stay healthy:
# Look for dishes that are less meat centric and more veggie oriented
# No deep fried stuff or dim sum
# Hold the sauce
# Limit salt
# Share your meal
Read the full story here: Forbidden rice and egg rolls
Related link: Should you say sayonara to Chinese food?
What do they put in pet food?
The death of nine cats and a dog due to kidney failure has led to the recall of 60 million units by a US pet food maker suspecting the wheat in it. But what do they put in pet food?
The Explainer on Slate says pet food contains meat that we don’t want for ourselves, mostly animal parts that humans rarely consume—heads, bones, blood, and organs. It might also contain parts from sick or dying animals. Rendering plants grind the meat byproducts and ship the meal to pet-food makers.
“The meal is combined with carbohydrates such as corn, thickeners like guar gum, vitamins, minerals, food coloring, and preservatives. To make wet food, this glop is then heated in a pressure cooker and canned or sealed in a pouch.
“For dry pellets, the stuff is heated, cut into tiny pieces, dried, and then wrapped for shipment. More expensive brands tend to have fixed formulas, while cheaper brands change recipes to include ingredients that happen to be selling cheap.”
Read the full article here: What do they put in pet food?
If there’s no tissue paper in the toilet…
It’s a sight familiar to Indian restaurant (and pub and bar) goers. Great ambience, great food, great drinks. But the moment the time arrives to unload the bladder, horror.
Why, you wonder in anger, can’t they spend a bit more money and build better loos? Why do the taps leak? Why are there so many stains on the wall? Why can’t they have more space so that you don’t knock over your neighbour while zipping yourself up? Brighter lights? More tissue paper? Flushes that work?
Why, for heaven’s sake, is there a little bowl at the bottom of the two men’s urinals in Koshy‘s, Bangalore, as if they are collecting samples for random dope testing?
Rama Nayak‘s in Matunga, Bombay, used to have a little sign hanging atop the kitchen: “Customers are welcome to inspect the kitchen.” How many of our restaurants and pubs and bars have the courage and cleanliness to hang some on top of their toilets exhorting customers to take a peek?
Such a pleasure, therefore, to see Sally Peck go to an uber-chic underground eatery in London and find the situation is no different in Ol’ Blighty aka bilayati.
Read the full story: Great food, shame about the loos
kosambari 