Archive for February, 2008

Myron Cope, 1929-2008

It’s probably to easy to slip into sappiness in the wake of Mahrn’s passing, but I won’t forget listening to the never-ending parade of fall-evening “first-time callers” as my dad had the radio tuned to Cope’s show in the evenings. Myron might be more famous as a clown and one of the first wacky sports guys — the man who invented the Terrible Towel and had funny, screechy sayings — but he was first of all a bright football commentator and a tremendous writer. The sports media would do well to follow more his example of intelligence, humility and fun.

Interesting note: apparently Cope once came close to beating up Norman Mailer (6:14).

Philadelphians Fail Yet Again to Dispel Stereotypes

Two Philly residents, a man and his brother-in-law, got into a fight over which Democratic candidate was better suited to be President. One man almost died after being stabbed, and the other is in jail on a felony assault charge.

If this happens during the primaries, the general is going to involve live gladiator contests. Perhaps tridents may even be thrown.

The Cacao Craze

Yesterday while housesitting for a friend, the wife and I finished off a hearty dinner. (For those both wondering and not wondering, I dropped culinary skillz to the tune of mussels in white-wine and garlic broth accompanied by a toasted baguette, fresh green beans in lemon-parsley butter and rosemary roasted potatoes. Fools better recognize.) While coming down from my mollusk-induced high, I opted for a piece of chocolate for dessert. I curiously noted the chocolate’s label: “65% Cacao”.

Trendspotting time, homes.

Chocolate companies are repping this cacao trend to the fullest. Take a look at some of the yuppie high-end chocolates next time you’re at the grocery store, and you’ll inevitably notice more percentage rates than a savings and loan.

For those who aren’t Pennsylvanian — read “awesome” — and haven’t done Hershey’s Chocolate World (be warned that the link features loud and annoying music), the cacao tree — native to Mesoamerica and an important part of the Columbian exchange — produces the beans that are processed into cocoa and, subsequently, chocolate. If chocolate is steel, cacao is the iron ore. (I guess that means adding milk is the Bessemer process and Switzerland is the Monongahela Valley.)

As a dude who likes to get his occasional chocolate on, I think I am qualified to state that good chocolate, like any good food, does happen solely by cramming your product with as much of one ingredient as you can. It is instead about balance: cacao is one part, but how well do you balance it with sugar, milk and other ingredients? That is key.

The cacao-percentage thing then is sly marketing: a way for one chocolate company to artificially quantify that its product is better than the competitor. I don’t know if this strategy is native to the U.S. chocolate market, but it does seem like a peculiarly American way to advertise food. Add in the oft-discussed health benefits of dark chocolate — easily confused with its tastier milk-enhanced variant, and who doesn’t like to exaggerate the healthiness of something that tastes great? — and you have the perfect status-symbol storm.

I think most of us are smart enough not to buy chocolate based on it having some higher numerical value, but I’m sure there are people who do so. To those people, I say, yo: buy the best-tasting kind, because higher cacao != consistently awesome.

This chocolate, on the other hand, always == awesome.

Election Narrative?

After reading this Newsweek opinion piece on Obama, which is similar to this Slate piece and another post I wrote, I have to wonder if the Democratic election narrative won’t go something like this:

1. Obama wins nomination, which is attributed to his feel-good rhetoric
2. Media logically begins inspection into his positions
3. Said positions aren’t that different than anything already out there
4. Media / McCain emphasizes this point, deflating “message of change”

If excitement about change really is Obama’s biggest strength, then that’s potential trouble.

I’m Shipping Up To Boston

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the title of this post is a very good DKM song. But I digress.

I’m heading up for observation of the land where sports-fan self-pity survives even in the face of multiple championships. While it might be rare for an Irish-American to have gone this long without stopping through Massachusetts, I’d like to point out that my grandparents managed to go their entire lives without visiting Boston, and they rocked the Irish-immigrant thing just the same.

Baked beans for all and Happy President’s Day.

Going Out On a Less-Than-Graceful Note

From Politico:

Romney framed his departure as one of duty to party and country. “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Sen. Clinton or Obama would win,” he said. “And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

“A surrender to terror” if a Democrat wins? Come on, man, that is so 2004.

Collard Greens Recipe

If awesome was a flavor, it would be this. It doesn’t have the ham hocks or fatback that you find in the greens at Southern restaurants, but it tastes just as great and is healthier.

1 lb. collard greens, cut up and washed
14 oz. (1 can) chicken stock
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
3 tsp olive oil
Hot sauce to taste

Put it all in a big covered pot. Boil it for 30 minutes. Stir it now and then. Grub it and thank me. (Technically you should thank the people who printed this on the bag of greens I bought, but that’s just semantics.)

Oh, and if you end up throwing away any greens — you should do this with any yellow or wilted parts — be sure to put them out in the garage or something, because those things stink really bad after a day in the trash.

For real, they smell gross.

The OS X Candidate?

This Tuesday is not only Fat, but Super!

Geeta and I were discussing the election yesterday, and I noted how Barack Obama’s oft-cited appeal to young, creative types like us — that might be flattery, but hey, we are the target demo — makes me worry that the rest of the country might actually resent him for it. His flock might be seen as too cool and hip for the average folk, and they’d hold it against him. Then I read this, and it brought that thought home in a neat geeky analogy:

Obama’s a Mac, Clinton’s a PC

I’ve taken shots at Apple before for their cooler-than-thou branding, and their fan base in some ways parallels the nature of Obama’s. But I think it would be unfair to make this comparison based on Hillary and Obama themselves, since Obama is putting forth ideas and optimism without exclusion, and some of his supporters just happen to trend toward the young and fashionable. Apple’s anti-PC thing is a deliberate marketing strategy; Obama’s audience came together on its own, and while the young part of it gets a lot of press, he has supporters of all stripes.

It’s still an interesting comparison of the two Democratic camps. And like Microsoft, Hillary is doing pretty well in financial market share herself.

The One Downside to the Giants’ Victory

”As for the 1972 Dolphins, I don’t take joy in the fact the Patriots lost - period,” said Jim Mandich, the tight end on the 17-0 team. ”But I do relish and savor the fact that there has only been one unbeaten team in the history of the NFL, and it is the 1972 Miami Dolphins.”

Seriously, 1972 dudes: after 35 years, it’s time to give it a rest. The Patriots won 18 in a row counting the AFC Championship, while you Dolphin jags had to win 17 including the Super Bowl. Times have changed.

A Grateful Nation Rejoices

Wow!

• A thinking football fan would say I should have been happy if the Patriots had won and decisively proved their worth as the best team in the past however-many years. Yes, I would have dryly appreciated that. But on a purely emotional and more powerful level, I’m incredibly happy that the Giants won, and in spectacular fashion. Congratulations to my old city of residence.
• Props to Rob, Paul and my other New York friends on the win. As Paul said, “It’s nice to see the country lined up behind an NYC team for once.” The Giants and Steelers are now 2-0 in Super Bowls in which Rob and I text each other ongoing football analysis throughout the game. His final message: “Did that just happen?”
• My friend Billy said today that the Patriots’ linebacking corps was too old and gassed to last through the game, and that the Giants could potentially get yards up the middle through the short- to medium-range passing game. Oddly enough that happened more at the game’s beginning than at the end, when the Giants were driving with midfield passes and off-tackle runs. That didn’t get them the points, and the fact that those points came on long passes over the Patriots’ big-time secondary made this more of a surprising win.
• Despite such a fantastic fourth quarter, the primarily turnover-free defensive battle beforehand led me to text my bro at halftime that the game was “boring as s—”. In hindsight, keeping the score so low is what allowed the Giants to take a shot into the 4th quarter.
• My vote for most-valuable player would have gone to Justin Tuck or Osi Umenyiora, but that’s not to take away from Eli’s very un-Eli performance. He earned a “Go Team Manning!” from Geeta. Does “Eli-like” have to be retired as a negative comparison?
• I was surprisingly touched by Plaxico Burress’ postgame interview. He was the last person I would have expected to get emotional like that.
• And the obligatory commercial notes:

  1. The Audi Godfather ad: supreme. The “Rocky” Budweiser horse was solid. Props from Geeta to both that ad, the Coke parade floats and the yelling squirrel.
  2. Geeta disliked the Will Ferrell Bud Light ad, but man, that was hilarious.
  3. I’m a little lost on how associating Doritos with random, brutal beatings is a desired thing. Same with Toyota and face-shredding badger claws. Questionable calls there, ad execs.
  4. We also must like hearts exploding out of chests and walking around the hallway. That was disgusting.
  5. UnderArmour: for ripped denizens of a 1984 world? But the reappearance of “Protect This House” guy was a tremendous upshot. I love it.
  6. The Tide stain thing worked cleverly. And I liked Charles Barkley with the phone.
  7. That was definitely Donkeylips from Salute Your Shorts fame in a commercial for Amped energy drink. Nice! Even if it made me seriously uncomfortable to see him clamping jumper cables on his chest.
  8. Iron Man has definite coolness potential.

Party on, New York.