Cookies that taste like other cookies

I recently commented on Simon Reynold’s excellent book Retromania and how it aptly explains current stagnation in music, the visual arts, and fashion. Retromania, also affects consumer behavior in the grocery store. Particularly in times of upheaval and uncertainty people turn to processed comfort foods popular in earlier decades. For example grocery stores in the …

Brush daily

Yesterday I got my teeth cleaned. As the dental hygienist was poking around in my mouth, I recalled the “bright idea/sell more toothpaste” legend. This trope has been around for years and goes something like this: A man approaches a major toothpaste manufacturer and says he has an innovation which would cost little to implement …

Pale Blue Pants (with nobody inside them)

Today in an homage to Theodor Geisel (opinions of overly PC librarians be damned) I offer you a photo of my pale blue pants with nobody inside them. Normally, I’m inside them. And, as they're my favorite pants, I’m inside them quite often. So, when they ripped, I patched them. Well, actually my wife did …

Flight Shame

I am flying today for the first time in over a year. Ecological footprint calculations combined with countless articles about flight shame have kept me from the airport. However, I’m travelling to the States, and I don’t have the time or moral conviction of Greta Thunberg. Not surprisingly, Austrian Airlines has picked up on the …