5/29/2009:  Peter L. Bernstein, Agains the Gods, Tjhe Remarkable Story of Risk.  Wiley, 1996.

OK, this book sort of overcame the handicap mentioned earlier of crediting Archimedes with the actual invention of the lever, and turned into something rather interesting.  If you're interested in probability and risk.  So skip the intro, and don't worry about the last chapters where he tries to say something intelligent about chaos theory and other "modern" risk analysis techniques.  Read the sections covering  the time from the Renaissance through the early 20th century -  it is quite readable and seems solid.

And then wonder along with me what his feelings about risk analysis is today, after the melt down of so many of the derivative financial instruments that he seems to appreciate.

We will probably never know.

Tags: books
Current Mood: hungry

Here's a variant for you - an author who may have irrevocably flipped the bozo bit before he even got out of the first chapter:  Peter L. Bernstein, Against the Gods:  The Remarkable Story of Risk, Wiley, 1996.   It is a subject (history of probability and statistics) that I've been interested in for a long time - I even blocked out a project to do an interactive course on the topic (nothing ever came of it but some notes) in a previous life - so I approached it with a very positive attitude.  I WANTED it to be good.

Instead, before Bernstein even gets to the meat of the subject he drops this little gem into the stream: 


"When Archimedes invented the lever ..." For Gods' sakes - even primates have been known to use levers - Does Bernstein think the Greeks - or ANYBODY in the ancient world lifted huge stone blocks with their bare hands - or perhaps it was telekinesis, or Tools of the Gods!?  Does he know NOTHING?  and does he think that the Greeks didn't start using levers until much later than Archimedes "invented" them?  Poor Archimedes - an inventor so ahead of his time. ...  It makes the Greeks sound so interesting - a hunter-gatherer agricultural urban culture all in one!  And what is the referent of the word "it" in the second sentence?  The earth?  or the lever?  And didn't  Wiley employ editors back in the last century?

So here's the dilema.  I don't know that I can keep reading this thing.  How can you respect an author that pulls a trick like that on page 16?  On the other hand, there's a sort of fascination to it - wondering if it can get any worse ...

Tags: books

"Unleash the Taste"   "Handcrafted"

Non-Alcoholic, Best if kept refrigerated

Ingredients:  Carbonated water, cane sugar, honey, maltodextrin,m natural and artifical falvors, sodium benzoate, real vanila, phosphoric acid, salt.

Orca Beverage Soda Works

Quite a nice one actually - smooth, bits of the honey and vanila come through.  Creamy mouth feel.  very nice.  I'd have this one again (a good thing, I think there are three left - I'll have to force myself :-)

Rate this a B+

Tags: root beer
Current Mood: hungry

Actually, Weber's Superior Old Fashioned Caffeine Free Root Beer - an Old Family Recipe with 14 Natural Ingredients.  (You can tell I have problem with parsing the name).

Contains:  Carbonated Water, Real Sugar and/or Corn Sweetener, Caramel Color, Natural Root Flavor, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate.  (And I sense some ambivalence in that "and/or"  ... No telling what you're going to get.

Bottled under the authority of Weber's Superior Root Beer, Inc., Tulsa Oklahoma 74105 ... Huebert Brewing Company, Oklahoma City, OK 73109.

Not a favorite by any means - strongest note in the blend is something like wintergreen.  A fairly astringent mouth feel - possibly from the citric acid?  And with "14 natural ingredients" you would think more of them would be listed ...  The wishy-washy attitude toward corn sweetener also raises questions - either they've got it or they don't - or they don't care and take whatever is available.  Not a good attitude, or at least one reflective of a commitment to quality.

Rate this one a D

Tags: root beer
Current Mood: hungry

"Drive-in Style"

I wonder if Dog n Suds was an answer to A&W - both drive-ins that have mostly vanished.  Never fear, like so many things not completely vanished, any more than sailing ships or hand operated printing presses - they're just harder to find.  I know at least one Dog n Suds where you can still get a hot dog (not bad) and a root beer (quite good). Of course you have to go to Montague, MI, and there right by White Lake is an original Dog n Suds.

I do wonder if the root beer they sell there is the same as the bottled stuff.  The bottled Dog n Suds Drive-in Style Root Beer is smooth, has a slightly spicy front end and sweet back end, with overtones of vanilla (or coconut, it's hard to tell).

As a drinking root beer - not bad.

However, it should probably have a "Not Brewed, Manufactured" label.  The ingredients:  "Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (as Preservative), Natural and Artificial Flavor. " 

At least it doesn't say "All genuine ingredients!"

Rate it a B-.

Whit

Tags: root beer
Current Mood: tired

Within reach for a long lunch from Austin - this is "the other" well known BBQ in Elgin.  There is a third, but that will be another trip.

Last time in Elgin I tried Southside Market, and was generally disappointed - even the famous Elgin Hot Sausage was weak.  Well, it was no better at Meyers.  I got three meats (sausage, brisket, ribs) with two sides (potato salad and cole slaw).  The serving was generous.  Scott got turkey, brisket, ribs, and we swapped turkey for sausage.

The sausage (what they are famous for) was on the dry side and without much flavor.  The turkey was slightly dry but acceptable, but had an odd almost metalic tang to it that wasn't good.  The brisket was excellent - good crust and smoke ring, moist, good rub.  Very nice.  The ribs were almost good - but the ribs themselves were scrawny - just not enough meat.  Well done though, good smoke flavor, the meat tasted good - what there was of it.

The sides were nothing to write home about but not terrible - a mustard-mayonaise potato salad.  Except for the grit in the last bite (I'm still wondering what could be gritty in a potato salad) it was OK. The cole slaw was a creamy slaw - not bad but again, nothing special.

Give this one a C, at least today.

Tags: bbq
Current Mood: disappointed

"Oh Rootie" and "Made By Chef Gale Gand

Complete with a little story on the label from Chef Gand about the little terrier puppy he got while in England, deprived of Root Beer who he named "Rootie," and how when he came back to the United States he started aking his own root beer to serve in his restaurants.

This is definitely a boutique root beer - I've never seen it sold other than as single bottles, and it's pricey.  But good.  The strongest hit of flavor that I get from it is cinnamon, which definitely sets it apart.  There's a slight hint of ginger that's pretty far back, and some vanilla that smooths it out.  The cinnamon front end makes it a very nice spicy root beer.

High fructose corn sweeter instead of cane sugar which is too bad.

Give this one a B+

Tags: root beer

Took my brother on another BBQ outing for lunch today.  We'd already done Ruby's and Salt Lick on this trip, we did Cooper's and Kreutz before, but he'd never been to Elgin - Home of the Sausage (at least it seems that way from the way Elgin and Sausage seem to be always linked around here).

He was doubly tempted, because we had some Elgin sausage when we were at Ruby's this weekend, and he thought it was among the best, if not THE best sausage he'd ever had - so a trip to the font of sausage was appealing.

Southside Market and BBQ is on US Hwy 290 as it enters Elgin, roughly 30 miles from home, so well within reach.   The place is large, with a full size meat market on the side, a gift shop, two dining areas, an ice cream counter, and a welcoming sign with the reminder that  "Nothing says I love you like sausage."  Words to remember.

We just did meat, so I can't say anything about the sides, but they have the usual assortment - potato salad, beans, Cole Slaw - we skipped them all.  For meat we picked the sausage (of course), baby back ribs (a good test of a bbq joint), and for something completely different, mutton.

So a pound and a half of meat on butcher paper, and in to the trestle tables in one of the dining areas. 

The results were a complete inversion of my expectations.  The sausage was OK - not great, drier than we had had it earlier, somewhat bland, more densely packed.  So strike one was that the Elgin sausage we had two days earlier in Austin was better than the Elgin sausage we had in Elgin.  go figure.

The baby back ribs were strange - in fact I rather doubt they were baby backs at all.  In any case they were meaty, on the dry side, not falling off the bone, and cut rather strangely - like the took the ribs and cut them in half.  The smoke was good, but not enough to raise them above a C for baby backs.

The real prize was the mutton - it was awesome.  Not strong flavored at all.  Moist, but not overwhealmingly fatty, good smoke flavor, tender.  Borther John commented that it was the best mutton he had ever eaten, and I'll agree - though the sample size of the mutton I have tasted is not large - this was clearly exceptional.

The remaining oddity was their BBQ Sauce.  Tasting it you might wonder if they put it out to punish those foolish enough to put sauce on perfectly good smoked meat, but in fact they sell the stuff by the bottle.  VERY vinegery with a pepper tang.  It must appeal to tastes different than mine.

Overall, give this one a B

Tags: bbq
Current Mood: full

This is a solid commercial brand, very rich and creamy, reasonable head (but falls quickly).  Fairly strong caramel flavor with some vanilla finish.  No strong herbal or spice notes that I can identify, but I'm still learning.  Not one that Alfreda can drink as it has corn syrup:

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, potassium benzoate (as preservative), citric acid and natrural and artifical flavor, gum acacia.  Not a very auspicious list of ingredients, but Faygo is a root beer that I wouldn't turn down if one were offered.

A good commercial brand, give it a solid B.

Tags: root beer
Current Mood: full

"finest Hawaiian quality"

A gift from Alfreda89 - very interesting.  Not much head, strong molasses notes, some vanilla smoothness but it's hidden under the a strong caramel flavor.  I'd have this one again.  Personal taste:  I could have used more classic root beer flavors, and less of the molasses note.  The ingredient list doesn't have molasses, so it's probably either one of the "natural flavors" or a result of the cane sugar - since they list both "cane sugar" and "white cane sugar" the molasses notes may come in from the raw (is that the same as "turbinado?") cane sugar.

Ingredients:  Carbonated water, cane sugar, Maui natural white cane sugar, natural flavor, caramel color, sodium benzoate, citric acid, Hawaiian vanilla extract.

Grade:  B

Tags: root beer