Month: September 2019

Ages Of Discord

Turchin has some great stories about unity vs. polarization over time. For example in the 1940s, unity became such a “problem” that concerned citizens demanded more partisanship: Concerned about electoral torpor and meaningless political debate, the American Political Science Association in 1946 appointed a committee to examine the role of parties in the American system. 4 years later, the committee published a lengthy (and alarmed) report calling for the return of ideologically distinct and powerful political parties. Parties ought to stand for distinct sets of politics, the political scientists urged. Voters should be presented with clear choices.

Carnival Row

Humans and mythical creatures struggle to live together peaceably in the wake of a devastating war as a brutal serial killer runs amok in Carnival Row, a new “Victorian neo-noir” fantasy series on Amazon Prime. It’s part murder mystery, part fairy tale, and 100% wholly original, rather than being an adaptation of pre-existing source material. Small wonder Amazon has already ordered a second season of this lush and richly textured series.

Caffé Panna

It was in that city, on a sojourn cooking at the American Academy, that Meyer first fell in love with Italian gelato culture — how the product was churned daily and not allowed to harden overnight, the fruit-forwardness of the flavors, the way it was ingrained into the whole of society’s daily life. But especially with panna, or whipped cream, the topping that inspired the name of her new shop, Caffè Panna. There, the high-fat cream of Piemontese cows will be whipped fresh and dolloped freely, as it is in Italy. It will also be used to crown Meyer’s signature dessert, composed affogato sundaes that combine their Italian roots with Meyer’s all-American love of mix-ins, crunch, and swirls. “I just have so much fun pairing coffee and ice cream, and figuring out all the different things that go really well in an affogato. And it tastes like Rome to me. It makes me really happy.”

Lekka

Amanda Cohen has some surprising opinions about veggie burgers: “They’re usually kind of thin patties; they’re mushy; they don’t hold together; there’s a lot of sauces or things accompanying them that I think mask the flavor; they’re always a little grainy.” Most of all, though, they’re just plain boring. Which might make you wonder why she’s gearing up to open Lekka. She worked up a brand-new recipe that takes the original Song-dynasty text purely as inspiration, not scripture. It contains mushrooms, beans, gluten-free grains, and something secret that prevents the thing from disintegrating on the flame grill. She plans to serve it on a house-baked vegan Japanese milk bun; dress it with toppings like Hatch-chile sauce and curry-tamarind ketchup; and offer it alongside crinkle-cut fries, inventive salads, and nondairy shakes.

Norm

At Norm’s, it’s all about the cheeses. There are 4 of them — ricotta, of course, as well as Grana Padano, and both low-moisture and fresh mozzarella — as well as garlic, lemon zest, and Franks’ Green Gold olive oil. The only real outlier on the regular menu is the spicy vodka, given heat by Calabrian chilies.

Uber chaos

If this book creates an entire class of shitty founders, you’re welcome to call me up in a year and tell me that I failed. I hope that’s not the case. In general, I like to give young founders a little more credit. I have a lot of criticisms of the Valley, but I think people generally recognize what went wrong inside of Uber now, and have a sense of wariness around how they want their own company to grow. Uber is a case study in going totally off the rails. I hope folks learned from that and I think that’s already kind of happening. I don’t see folks holding up Uber as the ideal. There are some Kool-Aid drinkers that were early in Uber that still fiercely defend everything that they did, and I think it’s going to be harder for them to defend that as time goes on.