Tag Archives: Reviews

Economics: A Review Of The U.S. Economy Over The Decade Of The 2010’s (PBS)

As the year comes to a close, we look back at the past decade in the American economy — the first without a recession since record-keeping began in the 1950s. While unemployment remains at a historic low, wage growth has been sluggish, and inequality continues to divide the country. David Wessel of the Brookings Institution and The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell join Jeffrey Brown.

1960’s Classic Cars: 1966 Citroën DS 21 Convertible

From Wikipedia:

1966 Citroen DS 21 Interior Classic DriverThe Citroën DS is a front-engine, front-wheel-drive executive car that was manufactured and marketed by the French company Citroën from 1955 to 1975 in sedan, wagon/estate and convertible body configurations across three series/generations.

Noted for its aerodynamic, futuristic body design and innovative technology, the DS set new standards in ride quality, handling, and braking — the latter as the first mass production car equipped with disc brakes.

Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni and the French aeronautical engineer André Lefèbvre styled and engineered the car, and Paul Magès developed Classic Driver logothe hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension. Citroën sold 1,455,746 examples, including 1,330,755 manufactured at the manufacturer’s Paris Quai André-Citroën production plant.

The DS placed third in the 1999 Car of the Century poll recognizing the world’s most influential auto designs and was named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine.

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Fastest-Growing Chains: “BurgerIM” Restaurants Offer 11 Protein Options

From a Restaurant Business online article (December 2019):

BurgerIM LogoWith 11 protein options for its burgers (including salmon, lamb, falafel and dry-aged beef), two patty sizes and a host of toppings, Burgerim—which increased its unit count by nearly 250% in 2018 to become the country’s fastest-growing emerging chain—is upping the complexity of the traditional burger concept. 

BurgerIM Facebook page photo

BurgerIM website

The quick-service chain, which has now nearly 200 units (up from 80 in 2018) and another 350 in the “active conception” pipeline, is focusing on training and systems to ensure all those burger variations get executed properly, says Collette Kakuk, Burgerim’s VP of marketing.

Restaurant Business Online logo

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“Future Of Food”: Fast-Growing Salmon, Cell-Based Meat, Diversified Crop Rotation (PBS)

PBS Newshour Weekend Podcast“Future of Food” series on PBS. In this episode they discussed technology in food production including fast-growing salmon (Aquabounty), cell-based meat (Memphis Meats), diversified crop rotation in Iowa, and other trends.

New Fiction Books In 2020: “The New Life Of Hugo Gardner” By Louis Begley

With an ominous oncologist’s report hanging over his head, Hugo decides to get away for a bit, to a conference in Paris. There, a new romance blooms and HugThe New Life of Hugo Gardner by Louis Begley March 2020 releaseo finds himself wondering if growing old in Paris might be the perfect antidote to the drama he left behind in New York. Unflinching, witty, and urbane as ever, Louis Begley delivers a spot-on satire of the world of New York’s aging elite, and uncovers the unexpected delights a late-in-life change can offer.

After four decades of what he believes to be a happy, healthy partnership, Hugo Gardner’s world is overturned when he learns that his wife, Valerie, is not only requesting a divorce but has left him for a younger, more vital man. Hugo, an octogenarian political writer and retired journalist for Time, must rethink the way he’s lived, and reassess how he’d like to spend his remaining years.

Reconsidering past relationships in his mind, with years of distance, Hugo begins to see things in a new light: Valerie, whose youth and ambition eventually came between them; his children, whose support might be more financially than emotionally motivated; and his friends, who, like him are rapidly aging before his very eyes.

Publisher

Mobility In The 2020’s: Top 15 Electric Bikes (Video)

If you haven’t been up on the world of electric bikes you may think that bikes with motors are bulky, ugly contraptions with little power. But electric bikes are quietly revolutionizing commuting and fitness around the world, setting a newer, higher standard for versatility and strength for today’s riders. In this video, we’re bringing you 15 Electric Bikes Changing the Way We Travel in 2019-2020.

Classic Car Books: “Healey – The Men & The Machines”

Healey The Men & The Machines John Nikas January 2020“Nikas combines extensive research into a previously unavailable and highly detailed archive of Donald Healey’s personal records with the author’s masterful ability to weave together an amazing level of detail while making it an eminently readable story. The result is a book that both seasoned automotive historians and anyone with an interest in the story of a life well lived will enjoy. Until you’ve read this book, you don’t know the true story of Donald Healey and his cars”
(Reid Trummel, Editor in Chief, Healey Marque)

Written in collaboration with Gerry Coker, the designer responsible for the iconic Austin-Healey 100 and Sprite, this volume represents the most complete account ever of the sports cars built at Warwick, Longbridge, Abingdon and West Bromwich. With unprecedented access to Donald and Geoffrey Healey’s private papers, diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums, corporate and financial records from BMC, Donald Healey Motor Company and Healey Automobile Consultants, the files of Jensen Motors and Nash-Kelvinator, dozens of personal interviews and exhaustive research into previously unavailable primary source material, this book provides a thorough account of the true story behind these automobiles and the individuals who created them.

To read more and/or purchase

Top Nonfiction Books: “97,196 Words: Essays” By Emmanuel Carrère (NYT)

From a New York Times online review:

97,196 Words Essays by Emmanuel Carrère 2019At the trial, experts analyzed and propounded, and he himself spoke lucidly and in apparent control. Yet Carrère, on hand to cover the proceedings for Le Nouvel Observateur, remarks that those in the courtroom “have had ample time to wonder, from the height of our clinical ignorance and flying in the face of four psychiatric experts, if he really belonged in a criminal court, and if what you felt on your nape wasn’t the cold wind of psychosis.” He ends his two-part article this way: “Behind his glass enclosure, Romand listens expressionless. No one knows what he’s thinking, not even him.”

“At dawn on Monday, Jan. 11, 1993, the fire brigade came to put out a fire in a house in Prévessin-Moëns, a small village in France’s Ain department, near the Swiss border. They found the partially charred bodies of a woman and two children, and a badly burned man, who was taken to the hospital in a critical state.”

So begins the first account by Emmanuel Carrère (now reprinted in “97,196 Words,” his new collection of essays) of the horrifying case of Dr. Jean-Claude Romand that galvanized France: No one had heard of anything like it; no one could understand it. Yet the facts were incontestable, the verdict and sentence assured: guilty, and life imprisonment, the death penalty being a thing of the past in France. (In fact, he was released from prison just this past spring, after serving 26 years.)

To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/books/review/97196-words-emmanuel-carrere.html?te=1&nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20191220?campaign_id=69&instance_id=14730&segment_id=19794&user_id=415092ec82728104b9ca7bbb44eeb7d3&regi_id=7441254120191220

Top New Innovations: “Freflow” Water And Wind Powered Portable Generator (Worthington)

The Blades

The conical 3 blade Archimedes turbine channels air or water from up to 60 degrees of the central axis, making it far more efficient than traditional turbine designs, ideal for natural power generation when out in the wilderness.

To read and see more: https://www.behance.net/alexworthington

 

 

Restaurants: “Hometown Bar-B-Que” In Brooklyn Is NY’s Best BBQ (Bon Appétit)

https://hometownbbq.com/

While New York City may not be a city known for its barbecue, Hometown Bar-B-Que stands apart as a truly great spot to meet your smokey meat needs. We sent Alex Delany to go try one perfect bite of every item on the menu at this joint, and we also sent his buddy Brad Leone along for the ride.