Major food companies employ virtual armies of chefs, food scientists, and marketing gurus dedicated to developing, test-marketing, and (if all goes well) eventually rolling out new products. Both salty and sweet, and sometimes both…
The news outlet ProPublica recently revealed that U.S. billionaires pay little or no federal income tax on their immense fortunes, and the details are deeply unnerving to anyone except the most ardent defenders of…
Restaurants — both chain operations and individual establishments — change all the time, evolving, modernizing, pivoting in response to the introduction of new culinary products or cooking techniques, improved technology, and of course changing…
We’ve all experienced it. You call customer service only to spend 40 minutes on the phone plodding through a cascade of robotic messages instructing you to press this or that number, often interrupted by…
Gardening has always been a popular activity, and it became even more popular during the pandemic, both as an activity homebound families could share and as a way to prepare for anticipated food shortages. …
Restaurant companies employ chefs, nutritionists, and food scientists by the dozens to constantly refine their offerings and develop new ones. Today’s menus at, say, McDonald’s or Taco Bell, Applebee’s or TGI Fridays, will almost…
The term “top 1%” is used a lot these days to illustrate the widening chasm between the richest Americans and nearly everyone else in the country. The data is measured either by comparing annual…
There are different ways to measure a country’s wealth. For example, the World Bank ranks the United States first in total gross domestic product but 13th in per capita GDP, below such other wealthy…
Thin potato slices fried crisp in oil date from the early 19th century, when they are said to have been invented by chef George Speck in Saratoga Springs, New York. Chips, as they came…
Yelp has recently compiled a list of the 25 best seafood restaurants in America. The site identified businesses listing seafood as a specialty, then ranked them according to a number of factors, including user…
In 1997, director James Cameron’s “Titanic” broke records by becoming the most expensive movie ever made, with a budget of $200 million. Since then, $200 million movies have become almost commonplace — and one…
As the weather warms, vaccinations proliferate, and pandemic-era restrictions on dining, gathering, and travel are canceled or greatly curtailed, one refrain is common throughout the country (either literally or figuratively): Let’s get out of…
As long as there have been motion pictures, there have been horror films. The genre has gone through numerous evolutions since the first three-minute horror short, “Le Manoir du Diable” (“The House of the…
American culture and influence has spread globally since early in the last century, in part thanks to Hollywood. Be it Coca Cola, Nike, or rap music, people worldwide have adopted everything American — well,…
Access to pharmacies is a crucial part of healthcare for countless Americans. In addition to dispensing life-saving medications and vaccines — including the vaccines for COVID-19 — pharmacists also function as knowledgeable care providers…
They say that truth is often stranger than fiction and the following movies are here to prove it. Each title takes direct inspiration from a real-life person or persons, people whose stories were considered…
Pandemic closures have been particularly tough on the restaurant business. The National Restaurant Association estimates roughly 110,000 restaurants have shuttered either temporarily and permanently as patrons ate at home to avoid COVID-19. (These are…
Although the first Father’s Day was celebrated in Washington state on June 19, 1919 (it’s on June 20 this year), it didn’t become an official national holiday until 1972– a half century after Mother’s…
It’s happened many times. A high-profile killing by law enforcement officials of an unarmed suspect, disproportionately likely to be African-American, leads to public outcry. Then the news cycle moves on, and little seems to…
Baseball may be America’s pastime, but filmmakers know that football is America’s passion. Football at various levels — from Pee Wee to the National Football League — has been the subject or the backdrop…
