Robot Food Tasters?

I picked this up from Stan's blog.

There's a piece in the Washington Post about using of electronic sensors to taste food and drink.

A Japanese group, for example, has developed a "Health and Food Advice" robot that can identify and distingush among various wines, cheeses, and breads. (And apparently warn its owners not to eat unhealthy food. In which case, I'm not interested. The damn thing probably hates pate.) Presumably it's possible to create a device that can also "taste" and identify flavors in beer.

Anyway, apparently robotic devices some American slaughterhouses are testing these electronic devices, using them to sort and grade sides of beef in accordance with federal standards.

I need to think about this some more, but that's fascinating. The meatpacking industry serves up some of the nation's most unpleasant jobs -- there's a reason illegal immigrants end up there; no one else wants these jobs, which are low-paying, foul, and dangerous -- but it's also the kind of work that is hard to mechanize.

If packinghouse owners could use sensors to grade meat, or even distinguish tainted from safe meat, well, that's probably a good thing. Maybe the brains behind these "robots" could also figure out how to slaughter and butcher cattle and pigs, eliminating human labor altogether.

Yes, okay, the economy needs jobs. But packinghouse work is truly the bottom of the employment ladder.

People only work in packinghouses when there's no alternative.

On the other hand, well, taking humans out of the equation only adds to the already vast distance between we Americans and our food. Soooooo........ maybe not so good.

As I say, I need to think about it. But hey, I'm writing a book about the history of meat in America. I might as well keep thinking about it. If I have any brilliant insight, I'll pass it along.

The Beer Can House and Other Wacky Stuff

Well, okay. Might be worth a road trip.........

.......to visit the Beer Can House in Houston, Texas. It's now owned by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art (translation: a group of people who've rounded up enough dough to buy, preserve, and celebrate the work of local eccentrics.)

The group's site is here. Roll your cursor over the round icons at the top to find the Beer Can House and other delights.

There's a story about the house in today's New York Times.

Seventy-five Years Ago: FDR

March 4, 1933: Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office and moved into the White House.

Why does that matter? Because he campaigned on the Democrats’ promise to end Prohibition. He got that project underway a few days later by asking Congress to legalize the manufacture and sale of beer. On April 7, 1933, beer came back.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging about that moment in our history. Stay tuned.

But today, take a few minutes to read FDR’s first inaugural address. He began his first term during the Great Depression, when Americans faced economic disaster on a scale that, bad as things are now, few of us can imagine. His message of hope is as inspiring now as it was then.

Nearly Surreal Dumbass Move

Oh, man, this surely must be the dumbass move of the week -- if not the month, year, and decade. Remember the James Frey fake memoir? How Oprah touted him until she figured out he'd concocted the whole story? (I'm not gonna dignify Frey with a link to anything.)

Here we go again, only this time the fakery is on an even grander scale.

A woman named Margaret B. Jones (except that's not her real name...) wrote a memoir about her life in the gang world of South LA. About growing up mixed race, in poverty, being a single mother, blah blah blah.

A publishing house bought this miracle of brilliant prose and pulse-racing narrative.

So the book landed in bookstores this week, and Ms. "Jones" (her real name is Margaret Seltzer) sat down for an interview with a reporter from the New York Times. The resulting piece ran on February 28.

It's a looong article detailing her former life as a foster child, as a drug-dealing gang member. The reporter (and the subject) wax rhapsodic about her new life in Oregon, living in a nice house, working as a writer, cooking black-eye peas for the friends who stop by. On and on.

Lies, all of it. Well, okay, she's living in Oregon. That part's right. The rest? One fabricated detail after another.

Now I ask you: What kind of a dumbass is this woman? She'd managed to hoodwink the publisher (and shame on her editor at the publishing house). But did she really think that her real family (an ordinary middle-class group from a tony suburb of LA) wouldn't figure it out?

I mean, there's her photograph plastered all over the place.

Did she think her own mother and siblings weren't going to recognize her?

I figure this woman is either the most arrogant creature on the planet - or the dumbass of the week.

Maybe both.

Don Barkley Returns to His "Roots"

The last two chapters of my beer book cover the "microbrewing revolution" (or "real beer movement" or whatever tern you prefer). I interviewed a number of people involved in changing the American beer scene. One of my most important sources of information was Don Barkley.

In the 1970s, he was an avid homebrewer who enrolled in the UC-Davis brewing program with the goal of going professional. More important, he was one of two "employees" at New Albion, the nation's first microbrewery (he got paid in beer; I guess that made him an employee....). His recollections of what happened there proved to be an unexpected and priceless treasure for me.

I met Don in person at the 2006 GABF, and then got to drink some beer and enjoy serious talk time with him and his wife in San Francisco in October 2006.

Anyway -- I just learned, thanks to Stan, that Don has retired from Mendocino (where he went after New Albion closed) and joined a new small-scale craft-brewing venture called Napa Smith Brewing Co.

I'm delighted to hear this. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Don is the longest serving brewmaster now working in the United States. And he's young (53). He's got a lot of great beer left in him.

And I know this much about being in my fifties: new challenges are crucial to keeping the mind and spirit young.

So this is exciting news about a guy that I ilke and admire. You can read about the venture here and at Bill Brand's blog.

Don, here's to you!

And a BIG tip 'o the mug to Stan for alerting me to this news.

Beer Haiku

Okay, more cool stuff. Check out beerhaikudaily.com,which is precisely what the name implies. Thanks and a tip 'o the mug to the folks at Imbibe magazine.