Oliver Mak runs Bodega, on Clearway St. near the Christian Science
Center. He is my expert on all things of the moment. When he
skateboards by for a cup of coffee I can ask him important questions.
The NYTimes still runs banner photos that evoke the glories of the May
Day Parades in Moscow. Back then everyone in the Supreme Soviet would
clamber atop Lenin’s Tomb and line up like members of the Super Bowl
champs visiting the White House. But instead of wearing those
distinctive oversized Soviet hats or the strange dictator styles of
South America the new rogues’ gallery is more likely to feature….
baseball caps. When American cops started wearing them they began
looking like Dads who coach softball teams. Even French cops
sometimes wear them, shattering any remnant of the Glory that Is -or
was- France. In Iran President Ahmadinejad spoke at a military
parade. He, like President Kennedy, was hatless, and like a Silicon
Valley executive he was tieless. To his right was a general wearing
the cap of an admiral from a landlocked country. Everyone else,
according to Oliver, was wearing “54-50 Standard” headgear, and
looking very urban American. Even people who probably hate us can’t
stop incorporating television images.

1. This was a week with a lot of events outside the store. On
Tuesday night I went to Attwoods on Cambridge Street for the
publication party for Cambridge Local First’s guide to small
businesses. A lot of people, great food and a lot of handsome guides
that are available for free by the cash register. On Thursday night I
went to the opening of the new central library in Cambridge. The
building, by William Rawn, is gorgeous. The event was a happy coming
together of parents, students, teachers, neighbors, and librarians.
It is unfortunate that the city did not site this library in Central
Square, just as it is also unfortunate that the new police
headquarters in hidden away in East Cambridge, close to the
Cambridgeside Galleria substation. There is still a week before the
library opens for reading. I heard that it cost $90,000,000.

2. New England Conservatory always has something good going on, and
since almost everything is free there is nothing that is not worth
investigating. On Friday, October 30, at 830PM, in Williams Hall
there will be a tuba recital by the virtuoso Oystein Baadsvik. This
sounds a little like a moment in a John Irving novel, but I once
attended a wonderful concert by the conservatory’s Percussion
Ensemble. That is a great name for a band or a WMBR show, but it was
also a wonderful and surprising night.

3. Ty Burr of the Globe reports that Boston is getting its own
repertory movie theatre. “All that’s missing is the audience, and
that should change tomorrow, when the Stuart Street Playhouse reopens
as a movie theater and Boston gets its first art house cinema in
years. The venue’s initial offerings will be the Juliette Binoche
drama “Paris’’ and the fashion documentary “The September Issue,’’
screening in alternating show times, followed in coming weeks by
“Bright Star’’ and “Amreeka.’’
All four films have been playing in local theaters since last month,
but the Stuart Street may eventually open new releases. “I want to
make this into a first-run independent and foreign film theater,’’
says new proprietor David Bramante of the 435-seat space. “It’s Boston
- we should have one.’’
We used to have much more than one. Well over a dozen movie houses of
all kinds – including the Stuart Street’s original tenant, the Sack 57
twin screen – used to thrive within the city’s limits. Now there exist
only two commercial picture palaces, both of them corporate
googolplexes: The AMC Loews Boston Common with its 19 screens and the
Regal Fenway Stadium with 13.
Institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, with its robust film
program, and the New England Aquarium and Museum of Science, with
their IMAX screens, fill some of the gaps. Still, Bostonians craving
the latest indie feature or Oscar-nominated German film have for years
had to travel to the Brattle or Kendall Square in Cambridge or the
Coolidge Corner in Brookline to get their fix.
“It’s a shame that Boston of all places does not have an art house
within the city limits,’’ says George Mansour, who has been booking
movies into local and national nonchain houses for 45 of his 75 years.
“Baltimore has an art house. Great Barrington has an art house. I
applaud David for taking the plunge.’’
I saw the movie Paris, and it had all the virtues of French cinema,
including a wonderful, very varied soundtrack.

4. Monday, No 2 09. 7P. Joan Jonas Performance Hall at 265 Mass.
Ave., Building N51, Room 337 the MIT Visual Arts Program Lecture
Series will present “City as Stage, City as Process”, with Ana
Miljacki and Nomeda Urbonas.

5. Its Halloween and we wracked our brains to come up with a flavor
that wasn’t too stupid for the holiday. I think the best we could do
was to use Halloween Oreos with orange cream filling. We’re also
working on Green Apple Rose Sorbet and Apple Curry ice cream.

6. MIT’s newspaper of record, The Tech, has a long article about new
production chief, Kevin Rafferty. Ana Lyons wrote the article and
The Tech has allowed us to use it on our website.

Tosci’s Gets a New Ice Cream Chef, 26 New Flavors
By Ana Lyons
STAFF REPORTER
October 27, 2009
Churning out Toscanini’s newest flavors of ice cream is not a shiny
new Cuisinart automatic, but local Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Kevin
A. Rafferty.
Tosci’s has recipes for over 500 different ice cream flavors on file,
including crowd pleasing favorites like “Burnt Caramel” and “Ginger
Snap Molasses.” It’s Rafferty’s job to add to this list of flavors —
creating, refining, and executing new recipes each week.
Rafferty said Tosci’s is special because it constantly searches for
new, exotic ingredients and it is dedicated to handcrafting its ice
cream.
“One of the things that makes [Tosci’s] more unique than say, Ben and
Jerry’s is our production. Everything is done by hand in small
batches. In a lot of instances, smaller batches hand done result in a
better quality product,” said Rafferty.
Rafferty joined Tosci’s staff as the first-ever production manager
around three months ago. He was chosen for “his experience as a chef
at famous restaurants and ability to manage a kitchen,” said owner Gus
E. Rancatore.
In addition to developing new flavors of ice cream, Rafferty also
manages and stocks the kitchen, and fills orders.
Although Rafferty estimates he only spends five to twenty-five percent
of his time developing new flavors — depending on how busy he is
elsewhere in the kitchen — he says he’s always got new flavors on his
mind.
“For the quintessential MIT student,” Rafferty envisions a double
espresso flavor with a twist. “It’d have to be something heavy in
caffeine with some sort of puzzle … something to figure out or
something to keep the brain busy and make it interesting,” he said.
Rafferty said he heard about Tosci’s ice cream maker position through
a Craigslist posting, and thought “What the hell. It’d be interesting
to try something different.” Before joining Tocsi’s, Rafferty was the
executive chef of Great Bay, a seafood restaurant in Kenmore Square
that shut down in May.

Unique and Unusual Flavors

In his past three months at Tosci’s, Rafferty has developed over 26
different flavors of ice cream — some of his favorites are “Drunken
Three Musketeers” (bourbon flavored ice cream and Three Musketeers
candy bars) and “B3,” consisting of brown sugar, brown butter, and
brownies.
Rafferty said he might follow up on the popular “B3” flavor with a
“C4” flavor which he envisions would include chocolate chips and
caramel ice cream with cookie crumbs.
Because of his extensive training as a chef on the “hot side,”
Rafferty often turns to ingredients used less commonly in the ice
cream industry such as miso (fermented soy bean paste), Japanese mint
leaves, and the spice caraway. From these ingredients, Rafferty has
created such flavors as “cranberry and lemon Japanese mint sorbet” and
“pickled plum sorbet.”
Tosci’s churns about 50 flavors a week, according to Rancatore. Every
week’s menu is a combination of traditional flavors as well as some
new ones. Though Tosci’s is known for its adventuresome flavors,
Rancatore said they never make “stupid” flavors.
“We don’t make shark or chicken turkey,” Rancatore said, although he
said Tosci’s has made flavors involving avocado and garlic.
But even those odd ingredients worked. “Avocado is a popular flavor in
Latin America and parts of the Pacific” for it’s rich and creamy
flavor, said Rancatore. “Garlic is certainly unusual,” but he notes
that black garlic ice cream is a popular dish in Korea when served
with oysters.
“Sometimes ice creams can be savory. The most unusual flavors are
probably made by the best chefs intent on achieving exotic surprises,”
said Rancatore.
Rafferty likes that people in Cambridge are open to new flavors. “Even
with some of the more exotic flavors, we almost always have someone
that likes them,” Rafferty said.

Holiday and seasonal themes

Sometimes, Rafferty gets inspiration from seasonal ingredients and the
holidays. He’s currently working on an apple pie flavor for the fall,
although keeping the graham cracker crumbs crisp and the apples from
frosting in storage has proven to be problematic, he said. For
Halloween he’s contemplating a “goodie bag” flavor that combines lots
of classic Halloween candies.
Rancatore said Tosci’s also makes a champagne sorbet for New Years and
hamentashen for the winter Jewish holiday Purim.
In the fall, Tosci’s makes a Concord grape sorbet. In the summer,
Rancatore said that he likes to take advantage of the local peaches
and berries.

What the job entails

Rancatore said ice cream makers need to have “supertasting” abilities,
a knack for thinking up tasty new concoctions, and the ability to
reproduce their hits over and over again. They are artists.
“Ice cream makers need to follow recipes and extrapolate. They should
be curious about ice cream and food. They should eat and read and be
ready to take advantage of a serendipitous moment,” says Rancatore.
Rancatore says Tosci’s rarely has more than three ice cream makers
beside himself at a time. The number peaks during summer.
“Everyone wants to make ice cream but very few of the people who work
here [actually make ice cream],” Rancatore said. “I think it is
important for a small number of people to regularly make ice cream.”
With the most recent addition of Rafferty, Tosci’s currently has three
ice cream makers, including Rancatore.
Rancatore thinks that there might be some correlation between ice
cream making capabilities and the ability to perform classic music. “I
have thought that classical music students might be a good place to
find ice cream makers,” he says. “They understand notions of
incremental and constant improvement and believe that good music is a
result of merging spontaneous authenticity and an inherited framework
or tradition.”
Rancatore noted that when the store first opened in 1981, several of
the best employees were women rowers from Boston University. They
followed directions well and had the “extra benefit of being strong
and possessing a lot of stamina.”
“So maybe what we need [in an ice cream maker] is a New England
Conservatory student who rows and is a supertaster,” Rancatore joked.

The scoop on MIT

Several MIT students and faculty have helped develop Tosci’s ice cream
flavors over the years.
S. Adam Simha ’88 finalized the recipes for the flavors Burnt Caramel
and also Dark Chocolate. Sinha later became an award-winning bread
maker and now owns MKS Design, which Rancatore said made most of the
furniture in Tosci’s.
Rancatore said that the ice cream shop has only ever made one flavor
named after a person — Paul Slovenski, a track and field coach a MIT.
“One day I was in the store when a short, intense man came up to me
and said with determination that he wanted a flavor to be named after
him,” Rancatore said. “Instead of saying ‘we don’t do that,’ I asked
him what his name was and he said ‘Sluggo.’” Thus, Chocolate Sluggo
was born.
Rancatore says Chocolate Sluggo is a light Belgian Chocolate layered
with dark Cocoa pudding” plus almonds, chocolate chips, and Hydrox
cookies. “I’ll make it some Thursday,” he said.
It includes a wonderful picture, taken by Dhaval Adjodah.

http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N48/makeicecream.html

7. This is the last Friday of the month so ride or walk to work and
wear green, or convince us of your good intentions and we be extra
nice to you. We will be part of a benefit for Cambridge Housing
Assistance on Friday night, at the always fabulous Hyatt on Memorial
Drive. Saturday and Sunday we will serve Breakfast@TheBigTable.
Monday is the first Monday of the month so watch out for the tow
trucks if you live in Cambridge.

Reposted with permission from http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N48/makeicecream.html

By Ana Lyons
STAFF REPORTER

October 27, 2009
Churning out Toscanini’s newest flavors of ice cream is not a shiny new Cuisinart automatic, but local Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Kevin A. Rafferty.

Tosci’s has recipes for over 500 different ice cream flavors on file, including crowd pleasing favorites like “Burnt Caramel” and “Ginger Snap Molasses.” It’s Rafferty’s job to add to this list of flavors — creating, refining, and executing new recipes each week.

Rafferty said Tosci’s is special because it constantly searches for new, exotic ingredients and it is dedicated to handcrafting its ice cream.

“One of the things that makes [Tosci’s] more unique than say, Ben and Jerry’s is our production. Everything is done by hand in small batches. In a lot of instances, smaller batches hand done result in a better quality product,” said Rafferty.

Rafferty joined Tosci’s staff as the first-ever production manager around three months ago. He was chosen for “his experience as a chef at famous restaurants and ability to manage a kitchen,” said owner Gus E. Rancatore.

In addition to developing new flavors of ice cream, Rafferty also manages and stocks the kitchen, and fills orders.

Although Rafferty estimates he only spends five to twenty-five percent of his time developing new flavors — depending on how busy he is elsewhere in the kitchen — he says he’s always got new flavors on his mind.

“For the quintessential MIT student,” Rafferty envisions a double espresso flavor with a twist. “It’d have to be something heavy in caffeine with some sort of puzzle … something to figure out or something to keep the brain busy and make it interesting,” he said.

Rafferty said he heard about Tosci’s ice cream maker position through a Craigslist posting, and thought “What the hell. It’d be interesting to try something different.” Before joining Tocsi’s, Rafferty was the executive chef of Great Bay, a seafood restaurant in Kenmore Square that shut down in May.

Unique and Unusual Flavors

In his past three months at Tosci’s, Rafferty has developed over 26 different flavors of ice cream — some of his favorites are “Drunken Three Musketeers” (bourbon flavored ice cream and Three Musketeers candy bars) and “B3,” consisting of brown sugar, brown butter, and brownies.

Rafferty said he might follow up on the popular “B3” flavor with a “C4” flavor which he envisions would include chocolate chips and caramel ice cream with cookie crumbs.

Because of his extensive training as a chef on the “hot side,” Rafferty often turns to ingredients used less commonly in the ice cream industry such as miso (fermented soy bean paste), Japanese mint leaves, and the spice caraway. From these ingredients, Rafferty has created such flavors as “cranberry and lemon Japanese mint sorbet” and “pickled plum sorbet.”

Tosci’s churns about 50 flavors a week, according to Rancatore. Every week’s menu is a combination of traditional flavors as well as some new ones. Though Tosci’s is known for its adventuresome flavors, Rancatore said they never make “stupid” flavors.

“We don’t make shark or chicken turkey,” Rancatore said, although he said Tosci’s has made flavors involving avocado and garlic.

But even those odd ingredients worked. “Avocado is a popular flavor in Latin America and parts of the Pacific” for it’s rich and creamy flavor, said Rancatore. “Garlic is certainly unusual,” but he notes that black garlic ice cream is a popular dish in Korea when served with oysters.

“Sometimes ice creams can be savory. The most unusual flavors are probably made by the best chefs intent on achieving exotic surprises,” said Rancatore.

Rafferty likes that people in Cambridge are open to new flavors. “Even with some of the more exotic flavors, we almost always have someone that likes them,” Rafferty said.

Holiday and seasonal themes

Sometimes, Rafferty gets inspiration from seasonal ingredients and the holidays. He’s currently working on an apple pie flavor for the fall, although keeping the graham cracker crumbs crisp and the apples from frosting in storage has proven to be problematic, he said. For Halloween he’s contemplating a “goodie bag” flavor that combines lots of classic Halloween candies.

Rancatore said Tosci’s also makes a champagne sorbet for New Years and hamentashen for the winter Jewish holiday Purim.

In the fall, Tosci’s makes a Concord grape sorbet. In the summer, Rancatore said that he likes to take advantage of the local peaches and berries.

What the job entails

Rancatore said ice cream makers need to have “supertasting” abilities, a knack for thinking up tasty new concoctions, and the ability to reproduce their hits over and over again. They are artists.

“Ice cream makers need to follow recipes and extrapolate. They should be curious about ice cream and food. They should eat and read and be ready to take advantage of a serendipitous moment,” says Rancatore.

Rancatore says Tosci’s rarely has more than three ice cream makers beside himself at a time. The number peaks during summer.

“Everyone wants to make ice cream but very few of the people who work here [actually make ice cream],” Rancatore said. “I think it is important for a small number of people to regularly make ice cream.”

With the most recent addition of Rafferty, Tosci’s currently has three ice cream makers, including Rancatore.

Rancatore thinks that there might be some correlation between ice cream making capabilities and the ability to perform classic music. “I have thought that classical music students might be a good place to find ice cream makers,” he says. “They understand notions of incremental and constant improvement and believe that good music is a result of merging spontaneous authenticity and an inherited framework or tradition.”

Rancatore noted that when the store first opened in 1981, several of the best employees were women rowers from Boston University. They followed directions well and had the “extra benefit of being strong and possessing a lot of stamina.”

“So maybe what we need [in an ice cream maker] is a New England Conservatory student who rows and is a supertaster,” Rancatore joked.

The scoop on MIT

Several MIT students and faculty have helped develop Tosci’s ice cream flavors over the years.

S. Adam Simha ’88 finalized the recipes for the flavors Burnt Caramel and also Dark Chocolate. Sinha later became an award-winning bread maker and now owns MKS Design, which Rancatore said made most of the furniture in Tosci’s.

Rancatore said that the ice cream shop has only ever made one flavor named after a person — Paul Slovenski, a track and field coach a MIT.

“One day I was in the store when a short, intense man came up to me and said with determination that he wanted a flavor to be named after him,” Rancatore said. “Instead of saying ‘we don’t do that,’ I asked him what his name was and he said ‘Sluggo.’” Thus, Chocolate Sluggo was born.

Rancatore says Chocolate Sluggo is a light Belgian Chocolate layered with dark Cocoa pudding” plus almonds, chocolate chips, and Hydrox cookies. “I’ll make it some Thursday,” he said.

Today is Tuesday Oct 20. And tonight at 8PM is the first appearance
of roots rockers Session Americana at the Brattle Beer & Wine Theatre.
I’ve usually seen Session Americana at the Lizard Lounge, where they
also have lesbian rice wrestling. The Brattle is bigger and much
less intimate. The band will be onstage instead of gathered around a
nearby table. They play old rock, country, blues and what is broadly
described as roots rock. They also attract a wonderful assortment of
guests. Music, beer, wine and popcorn. What an evening.

Also the Harvard Book Store has its New York Review of Book Classics
Windedown. Join series editor Edwin Frank for a glass of wine and a
discussion about the amazing NYRB Classics series. Tickets are
available at the store or at
harvard.com

The Harvard Bookstore is busy sponsoring Ariel Sabar at the Enormous
Room in Central Sq, above Central Kitchen. isit one of Cambridge’s
hippest bars, and listen to a National Book Critics Circle
Award-winning author discuss his book, My Father’s Paradise. Please
RSVP for this free event at tickets@ncacboston.org.

Tomorrow is Wednesday and the bookstore celebrates -in its own
wonderful space in Harvard Square- Princeton without mentioning Scott
Fitzgerald or John O’Hara. In order to get fueled up for Saturday’s
Harvard v. Princeton game, we’re having an afternoon Princeton-themed
celebration with the likes of Marjorie Garber, Joseph Nye, Alan
Lightman, and Hobson Woodward–plus light hors d’oevres and wine,
right in the store.

Here in Lafayette Square there is always a sort of hysteria as the
Harvard Princeton football game approaches. People root through
closets looking for orange and black scarves and argue about their
favorite eating club.

Far away in Brookline, on Beacon Street, Cafe Fixe will be featuring
new Ethiopian coffees from Barrington Roasters in western Mass. and
Novo in Denver. The new beans will be ready after Wednesday.

The City of Cambridge is sponsoring a discussion about the retail mix
here in Central Square. This happens at St. Paul’s Christian Life
Center, 85 Bishop Allen Dr. 6PM>830PM. This street was named after
the great Harvard rock band, The Bishop Allens.

People constantly worry about Central Square becoming more like
Harvard Square. This constant worry actually alternates with the idea
that Central Square is going down the drain. Robert Winters once said
that “So long as Harvard Square exists it is mathematically impossible
for Central Square to become Harvard Square.”

Uber restaurant Clio had a $35 fried chicken prix fixe event on
Sunday. An unfrocked member of the French diplomatic corps was our
waiter and the first thing he described was a special appetizer
consisting of tagliatelle pasta with white truffles from Alba. The
“market price” was $105. “Market price” is a term that should be
embraced by pot dealers. That was just about the amount three of us
were planning to spend for the entire evening. We passed on the
shaved truffle with shells or ziti. We did order the chestnut soup
and “concatenations of red”. Both were amazing. The chestnut soup
was actually sublime. The fried chicken with a Korean glaze was also
excellent so get over to the Algonquin Club or visit Koreanna on
Prospect St. There also may be more fried chicken at Clio this
Sunday.

Rick Roth from Mirror Image visited the store when he delivered big
boxes containing our latest t-shirt design. The design was created by
Gill Fishman. Our logo is printed in white on an industrial grey
shirt. The shirts are $20 and only available instore. Mirror Image
prints museum quality art shirts as well as shirts for all the other
usual reasons. Rick regaled us wtih stories about very rare 2009 Red
Sox World Series shirts and other sad moments in Boston sports
history.

George Mokray lives in Central Square and is interested in many
things. He always has his special perspective and this is a fine
short piece about Elinor Ostrom.

I’ve followed Elinor Ostrom’s work for years. She is the premier
scholar of the commons, how it works, and why it fails. She convinced
Garrett Hardin to clarify his theory of the tragedy of the commons so
that it no longer implies that every commons is doomed to degradation.
Only a commons that is not regulated by its users endures Hardin’s
tragedy and Ostrom has detailed many uses of common pool resources
which have endured for decades, centuries, and, perhaps, even
millennia.

I’ve seen her speak twice. Once at MIT in the 1990s and, most
recently, at Tufts where she accepted another prize for her life’s
work. It has been my privilege to thank her in person for what she’s
done. She is a close observer, a subtle thinker, a gracious lady, and
her work is probably key to any survival we may expect as a species.
Congratulations to Dr Ostrom. Her books and papers are revelatory and
should be much better known. Now, with the award of the Nobel Prize
for economics, I can hope it will be.

“Based on a survey of several thousand cases, political scientist
Elinor Ostrom has listed several basic requirements for locally
sustainable, collective environmental management (_Governing the
Commons_, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 90):
1. clearly defined boundaries
2. congruence between rules & local conditions
3. collective-choice arrangements
4. monitoring
5. graduated sanctions
6. conflict-resolution mechanisms
7. recognition of rights to organize
8. nested in & recognized by higher institutional levels

“As Elinor Ostrom notes for successful common property systems, ‘the
populations in these locations have remained stable over long periods
of time. Individuals have shared a past and expect to share a
future…’ (Elinor Ostrom, _Governing the Commons: The Evolution of
Institutions for Collective Action_, 1990, op. cit., p. 88).”

Perhaps because Dr Ostrom is a woman and has been studying things that
may seem “soft” her work has not received the attention it deserves. I
was surprised to read that even Paul Krugman hasn’t studied her
writings:
“I wasn’t familiar with Ostrom’s work, but even a quick scan shows why
she shared the prize: if the goal is to understand the creation of
economic institutions, it’s crucial to be aware that there is more
variety in institutions, a wider range of strategies that work, than
simply the binary divide between individuals and firms.”

She has a lot to teach us about what we share in common, both
materially and socially, and how we can maintain and improve it. Now I
await the Nobel Prize for another one of my heroines, the great
biologist Lynn Margulis.

National Academy of Science Profile of Dr Ostrom
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1748208

Congratulations from a colleague
http://crookedtimber.org/2009/10/12/the-ostrom-nobel/#more-13312

Cheryl White of the Cooldige Corner alerted everyone to an interesting
series on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She can be reached at
cheryl@coolidge.org

I don’t think she is including the X-rated Pakistani vampire film that
has been highlighted on Sepia Mutiny.

On Monday, October 19, Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner
Theatre will present the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, paired with
a talk by John Durant, professor in MIT’s Science, Technology and
Society Program and an expert in the history of evolutionary and
behavioral biology, and Anne Harrington, chair of Harvard’s History of
Science Department and an expert in the history of the brain/mind
sciences.

Science on Screen has been fortunate to host many outstanding
speakers, including Robert Weller (Anthropology), Les Kaufman (Marine
Biology), and Michael Baum (Biology) from Boston University. We’re
looking forward to a fun and fascinating evening on the 19th. I
believe anthropology students would enjoy this program, and I’m hoping
you will help us to spread the word.

Cheryl White
Coolidge Corner Theatre
617/699-7285
cheryl@coolidge.org

A great guest post about Carvel Ice Cream from Bob Lefsetz

Tom Carvel would only give franchises to poor people.

Ever since I went to Jim Lewi’s food festival at Shoreline, I’ve been
hooked by the Food Network. It started watching Triple D on on
demand, then Felice got hooked on the competition shows and now it’s a
TV mainstay.

Triple D? That’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”. Unless you only eat
haute cuisine or believe salt is the enemy and hot dogs will give you
cancer, you’ve got to watch this show:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html

Individuals like indie bands start their own restaurants, follow their
own muse, and deliver food so delectable that word spreads, until
someone e-mails host Guy Fieri and he shows up with his camera crew.
I can’t cook a lick, but the way the owners put a dollop of this and a
dash of that into a pot and end up delivering something that generates
smiles is incredibly intriguing, makes me want to buy a Camaro and
take to the road just like Guy. (Who’s actually taking to the road,
doing his own tour, see dates here: http://guyfieri.com/tourdates.html
I’ve seen his act and he’s got tons more star power than most
musicians, he knows how to work a crowd.)

So that’s become the default channel on Felice’s television, the Food
Network. And when I walked into the bedroom after listening to Tom
Petty on Blu-Ray, she was watching a show about legends. On screen
was Tom Carvel.

TOM CARVEL!

It was really an east coast thing, Felice wasn’t familiar. But Carvel
ice cream was the Ben & Jerry’s of its day. A special treat that made
you feel fully alive with every lick, a cult we were proud to be a
member of.

There was one outlet downtown. And another on the Post Road in
Westport. Around the corner from our house, on Black Rock Turnpike,
was Dairy Queen. We went there after each Little League victory, but
it was akin to Wonder Bread. Sure, you could lacquer your cone with a
hard plastic shell, but the ice cream?

Whereas on the way home from the beach, or after dinner on a hot
summer evening, my dad would pile us into the station wagon and we’d
drive down to Carvel. The way he testified, you’d think he owned the
place. At Carvel, you weren’t limited to vanilla. No, you could have
chocolate with a hard chocolate shell! Or even a strawberry shell!
And occasionally strawberry ice cream! And unlike Dairy Queen, the
ice cream didn’t only feel good on your tongue, it titillated your
taste buds, it was rich and creamy.

Butter fat. That was the secret according to a Carvel man in this documentary.

Tom Carvel knew Ray Kroc. He bought mixers from him before Ray blew
up McDonald’s. And Ray wanted Tom to throw in with him, but Tom
didn’t think Kroc’s idea was so hot, and thought it better to do one
thing best.

Carvel was like a religion. My dad would buy Flying Saucers. I
didn’t know they were hand-made in each store until watching this
documentary. Ditto on the ice cream cakes. Come on, getting a Carvel
ice cream cake for your birthday? That was living!

But what truly fascinated me was Tom’s franchising strategy. He only
made deals with poor people. Because they would work hard, it was a
family business. In an era where the rich own everything at a
distance, where the poor are employees who can’t rise above, this was
a revelation. Just give us a chance, we’ll show you, we’ll put our
hearts and minds into it, and all of our time!

We may not have the skills to work on Wall Street, but it turns out
all those quants didn’t either. And Wall Street used to build
America, now it just builds the private edifices of fat cats.

Kind of like the music business.

Once upon a time, there were pioneers, progenitors. Many with
colorful pasts, but Ahmet and Morris Levy and Mo Ostin built this
business. Where are their stories?

Oh yeah, VH1 is for criminals, social outcasts who cavort on screen
for the mentally challenged. As for MTV, the reality pioneer?
There’s no reality on that channel, “The Hills” is scripted, didn’t
you know that?

I’m not saying the history of rock and roll is going to deliver boffo
ratings. Then again, wasn’t VH1 built on “Behind The Music”? Sure,
audiences like train wrecks, but even more interesting are true
stories, Discovery has a gold mine based on reality. And the Food
Network too.

I don’t know if it’s even television, maybe it’s a Website.

But the history of the music business needs to be told. Not with
self-congratulatory concerts at Madison Square Garden, celebrating the
inane Hall Of Fame, but documentaries on Bill Aucoin, who truly built
KISS. And Brian Epstein. And even Irving Azoff and Cliff Burnstein.
Hell, people can relate to these individuals even more than the stars.
You can see yourself in the role, you love to see the rise and
sometimes fall. It’s fascinating.

Meanwhile, I hear there’s a new Carvel on Santa Monica Boulevard…

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

On Friday November 13 there will be a barista jam at the Espresso
Royale Caffe near Boston University, at 736 Commonwealth Ave. The
cafe, or caffe has been upgraded with very good Barismo espresso and
very good Barismo coffee training. The regular coffee is from Atomic.
Boom. The event starts at 7PM and will feature latte art, espresso
throwdowns, cuptasting challenges. There is a $5 fee for competitors
so save those quarter tips.

Meatpaper is a serious look at the implications of eating meat, but a
fine magazine with a good sense of humor. It is undoubtedly a winner
in the National Magazine Awards “Flyweight’ category. I think the
circulation may be approaching Calvin Trillin’s “high two figures.”
The new issue is coming to Trident Bookstore Cafe and if you get to on
Newbury Street you might find a copy. But I recommend subscribing.
Many of your friends will be amused and some will be impressed.

Here is Meatpaper’s announcement for their newest issue, with extra
sausage and pepperoni.

Greetings! We have exciting things to report.
1) Meatpaper Issue Nine is on its way! Inside, we look at the
controversy about eating seal meat in Canada (and what that has to do
with maple syrup), early-20th-century slaughterhouse tourism, the
day-to-day life of a livestock veterinarian, the lard vs. butter
debate among pie bakers, and that age-old question: What did T. rex
taste like?

2) The Art of Meat Cutting. We’re thrilled to be participating in a
historic event: Dario Cecchini, the Italian master butcher made famous
in Bill Buford’s Heat and portrayed in Douglas Gayeton’s new book
Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town, will give a demonstration on artisan
butchery in San Francisco on October 24. For special group rates, call
Marin Organic at 415-663-9667.

The MIT Museum is our favorite cultural institution. We are a small
part of a small exhibit about student life at MIT.

This Friday is free, or Free!.

Enjoy free admission at the MIT Museum on the second Friday of every
month with a new after-hours special evening! The Museum will offer
demonstrations, performances or lectures throughout the galleries.
Every second Friday will be different. Mix, mingle, relax and unwind.

5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Light Refreshments Served

Oct. 9: Featured Program: Hands-on Activities – make light graffiti
images, build towers and make a Mindstorm robot dance

Nov. 13: Featured Program: Nanotech Workshop (pre-registration required)

Dec.11: Featured Program: Debunking Hollywood’s Holograms – a talk
with Dr. Michael Bove from the MIT Media Lab

Energy Night · Free Admission

October 16, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

This always popular evening brings out students and community members
alike to see what’s new and hot at MIT where it concerns energy.
Presentations and demonstrations of the latest energy research at MIT
(from nuclear power to bio-batteries) in a casual atmosphere.

Visiting the Museum
MIT Museum Open Daily 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Open and free on the Second Friday each month: 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Closed Major Holidays