Talk about fast news cycles.

It’s the Economist’s Big Mac Index for 2010 … again!

In a sign of these unusually uncertain times The Economist has speeded up their news cycle, and in the process seems to be taking themselves and their index more seriously. Used to be we’d get annual updates to the index, this one has taken only six months.

I’m guessing that somewhere in the depths of the newsroom is an aspiring summer intern taking a run at the IMF and the ECB. And why not.

Just to review, The Economist has been publishing their (not so tongue-in-cheek) Big Mac Index since 1986. It’s a reality check on world-wide currency exchange rates, based on the concept of Purchasing-Power Parity. Purchasing-Power Parity (PPP) says that exchange rates are correct when the price of similar goods are the same in each country. The Big Mac survey compares the price of a Big Mac all over the world. The Big Mac is, after all, a basket of standard ingredients put together in a consistent process.

Coming Soon, A Ringtone Quoting Exchange Rates

And while I have a hard time getting excited about this morning’s price of a Big Mac in Krakow, the fact that Lisbeth Salandar would have to fork over SKr 48.4 in Stockholm if she wanted to treat Mikael Blomqvist might raise my blood pressure a few millibars.

When the world gets even more unusually uncertain we can probably expect the BMI to go live stream, with possibly a Twitter Feed and an iPhone app.

Hold the ketchup.

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up in the Bronx during the 50′s.

We had all the modern conveniences. Like Good Humor Ice Cream delivered daily in the summer down at the corner. Served up by the Good Humor Man himself.  Otherwise known as some kid with a summer job, but at the time he looked pretty big to me.

If you got an ice cream cup instead of something on a stick, it came with a little flat wooden spoon. If you chose the ‘ice’ on a stick there was work to be done to peel the paper off before you could take that first cold bite which froze your mouth and throat in a wave of pain when you swallowed.  Which tasted really, really good in the midst of that summer heat and killer humidity.

But I digress.

Up in our apartment we didn’t have air conditioning, but we did have Seltzer every night with dinner. It was delivered every week by, wait for it, The Seltzer Man.

Again, no surprises in the 50′s

The Seltzer came in wooden cases filled with 10 or so big green, blue or clear bottles with embossed logos and lettering on the surface. On top was a silver colored valve, sporting a hair trigger. I think the bottles in this picture are a bit vintage, but it gives you an idea.

The first time you opened the value on a new bottle the pressure would invariably shoot seltzer all over the kitchen. It was absolutely, positively impossible to open the value slow enough to avoid that first spritz. Kind of like when you first learned to drive with a stick and were letting out the clutch with your Dad telling you to go slow.

But I digress, again.

This was all brought back to me recently by an article in the NY Times about Ronny Beberman, one of the last Seltzer Men.

Remember kids, we are not talking about some pansy Perrier with a twist of lemon.

We have a product we are real proud of, that starts with New York City water which “comes right outta the pipes, right outta the ground” and  then beaten (literally) into Seltzer. Watch the video if you don’t believe me.

This is Manly Seltzer, delivered by a Man’s Man.

Great stuff.

[Full Disclosure Note: At one point back in the 50's we learned that these bottles had a disconcerting habit of blowing up once in a while if there was a defect or chip created during the re-cycle process. After that discovery my Dad wouldn't put the Big Bad Boy right up on the dinner table. They hadn't invented Class Action Lawsuits yet, otherwise it would really have been all over.]

Leslie and I are coffee nutters.

This is how bad it is. When we travel overseas our first stop is a discount appliance store where we buy a drip-style coffee maker. That way we can make our own really strong morning coffee no matter where we are staying. At the end of our trip we donate the coffee maker to the nearest charity shop and eveyone is happy.

Coffee Maker On The Counter (Left) And In Its Travel Bag (Right)

So having established our credibility (?) I’ll go a step further and say we (also) like Starbucks.

Starbucks is going thru a rough patch right now, so it’s important we get behind them. After all, this is an American institution, even if it was founded on the idea of copying Italian coffee houses.

In their latest effort to improve the bottom line they are emulating Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing techniques, described here in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Which in a way reminds me of the old joke about hell; where the Germans are the police, the British do the cooking, the Italians run the trains, and the French make the cars.

In this case the Americans are trying to do the Italians one better by acting Japanese. But I have another suggestion.

Since I’ve established my chops as a Drip Coffee expert, let me suggest a new approach to Drip Coffee.

Just Another Approach To Drip Coffee

As long as I’m on a roll about Starbucks, here is link to a very well-researched history of the Starbucks Logo.

And finally, if you clicked on the WSJ link above and were spanked and told you needed to subscribe, here is the hack-around.

Walter Cronkite passed away today, so we are down one icon. But thankfully the Economist’s Big Mac Index soldiers on.

In a previous post we expressed concern that Big Mac might be supplanted by Big White, but our fears were unfounded.

Herewith the latest Index, no ketchup required.

Just to review, The Economist has been publishing their (not so tongue-in-cheek) Big Mac Index since 1986. It’s a reality check on world-wide currency exchange rates, based on the concept of Purchasing-Power Parity.

Purchasing-Power Parity (PPP) says that exchange rates are correct when the price of similar goods are the same in each country. The Big Mac survey compares the price of a Big Mac all over the world. The Big Mac is, after all, a basket of standard ingredients put together in a consistent process.

Anyway, this week’s 2009 survey says that should the Big Mac price in a country translated into dollars be above $3.57, its cost in America, the currency is overvalued; if it is below that benchmark, it is undervalued.

And for the quants among you, here are the stats:

Whereas last year you were headed off to South Africa for your Bargain Burger, this time your destination appears to be Hong Kong. On the other hand, should you need a quick withdrawal of funds from your Swiss Bank, don’t stick around for dinner.

I know great food. I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I eat it. The Supremes would approve.

Normally, when people write about food there is a drop-dead gorgeous picture of a serving sitting on the plate. It’s always beautiful and mouth-watering. Blah, blah, beautiful, scrumptous,  juicy, simmering, yummy, whatever!

I thought I’d try a different approach.

Now this here, THIS is a plate of great food!

Now THAT Was A Great Meal

The other night we went to Waterboy in Sacramento. Pictured above was my choice of  ”Pan Roast Chicken Breast, on Bread and 4884 Salad, with Bacon, 4797, Pine Nuts and Aioli.

It was great. So instead of taking a picture of the ‘before’ I just took a picture of the ‘after’. I think this says it all. So Bubi, do I have a future as a food critic?

If you had trouble translating the PLU numbers in that description of the dish, then it’s time for language study to power thru life, here’s your link.

F2U Rio Linda, PLU is a “Price Look Up” code, in use by supermarkets since 1990 to make check-out and inventory control easier, faster, and more accurate.

We eat, You decide.

Yum.

Traveling in a foreign country teaches you to get familiar with a few key words in the local dialect, especially if you are language-challenged like me.

So it’s been natural for me to learn some PLU when I venture out to the grocery store. Especially since PLU’s are just numbers.

It’s not that I can remember numbers more easily than words; it’s just that I can actually pronounce them without sounding like a total fool.

Even better, you don’t say them out loud, they are entered into a keyboard.

What's the Plural of 4011?

Those of you who employ ‘people’ to make your life easier need to know that the rest of us save time at the grocery store doing self-checkout.

As explained by the corporations who own these stores, this gives their customers a badly needed chance for self-expression. And I’ve found that this is indeed true. I can make a choice to stand in a long line or have a satisfying interaction with a grocery bot. Kind of an R2DU without wheels.

Most items come with a UPC that is easily scanned by our small friend. He even makes a satisfying beep upon recognizing the UPC. Like he’s meeting a long lost buddy. A  fist bump between inanimate objects.

More challenging for the grocery tourist are the items not born with a UPC. Here’s where your working knowledge of PLU leaves a fluent French speaker in your dust as she is offered silly little ‘food icon’ buttons to press because she’s considered  illiterate by the bot.

You, on the other hand, will avoid the pretty pictures and go directly to a screen where you boldly enter the item code in the native’s PLU language. The power and control can be overwhelming.

But beware complacency. PLU is destined to join Babble’s scrap heap of history. The powers that be are already experimenting with ink-jet applied UPC’s directly on our fruits and vegetables. It’s too late for us, but not for our children.

They will tell their children about the good old days when a banana was just 4011 and not a  3-dimensional hologram with an embedded RFID chip. A chip in this case that does not require ketchup.

I have only one thing to say to President Obama.

4884

I’m in for a bunch.

And for our international readers who didn’t keep up with the details of the 2008 Presidential campaign, here’s your link.

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Having researched more deeply into OECD’s Society at a Glance that was the basis for our last post, I am coming to the conclusion that I was born in the wrong country. Is it too late to get French?

When they are not on strike, the French spend almost double the time we Americans do eating and drinking. If you do the math, we are talking almost 10 work-weeks each year. Wait…I made a slight mistake: that’s 10 American work-weeks, which would be more like 12 French work-weeks.  For those of you in Rio Linda, that’s 3 months.

They also spend more time sleeping. You would too, after a meal like that.

From "Society at a Glance 2009" - OECD