Samuel Beckett's Computer Experience

 

Once Upon A Time In America: The Man Who Invented The Filet-O-Fish Sandwich

Back in 1962, 44-year-old McDonald's franchisee Lou Groen (above, with a picture of his restaurant back in the day) was on the ropes financially.

How he turned the tide and created a sandwich that McDonald's world-wide now sells at a rate of hundreds of millions every year was the subject of Paul Clark's Cincinnati Enquirer story, which follows.

No Fish Story: Sandwich Saved His McDonald's

In 1962, Lou Groen was desperate to save his floundering hamburger restaurant, the first McDonald's in the Cincinnati area.

His problem: His clientele was heavily Roman Catholic. In those days, most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday, as well as during Lent, the 40-day period of repentance.

His solution: He created the Filet-O-Fish — a sandwich that saved his restaurant and eventually would be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year, of which roughly one-quarter — around 75 million — are sold during Lent.

"The local Big Boy chain dominated the market, and they had a very good fish sandwich," recalled Groen.

"I was struggling. The crew was my wife, myself, and a man named George. I did repairs, swept floors, you name it."

"But that area (where his restaurant was located) was 87% Catholic. On Fridays we only took in about $75 a day," said Groen, a Catholic himself. "All our customers were going to Big Boy."

"So I invented my fish sandwich, developed a special batter, made the tartar sauce and took it to headquarters."

That led to a wager between Groen and McDonald's chief Ray Kroc, who had his own meatless idea.

"He called his sandwich the Hula Burger," Groen said. "It was a cold bun and a slice of pineapple and that was it.

"Ray said to me, 'Well, Lou, I'm going to put your fish sandwich on (a menu) for a Friday. But I'm going to put my special sandwich on, too. Whichever sells the most, that's the one we'll go with.'"

"Friday came and the word came out. I won hands down. I sold 350 fish sandwiches that day. Ray never did tell me how his sandwich did."

But the chain made Groen modify the fish recipe.

"I wanted halibut originally," Groen said. "I was paying $2 a pound for halibut. That sandwich cost me 30 cents apiece to make. They told me it had to sell for 25 cents. I had to fall back on Atlantic cod, a whitefish, and I added a slice of cheese. But my halibut sandwich far outshines that one."

Groen wasn't complaining. "My fish sandwich was the first addition ever to McDonald's original menu," he said. "It saved my franchise."

And fed it. By the time he sold his franchise in 1986, Groen owned 43 McDonald's restaurants in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, about half the number in the region today.

But his prosperity didn't include a slice of Filet-O-Fish's national sales.

"Not a penny," he said. "I made my money by selling the product and being the best operator I could."

Charles Faulks, operations director for McDonald's Ohio Region, called Groen's contributions legendary. "Lou exemplified Ray Kroc's philosophy that you can succeed if you believe in your brand, treat your people right, and give back to your community."

Groen entered the fast-food business in 1958. One day, while working in his father-in-law's Cincinnati restaurant, Groen was leafing through Restaurant Management magazine when he spotted a couple of advertisements for franchise opportunities.

"They were tiny little ads," he said. "One was for McDonald's 15-cent hamburgers. The other was for Beverly Osborne Chicken Delight. I said to my wife, 'If we do this, we'll be eating a lot of these. Would you rather eat hamburgers or chicken?'

"She picked hamburgers."

When Groen answered the ad, he was told that $950 would buy him exclusive McDonald's franchise rights in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Pennsylvania. "But I didn't have $950," he said.

So he invested a couple of hundred dollars in a district franchise that included Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. He opened his first store in 1959.

Do you sincerely want to be rich?

In the year 2100, tightening fitted sheets won't be a thing: they'll long since have been tricked out with a self-adjusting "smart" band that draws them up snugly against the bottom of the mattress.

Your mission, if you choose to become richer than Croesus, is to invent it.

I've gone through a zillion fitted sheet tightening devices over the decades and have yet to find one that works.

Of course, there were those few that I finally had to give up trying to install: who knows if one might have proved to be THE ONE?

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Sorry, wrong year.

Nonsense — E.M. Cioran

 

Top 10 Signs That You Might Be A Biker T-Shirt

Sign #1 cracks me up.

Size L.

Below, 

the front.

$4.99.

bookofjoe's Favorite Thing: World's Best Pill Splitter

Not only the best but also the most durable: I bought mine in 2016 (above) and ten years later it still works as flawlessly as the day it arrived.

Back then it only came with a blue anti-scatter top but since then they've added grey and pink options.

Heavy metal that stabilizes your pill between precisely aligned hard sharp blades.

Bonus: safe because the cutting surfaces are shielded from your fingers.

$29.95.

Don't fall for those cheapo guillotine-style plastic numbers at CVS: these are the real deal.

If you're not completely satisfied, send me all the pill fragments that remain from your FAIL and I will take them all at once.

That is the bookofjoe way.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

Helpful Hints from joeeze: Don't waste your money on Food -of-the-Month mail order subscription clubs

For many years my family members, knowing how much of a food person I am, subscribed me to all manner of "Cheese/Sausage/Bacon/etc. of the Month clubs: it was an easy way for them to give me something they thought I'd enjoy without having to go through the contortions of trying to find something I'd like.

After about five years of tossing the unopened packages into the trash each month, I finally decided I couldn't remain silent, because they'd keep doing this forever.

What a waste of money!

When I told my peeps they were really angry, as I knew they'd be, but I simply couldn't play my part in the charade any longer.

Of interest: a couple years later they started up again, like I'd come to my senses or else they forgotten.

This time I got on the phone the moment the first installment arrived and reminded them we'd agreed on not giving these to me any more.

After that year the idiocy stopped.

But I digress.

These clubs cost a couple hundred dollars/year for a monthly delivery.

Why are they a waste for anyone who really likes food?

Because the cheese/bacon/sausage/etc. is not the finest,

Companies like Sargento populate these packages with their products: that is not cheese or summer sausage!

It's what's pejoratively called in the business "industrial cheese and meat;" it's made in giant factories on a huge scale, then shipped often in less then ideal packaging such that it arrives in less than subpar condition, usually in vacuum-packed plastic (top) rather than cheese paper.

Same with bacon and sausage and their ilk: no serious food person would touch these products.

You want to give a maven something they've never had nor heard of? 

Order them some Van de Rose bacon.

It's the best bacon you can buy in the U.S.

Be a shining star.

World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion Gives a Demonstration

Alexander Overwijk draws a perfect freehand circle 1 meter in diameter in less than 1 second.

40,478,424 views since it was posted to YouTube on January 9, 2007.

Google Goes Back To The Future

This morning I clicked my Google search bookmark and up came the minimalist, stripped down homepage of yore —including "I'm Feeling Lucky" (above).

Love it.

Then I started sliding the cursor around and up popped a box of options (below)

which includes "Create QR Code for this page" — very interesting!

I clicked on it and followed the instructions and up came this:

I aimed my phone's camera at the QR code and darned if the page didn't immediately appear on my phone (below).

This is no humbug.

So kewl!

Every U.S. Electrical Outlet Explained

Finally.

This time really is different

Every time something big seems to happening when it comes to the world of money and investment and the market, that old saw "This time it's different" is bandied about to justify the hype and huge sums of money being put in.

Up top, a graphic from the Wall Street Journal that seems to form a factual basis for the claim: the sum of the percentages of GDP for the nation's three giant booms over the past 200 years is about equal to that of projected AI spending from now until 2032.

It would appear we're just getting started on this ride, being only a year in.

I wonder what our world will be like in 2032: can't hardly wait!

bookofjoe's Favorite Phone Holder (for when I'm out running)

 

I've been through a zillion different ones over the years, which tells you that none were perfect.

Closest yet is this one from Respected Bro (wonderful name — love it) which arrived a couple days ago and which I've road tested since.

Easy to hold securely and comfortably since you can adjust it to fit your finger/hand size/shape (top).

The winning feature for me is that I can remove and reattach it without any effort (below) so I can still use the phone's MagSafe charging feature, unlike with other minimalist flexible finger-insertion-type holders I've used that require a semi-permanent adhesive attachment which renders MagSafe unusable.

Doubles as a phone stand due to elegant engineering and design.

Orange, White, or Purple: $18.37-$19.59 (phone not included).

Of interest to me: On the box it says the maker is "TSUNAMI LIMITED COMPANY."

Sounds Japanese, right?

Under that company name is this address:

No 02 Do The Chap, Phuoc My Ward, Son Tra District, Da Nang City, Vietnam

Under that address:

Made in China

Things that make me go "Hmmm..."

I mentioned before that I was both surprised and pleased to learn a few months into boj's reincarnation here that 70% of readers do so on their phones.

That's because boj2 looks much better on a phone than on a computer screen, for reasons that are above my TechnoDolt©®™ pay grade.

I spend very little time on my phone.

I'm on my MacBook Pro 95% of the time I'm online, which varies: somewhere between 2 and 10 hours/day.

Something I found interesting happened with this past Tuesday's 8 a.m. post: the YouTube thumbnail that appears on boj on my phone (top), which I selected when I composed the post, is different from the one that appears on my computer (below).

The video was shot with Meta Glasses (you can see both my hands) and then uploaded to YouTube via my phone, during which process I chose the thumbnail that appears on the phone version up top.

For whatever reason, a different thumbnail labeled "Shorts" leads the computer version.

Of course you're hearing this song....

City Roads. No Matter Where You Go... There You Will Be/Are/Were — Maybe All At Once!

"This website renders every single road within a city."

Alas, not all cities: as any fool can plainly see from the image up top, the site resorts to "Retry" mode when it fails to do what it purports to do.

And guess what?

I did just that a few times and kept getting the same error message: "This usually resolves within a few minutes."

So when it didn't, well, too bad for me. 

Hey — I just work here.

And before you get your baggies in a twist, remember: it's free — the way we like it.

Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?

No — not that one, idiotstick: this one!

BeyondTheMedspeak: 'Lioness' Season 3

I'm just the tiniest bit surprised that in "Lioness" Season 3 the principals continued to use Provigil (modafinil) prior to operations to stave off fatigue/sleepiness.

The drug was released in the U.S. in 1998, with fewer and less troubling side effects than amphetamines/caffeine etc. while enhancing alertness and cognition.

Nuvigil (armodafinil) supplanted Provigil the moment it was released in 2007, as it produces less in the way of side effects like the jitteriness and volubility demonstrated by Two Cups (top) after he took 2 pills rather than the standard single 250 mg tablet.

Perhaps time for a new doctor in the room where the script is vetted?

One more thing: if you decide you could benefit from either of these drugs, know that the current retail price of Nuvigil is $42-$44 per tablet.

You'll have to decide whether or not to pony up or de-escalate to the generic version which costs about half that.

A Visit to Simone Giertz's Tiny (630 sqft) Los Angeles Home

Simone Giertz is one of my favorite people and has been since long before she got big around 2016.

Her early videos in the 2010s featured robots she designed to intentionally fail at everyday tasks.

Boring phone call + iPad: TikTok FTW!

Sometimes you’ve got no choice: you're obligated to talk to someone, usually a family member, on the phone.

Up to now I've muted my phone so the oblivious relative can yap to her heart's content about the same old same old while I clean the house and do other things I've been putting off.

I stumbled on a better solution this morning: TikTok on my iPad with the sound turned off.

Now I can get my TikTok fix in without having it distract me from stuff I want to do.

I give TikTok huge UPs for building an irresistible, alluring algorithm.

Full disclosure: I've never made a TikTok (though I have an account): it's all I can do to keep my YouTube channel subscribers happy.

No Stress Tuna Press

Finally.

This stainless steel colander is tricked out with grip wings so you can squeeze every last drop of liquid out of the can.

Set of 3: $11.55 (tuna not included).

Do a couple of your friends a solid [see what I did there?] and give away the two extras.

What's in a Name?

Type in a last name and it will show you where in Great Britain that name has been found.

From the website:

..........................

Our research, carried out at the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre (GeoDS), is exploring the generational and inter-generational residential movements of family groups across Great Britain, using historic censuses and recent consumer registers. 

The GeoDS holds a number of novel consumer datasets that chart recent movements and changes, including the links between geographical and social mobilty.

..........................

Read "All The Names" here — free, the way we like it.

[via Charles Arthur's nonpareil Overspill]

 

BeyondTheMedspeak: My History of Aspirin & Tylenol Use

Above, all my aspirin and Tylenol purchases from Amazon since September 2021.

Know that my painkiller meds and regimen of choice are and have always been 3 regular aspirin tablets + 2 Tylenol, every 4-6 hours.

No Motrin, no Advil, or any of the newer analgesics.

Reading the fine print I concluded none are as effective and safe as my combo.

The tens of millions of dollars spent by Big Pharma saying the opposite is true will never convince me.

You've read it here before but one more time never hurts: Old ways are the best ways.

Replika

News travels slowly to Podunkville: how else to explain the fact that I.HAD.NO.CLUE that Replika is so popular?

How popular, joe?

According to Wikipedia it became available to the public in November 2017; by January 2018 it had 2 million users; in January 2023 it had 10 million users; in August 2024 the total number of users was 30 million; in 2025 Replika's user base exceeded 40 million people!

Talk about flying under the radar....

25% of its users pay an annual subscription fee; the other 75% get a less full-featured version free.

Considering that latest user number, it's likely that more than a couple peeps reading this are "Replikites."

Can A Knife Be Too Sharp?

Up to last week I'd have said "Of course not." 

What a silly question!

After my Kyocera ceramic paring knife (top) arrived and I used it to slice some cheese — in the process slicing into my thumb not once but twice yet not realizing it for a couple seconds because the blade was so sharp I didn't feel it breaking my skin — I retired it to my knife rack.

Like the packaging (below) says:

                      UNRELENTING SHARPNESS

You can too!

$19.98.

When Albert Einstein Met Jean Piaget

From the March 1957 issue of Scientific American:

Children and Physics

Does a child's first conception of velocity include comprehension of it as a function of distance and time, or is his notion more primitive and intuitive? 

Albert Einstein himself posed this question to me in 1928 when I was demonstrating some experiments on causality to him one day. 

I have since performed a very simple experiment which shows that a child does not think of velocity in terms of the distance-time relation. 

We place before the child two tunnels, one of which is obviously much longer than the other, and then we push a doll through each tunnel with a metal rod in such a way that the dolls arrive at the other end of both tunnels simultaneously. 

We ask the child:




"Is one tunnel longer than the other?"



"Yes, that one."



"Did both dolls go through the tunnels at the same speed, or did one go faster than the other?"



"The same speed."



"Why?"



"Because they arrived at the same time."

Nirvana on the Cusp

Above, a video of Nirvana playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in a small club in New Haven, Connecticut on September 26,1991, just two days after "Nevermind" came out.

Below, 40+ minutes from the same show, featuring "Drain You," "Polly," and "Breed."

[via Kottke]

Usenet-Rewind

Search Usenet newsgroup archives: text posts from 1981-present across hundreds of thousands of newsgroups.

From the website: "Usenet-Rewind is a research archive for the newsgroup conversations that predate the modern web — early tech support and software debates, scientific and academic discussion, hobbyist and fan communities, entertainment and news commentary, and firsthand accounts of internet history as it happened on Usenet."

Fair warning: there goes the rest of your life.