Is yours still there?
Find out here.
Note: I believe the future belongs to Africa, which is why whenever I use a world map I put Africa in the center.
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
On Using My MacBook Pro Keyboard After A Couple Months With The DAS Mechanical Keyboard
In a fit of nostalgia a few months ago I took a flutter on a DAS Professional Mechanical Keyboard with Cherry MX Blue Switches because I wanted to see if they still felt and sounded like the clackety-clack version I had ages ago.
Long answer short: YES!
I love the DAS's tactile and audio feedback and I find I'm more accurate and faster as well on this retro keyboard.
Then, the other night, when I decluttered my workspace desktop, after disconnecting and removing the DAS keyboard along with my laptop stand, I kind of liked the streamlined look, so I've delayed putting everything back the way it was in favor of continuing with the minimalist approach for a while.
It's eerie how silent the MacBook keyboard is in comparison; another thing is how little effort is required to type compared to the force necessary to use the DAS.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Book Recommendations From... Hacker News?
Who'd a thunk?
Last week while making one of my periodic (around 4-5 times daily) perusals of the Hacker News homepage, I saw where someone asked "What are you reading?"
It generated nearly 900 responses, each one of which I glanced at, and I noted a couple books I'd never heard of that sounded fantastic.
Buried deep in the many comments was one which linked to this wonderful site picturing each of the hundreds of recommended books (screenshot up top).
Fantastic!
ChipTycoon — No! It's NOT about the guy who invented Ruffles*
ChipTycoon is a little chip factory where you watch a single wafer going through all twenty-two stages of chipmaking — sand to rough silicon to a flat mirrored disc, then coated, printed, etched, and wired layer by layer.
*Bernhardt Stahmer invented Ruffles in 1948
Monday, October 5, 2026
Popeyes Honey Chicken Biscuit Sandwich
As soon as I finished reading Tim Carman's rave Washington Post review of Popeyes' newest offering (above), I got my car keys and headed straight to the location 3 miles from my house.
Short review shorter: He's right!
Below, his paean to the king.
.......................................
Popeyes Has Another Hit With Its Honey Chicken Biscuit Sandwich
The Louisiana kitchen owes its customers a huge thanks for pointing the chain in the direction of this winning combo.
One of my favorite things about fast-food restaurants is their willingness to let customers innovate for them, a reminder that some of the best ideas don't come from tests kitchens or corporate boardrooms but rather from people who know how to hack an existing menu.
The latest example arrived last Monday at Popeyes, the Louisiana kitchen that made us lose our collective minds seven years ago over a chicken sandwich. The Miami-based chain just introduced the honey chicken biscuit, a sandwich that customers have been apparently engineering tableside for years. I stand in awe of the moxie of the American diner who reviews a fast-food menu and says, "I can do better."
For better or worse, I think most Popeye fans will want to compare the latest offering to the chicken sandwich that launched a thousand imitators. I think that's a mistake. The two sandwiches feel like two sides of the same bun — connected but distinct.
The original sandwich is the pinnacle of corporate-kitchen craft, a succulent chicken breast fried and entombed in a sweet brioche bun, offset with briny pickles to provide just enough pucker. While it has Southern touches, the sandwich still feels very much like a fast food creation, its bun a dead giveaway that it doesn't wander too far from the competition.
The honey chicken biscuit, by contrast, feels Southern Southern. Like sweet tea on a South Carolina veranda in mid-July. Popeyes designed a slighter larger version of its beloved biscuit to accomodate the thick, crackly breast meat, a protein so tender you'd swear it was 50 percent buttermilk. The biscuit and chicken come unadorned, the former doing its best to contain the gnarly length of fried bird. The combo includes two packets of "honey sauce," whose corn-syrup sweetness completes the picture.
I pounded this sandwich like I had not eaten in a week. Its components just locked into place: chicken, salt, butter, honey, crunch, flakiness, simplicity, elegance. This is a dish that somehow takes you outside the sterile walls of a chain and provides the kind of comfort we long for in our food.
Ed Ruscha Goes Full Tom Cruise
Above, Ed Ruscha's poster for Alejandro Iñárritu's new film "Digger" starring Tom Cruise.
The poster features the Boy Scout Utility Modern font, which Ruscha designed himself and has used exclusively since around 1980.
Back story here.
Note added 3:46 pm Monday October 5: "Digger" bombed on its opening weekend; it looks to be a 9-figure money-losing disaster: "Ishtar II."
"GOING NOWHERE. FAST." on the poster turns out to have been prophetic.
'Vocabulary is the single best short measure of general intelligence in adults who grew up speaking the language'
Time to put all your words on the table.
Even the ones on flash cards.
Wrote Emil Kirkegaard:
......................................
An English vocabulary test of 108 items in two formats: for most you pick the word that matches a given meaning; for the harder ones you pick the two or three words out of five that are synonyms. The words are rare on purpose — this is a test of the top of the vocabulary range, not of everyday English.
Vocabulary is the single best short measure of general intelligence in adults who grew up speaking the language.
The items were calibrated on 499 US adults recruited through Prolific in 2023, and your score is reported as an IQ relative to White US adults of your age (vocabulary keeps growing into the 60s, so the same score means less at 70 than at 25). If English is not your native language your score will mostly reflect exposure to it, not intelligence.
.....................................
Wait a sec — what's that song I'm hearing?
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Could An AI Keep Creating 'Red and Rover' After Brian Basset Retires?
The only comic strip I read daily is "Red and Rover."
Once upon a time, as a boy growing up in Milwaukee, I read every single one of the daily comic strips in the Milwaukee Journal.
The comics were numerous, perhaps 25-30 of them, and they had their own page in a section called "The Green Sheet" because it was printed on light green paper.
The answer to the question posed up top is yes; the real question is, can an AI replicate Bassett's wonderful mix of whimsy and humor and artwork in such a way that someone unfamiliar with his work could differentiate genuine Bassett strips from those generated by machine.
At some point the AI version will be indistinguishable from the real thing.
The only question is when — not at present, not next year, but by 2030 my money's on AI.
Skull Screws
Best named non-biker-related product of 2026.
Noise blocking earplugs from 3M.
Connecting cord so you can keep them handy around your neck when you're not using them without having to rip the place apart looking for one you can't find (see AirPods Pro — but I digress).
Best possible recommendation, in a 5-Star Amazon review: "We use these for our patients in MRI and they love them. The machine is very loud and these earplugs are comfortable. We get great feedback from patients and we have purchased them multiple times."
I don't know if you've ever had an MRI but if you have you know the deafening sounds it makes are equivalent to a big passenger jet engine.
When I saw the words "Skull Screws" I thought for a second it was the middle of the night during my Neurosurgery rotation in my third year of med school and we were inserting a subdural screw through the skull to monitor intracranial pressure.
False alarm.
Party pack of 4 pairs: $8.48.
Again I say, keep a spare pair for yourself and then do a solid for two friends.
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Is this my long-dreamed-of running buddy?
It's Meta's new Muse charm, said to enable you to talk to your personal Muse AI agent whenever and wherever you want.
It's coming out in December and I can't wait to get my hands on one.
More here.
Friday, October 2, 2026
BeyondTheMedspeak: How to save a life without knowing CPR
Yes, it's a wonderful thing to know and use CPR in an emergency such that an individual who might have otherwise died survives.
But let's face it: few people know what to do and even fewer do it when push (on the chest, hard, 60 times a minute) comes to shove.
So here's a tip that might well let you — uninformed, unschooled, and scared — help someone live:
Bend down, pick up their feet, and hold their legs in the air waist-high.
That's it.
By doing so you increase blood return to the central circulation — the heart and lungs, where it's needed to restore spontaneous heartbeat — from the periphery, where it's irrelevant for survival in a circulatory crisis.
Elevating the legs as described above is the equivalent of transfusing two units of blood — 40% of the average adult's total circulating blood volume — and makes CPR much more effective.
The best part is that you can't do any harm.
It's the very first thing I instruct someone to do when I arrive at a Code Blue scene.
Waspinator
Oooh, a name to conjure with.
Tell us more!
From websites:
.........................
Just hang this "wasp nest impersonator" in your yard or attic to keep wasps away — naturally.
Because the Waspinator looks like an enemy nest, territorial wasps will avoid it, completely leaving the scene.
No chemical sprays or sticky bait involved: just hang it by its loop, indoors or out.
.........................
Set of 2: $9.99.
Do a solid for a friend and give them the spare.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
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.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
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.
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?
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)