The late Will Radcliff turned "brain-freezing super-sweet drinks" into a $25 billion business, reports Paul Vitello in The New York Times (9/22/14). Mr. Radcliff was a peanut salesman who had his million-dollar epiphany while "inspecting a slush-making machine" at a trade show. He calculated that he "could sell a drink for 10 cents and make 7 cents" each time. The Slurpee was already available, but he thought "they were not being marketed well enough to spread ...
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Twenty-five years later, The Simpsons "remains as vital, fresh and funny as ever," reports Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal (9/24/14). The question is: "How does a show sustain its creative life for roughly 22 episodes a year for 25 years? Al Jean, who has worked on the program for its entire history" says consistency is the thing, in that the show’s goals and its cast of characters have not changed — except for the death of Miss Edn ...
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The "most wonderful terrible restaurant in New York" has remained "virtually unchanged since opening in 1975," reports Pete Wells in The New York Times (9/24/14). Where other Lower East Side eateries "obsess over filament light bulbs and salvaged barn beams," Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse "will be ready when fluorescents and drop ceilings make a triumphant return to fashion." The lighting recalls "a bail bo ...
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A novelist is using a big-box store as the setting for a horror story, reports Steve Dollar in The Wall Street Journal (9/23/14). "A hallmark of research into ‘real’ haunted places is that people feel a sense of confusion and disorientation," says Grady Hendrix, author of Horrorstor. It’s a design concept known as Gruen Transfer. "It’s what casinos do. There are no windows. There are no clocks. The carpets have these complicated patterns on them. It d ...
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A new grocery store in Germany "has dispensed entirely with disposable packaging," reports Feargus O’Sullivan in CityLab (9/16/14). Located in Berlin, Original Unverpackt (unverpackt means unpackaged) also sells no brand-name items. The store’s "dry goods — rice, cereal, spices — are stored in large dispenser bins, and customers fill containers they have either brought with them or purc ...
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