Nostalgia for the Future ...
... and History-Based Gnome Rock. Plus: Coffee.
Rotary Un-Smartphone
In a previous incarnation of this newsletter, I wrote about Justine Haupt's concept for a rotary-dial smartphone. It was an interesting, if slightly counterintuitive, concept. But now that phone is a reality. And it’s a pretty wonderful piece of future nostalgia.
The Rotary Un-Smartphone is a pocket-sized communications device featuring an old-style rotary dial and ringing bell. It also stores a list of contacts on a microSD card and uses a standard SIM card from any carrier compatible with 4G LTE (future-proof for at least a decade).
Haupt makes it clear that you don't need to dial a 10-digit number every time you want to make a call. Instead, you can ring up any one of your contacts from the stored list using just two spins of the dial. This is arguably just as fast (or possibly faster) than firing up an app and dialing a number in a new-fangled smartphone. The phone also includes two programmable "quick call" buttons to store your most frequently dialed numbers.
Thanks to small ePaper display (similar to the same type used in eBook readers) on the back, the phone can receive SMS messages. You can even send pre-typed messages and numbers. The phone features a real ringer-style bell (available in gold or silver), a USB-C charging port, a physical off-switch for the microphone, a 10-bar (!) signal strength meter, and — best of all — a standard headphone jack. The fold-out antenna is a nice touch that also helps to increase the phone's reception.
It's a kit available for pre-order from Skys Edge for $390 with a scheduled ship date of November 2022. And in case you're curious, Haupt named the company named after an Earth-like planet from Alistair Reynold's space opera Revelation Space.
Burrito Tape
The story about a group of students at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering inventing edible tape for burritos has been hitting all the news outlets. They call it "Tastee Tape" (using the unconventional spelling to go for the trademark, no doubt), and it's made of "food-grade fibrous scaffold and an organic adhesive that melts in the mouth." Mmmm. I do love a good fibrous scaffold.
Name and description aside, I have to ask ... is this really a problem people have?
I've eaten many burritos in my years on this planet. And I've certainly had a few that have fallen apart on me — but usually from the bottom, not the wrapped side. In my experience (which is quite vast), burrito fails are usually due to 1) over-stuffing of ingredients, 2) a defect in the tortilla, or 3) a subpar job of wrapping. But I don't think any burrito I've eaten has ever split along the side where it had been wrapped. Usually, my hand is there holding that part together.
But even if the wrapped side happens to be a burrito's point of failure, one strip of tape probably isn't going to solve that problem. If a burrito is going to fail, it's going to fail. You'd likely need to tape the whole edge of the wrapper shut.
On top of that, a good many of the burritos I've encountered have arrived to me already wrapped in paper or foil. Sure, you can unwrap said burrito entirely to eat it, but then any resulting mess is entirely the fault of the eater. Instead, if you just unwrap the first third to begin consumption and continue unwrapping as needed you'll find there's very little mess. Though an argument could be made that increased use of Tastee Tape could cut down on the need for paper and foil wrappers.
I also wonder about the intention of how a person would interact with this product. Is this a thing meant for home use? That makes a modicum of sense. Or is the idea that you carry a roll or sheet or whatever of Tastee Tape with you, and in case you decide to pick up a burrito, just peel off a section of tape, give it a lick (because it has to be moistened to be effective), and slap it onto the tortilla?
In any case, a trip to Chuy's in San Diego — where one of my kids called the burritos "cat-sized" — will really put this product to the test.
Although the invention of the modern burrito is credited to one Juan Méndez, a street vendor in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1910, humans have using tortillas to wrap foods for thousands of years. So we as a species seem to have muddled through millennia of burrito-eating just fine without any sort of adhesive. If you have a problem with messy burritos, you can always carry a portable set of cutlery.
TL;DR — Tastee Tape is a solution in search of a problem. But it's a fun food gimmick for some.
Duncan (or Dunkin') Idaho
Coffee has always played a minor but significant role in Dune. Herbert wrote about coffee 13 times in the 1965 novel. The long out of print Dune Encylopedia even had a recipe for making Fremen-style coffee that's clearly a pour-over — albeit a strong one with a ratio of 15g of coffee to 175ml of water.
So it's no surprise that in the Venn diagram of Dune and coffee, there's a small but dedicated audience at the intersection where Duncan Idaho fans and Dunkin' Donuts fans meet. For those people, there's the Duncan Idaho T-shirt from Retro Logo at Cotton Bureau. Just $29.
Gnome Rocks!
I'm normally resistant to the YouTube recommendation algorithm, but the other day "Wenceslas," a video from Belgian gardencore power-trio Gnome compelled me to click — and I was not disappointed. Quite the opposite. I'm not positive, but I think the song refers to Wenceslas I of Bohemia (known as the One-Eyed), a different Wenceslas than Bing Crosby sings about in "Good King Wenceslas" (who was not a king but a duke). In any case, the song and the video are nothing short of fantastic. Buy King as a digital download or compact disc at the Gnome Bandcamp page.
This Week's Brew
I recently picked up a bag of Papua New Guinea whole beans from Atlanta's Tanbrown Coffee. I'd never had coffee from this area of the world before, so I was intrigued. I also appreciated that the tasting notes didn't tell me what flavors I would experience (these often seem quite subjective and have become increasingly ridiculous). Instead the tasting notes say, "This coffee can be enjoyed at any time, but feels like early afternoon sunshine." I found it to be crisp, with a slight acidity and a hint of spice notes. It's $15 for an 8oz bag of whole beans.
And Now for Something Pedantic
Flags don't fly at half-mast unless they're on a ship. On land, flags fly at half-staff.