New Mexico Road Food

When you’re driving across America’s wide-open spaces, your worst enemies are an empty tank and an empty belly. Although a car may not be picky about the brand of gas you put into it, a body cannot run on beef jerky alone. That’s why we’re crazy about NEW MEXICO ROAD FOOD. Perhaps it’s the harmonious convergence of Mexican, American Indian, and Western-frontier cooking traditions found there, or maybe it’s the daunting distances between population centers, but we know of no other state in the Union where you can so consistently find such tasty cooking along the asphalt byways, often only steps from the gas pump.

The 2008 SAVEUR 100

Follow the link for a number of suggested pit stops.

Thanks to Colorado Luis for the pointer.

Car brand perceptions survey

Automakers spend billions of dollars to promote their vehicles and build brand awareness. Yet, marketing alone does not shape consumer perception without a clear connection to the vehicles in the showroom. In the latest Auto Pulse survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, Toyota and Honda brands ranked first and second, respectively, by dominant margins over all others. Likewise, the vehicles from those brands have consistently performed well in our testing, often ranking among the best in their classes, and have been mostly at the top of our reliability ratings over the years.

This survey focused on how consumers perceive and rank car brands in seven crucial areas, including safety, quality, value, performance, environmental friendliness, design, and technological innovation. It also looks at which of those factors are most important to consumers when buying a vehicle.

Consumer Reports

Top in brand perception by category:

Safety — Volvo (by a huge margin)
Quality — Toyota
Value — Honda
Performance — BMW
Green — Toyota
Design — Mercedes Benz and Lexus tied, Cadillac close third
Technology/Innovation — Toyota and Lexus

January 10th

Today is the birthday

… of Willie McCovey. “Stretch,” a baseball hall-of-famer, is 70.

TOP LEFT-HANDED HOME RUN HITTER IN N.L.
HISTORY WITH 521. SECOND ONLY TO LOU GEHRIG
WITH 18 CAREER GRAND SLAMS. LED N.L. IN HOMERS
THREE TIMES AND RBI’S TWICE. N.L. ROOKIE OF
YEAR IN 1959, MVP IN 1969 AND COMEBACK PLAYER
OF THE YEAR IN ’77. TEAMED WITH WILLIE MAYS
FOR AWESOME 1-2 PUNCH IN GIANTS’ LINEUP.

… of Scott McKenzie. So “if you’re going to San Francisco” wish Scott a happy 69th birthday.

… of Rod Stewart. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 63.

Rod Stewart can be regarded as the rock generation’s heir to Sam Cooke. Like Cooke, Stewart delivers both romantic ballads and uptempo material with conviction and panache, and he sings in a warm, soulful rasp. A singer’s singer, Stewart seemed made to inhabit the spotlight. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of William Sanderson. The character actor (E.B. Farnum in “Deadwood,” Larry on “Newhart,” Lippy in “Lonesome Dove”) is 60.

… of George Foreman. The boxing hall-of-famer and cook is 59. Foreman has five daughters and five sons and has named all of the sons George — George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI.

… of Patricia Mae Andrzejewski. Pat Benatar is 55. She won four consecutive Grammy awards in the 1980s for “Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.”

… of Shawn Colvin. The singer is 52.

Shawn Colvin is one of the bright spots of the so-called “new folk movement” that began in the late ’80s. And though she grew out of the somewhat limited “woman with a guitar” school, she has managed to keep the form fresh with a diverse approach, avoiding the clichéd sentiments and all-too-often formulaic arrangements that have plagued the genre. In less than a decade of recording, Colvin has emerged as a songcraftsman with plenty of pop smarts, which has earned her a broad and loyal following. (All Music Guide)

What I think happened

Atrios:

I don’t know if reaction to the media treatment of Clinton had anything to do with voter choices yesterday, but I certainly know people in real life who a) don’t want Clinton to win and b) are tempted to vote for her every time they’re exposed to the way she’s treated by the deeply broken monsters in our mainstream media.

kos:

The way she was treated the past few days in New Hampshire was a disgrace, and likely a large reason for her surprise victory. So keep attacking her for bullshit reasons, and you’ll be generating more and more sympathy votes for her. Obama’s “you’re likable enough” was likely worth 2-3 points all by its lonesome self.

Kevin Drum (last week):

I just hate the idea that the fever swamp has been able to turn a perfectly decent liberal woman into such an object of malign loathing. If she loses, then she loses. But by God, I don’t want her to lose because millions of [GOP operative Lisa] Schiffren’s fellow travelers have carried on a 15-year vendetta of sick-minded smears and hatred. Enough’s enough.

January 9th

Today is the birthday

… of Bart Starr. The hall-of-fame quarterback is 74.

… of Dick Enberg. The sportscaster is 73 (oh, my!).

… of Joan Baez. The singer is 67.

… of Jimmy Page. The Led Zeppelin rocker is 64.

Combining the visceral power and intensity of hard rock with the finesse and delicacy of British folk music, Led Zeppelin redefined rock in the Seventies and for all time. They were as influential in that decade as the Beatles were in the prior one. Their impact extends to classic and alternative rockers alike. Then and now, Led Zeppelin looms larger than life on the rock landscape as a band for the ages with an almost mystical power to evoke primal passions. The combination of Jimmy Page’s powerful, layered guitar work, Robert Plant’s keening, upper-timbre vocals, John Paul Jones’ melodic bass playing and keyboard work, and John Bonham’s thunderous drumming made for a band whose alchemy proved enchanting and irresistible. “The motto of the group is definitely, ‘Ever onward,’” Page said in 1977, perfectly summing up Led Zeppelin’s forward-thinking philosophy. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of Brenda Gayle Webb. Loretta Lynn’s little sister Crystal Gayle is 57.

… of Dave Matthews. He’s 41.

Gilligan (and Maynard Krebs) was born on this date in 1935. Bob Denver died in 2005.

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, on this date in 1913.

Toyota made its first appearance in the U.S. at the Los Angeles Auto Show 50 years ago today. Datsun (Nissan), too.

The Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans was fought 193 years ago today (you know, “In 1815, we took a little trip, along with Colonel Jackson, down the mighty Mississip”). Pulitizer-winning historian Alan Taylor gives a quick summary at The Edge of the American West.

We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
and we fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

And it’s not even 10, it’s 11

What would be truly incredible is if voters and computers finally realize that the Big Ten, whose teams have won two national titles in 38 years, is no longer a football conference.

What would be absolutely fair is voters and computers treating the Big Ten the way they treat the Western Athletic Conference of Boise State and Hawaii.

Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times

Here’s the final AP Top 10:

1. LSU (60) 12-2 1,620
2. Georgia (3) 11-2 1,515
3. USC (1) 11-2 1,500
4. Missouri 12-2 1,347
5. Ohio State 11-2 1,346
6. West Virginia 11-2 1,342
7. Kansas (1) 12-1 1,303
8. Oklahoma 11-3 1,139
9. Virginia Tech 11-3 1,096
10. Texas 10-3 962

Best line of the day, so far (though it is a dreary day)

“The best moment [in the Republican debate Saturday night] came when the subject of health care arose and it became very clear that not only do none of these guys — with the possible exception of the Huck — have any plans to cope with the problem, they don’t see much of a problem there to begin with. They are cultish in their devotion to some sort of strange absolutist concept of ‘individual choice’ unfamiliar to anyone who’s dealt with an insurance company at any time in the past 50 years.”

Charles Pierce

‘Apple-scrapple. That’s a keeper.’

A truly substantive interview with The Wire‘s David Simon by Nick Hornby.

An excerpt:

[Simon:] But instead of the old gods, The Wire is a Greek tragedy in which the postmodern institutions are the Olympian forces. It’s the police department, or the drug economy, or the political structures, or the school administration, or the macroeconomic forces that are throwing the lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no decent reason. In much of television, and in a good deal of our stage drama, individuals are often portrayed as rising above institutions to achieve catharsis. In this drama, the institutions always prove larger, and those characters with hubris enough to challenge the postmodern construct of American empire are invariably mocked, marginalized, or crushed. Greek tragedy for the new millennium, so to speak.

If you’re into The Wire, you’ll want to read this one. If you wonder what’s with all the fuss about The Wire, you’ll want to read it too.

Link via mental_floss Blog.