Cathy Erway: My Kind Of Chef

Cathy Erway was featured on the FoodSpotting blog a few days ago. No, the FoodSpotting blog is not on my blogroll, not yet, although now I am thinking why not, but I must have pressed the like button enough times that the FoodSpotting Facebook page is often in my Facebook stream. So there was Cathy Erway.

FoodSpotting's Dish As Starting Point
Twitter ---> Instagram ---> FoodSpotting

I remember exchanging a tweet or two with her over a year back. I was amazed to find her. The eating in concept is revolutionary, if you think about it.

I have said at this blog a few times that I harbor secret ambitions to become a great cook and a great dancer. I guess it is not that secret no more, but that's okay.

Let me explain. I have very individual definitions of what a great cook is, what a great dancer is.

For me dancing is about sweating. I am not thinking finesse. I am not thinking ballet. I just want some pumping, workout music. What would make it great is if I am in such great shape that along the way I get to improvise a little, try out some new moves.

And so being a great dancer is about being in good shape. It is about working out. No music. I am talking squats and push ups, and other freehand goodies. If you think you are doing all that for the dance floor, working out is way more fun. It is an elevated experience.

There you go. Did I just play a trick on your mind?

Something similar goes to cooking.

More Sam Walton Than Bill Gates
The First Walmart Store
How Wal-Mart Got Started
Who Hired You?

What would super healthy eating feel like? I think a lot of it would be eating in. To me it is also about keeping the costs down. Sam Walton is one of my heroes, as is Michael Dell, as are the dollar pizza people in the city. And it is about discipline. Can you cut the costs down? And I happen to think much of cooking should not take too much time. The grinder is your friend. You can spill out some pretty healthy stuff pretty quickly out of that simple machine.

And before I came across Cathy Erway I was thinking I am going to have to pioneer the concept. And I am so glad I came across her. Because I really don't hope to shine with food. I am not that gifted. But I do want to indulge. I do want to get involved.

I have a few ideas. I have some thoughts. I have some inklings of some dishes that would be healthy and quick to whip out. A lot of that obviously is to do with fruits and vegetables. Salads are good stuff. Some are to do with mixing things up in the grinder.

I have thought in terms of becoming a pescatarian, dumplings are a big reason I could not go for it. And being a great cook for me would mean getting frozen dumplings from elsewhere and simply steaming them at home. That is still a good 20 minute run. People who sell them sell them for cheaper than it would take for me to buy just the ingredients. Making dumplings is an art form: I think I am going to stick to dancing.

And there is curry. My face gives it away. I am Indian. But lassi comes before curry.

Having Mango Lassi: Do Not Disturb
Having Mango Lassi

Lassi is easier to make too. It is healthier.

Curry is easy to make. And I can make once and eat a little at a time for days. Curry often comes with rice. Rice is even easier to make. You don't make it. It makes itself.

But once you have the healthy stuff in, once you have the easy stuff in, once you have the ethnic stuff in - the dumplings, the curry - then the fun part begins. You actually do the recipe thing. You cook. You go look for ingredients, and you get a little fancy. You try out new things. You branch out, you reach out.

And maybe Cathy Erway can help. I am so glad I will not have to invent the wheel.

Who wants to teach me dancing?

Not Eating Out in New York
cathyerway - Twitter
The Art of Eating In - Author
Cathy Erway: Huffington Post
NYC food blogger Cathy Erway ate in for a year - NYPOST.com When Cathy Erway decided to eat in for 2 years, she saved $7,200, shed 10 pounds — and lost her boyfriend.
Cathy Erway | Facebook
Cathy Erway, Chef, Writer - Gothamist

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The First Walmart Store

So Sam Walton decides he wants to take his company public. Although the company was in debt, its fundamentals were looking really strong. Besides he figured he could use the money generated from the IPO for the company's future growth.

So he shows up in New York, shows up at an investment bank.

"Hi. I am Sam Walton from Arkansas. I need to take my company public. Who do I talk to?"

The receptionist takes her to see that lone soul from Arkansas who happens to be working at that bank.

How Wal-Mart Got Started
More Sam Walton Than Bill Gates
GroupOn Did Not Launch At South By South West
Who Hired You?
Ageism And Entrepreneurship
Engineering, Creativity, Sector Reform, Sector Revolution
That StartUp Mentality (2)

Walmart - Wikipedia The company was the world's largest public corporation in 2010 by revenue..... The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. ..... the largest majority private employer ...... the largest grocery retailer in the United States ..... In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business ...... has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names ..... operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada ....... began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas ...... Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations.[8] However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors ....... Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales ...... The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969. ...... 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. ...... In the 1980s, Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates ...... This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all operating units of the company with its Bentonville office via two-way voice and data transmission and one-way video communication. At the time, it was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate to stores ...... In 1988, Sam Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass. Walton remained as Chairman of the Board, and the company also rearranged other people in senior positions. ..... By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business ...... In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion. It has remained there every year, except for 2006 ...... employing more than 1.6 million "associates" worldwide. Its U.S. presence grew so rapidly that only small pockets of the country remained further than 60 miles (100 km) from the nearest Wal-Mart ......... the world's largest corporation ...... compared the changes to what small town shops had faced in the past — including the development of the railroads, the advent of the Sears Roebuck catalog, as well as the arrival of shopping malls — and concluded that shop owners who adapt to changes in the retail market can thrive after Wal-Mart arrives ..... In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Walmart was able to use its logistical efficiency in organizing a rapid response to the disaster, donating $20 million in cash, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals, as well as the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers. An independent study by Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University found that Walmart, The Home Depot and Lowe's made use of their local knowledge about supply chains, infrastructure, decision makers and other resources to provide emergency supplies and reopen stores well before FEMA began its response ....... Walmart's goal was to be a "good steward for the environment" and ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste ...... designed three new experimental stores in McKinney, Texas, Aurora, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada. with wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, biofuel-capable boilers, water-cooled refrigerators, and xeriscape gardens ....... the biggest seller of organic milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world ...... The new store has wood floors, wider aisles, a sushi bar, a coffee/sandwich shop with free Wi-Fi Internet access, and more expensive beers, wines, electronics, and other goods. The exterior has a hunter green background behind the Walmart letters, similar to Neighborhood Market by Walmarts, instead of the blue previously used at its supercenters. ...... On September 12, 2007, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save Money Live Better," replacing the "Always Low Prices, Always" slogan, which it had used for the previous 19 years. ....... Walmart's price level reduction resulted in savings for consumers of $287 billion in 2006, which equated to $957 per person or $2,500 per household ........ On March 20, 2009, Walmart announced that it is paying a combined $933.6 million in bonuses to every full and part time hourly worker of the company. An additional $788.8 million in profit sharing, 401(k) contributions, and hundreds of millions of dollars in merchandise discounts and contributions to the employees' stock purchase plan is also included in this plan. While the economy at large was in an ongoing recession, the largest retailer in the U.S. reported solid financial figures for the most recent fiscal year (ending January 31, 2009), with $401.2 billion in net sales, a gain of 7.2% from the prior year. ..... All Wal-Mart stores in the US and Canada also have designated "greeters", who welcome shoppers at the store entrance ...... governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, which is elected annually by shareholders. ....... Sam Walton died in 1992. After Walton's death, Don Soderquist, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice Chairman, became known as the "Keeper of the Culture." ......... Notable former members of the board include Hillary Clinton (1985–1992) ....... Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Walmart's U.S. stores. ....... The average US Wal-Mart customer's income is below the national average, and analysts recently estimated that more than one-fifth of them lack a bank account, twice the national rate. ....... Wal-Mart customers are sensitive to higher utility costs and gas prices ....... after 2004 US Presidential Election 76% of voters who shopped at Wal-Mart once a week voted for George W. Bush, while only 23% supported senator John Kerry ....... frequent Wal-Mart shoppers were rated the most politically conservative ........ six demographic groups – African-Americans, the affluent, empty-nesters, Hispanics, suburbanites and rural residents." ..... "brand aspirationals" (people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), "price-sensitive affluents" (wealthier shoppers who love deals), and "value-price shoppers" (people who like low prices and cannot afford much more) ....... while Wal-Mart's low prices caused some existing businesses to close, the chain also created new opportunities for other small business, and so "the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has no statistically significant impact on the overall size of the small business sector in the United States." ....... When a Wal-Mart opens in a new market, median sales drop 40% at similar high-volume stores, 17% at supermarkets and 6% at drugstores ....... its stores' presence saves working families more than US$2,500 per year, while creating more than 210,000 jobs in the U.S. ......... Wal-Mart's growth between 1985 and 2004 resulted in food-at-home prices that were 9.1% lower and overall prices (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) that were 3.1% lower than they would otherwise have been ....... a new store increases net retail employment in the county by 100 jobs in the short term, half of which disappear over five years as other retail establishments close ..... "Wal-Mart's discounting on food alone boosts the welfare of American shoppers by at least $50 billion per year." ..... the poorest segment of the population benefits the most from the existence of discount retailers ...... two different Wal-Marts, the first of which had just arrived and "was in the process of driving everyone else out of business but, to do that, they cut their prices to the bone, very, very low prices". In the other Wal-Mart, "they had successfully destroyed the local economy, there was a sort of economic crater with Wal-Mart in the middle; and, in that community, the prices were 17 per cent higher"

History of Walmart - Wikipedia In 1962 Walton invested 95% of the capital to open the first Walmart store. ...... Responsible for the purchase and maintenance of signage, Walton's assistant, Bob Bogle, came up with the name "Wal-Mart" for the new chain. ...... By 1977, Wal-Mart made its first corporate acquisition, assuming ownership and operation of the Mohr-Value stores in Michigan and Illinois. This was followed by the acquisition of the Hutcheson Shoe Company in 1978. In the same year Walmart also branched out into several new markets, launching its pharmacy, auto service center, and jewelry divisions. ...... The 1990s saw an era of furious growth on an unprecedented scale and the incorporation of several new ideas and technology into the business. ....... On March 17, 1992 U.S. President George H. W. Bush presents Sam Walton with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sam Walton passes away on April 5, 1992. ..... In 1997, Walmart replaced Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. ...... in 2000, Walmart was ranked fifth by Fortune magazine on its Global Most Admired All-Stars list, and in 2003 and 2004, as the most admired company in America. ....... In 2006, on 26 July Walmart announced its complete pull-out of the German market. All existing 85 stores were sold to the Metro Group ...... In response to the popularity of organic food supermarkets, such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats, Walmart announced plans in May 2006, to increase the amount of organic food available in its stores. They announced that both conventionally grown and organic versions of certain products would be available, and the price of organic versions would not be more than 10% over the price of conventionally-grown products. ....... $351 billion in revenue ($11 billion in profit) in 2007, a new high for the corporation ..... As of October 2009, Walmart stores operate in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Pakistan,and the United States

Sam Walton - Wikipedia lived with his parents on their farm until 1923. ..... Growing up during the Great Depression, Walton had numerous chores to help make financial ends meet for his family as was common at the time. He milked the family cow, bottled the surplus, and drove it to customers. Afterwards, he would deliver newspapers on a paper route. In addition, he also sold magazine subscriptions. Upon graduating, he was voted "Most Versatile Boy". ....... attended the University of Missouri as an ROTC cadet. During this time, he worked various odd jobs, including waiting tables in exchange for meals. Also during his time in college, Walton joined the Zeta Phi chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He was also tapped by QEBH, the well-known secret society on campus honoring the top senior men. Upon graduating in 1940 with a B.A. in economics, he was voted "permanent president" of the class. ...... This position earned him $75 a month. ..... With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas ...... It was here that Walton pioneered many concepts that would prove to be crucial to his success. ..... When Walton bought the franchise from the previous owner in 1945, the store was doing $72,000 in sales annually. By 1950, the store was doing $250,000 in sales annually, due to Walton's ideas and practices ...... Because of the variety store's enormous success, the landlord, P.K. Holmes, refused to renew the lease when it expired, desiring to pass the store onto his son. The lack of a renewal option, together with the outrageous rent of 5% of sales, were early business lessons to Walton. Despite forcing Walton out, Holmes bought the store's inventory and fixtures for $50,000, which Walton called "a fair price". ...... Walton offered managers the opportunity to become limited partners if they would invest in the store they oversaw and then invest a maximum of $1,000 in new outlets as they opened. This motivated the managers to always try to maximize profits and improve their managerial skills. ...... Helen and Sam did the best they could do to promote a sense of togetherness in the family, and they made sure their children to had a chance to participate in the some sorts of things as they did as kids. ...... The Walton family held five spots in the top ten richest people in the United States until 2005. ...... In 1998, Walton was included in Time's list of 100 most influential people of the 20th Century..... Forbes ranked Sam Walton as the richest man in the United States from 1982 to 1988, ceding the top spot to John Kluge in 1989 when the editors began to credit Walton's fortune jointly to him and his four children. ...... (Bill Gates first headed the list in 1992, the year Walton died).... Walton was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1992.

Time: A Visit to India's First Walmart (a.k.a. Best Price): Amritsar lives in many centuries at once. This holiest city of the Sikhs is home to their most revered shrine, the mystical and awe-inspiring Golden Temple, where nihangs — members of an armed Sikh order — live on in traditions dating back centuries, sporting distinctive electric-blue tunics and a panoply of weapons, even speaking a unique martial dialect of the Punjabi language. Other parts of this prosperous merchant city wear Levis, hang out at cafés, follow the latest diet fad or carry the latest iPod. And since May this year, Amritsar has also been home to India's first Walmart..... called Best Price Modern Wholesale, in collaboration with Walmart's Indian partner Bharti Enterprises, in order to get around the country's rigid foreign-investment restrictions ..... All sales are in cash...... "This store has certainly expanded my range of choice," he says. "But it's just one more store where I buy supplies from. I still get better prices and more convenience shopping at my usual suppliers." He is cut short by a commotion — the appearance of a forklift has created a stir. Children are gazing, enchanted, while adults look on with barely concealed curiosity. The store staff quickly rush in to cordon off the aisles that are being restocked, and gradually it's back to business as usual...... "I have shopped at the same kiryana shop for 18 years." There are many reasons customers like Kaur prefer their kiryana shops: they deliver for free, even for small orders; they allow regular customers credit; and they are close by and personal. "He knows us so well," she says. "When my daughter went to America to study, he called to ask, 'Madam, is your daughter not home? You haven't been ordering cheese singles!' If I run out of shampoo or detergent, I can just phone him, and he'll send a boy with the stuff, free of charge." ...... "In a country where half the economy is a black economy, how do they expect a shopkeeper to give checks and put all transactions on record?"

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How Wal-Mart Got Started

Image via Wikipedia"In 1962, four new retailers were born. One called Kmart was started in Garden City, Michigan, another called Target was started in Minneapolis, another from Woolworth, the big name in retailing at the time, called Woolco was started, and the final one in rural Rogers, Arkansas, called Wal-Mart. Thirty years later, Woolco had met its demise and one of the other two was the largest retailer in the country. Surprisingly, the top retailer was the one from Arkansas."

The Guardian: It all began in a small store in Arkansas...: Four of the world's top 15 billionaires are from one family. ..... retail is a good place to be. Of the top 15 billionaires, nine made their money the old-fashioned way, by selling us clothes, food and furniture ..... together, the clan are nearly as rich as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates (the top two on the list) combined. ....... Sam Walton began his conquest of the world in 1945, with a loan of $20,000 from his father-in-law and a small variety store in Newport, Arkansas, where he established the practices that define present-day Wal-Mart: he kept prices as low as possible, stocked a wide range of goods, and stayed open longer than anyone else. His margins were small, but he sold large quantities, which meant he could bargain for even lower prices from wholesalers - policies that still drive smaller local stores out of business. ....... Even in his later years, when he was worth $24bn, he was famously frugal, opting for $5 haircuts (no tip), and cheap food at his local Wal-Mart. He drove an old pick-up and often borrowed money from his employees. And he was ruthless. "Some people try to turn it into this 'Save the Small-Town Merchants' deal, like they were whales or something that have a right to be protected," he wrote in his autobiography. But he was having none of it. "What happened was as inevitable as the replacement of the buggy by the car." When he died, in 1992, the state got almost nothing in taxes, because he had divided his wealth between his wife Helen, who died in 2007, and his children. ....... Wal-Mart employs more than 2 million people worldwide, meaning it has twice as many men and women in uniform than the US army. ...... A reporter for Fortune, strolling round Bentonville, Arkansas, was hard put to even find the offices from which their fortunes are run. ....... Rob Walton, company chairman (the CEO is a non-Walton, Mike Duke), worked in a small windowless room,
Image via Wikipedia 10ft by 10ft square ..... in fact, anyone who lives in Bentonville probably shops in Wal-mart for food, clothes, furniture and electronics, banks at Arvest, and, until recently, read a Walton-owned paper. They can drive down Walton Boulevard to watch sport at the Walton Arena. They can wander around the Walton Arts Centre, or go to the Wal-Mart Museum, where old Sam's office and pick-up are preserved exactly as they were the day he died. They can study at the Sam Walton business school, or fly from the Alice L Walton terminal of the airport.

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Played Farmville After Long Months

Image via CrunchBaseI think it has been almost a year. I stopped after the game started acting funny. It simply would not load for me. Anu Shukla could not understand. She thought maybe my blogging stole me from Farmville. My conspiracy theory was that Mark Pincus was personally punishing me for having taken credit for an idea.

I tried the game on a Mac at an Apple store. Last year. Still not loading. Was that a Flash/Apple thing? I don't know.

Anyways, my Chrome Notebook did not arrive, and recently I bought myself a new computer, a PC, after having tried a Mac for a few weeks: I liked it. But if all you need is a browser almost all the time, the PC works just fine. And costs matter. Sam Walton is my hero.

Today - I don't know exactly why - I decided to give Farmville a try, and it loaded fine. And my farm was exactly where I had left it. I had left a rich farmer with a huge farm. I still have hundreds of lemon trees to harvest. I planted yellow
Image via Wikipediawatermelons that I now have to harvest in four days. Looks like I am back in.

This time I am going to take it easy. Last time I was aggressive.

I had absolutely no idea about the English Countryside thing. But good timing on my part, right? This second farm I am going to keep small and pretty. My first farm I kept expanding, and expanding some more. It got a little out of hand. It started feeling like work. But it's a pretty farm nevertheless. It has many, many details.

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• Zynga starts rolling out FarmVille's first major expansion (venturebeat.com) We reported last month that Farmville was preparing the expansion, called FarmVille English Countryside, and it finally started rolling out to fans tonight..... If Zynga gets this right, it could return FarmVille to its glory as the game with the biggest and most profitable audience in the world..... the game hit a peak of 83 million players in March, 2010 ...... FarmVille is one of the most successful games in history, surpassed only by Zynga’s CityVille, which got as large as 100 million players. Mark Pincus, chief executive of Zynga, owes his billionaire status to the success of FarmVille. ...... FarmVille became the talk of the industry because it proved that traditional game companies that focused on hardcore gamers weren’t thinking big enough; it took a scrappy startup like Zynga to imagine and create FarmVille and market the hell out of it to a receptive audience of older women. ..... All of your FarmVille coins and cash, your gift box, farm size and your level of achievement can transfer over to the English Countryside game. ..... The FarmVille fan page has more than 30 million “likes” on Facebook. But the English Countryside fan page already has 2.1 million “likes” with little promotion..... Just about every week, the team adds new features to FarmVille to keep users interested, and it will do the same for the English Countryside..... You can speed the process along by offering the sheep a “love potion,” which is an opportunity for Zynga to sell you a virtual good.