BARBS

We Americans are apparently going to snack our way out of the recession.

According to the latest research from marketing firm Packaged Facts, U.S. sales of packaged snacks will reach $81.6 billion by 2013 (up from $68 billion in 2008). And, Packaged Facts predicts, “salty/savory snacks should continue to eat away at the lead enjoyed by sweet snacks in sales.”

Why are we snacking with such gusto? Here’s their take:

Despite the dampening effects of global recession, consumers are snacking more than ever, thanks to pull-backs in restaurant dining, harried lifestyles that reduce opportunities for sit-down meals, and a growing consensus that several small meals or snacks during the day are actually healthier than the three-squares paradigm.

I’m not sure “salty/savory snacks” are what nutritionists mean when they suggest several small meals during the day instead of three squares.

In addition, as the sluggish economy fans job-loss fears, health insurance woes, and environmental and social justice anxieties, snack consumers are embracing a “value” mentality that prizes quality and “whole” ingredients, “better for you” recipes, and green production practices. While low prices are always a draw, consumers are looking for snacks with fewer additives or preservatives, and even spending extra dollars for organic and premium snack treats that can boost their flagging spirits over the long climb back to prosperity.

So, the tranquilizer for worries about unemployment, global warming and whatever “social justice anxieties” are, is expensive treats.

Fat is the new broke.

Here’s my favorite tidbit from today’s New York Times (which, for some reason, does not appear online):

An article last Sunday about potential harm to civilian infrastructure in an attack on computer networks described the military principle of proportionality, in layman’s terms, as a rule arguing that if you slap me, I cannot blow up your house. In international law, however, the principle includes the concept that if you slap me, I cannot blow up your house unless the advantage from doing so justifies not using a lesser response.

Glad we straightened that out!

Billy Mays’s final tweet:

Brian Stelter has written two excellent pieces for today’s New York Times, and whether he intended them to be read as a pair I don’t know, but together they paint quite a picture of the state of foreign news coverage.

The first article described the real-time criticism on Twitter of CNN’s (and other cablers’) relative lack of live news coverage of the weekend’s protests in Iran. “The channels largely took the weekend off as Tehran exploded in protests after Iran’s presidential election,” reads Stelter’s lede graf, and that led “untold thousands” to use the label “CNNfail” on Twitter to vent their frustrations.

(more…)

Hat tip to Trace Sharp at NewsTechZilla for flagging this post:

Journalists find things out and tell people about it.

If you are teaching your students how to do that, you are not only doing your job, you are giving them the gift of a lifetime.

It is not your job to guarantee them stable employment.

I’m not even sure that stable employment is good for young journalists.

Journalists exercise power. Ideally, they exercise that power on behalf of the powerless. If they know nothing about what it is like to be powerless themselves, they may come to exercise their considerable power on behalf of the already powerful.

Teach them how to find out what is true and what is hidden, and how to say it so others can understand what it means and why it is important. Then you will have done your job and given them the gift of a lifetime.

From today’s WSJ.com:

For Michael Precker, that loss of status [after being forced to take a buyout] wasn’t as grim as the fear of it. A veteran foreign correspondent and editor for the Dallas Morning News, Mr. Precker took a buyout in 2006 and now manages a high-end strip club. “I really wondered how it would feel to sever that link — Michael Precker of the Dallas Morning News,” he says. “But it has been easier than I thought. I feel lucky.”

My father, 76 years old today and still going strong!

(Photo by Mom)