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- Students at Nicholls State University will soon be able to take a course all about the books and movies that shaped late author/TV star Anthony Bourdain’s mind. English 475: Anthony Bourdain and His Influencers will be available as part of some English and film majors at the Louisiana college as of the spring 2019 semester, reports Food & Wine. Professor Todd Kennedy explains that the course will “pair Bourdain’s work with the writings and films that influenced him, connecting ways of understanding the world around us through the lens of a transformative writer and public figure.”
So, it's happening. For real. And I doubt they ever let me do this again. So spread the word to interested Nicholls students: a cross-listed literature and film studies course on Anthony Bourdain and his Influencers @PartsUnknownCNN pic.twitter.com/eZXTcaWaIR
— Todd Kennedy (@NSUFilmStudies) September 19, 2018
- Naz Deravian, the cookbook author who wrote Bottom of the Pot, one of this fall’s best works, details in the Atlantic what it was like to write an Iranian cookbook in an age of political anxiety.
- Starbucks is going after the little guy in India. The Seattle-based caffeine behemoth is forcing a small chain in Delhi called SardarBaksh to change its name, according to Quartz. Apparently this moniker is “deceptively similar” to Starbucks.
- The United Kingdom’s environmental minister has suggested banning plastic toys at McDonald’s as a way to save the planet, per the Telegraph. “I desperately want McDonald to give up their happy meal toys and change them to be all about what can you do on you iPad or smart phone, rather than a piece of plastic that lasts for about five minutes and then takes five centuries to degrade,” Thérèse Coffey said during a panel discussion on plastic waste at the U.K.’s Conservative Party Conference. Incidentally, researchers have recently discovered limiting screen time for children improves their brain function.
- Whole Foods workers are still trying to unionize as Amazon exerts more influence over working conditions at the upscale grocery chain, reports the Guardian. Employees say job cuts and reduced wages have been implemented since the online retail giant took over last year.
- Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, the gazillionaire founder of Amazon, is touting his company’s new minimum wage of $15 per hour, but he is taking away staffers’ ability to earn Amazon stock.
- Congratulations to Good Eats creator Alton Brown, who, in the process of getting married to Atlanta-based designer Elizabeth Ingram over the weekend, became the cousin-in-law of indie rocker Liz Phair.
Wedding bells in the family yesterday! Congratulations to my beautiful cousin Beth and her love, @altonbrown xoxo ❤️ I wish I could have been there! https://t.co/DLhr0yodRr
— Liz Phair (@PhizLair) September 30, 2018
- World Central Kitchen, hero chef José Andrés’s non-profit that provides aid to victims of natural disasters, served 300,000 meals in North Carolina over three weeks in the wake of Hurricane Florence.
- Dunkin’ Donuts — er, just Dunkin’ — has fired two employees who were filmed dumping water on a homeless man, reports USA Today. The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, reports the man “suffers from schizophrenia and was inside the restaurant to charge his phone to call his mother to say goodnight.”
- The latest insufferable trend being adopted by yuppie parents, according to the Wall Street Journal, is taking photos of their kids’ school lunches and posting them to Instagram.
- The dream of the ’90s is alive in Trix cereal, which has gone back to its fruit-shaped form in an effort to lure nostalgic breakfast eaters, per the Takeout. Trix had taken a spherical shape in recent years.
- Beer-loving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh got into a bar fight at Yale because he and his friends thought another patron was the singer from UB40, reports the New York Times. It seems one of Kavanaugh’s friends had beef with the fellow who looked like the pop star.
- Universal Cable is developing a series based on a comic book called Ice Cream Man, according to Deadline. The will be told from the perspective of an Ice Cream man. There’s no word yet on which network will land the show.
- A loaded gun was found in a bathroom stall at celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian’s fancy Manhattan restaurant The Lambs Club, per Page Six. Rumor has it the weapon belonged to a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s security detail.
- Fast Company has stumbled upon an artificial intelligence project that generates names for pumpkin beers. Strawbone Masher sounds particularly delicious.
- And in other AI news, Google’s DeepMind company has generated a fuzzy image of a cheeseburger, reports Quartz. Wow.
- Austin restaurants are now legally required to donate or compost extra food, rather than throwing it away, reports the local NBC affiliate.
- Finally, Harper’s Bazaar has some speculation on what will be served at Princess Eugenie’s upcoming wedding in the U.K. Yes, it’s another royal wedding.
