When you talk about iconic Milwaukee businesses, you have to throw Soref's Carpet City, 431 S. 2nd St., into the discussion. Soref's has been serving the market for nearly 50 years and the store heads our list of recommendations this week, along with some excellent reading about Wall Street, terrorism and baseball, a delicious burger from Elsa's, a headache remedy and another way to waste time on your iPhone.
These are a few of our favorite things this week:
Soref's Carpet City -- Shopping for carpet can be daunting. But, it doesn't have to be. For nearly 50 years, Soref's Carpet City has met the Milwaukee-area's carpet and flooring needs. I went there in college, since I'd heard they were good and had great prices. They didn't disappoint. So, when we finally decided to cover up some of our wood floors with carpet, I went back to Soref's, 431 S. 2nd St. Old school and friendly, the staff was great and the selection plenty. I picked out a roll, they cut it to size and delivered it the next day. Carpet made easy. --Jeff Sherman
"The Big Takeover" -- While most "really cool" people probably stopped reading Rolling Stone for music articles years (decades?) ago, the magazine's coverage of the culture and politics has remained a cut above many competitors. For example: Matt Taibbi, a terrific reporter, has written what may be the best explanation of the current financial crisis to date. In shocking tones (did you know that insurance giant AIG was losing $465,000 per minute?), Taibbi paints a pretty convincing case that AIG and specifically a guy named Joseph Cassano did to the world what Bernie Madoff did to his investors. Here is a sample of Taibbi describing the ed at the beginning of his story:
"It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline - a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire."
It's an incredibly complex story and Taibbi makes it understandable, if not less horrifying. --Drew Olson
J&D's Baconnaise -- Calling itself the "Ultimate Bacon Flavored Spread" -- which makes me wonder how many others are out there -- this one is vegetarian (but not vegan; it has eggs and milk) -- Baconnaise has lots of ingredients, none of them is bacon. Baconnaise is pretty bacon-y -- almost tellingly too bacon-y -- and a great way to add a little pig belly flavor to your sandwich without resorting to meat. And if, like me, you know more than one vegetarian tempted by bacon, this is the perfect solution. However, I like meat, so I'll likely opt for the bacon and mayonnaise most of the time. Assuming the label tells the truth, the founders of the company won money on "America's Funniest Home Videos" and decided to use their winnings to make everything taste like bacon. How can you beat a story like that? --Bobby Tanzilo
Reading (or re-reading) "Ball Four" -- As opening day approaches, I always make a point to pull out my copy of Jim Bouton's seminal memoir of the 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots. It's one of the best books -- sports or otherwise -- that I've ever read. --D.O.
The Burger Alfredo at Elsa's on the Park -- I love Elsa's, 833 N. Jefferson St., and while I don't eat as many burgers as I once did, I truly enjoy an occasional Burger Alfredo at Elsa's. Tomato, spinach, a tasty Parmesan cheese sauce, butter and spices. Good, good stuff. At $10.25, it comes, of course, with fries and small side of fruit and vegetables. --J.S.
Fiber One Chewy Bars -- You probably don't get enough fiber in your daily diet. I know I don't. These bars purport to supply 35 percent of the recommended daily allowance, but they don't taste like cardboard. We can debate how "healthy" they are, but at 150 calories they make a perfect between-meal snack. It's gotta be better than a Snickers, right? --D.O.
"Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb" by Mike Davis (Verso) -- The respected author of "City of Quartz" and "Ecology of Fear" -- among others -- follows the evolution of "globalizing urban terrorist techniques," taking Italian anarchist Mario Buda as his starting point. Buda is best known as the follower of anarchist Luigi Galleani who blew up Wall Street in 1920. There are some -- including the extremely knowledgable late anarchist historian Paul Avrich -- who believed that Buda and his cohort Carlo Valdinoci (who was later blown up by a bomb he planted outside the home of the U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in 1919) were responsible for the bomb that exploded in Milwaukee's Central Police Station in November 1917, killing nine policemen and a civilian woman in what was the worst loss of police life in a single incident in the U.S. until Sept. 11, 2001. Davis offers us an engaging and timely work. --B.T.
Pressure points for headaches -- Have a headache? Before you reach for the Tylenol or Motrin, drink some water and try a few known acupressure points. Take one or two two fingers and press rather firmly on the bridge of your nose, right under the brow line or crank pretty hard on the "webbing" between your thumb and first finger. Both, I've found, work rather well. --J.S.
Playing checkers on the iPhone -- I needed a break from reading Twitter updates and playing blackjack on my phone, so I downloaded a free application for checkers and began playing serious one-on-one matches against the computer. I don't remember the last time I played checkers before last week, but I don't remember it being such a game of skill. I always thought it was like tic tac toe compared to chess. After suffering a few severe beatings at the hand of the computer, I finally began to think things through and actually won a game. The exhilaration was incredible. Next week, I may turn the skill level past "medium." --D.O.
