The Doughnut Justice

A lot of legal and political pundits continue to speculate about the factors that prompted John Roberts, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to cast the 5th vote last week upholding the president's controversial health care reform law.

We, the co-authors of this book, have no special insights about Roberts' decision, but one of the most interesting stories we've ever heard about the chief justice is the role doughnuts played in helping him decide who to hire as clerks when he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals. 

According to a 2010 article in the Washington Post, Roberts developed "a self-confidence experiment" in that worked this way. On the day that he interviewed clerk candidates, he brought in a dozen powdered-sugar and glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts, directing his secretary to tell the applicants to help themselves.

"I figured anybody who had enough self-confidence to pick up a doughnut that's glazed or with powdered sugar would be the sort of person I was interested in," Roberts said. "I even remember saying, 'Anybody who has a doughnut, I'll hire.'"

But by the end of the day, none of the doughnuts were touched. "So I had to go back," Roberts recalled, "and look at their resumes."

He Craved a Chocolate Malt

H. Ross Perot, the Texas multimillionaire who ran for U.S. president in 1992 and 1996, is celebrating his 82nd birthday today.

Bored with working as an IBM salesman, Perot quit and started a company he called Electronic Data Systems, which he eventually sold to General Motors for $2.5 billion.

EDS staff who got to know Perot learned quickly that the wealthy Texan expected them to anticipate needs and handle them without excuses. Once, during a 3 a.m. hotel conversation with EDS recruiter Rob Brooks, Perot confided that he craved a chocolate malt. Brooks persuaded the hotel's night manager to open the hotel’s kitchen so he could prepare his boss a malt. "The word 'impossibility' was not in his vocabulary," Brooks remembered.

Let It Be . . . Broccoli

Paul McCartney turns 70 years old today. Food has figured prominently in the life of this rock 'n roll legend.

In fact, one of the Beatles' most memorable hits started out as a food song. McCartney came up with the melody, but the band struggled for months to decide on its lyrics and title. "We called it 'Scrambled Egg' and it became a joke between us," explained fellow Beatle John Lennon. "We almost had it finished, we had made up our minds that only a one-word title would suit — and believe me, we just couldn’t find the right one." The Fab Four finally agreed to give the song a different three-syllable name: Yesterday.

Although his first solo album (1970) was officially titled "McCartney," many fans refer to it as the "Cherries" album because of the cover photo. 

In 2010, a British columnist asked McCartney about his kitchen skills. "I'm not bad," replied the rock legend. "I can turn a meal out." But he prefers to improvise, instead of sticking strictly to a recipe.

His late wife, Linda, is believed to be the person who turned McCartney into a vegetarian. And there's one veggie that really gets Paul excited. 

"If I go on tour and eat a lot of restaurant or hotel food, I come back, and it's like, yeah, broccoli!" he said.

The Right Dinner for Wright

The renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born on this date in the year 1867. His wife, Olgivanna, monitored her husband's meals as closely as he monitored his numerous projects. When a Philadelphia architects' association invited Wright to receive an award in 1950, Mrs. Wright sent a letter to the organization's president with clear instructions for preparing Frank's dinner:

"One piece whitefish, and this is to be cooked not in the fire or on the fire or under the fire, but directly over the fire, dry without any butter or sauces or mishmash. Then maybe one baked potato but absolutely dry with no butter, and a little fresh peas, and then maybe a little raspberry Jello, and maybe a little coffee, and then you will go and buy one quart skimmed milk, Grade A, and bring it back and show this to me, so I am sure."

For good measure, Mrs. Wright reminded the architects' association that her husband's health and well-being would be in the group's hands.

It Was a Hearty Meal

Oscar-winning actor Lou Gossett Jr. was born on this day in 1936.  To film the 1974 movie The White Dawn, Gossett and the rest of the cast spent a few months on a Canadian island located within 150 miles of the Arctic Circle.

During the film’s production, Gossett sampled some exotic fare, including a raw piece of a polar bear’s heart. The actor later wrote that the morsel of heart flushed out his digestive system.