“Food has replaced music at the heart of the cultural conversation,’ wrote Eugene Wei, a technologist and writer … ‘It’s hard to think of any sphere of American life where the selection and quality have improved so much as food,’ the economist Tyler Cowen, who moonlights as a food blogger, wrote this year. For the first time in US history, Americans are spending more money dining out than in grocery stores.” And yet, it’s a tough time to be in the restaurant business. From Derek Thompson: The Paradox of American Restaurants. (One of theories is that there are just too many great restaurants to choose from. I wonder if we’re heading to a similar glut in TV’s golden age.)