William B. Keller, the focus of one chapter in my book, single handedly organized the fledgling bottling industry, which included seltzer bottlers, over 130 years ago. That’s him in the upper left. To MY right is his great-great-granddaughter, who just HAPPENED to be meeting her early-morning biking group right outsideRead More →
What do Jedis and seltzer delivery men have in common? Find out in my latest piece, and VIDEO, for the Forward: Seltzer delivery is a dying art. Once, hundreds of “seltzer men,” as they liked to be called, drove the city and walked the streets of New York, carting casesRead More →
I just posted, for one week only, an except from the draft of my forthcoming book on seltzer. Please check it out before its gone, leave your constructive feedback, join the “fan” page, and tell your friends! And here is the video of my life reading, which will also comeRead More →
A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly called My Seltzer Conversion gives a lovely shout out to my project. Sarah Elton’s lovely post today makes me want to see Seltzer Works, the documentary she mentions about one of Brooklyn’s last seltzer men, Kenny Gomberg—and wish we had a seltzer deliveryRead More →
My first talk on seltzer in more years than I can remember – my first talk since I restarted work on my book – will be held in the bucolic Berkshires this August. For more information, download their PDF file. I can’t wait. I know this is going to beRead More →
Welcome Soda Stream tweeter readers who are visiting this site for the first time, having received the following tweet: And thank you Soda Stream for the kind words! As the book will reveal, this project of mine would NEVER have gotten off the ground without you!Read More →
This morning I almost skipped my subway stop on the way to work, three days in a row, engrossed as I was writing away, but today I managed to notice it in time and get off at my station. Phew! I mentioned in a recent post that my recent abilityRead More →
I have been so excited about this project over the past few weeks. Three excellent articles have been written about seltzer (using me as a reference), I’ve been offered two speaking opportunities, been contacted by a resident of Niederselters sharing tales of live in the town of seltzer, and seenRead More →
There is an excellently researched overview of seltzer history in the new issue of Moment magazine, and I don’t just say that because I am the resident “expert” she quotes. Jewish Fizz: Seltzer, Egg Creams & Cel-Ray “Carbonated water, the primary ingredient of these three Jewish champagnes, appeared first inRead More →
The following is a draft of the opening of the book. Comments appreciated:
In 1728, near the mountainous Teunus region north east of Frankfurt, Johann Adam Bullmann became mayor of Niederselters. It is impossible to know what this little German town of barely one hundred families expected from their new leader, at the young age of only 24. But neither they nor their new mayor could have predicted the challenges to be faced in his first year of office nor that, in overcoming them together, they would make their mark on history, its ripples still affecting us nearly three centuries later.
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