Sweet'N Equal

"Makers of Artificial Sweeteners Go to Court"

I love this news item out of today's New York Times. (Stew's synopsis: The makers of Equal are taking the makers of Splenda to court over Splenda's claim that it's "made from sugar".) This story's got so many angles that pique my interest, I hardly know where to start:

1. It's high-stakes, like World Series of Poker Texas Hold 'Em on ESPN, except the stakes here make the million-dollar pot on WSOP look like peanuts. We're talking a $1.5 billion industry.


2. It's about language, grammar, words, all that good stuff that appeals to the Latin major in me. The Splenda people claim there's no way a person could mistake "made from sugar" as meaning Splenda is sugar. Hoo boy!


3. It's about science. Apparently there are dozens of ways to synthesize Splenda, and only some of those start from table sugar, a.k.a. sucrose. So, it's more accurate to say Splenda "could be made from sugar". Makes you want to bust open your organic chemistry textbook from college too, doesn't it? I thought so!
   


4. It's about the deceptions of modern living. Like the fake fireplace at Starbucks that burns but consumes no wood. Or the produce at Whole Foods that appears to be sitting in wicker baskets straight from the fields. Or TVs that more and more closely approximate real life -- which, ironically, occurs away from the TV. (Until there are TV shows about TV, that is. At which point I'll know I'm in hell.)
   

Check it out! (Here's the link again.)