The Man Who Invented Saturday Morning and Other Adventures in American Enterprise.

• Author: Graulich, David

The Man Who Invented Saturday Morning and Other Adventures in American Enterprise.

When I was a business reporter in the Midwest, I once came across a food company whose earnings were being depressed by its struggling new soft drink. The company's beverage showed a picture of Fred Flinstone and was called Yabba Dabba Dew. I always wondered if someone's career was stunted, or if a cloud of ignominy settled over some hapless young product manager, who was forever stigmatized as the guy who went down with Yabba Dabba Dew.

I was reminded of my musings when reading David Owen's collection of humorous essays, which originally appeared in Harper's and The Atlantic. Owen writes about curious backwaters of American business, such as a company in Buffalo, New York that makes high-tech frozen foods ("The Soul of a New Dessert") or a museum of failed products that exhibits Gimme Cucumber hair conditioner, Mister Meatloaf, and AfroKola, The Soul Drink (alas, no mention of Yabba Dabba Dew). The book's title essay concerns a morning cartoon show. Playing the role of a stranger in a strange land, Owen examines these enterprises and also provides first-person accounts of a Beatles memorabilia tour, a conference for Amway-like pyramid selling networks, and a meeting in St. Louis attended by people who plan meetings.

Owen makes no pretense to being a business reporter; while trying to explain the economics of the pyramid schemes he says, "At this point it begins to get a little confusing and, in truth, I don't understand how it works." He has a great eye for absurd detail and a deft touch with funny names and quotes. A lot of this book's humor sounds like "Late Night With David Letterman"--which is not surprising, since many of Letterman's gag writers are, like Owen, former staffers of The Harvard Lampoon. Like Letterman, Owen dishes out plenty of mock-serious commentary: "Clarence Birdseye's estimable achievements notwithstanding, the early history of frozen food was not an unbroken chain of triumphs... centuries flew by and human civilization advanced in ways far too numerous to describe in a single sentence, 'frozen foods technology improved.'" All that is missing is a musical riff from Paul Shaffer and the "Late Night" band.

Owen's stories make you laugh, but the aftertaste is often one of condescension. Working stiffs are devoting their futile little lives to futile little jobs, like running a Fresh 'n Frosty machine. In Owen's hands, their foibles...