captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations >> osgood: good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. the sunday morning before thanksgiving to be exact. one day each year when this broadcast encourages you to eat, drink and be merry as if there was no tomorrow. of course there is a tomorrow. we take no responsibility as some of you step on the scale and discover that you put on a pound or two. watching food on tv doesn't do that. eating does it. as tracy smith will be

reporting in our cover story "to diet for." >> reporter: liquid lunch. low carb, raw food. no food. more than 100 years of dieting and we're still trying to drop those extra pounds. you know there's a lot of money to be made in selling the next big diet. >> there is a sucker born every minute. >> reporter: later on sunday morning... losing it american style. >> osgood: turns out food has uses other than eating. in fact talented vegetable lovers with a taste for music are striking a gourd these days as our martha teichner will now demonstrate. >> reporter: we defy you to stay you hate vegetables. not after a performance of the vienna vegetable orchestra.

tasteful music. later this sunday morning. >> osgood: a cure-all is what tea has been thought of in times past. now tea drinkers find its soothing warmth makes everything seem better somehow as serena altschul is showing us. >> reporter: welcome to the tea party. >> a tea from all over the world unifies different human populations it also distinguishes them. each culture has its own way of drinking tea. >> reporter: the world in a tea cup later on sunday morning. >> osgood: for one very devoted group of tv fans their main course today may not be

food at all. instead it might be a rerun of the famous episode they first saw 30 years ago tonight. katie couric hits the replay button. >> couric: remember when j.r. bit the bullet? and everyone from his mother to his miss stress had a motive? 350 million tuneded in 30 years ago to find out who shot j.r.? when you heard the numbers, what did you think? >> money. >> reporter: a serving of 1980s nostalgia later on sunday morning. >> osgood: devotees of a certain regional delicacy are feeling sandwiched in these days. they're fighting to save the meal they love. bill geist will be experiencing that firsthand. >> reporter: rarely in history comes an important sandwich. a new orleans po-boy is that sandwich. the new orleans po-boy preservation society says that

as a symbol of the city's resurgence, the endangered sandwich must be saved. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: also on menu mo rocca does brunch. bobby flay sings the praises of pumpkins. allen pizzey tastes golden pasta. rita braver gets the pretzels while mary peterson brings the beer. but first president obama is back in washington after a two- day nato summit in portugal. among other issues, leaders discussed afghanistan. for the first time the president said he wants american troops out of there by the end of 2014. al qaeda of the arabian peninsula in its on-line magazine is outlining a new strategy of small scale attacks like those in unsuccessful attempt on two u.s. cargo planes. the editors call that foiled plot operation hemorrhage. at the site of that coal mine blast in new zealand they're

preparing to drill a small hole through hundreds of feet of rock, first steps in hopes of finding 29 missing miners alive. a professor at stanford and a former director of the los alamos national laboratory says he has visited a new north korean facility that enriches uranium further evidence that north korea continues to acquire nuclear weapons. in an interview with a german journalist pope benedict says the use of condoms can be justified in this cases. he cites as an example a male prostitute seeking to stop the spread of h.i.v. the catholic church teaching has long opposed the use of condoms and the pope was citing a life saving exception. the first big blast of cold air will chill the northern plains while sections of the west coat are looking at rain. sunny in the southeast. in the week ahead the east starts off dry and cool but showers will be coming. cold in the plains, cool in the northwest. mild and dry in the southwest.

next, so many diets. so many pounds. and later vegetables in,,,,,,,,,

before we begin this morning's feasting we have to warn you that all these delectable

goodies are both to die for and to diet for. our cover story is reported now by tracy smith. >> in the days before the annual feast, here is some food for thought. last year ray lone, american collectively spent about $60 million to lose weight with predictable results. >> i've probably been on every single diet imaginable. in my lifetime probably i've gained and lost 25 separate people. >> inhale. exhale is 3, good. >> reporter: some of the women in rochelle rice's yoga class have battled excess weight for years. >> looking backate at the history of diets, is there anything that's worked? >> no. nothing works in terms of dieting.

>> reporter: and while it seem cruel to talk about weight loss this close to thanksgiving, in this country dieting is also a time-honored tradition. dieting in america began before the turn of the 20th century when the average adult weighed roughly 25 pounds less than today. >> americans have been trying to lose weight since about the 1880s. it didn't really catch on and become very much the thing to do until 1917. >> reporter: susan yager is the author of the 100-year diet. >> do i what? >> reporter: a history of american weight loss schemes. >> you're not a follower of horace? >> reporter: like dr. horace fletcher's idea that people could get thin by vigorously chewing their food. ♪ chew, chew, chew, that is the thing to do ♪

> as seen in the 1994 film "the road to wellville." ♪ chew, chew, but only if you chew ♪ ♪ that is the right thing to do ♪ >> reporter: the thing was you had to chew your food at least 100 times before you could swallow it. and if you chew your food for that long, you are going to eat less. i mean you're going to get tired of it. >> reporter: even if that diet failed, back then it was okay to be a bit more substantial. like actress lillian russell. >> if you are a woman you were considered sexy if you had some weight on you. if you were a man you were considered to be affluent, good husband material. but in 1917 everything changed because america went to war. ♪ over there > during world war i americans were urged to save every scrap of food. yager says heavy people were looked upon as traitors. >> it was really considered to be a terrible thing to have too much weight because you were keeping those pounds away

from our troops overseas who needed the calories. ♪ yes, sir beings, that's my baby ♪ > in the '20s there was the nicotine diet. ads like these appeared touting cigarettes as a logical alternative to eating. >> women want to be slim and wear these tight-fighting clothes. they are allowed to smoke in public. it made sense. reach for a lucky instead of a sweet. >> reporter: even in the depths of the depression, the diet craze continued. for those who could actually afford food. >> there were so many crazy diets at that time. the hollywood 18-day diet. this was 585 calories only a day. and i can only think that things had to be spinning so out of control in the '30s that it was good to take control of something. even if it was just what you had for lunch. >> reporter: it wasn't until

well after world war 2 that dieting became an industry. >> weight loss, in fact, really became in the '60s a solution looking for a problem. people started to realize there's a lot of money to be made in getting people to try to lose weight. >> at lunchtime instead of fattening food, they have delicious milk shake flavors. >> reporter: in the 1960s dieters could replace an entire meal by opening a can. >> restaurant would have liquid lunches and a shot of burbon. that was your lunch. >> reporter: it was baby formula? >> originally, yes. >> reporter: what followed was an avalanche that continues to this day. diet plans, books, foods, and fitness gurus. among them.... >> come on, ladies. >> reporter:... richard simmons. you know there's a lot of money to be made in selling the next big diet. >> i'm proud to say that i

never put anything, my name on anything, unless it's what i really believed in my heart. but there's a lot of people out there, there is a sucker born every minute. >> reporter: his formula. >> you go! >> reporter: eat less food and keep moving. >> those die hes are all over the internet with a lot of promises and a lot of snake oil. >> reporter: snake oil. what percentage would you say of the diets through history are snake oil? >> i'm going to say most probably 95% are not based on nutrition, moving, and motivation. i think most of them are quick fixes. >> reporter: the eat less move more method might not be the fastest way to lose weight but susan yager says it might be the best.

>> if we could just keep a little bit... just eat a little bit better it would make a gigantic difference. >> reporter: nobody wants to hear that though, susan. it's so much easy to reach for the best seller and try that for a week. >> it doesn't make any sense but i suppose it does make sense because it's something to believe in. >> reporter: and that's something to consider in this season of temptation. pile on the veggies. easy on the fats. scale back. make this next chapter in your own diet history one for the books. >> osgood: ahead, sunday morning brunch. ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] got a cold? [ coughs ] ♪

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>> osgood: brunch is a cross between breakfast and luferng. ... lunch. but brunch is more like a fighting word for some. mo rocca surveys the field of battle. >> reporter: breakfast, the most important meal of the day. healthy, high in fiber, fuel to go, go, go. >> you're going to be full no matter what you order. >> reporter: brunch.

the most indulgent meal of the week. who wants a lobster meat ball? decadent. wrapped in bacon and slathered in hollandaise. two very different ways to start the day. which one are you? breakfast or brunch? can i get an expresso. >> i'm sorry, sir, we don't have expressos. >> reporter: at the grill in houston texas it's breakfast all day seven days a week. all right. then i guess i'll just have an american coffee. >> coffee. >> reporter: what this menu lacks in fancy european hot beverages it makes up for abuntantly. >> hart homemade like mama would cook it. >> reporter: deep inside breakfast country, the law of the land is clear. asking for your eggs to get poached is enough to get you shot. >> not enough to get you shot.

eggs benedict will get you shot. >> thank you. >> reporter: former marine and 35-year tell-win being regular pat forster knows where he stands on the breakfast-brunch divide. >> wheat or brioceh. >> reporter: wheat because i don't know what the other thing is. >> donut or a beignet. >> reporter: definitely a donut. >> reporter: on most breakfast mornings breakfast is forster's only meal of the day. >> i come in here and eat and i don't eat until tonight. this just fills me for the day. >> reporter: now it's totally acceptable to eat breakfast alone. but brunch? that's all about the socializing. and the hard stuff. and don't forget the jazz trio. a few hours after my breakfast, my friends abby, mary elizabeth, steve and calvin crawled out of bed to join me at houston's back street cafe for brunch.

>> i think breakfast is more like eating to live and brunch is more like living to eat. >> reporter: the rich, creamy and glistening emulsion that is hollandaise sauce was only one of the hedonistic pleasures at back street and later at houston's r.d.g. octopus seveche. banana stuffed french toast. grapefruit margueritas. mull berry mamosas. oh, it's really good. who needs another drink? >> i'm going to go home and take a nap after this. >> reporter: where would we be as a culture if we were all brunch people? >> we'd be fat and slochbly and never getting to work, i guess, right? >> reporter: mark meyer is chef and owner of cook shop in new york city. where would we be as a culture if we were all breakfast people? >> i think we'd probably be

very boring. >> reporter: myers celebrates the differences between breakfast and brunch by serving both. >> this is something i'm going to come in, read my paper and have a cup of coffee. i'm done. >> reporter: they're sexy their eggs. they're fun. >> yes, they are. >> reporter: you date these. you marry those. can breakfast and brunch get along? that's very nice. there's room at the table for both. >> osgood: next, a symphony for veggies. enjoy things again. [ woman #3 ] i feel these aches and pains. [ woman #4 ] the guilt. [ man ] my sleep just isn't right. [ woman #5 ] i'm so anxious. [ man #2 ] i need to focus. [ female announcer ] depression hurts.

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>> osgood: a cornucopia is the fancy name for a horn of plenty, not the kind of horn in an orchestra. or is it? martha teichner has the answer. >> reporter: if you saw somebody in the market pounding the pumpkins, what would you think? or pawing the dried beans? >> you'd like it. >> reporter: a gong, did he say? >> i use it as a bean slide. >> yes, a bean slide. >> reporter: why would anybody wanton i don't know skins instead of onions?

>> it sounds like raining a bit. and it's very cheap because it's free because nobody uses except we the vegetable orchestra, yes? >> reporter: yes, the vienna vegetable orchestra or as its members say with their austrian accents wedge-tabls. they just concluded their first-ever american tour with a stop in indianapolis. vegetables go bad, so every time they perform the musicians have to make all new instruments. the vegetable orchestra was formed in 1998 when a group of friends mostly artists and writers all of them interested

in experimental music were invited to do something in a festival. they got together and asked themselves.... >> what is the most difficult thing to play music on? what material is actually not at all good for making instruments? >> reporter: he remembers they made soup that night. >> what about the things that goes in the soup? >> reporter: what was supposed to be a goofy one-time happening is still happening. 12 years later. in all it's cacaphonous glory. today the orchestra doesn't just play things that go in the soup. half the fun is inventing new instruments. the weirder, the better.

this man plays the zhu keepy- leak vibrator but specializes in pumpkin percussion. the microphones are really important? >> yes. our sound engineer is very important because he's getting so many channels from us. >> reporter: you have to have the pumpkin channel and the egg plant channel and the zucchini channel? >> yes. yes, yes. >> reporter: on stage the orchestra plays actual compositions written just for vegetables. although there is improvisation, given the unpredictability of, say, a red pepper trumpet. or a cabbage.

for anybody keeping track, the musicians thump, toot, flap, screech, and even gurgle their way through maybe 70 pounds of vegetables per concert. the instruments are pretty funny. but the vegetable orchestra is serious about its music. >> we're showing people that it is possible to make music with things that you don't normally think of that you can make music of. everything that is around us, all the surrounding noises, everyday noises are full of music. you find small melodies wherever you look and listen. this is what we want to transport. this is our message, if you like. ( cheers and applause )

>> there's pumpkin soup and pomegranate and pumpkin seeds. >> osgood: ahead in praise of pumpkins. >> for dessert i've done pumpkin custards. >> osgood: and later a barbecue at j.r.'s with larry hagman.

>> eat, drink and be merry, a special edition of sunday morning. here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: pumpkins play a starring role at thanksgiving with a lot of help from some key supporting players. here's our friends chef bobby flay. >> a few weeks after labor day when we indulge in every red tomato, pick every perfect peach and shuck countless ears of sweet corn, our attention turns to fall. in my opinion no other single ingredient screams fall than the pumpkin. let me first go on the record by saying i'm a huge pumpkin fan. as soon as there's a little nip in the air my menus at my restaurants are studded with word pumpkin everywhere. there's pumpkin soup and

pomegranate and pumpkin seed, pumpkin tamales, paferp kin waffles for brunch and for dessert i've done pumpkin custards and creme brulees, cheese cake and this year triple bumpkin bread pudding. even when i was a kid pumpkin pie was my go-to on thanksgiving. so much so i even named my first cat pumpkin. guess what color he was. pumpkin as a concept is a good one. however, pumpkin as an ingredient is really an imposter. why? because pumpkin tastes like nothing. well maybe not nothing but really not much at all. i've been on a book tour lately where i've been polling lots of people about the taste of pumpkin. most people respond with pumpkin tastes like cinnamon or it has a spicy flavor. some people say it tastes sweet and earthy. all of those descriptions are true. but what they're tasting is not pumpkin. but the ingredients that mask the true flavor of pumpkin. pumpkin's best friends range from the spice rack like kin mon, nut meg, all spice and clove to the sweet rack like

maple syrup, honey and mow last he is. the pumpkin is just a figure head to some of our favorite things to consume. take my pumpkin soup recipe, for instance, which year after year is the number one most requested recipe in all of my restaurants. i start with plain roasted pumpkin that you could roast fresh yourself or right out of the can. then it out in a sauce pan with chicken stock or water and begin adding the following ingredients to bring flavor to the party: cinnamon, nut meg, ginger, and some all spice. add up a season it with salt and pepper to your taste and garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds. i promise you, it's simple, delicious and a terrific starter for any thanksgiving dinner. but it doesn't taste like pumpkin. happy holidays.

>> osgood: next, using their noodles. ,,,,,,,,,,,,

as we can see pasta comes in a lot more shape and sizes than

just go old spaghetti but the story of pasta past and present here's alan pizzey in rome. >> reporter: the rolling fields and the signs of italy's mountains are ready for the winter rains to grace the seeds that will become the wheat to make the modern art form that is pasta. and contrary to popular myth, italy's iconic food wasn't brought from china by marco polo. a variation of it was being made and eaten here 3,000 years ago. what's remarkable about pasta is not so much how long it's been around as how little it's changed. dishes from a renaissance cook book will be recognizable by modern chefs and quality control manager says even elite producers like his employer verini pasta stick to the basics. >> the family used to make pasta since 1898. they started with semolina water. one century later we produce

pasta the same way. >> reporter: nothing has changed. >> nothing. >> reporter: well, not quite nothing. the estimated 350 shapes that pasta comes in are made by forcing the dough through a die made of bronze. that's what the verinis changed. everyone of the... is solid cold. it took a local artist a full year to create them for the production process. how much did it cost? >> it's a secret for our company. i can't say. >> reporter: the golden die isn't just a marketing gimmick. the pasta shape defines what sauce accompanies it. the general rule is simple sauce for simple pasta and more complex shapes for thicker sauces. that's where golden pasta comes into its own. the golden mold produces a much more rough surface, the

chef says. and when it combines with the sauce it allows it to absorb more sauce and enhance its characteristics. of course, the pasta has to be cooked properly. doing it right requires a large pot, lots of water, salt, regular stirring, and exactly the right amount of time. >> you have to stay close to it. you have to wait for the right time to eat it. >> reporter: the term el dente literally means to the tooth. it should have a barely per september i believe crunch when its bitten. there's a question of which brand to choose. 23 pages of them listed online. as with any food when you buy pasta, it's important to read the labels. of all the usual things like calorie count, nutritional values and fat levels do matter, owe fish nad owes will tell you what's really crucial is how it's made. under italian law the flour must be ground from locally grown wheat.

but the real key is whether the pasta is slowed dried at a low temperature. italian regulations don't clearly define "low" or "slow." it won't make you fat. italians consume 62 pounds of pasta per person per year. triple that of americans. but while the u.s. ranks number one out of 28 countries in the developed world's obesity scale, italy is number 25. and if you're still wordyd about calories but love pasta, the golden shape people also make pasta perfume. as what it might do for a woman who sprays it on. >> i think it's probably somebody would like to eat her. >> reporter: to eat her. (laughing) or at least invite her to dinner. a golden opportunity unintended. >> osgood: so that's one idea of how pasta is made. but back in 1957, april 1, 1957, viewers of britain's bbc

received a quite different one. >> it isn't only in britain that spring this year has taken everyone by surprise. here on the borders of switzerland and italy, the slopes overlooking the lake have already burst into flower. at least a forth night earlier than usual. but what, you may ask, has the earlier and welcome arrival of bees and blossom to do with food? well it's simply that the past winter one of the mildest in living memory has its effect in other ways as well. most important of all its resulted in an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop. the last two weeks of march are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer. there's always the chance of a late frost which while not entirely ruining the crop generally impairs the flavor. and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prizes in world markets.

but now these dangers are over and the spaghetti harvest goes forward. spaghetti cultivation here in switzerland is not carried out anything like the tremendous scale of the italian industry. many of you i'm sure will have seen pictures of the vast spaghetti plan flagss in the poe valley. for the swiss, however, it tends to be more of a family affair. another reason why this may be a bumper year lies in the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti beatle the tiny creature whose deprivations have caused much concern in the past. after picking the spaghetti is laid out to dry in the warm alpine sun. many people are often puzzled by the fact that spaghetti is produced at such uniform lengths, but this is the result of many years of patient endeavor by plant breeders who succeeded in producing the perfect spaghetti. and now the harvest is marked by a traditional meal.

toast to the new drop are drunk in these. and then the waiters enter bearing the ceremonial dish which is, of course, spaghetti picked earlier in the day, dried in the sun and so brought fresh from garen to table at the very peak of condition. for those who love this dish, there's nothing like real home grown spaghetti. >> osgood: coming up bill geist on po-boy preservation. >> reporter: what would new orleans be without the po-boy? >> hungry. right into my desktop. launch my watchlist -- a popping stock catches my eye. pull up the price chart. see what the analysts say. as i jump back, streaming video news confirms what i thought. pull the trigger -- done. i can even do most of this on my smartphone.

really, it's incredible. like nothing i've ever experienced. unleash your investing and trade free for 60 days with e-trade. unleash your investing funny how nature just knows how to make things that are good for you. new v8 v-fusion + tea. one combined serving of vegetables and fruit with the goodness of green tea and powerful antioxidants. refreshingly good.

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feel a little sandwiched in these days. as bill geist tells us, fate, circumstance and those little dainty finger sandwiches are putting the po-boy in peril. >> reporter: in new orleans po-boy is a classic tasty messy and some say endangered sandwich. >> po-boy is a beautiful thing. it's a sandwich for the people. >> reporter: hurricane katrina wiped out many po-boy shops. >> cole slaw. >> reporter: the gulf oil spill caused popular seafood po-boys to slide off the menus. >> they're an inexpensive delicacy. that's the only way i can put it. >> reporter: and the encroachment of chains like subway skims customers. >> there is no sub for a real new orleans po-boy. >> reporter: a group of po-boy shop owners banded together to form the new orleans po-boy preservation society which this past week held a rally of

sorts new orleans style. ♪ some 45,000 devotees attended the festival including the mayor mitch land rue who favors park way poe bloiz. >> my mom and daddy got engaged at this place. >> reporter: they did? >> at park way. a long time ago. >> slow cooked for about 24 hours. make our own gravy. >> reporter: what would new orleans be without the po-boy? >> hungry. >> reporter: the po-boy is a new orleans icon. created here in 1929 during a streetcar conductor's strike by coffee shop owners ben and clovis martin. >> that's good french bread. >> reporter: her granddaughter was honored at the festival. >> when they went on strike,

they would feed them free and when they would come into the restaurant they would say here comes another poor boy. let's feed him. >> reporter: hence the name. but what exactly is a po-boy? >> this is meat ball po-boy. the best. >> reporter: practically anything on french bread. and in new orleans, back tick... practically anything is delicious. >> fried shrimp po-boy. >> it's fried chicken. sashimi ham. on french bread. >> reporter: new orleans french bread is an exquisite canvas for these culinary arts. >> the crust is real hard and crispy. but when you cut it the inside is like cotton candy. real airy, light and soft and fluffy. >> reporter: justin kennedy, general manager of park way. >> it has something to do with the humidity and being below level and the weather. it's just new orleans. >> what is it?

>> roast beef. >> reporter: po-boys are populist, affordable and practically everywhere. as justin kennedy explains in none other than president obama when he stopped at barkway for lunch in august. >> first person that came that sunday morning was the sewage and water boy worker. just got out of the manhole filthy dirty and ordered shrimp po-boy. i said, mr. president, you're eating the same thing. that's what makes me love this place. >> reporter: there you go. justin and owner jay nicks refubished and reopened park way twice before katrina and after. >> a bucket struck. he said y'all got po-boys? i said, no, we didn't have any electricity. the building was still ringing wet. he took the bucket truck and hooked up the electric. they wanted po-boys. >> reporter: you had preference treatment. >> we did. >> reporter: because they needed po'boys. >> right. >> 876. >> reporter: johnny's po'boys

has never been bus yes says betty who founded this local institution with her husband johnny in 1950. why do you think johnny's has become so popular? >> because my husband was so charming. >> reporter: her three sons, johnny, denny and doyle run it now. >> i'll tell you. when katrina happened and i finally got my first po-boy again, it was like a whole new love. you have to sometimes lose it to appreciate it. >> reporter: in these embattled times as the po-boy goes, so goes the city. that's some much needed good news for new orleans. >> as long as there is a new orleans, there will be a po-boy. we're not going nowhere. >> osgood: ahead,. >>,,

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nothing says style and elegance quite like a proper tea service. timeless tradition many consider it something of a cure-all. serena altschul invites us to tea time. >> reporter: welcome to the tea party. the sort of tea party people have been enjoying for a very long time. >> tea really is the most popular beverage in the world, right, next to water. >> reporter: this man teaches the culture of tea at connecticut college. >> you know, tea actually is is drunk all over the world. it's so interesting because it really, i think, symbolizes the common element of human civilization while it unifies different human populations, it also distinguishes them so

that, you know, each culture has its own ways of drinking tea. >> reporter: tea drinking as a cultural practice originated in ancient china. the first book on tea was written by a person in the tong dynasty around 750 a.d.. >> when tea drinking arrived from japan from china it was used as an aid to meditation. otherwise meditation can induce sleep. it had caffeine. >> reporter: anyone who stayed awake during history class remembers the most famous tea party of all, the one in boston in 1773. >> tea was so popular that it was a convenient vehicle to tax on the part of the british. >> reporter: on the evening of december 16, a group of angry colonists disguised as native americans boarded three cargo ships and dumped the tea overboard. the rest, as they say, is history.

>> after that there were more and more people getting into the tea business. >> reporter: michael's father started harney and sons, makers of fine teas. >> a & p is the great atlantic and pacific tea company. they got into the tea business and broadened into groceries. lipton was a grocer in scottland and got into the tea business. >> reporter: lipton has long dominated the american market mostly with tea bags but with u.s. tea sales around $7 billion and rising, no wonder how companies are getting into the act. >> i think tea is hot. >> reporter: joe caps is head of the u.s. division of a german tea company that has recently extended its reach into the u.s.. >> tea was the 6th most consumed beverage in the united states. it is now number 5. the ready to drink iced teas seem to be fueling this. >> reporter: that and the rapidly growing menu of exotic

teas consumers have to choose from these days. >> i think it's the flavors that are really driving people to take a look at tea. besides the health benefits. >> reporter: so i'm thirsty. >> so am i. let's make some tea. >> reporter: making your own tea the proper way is fun. but still nothing beats having someone else serve you tea with all the goodies. >> the english have a wonderful expression. they sea tea tames tears and thirst. it's the original comfort food. >> reporter: we met up with afternoon tea expert elizabeth knight for some tips on tea time. >> and this is about paferp pering quite a bit. >> it is. have some sweets and sandwiches. and the whole rest of the world can wait one hour it can wait. you could rush it but why would you? it's a real treat. you know how you send a cranky kid to his room because he needs his timeout? i don't know of an adult who doesn't need a timeout once a

week, just time to sit down unplugged from all the electronics and do something the way it's been done for hundreds of years, just to settle down. >> reporter: right. >> osgood: next, tops in hops. with pretzels on the side. ,( upbeat music playing )

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>> osgood: for many a football fan watching a big sunday game a lot more fun accompanied by pretzels and beer. rita braver brought the pretzels, barry petersen brought the beer. >> reporter: they buy them by the bag. they buy 'em by the box. ♪ baby, let's do the twist >> reporter: they eat 'em in the morning. is this breakfast? >> yes. >> reporter: it is? ♪ like this > they eat 'em all day long ♪ round and round and round

>> we start twisting the pretzels all night long. >> reporter: dan dizio and his college roommate opened the philly pretzel factory in 1998, aware that while the average american consumes two pounds of pretzels a year, philadelphiaians eat 20 pounds. >> it's a philly deal. that's why i like it. >> reporter: the company now has a 120 locations across nine states. >> 125 million pretzels this year. >> reporter: 125 million pretzels. >> to me i pinch myself every day. >> reporter: german immigrants now known as the pennsylvania dutch brought soft bavarian pretzels to the states but it took american ingenuity to create a hard pretzel. here in the small town of lititz when julian sturgis decided to try a soft pretzel

he burned in 1861. >> he said you know what? these taste pretty good. hmmm. if we can make these kinds of pretzels, they'd last a whole long longer and we could make more money. >> reporter: his old factory is now a museum where historian mary ann haynes explains that pretzels date back 1400 years. first made by monks to represent the way children should say their prayers. >> so they put one hand on one shoulder. can you do it with me? one hand on the other shoulder. this is keeping my prayers close to my heart. what shape does that look like? a pretzel. the monks called it a pretzel which is latin for little reward. >> reporter: that's why i think of when i think of the pennsylvania dutch pretzel. bruce sturgis's, great great grandson of julius and his dad tom are still in the pretzel business mass producing some four million pounds a year.

they still test their pretzels the old-fashioned way. >> you can listen to it the way it breaks, the way it snaps and tell if it's baked well. this is very difficult to teach a young baker because this is what you learn over time. >> reporter: and time does have a way of standing still around here. a few miles away at martin's bakery owned and staffed by mennonites hard pretzels are still hand twisted. >> we don't require it at first but they have to work up to ten a minute. >> reporter: if you think it looks easy...? >> ready? get set, go. that was made a little too big. >> reporter: never underestimate those little miracles of dough.

>> what goes better with pretzels and than a beer. >> reporter: i'm barry petersen. some say it's time this lowly brew starts getting a lot more respect. the argument for beer begins, where else, on a college campus here at the university of california davis with the man they call the professor of beer. >> this is a fully functional operational brewry capable of making very good beer. >> reporter: charlie bamforth teaches brewing. he throws down the gauntlet on wine versus beer. >> the most sophisticated and complex of alcoholic beverages. >> reporter: more than wine? >> yes. >> reporter: oh, come on. >> absolutely. >> reporter: how? >> it's much more complicated to make. >> reporter: for proof, stop into the brewry in denver, colorado, one of 1500 craft brewrys in the country. beers are made on site with names like two guns pilsner or

cow town milk stout and marty jones who helps promote beer starts with a touch of history. >> our country was founded by men who plan our nation's future over beers in the taverns of the northeast. >> reporter: the founding fathers? >> the founding fathers. thomas jefferson was a brewer, ben franklin and george washington were brewers. >> reporter: beer has always had its place in america's fabric from the ballpark to the white house. to the television. >> how are you doing, norm? >> can you give me a beer. >> reporter: as for the words wine drinkers used to describe taste, try some beer terms on for size. >> it has just a really good almost oak flavor to it. >> we have flavors of carmel, malt, coffee, chocolate, to havey. you add hops and you get aromas of pine and juniper and

citrus and grapefruit and orange. >> reporter: let's face it. the problem with beer is not about the pint but the perception. andy brown is the brew master. >> the rodney dangerfield of adult beverages. can't get no respect. >> reporter: in my mind the difference between beer and wine is james bond, elegant and supremely some physician ticked who knows.... >> the wine is quite excellent. >> reporter: and john bluchy in animal house. is this part of the problem that you face? >> it is. what i love people to realize is that, sure, there are beers for the party animal. >> reporter: men behaving badly. >> but there are also beers that are to be savored and enjoyed as a perfect accompaniment to food. >> reporter: wine snobs and their rituals? well, beer lovers even take a shot at them. >> the difference with beer and wine is the taste.

of course. i mean with he... we swallow. none of this ridiculous spitting, you know? >> reporter: and there are more craft brewrys popping up. many with a delicious desire to experiment with new mixes and tastes. >> and so if you're a beer lover, this is the greatest time to be alive. wonderful. very heady time. no pun intended. >> reporter: while beer lovers wait and wait for respect, maybe it's enough to heed a word of advice. you picked the right beer if you enjoyed it enough to just want another. >> osgood: ahead. >> did you ever get tired of j.r.? >> never. >> osgood: larry hagman remembers who shot j.r. and later? say cheese. ♪ for a chain of supply, that's logistics ♪

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>> j.r.? >> don't come any closer or i'll call the police if you come any closer.

>> it's a special edition of sunday morning. >> j.r.? >> here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: virtually the entire country was watching dallas 30 years ago tonight to find out who shot j.r.? he was played by larry hagman, the show's indispensable main course. he made ratings history. katie couric serves up our sunday profile. >> couric: there's nothing like a good texas barbecue. >> i think it needs more pepper. >> reporter: but along with miss ellie's homemade chili and a stiff burbon the dish most often serveded on dallas was the one best served cold. >> go home. all of you. >> reporter: revenge. >> not a whole left i can do except stop j.r. for good. >> reporter: no one had it coming more than j.r., a.k.a., larry hagman. >> everybody had a jerk like this in your family.

a father or a cousin or uncle somebody like that. >> couric: if tv shows were oil wells dallas was a gusher. in the spring of 1980 cbs ordered it uncapped. >> we had done i think 22 shows and cbs was making so much money they wanted to extend it for four. our producer said, well, we don't have a bible for that. they couldn't think of anything. they said let's just shoot the sob and figure it out later. and they did. >> couric: the end of the third season left j.r. bleeding on his office floor with a list of possible suspects as long as the lone star state. >> take a number. >> couric: from any number of bamboozled oil barons. >> i'll get you for this if it's the last thing i do. >> reporter: to his neglected long suffering wife sue ellen. >> which slut are you going to stay with tonight. >> whoever it is has got to be more interesting than the slut i'm looking at right now.

>> couric: the who shot j.r.frenzy was front page news gracing the covers of magazines from tv guide to time. it was also big business from bumper stickers to board games to beer. ♪ everybody wants to know is who shot j.r.? ♪ >> couric: even an incumbent u.s. president tried cashing in. >> i came to dallas to find out confidentially who shot j.r., and if any of you would let me know that, i could finance the whole campaign this fall. >> couric: at this point, what was bigger, your ego or your paycheck? >> it was about half and half. >> reporter: but both were about to get bigger. hagman decided to play a game of texas hold 'em and hold out for a texas-sized raise. he left l.a. for london, threatening not to return. you made sure that you were photographed a lot in london. >> oh, yeah, sure. i went to all the places like ascot. five days at ascot.

presented to the queen mother. she says i don't suppose you could tell me who shot j.r.? i say, no, ma'am, not even you. >> couric: by the time cbs got hagman back on the ranch he was television royalty. and on friday, november 21, eight months after those shots were first fired, our long national nightmare was over. >> what are you talking about. >> couric: in an episode aptly named whodunit, j.r.'s saucey sister-in-law and one of his many mistresses was revealed as the would-be a sass in. >> my favorite comments that a fan gave to me after it came out, she said, you should have shot lower. >> reporter: actress mary crosby is the daughter of the legendary bing crosby but she's probably best known for playing the tramp who pulled the trigger. >> being the one who shot j.r.made me a trivia question.

i'm really big in really small countries. >> couric: speaking of drif i can't, whodunit was at the time the most watched tv episode ever with a whooping 76 share and an estimated audience of 350 million people worldwide. indelibley linked with a place in tv history hagman and crosby's off screen friendship lasts to this day. >> i tease larry. i say, you know, he ruined my reputation but then he made me an honorable woman because he walked me down the aisle. larry and his wife are god parents to my children. the best thing i got from dallas was that larry is a beloved part of my family. >> reporter: meanwhile a dallas next generation tv series is in the works at tnt. predictably hagman says he would gladly reprieve his legendary role for the right price. did you ever get tired of

j.r.? >> never. never. it was always a challenge. always fun. and being at work that long was fun. how many actors get a chance to do that? >> osgood: next, seeing red. cus? this belongs to you... o...um...thank you. excuse me... this is yours... thank you! you're welcome. with chase freedom you can get a total of 5% cash back in your pocket. fun money from freedom. this is yours! thank you! what? that's 5% cash back in quarterly bonus categories all year long. does your card do this? sign up for this quarter's bonus today. chase what matters. go to chase.com/freedom. but basically, i'm a runner. last year. (oof). i had a bum knee that needed surgery. but it got complicated, because i had an old injury.

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i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah. poke around the mustard shelves of any supermarket and you'll find an array of varieties. in the area set aside for another popular condiment, however, not so many. when it comes to spicing up burgers and fries most americans reach for the same iconic ketchup brand: heinz. which accounts for roughly 60% of sales far far ahead of second place hunt's with roughly 16%. why is heinz so hot? new york writer malcolm gladwell investigated back in

2004 and determined that heinz had just the right balance of five crucial tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and omami which gladwell described as a full bodied taste. despite the best effort of ketchup competitors, most people except the heinz mix of taste as the standard up until now at least. in a big ketchup shake-up earlier this year heinz announced it was lowering its salt content by 15%. its first recipe change in 40 years. as for hunt's it says it's now using sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup which heinz still uses as its sweetener. so will these recipe tinkerings make a difference? we'll have to wait and see. after all changes in ketchup appear to move about as quickly as ketchup itself.

now to bob schieffer in washington for a look at what's ahead on face the nation. good morning, bob. >> schieffer: good morning, charles. among other things secretary of state clinton will tell us what she thinks of those airport security line patdowns. >> osgood: thank you, bob. we'll be watching. ahead now here on sunday morning. hope you saved room for desert.

>> osgood: we've got just the recipes at cbs sunday morning dot-com. cheese cake has long enjoyed great popularity, of course, in our land. i'm talking about actual cheese cake. best to wash it down with some coffee though. russ mitchell and nancy giles share the honors. >> reporter: you can order

just about anything to eat at junior's restaurant in brooklyn, but really everyone is here for one thing. >> now when you say cheese cake in new york, people say junior's. >> reporter: alan rosen's grandfather started the place 60 years ago serving cheese cake that's become world famous. >> my grandfather said we're going to be a great restaurant we have to have great cheese cake. >> reporter: now they churn out thousands a day. one time. >> one time in the center. >> reporter: but this fan favorite got its start far from cheese cake corner. >> we have the first records of cheese cake going back 2,200 years to greece. >> reporter: food historian andy smith says the first cheese cake recipe appeared in a book by the roman politician cato. >> he certainly is thought of as the real father of cheese cake history. >> reporter: the simple crust filled with sheep's milk was brought to this country by european colonists.

today's cheese cake took shape from when a new york farmer created cream cheese. restaurant you'res began to experiment with this philadelphia cream cheese. they began making all sorts of things with it. one of the things happened to be cheese cake. and that became very popular in the 1920s, the 1930s. >> reporter: so popular that pin-up girls of the era were called cheese cake girls because they looked so good. it helped the golden girls through many late night chats. >> i'm going to have cheese cake. >> reporter: nearly every culture makes its own version. >> you have to get the people to understand it. once they do they prefer the cheese cake. >> reporter: this family has been making italian cheese cake at its bakery in philadelphia since 1984. >> started out with a good quality. you can see how moist it is.

much more so than the cream cheese. >> reporter: and the recipe hasn't changed in more than 100 years. what am i looking for here? >> if you notice the creamyness of the cheese itself. that's what makes the cheese cake very good. >> reporter: gus's family recipe may not have changed but cheese cake sure has. the hutchins company in naples florida makes wine and champagne cheese cakes. >> edible bowl. >> reporter: that's right. edible gold. >> who doesn't like champagne and chocolate? i think that's pure heaven. >> reporter: heavenly indeed but the world's most expensive cheese cake is found at sack's 5th avenue for $325. however, for many people a $6 slice at junior's is just right. ellen, any idea how many calories are on this table? >> i have no idea. more than a few. >> reporter: shall we dig? >> sure.

>> reporter: that's pretty good. >> very, very good. >> reporter: you know what would go great with this? >> reporter: coffee. you know, i remember my first cup of coffee. actually it was my first four cups. i was a freshman in college leaving the cafeteria heading to a final exam when i heard these two geeky guys say that it was a scientific fact that drinking four cups of coffee before an exam would improve your grade. well, i turned right back around and downed four cups loaded with sugar and half and half so it would taste less coffee like. i got a bin-minus on the exam and i couldn't sleep for two nights. coffee was much simpler in those days. >> i'll always be a maxwell housewife. >> reporter: you got it at the a & p and made it in the

percolateor at home and then there was instant coffee. remember sanka? ordering coffee was simple too. light and sweet. regular. black. >> this is mr. coffee. >> reporter: at some point mr. coffee exploded on to the scene. and from there, well, things just got really complicated. (naming all the kinds of coffees available) what happened? was it the yuppies' fault? was it their need for bigger more expensive and exotic coffee makers? a dizzying array of choices, pods, pacts and these little milk frothing thingees. it's gotten to the point that if you don't grind your own beans you don't want anyone to know because the bean pedigree is so important. >> this is from the region ineth yop i can't. >> reporter: i turned to james freeman, self-described coffee lunatic.

and founder of blue bottle coffee. for answers to my burning coffee questions. is it true that if you drink coffee, it can make you smarter? >> smarter, funnier. >> reporter: funnier. >> more attractive healthier, everything. >> reporter: well, okay then. >> what you want to do is you want to agitate a little bit. >> reporter: and make it mad? agitate. >> yeah. >> reporter: james taught me about cupping which i learned is an acquire skill. like wine tasting. first there's sniffing. and then pouring. >> the spout is very focused. >> reporter: and then more sniffing. you really are a brown noser then. >> that's right. >> reporter: and then slumping. that's the technical term. keep the lips parallel to the table? >> you'll get a better slump. >> reporter: james used to make his living playing the clarinet. making great music, he says, is not all that different from making great coffee. so there's music to coffee.

>> yeah. >> reporter: coffee sings. ♪ i love it and it loves me >> this gets inverted like your water cooler in your office. >> reporter: james brews ice coffee in a contraption for 12 hours. >> now we adjust the drip. it should go about 88 beats per minute. >> reporter: like a metronome? >> exactly. it's the last movement of the mozart clarinet concerton. >> reporter: that is coffee. >> coffee, water, time. that's it. >> reporter: coffee, water, time. wow. now i get it. i'm late. i've got to go.

>> sunday morning's moment of nature is sponsored by spireva

handy hailer. >> we leave you this sunday morning before thanksgiving with a look at changing colors and the blue ridge mountains of north carolina.

i'm charles osgood. we wish you all a bountiful thanksgiving and hope you'll join us again next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio. that my chronic bronchitis was copd... i started managing it every day. i like to volunteer... hit the courts... and explore new places. i'm breathing better with spiriva. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day... it keeps my airways open to help me breathe better all day long. spiriva does not replace fast acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, have vision changes or eye pain... or have problems passing urine. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate...

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