Doritos Creator Art West Dead at 97

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Doritos Creator Art West Dead at 97

Posted by samzenpus on Monday September 26, 2011 @08:20AM from the cool-ranch-in-the-sky dept.

The creator of Doritos has died in Dallas at age 97. Despite being the bane of keyboards and mouse wheels, Art West's famous snacks have become a staple in the geek diet. Doritos officially arrived in the U.S. in 1964 and has since expanded to 23 flavors. Art's Daughter Jana Hacker told The Dallas Morning News that the family plans on "tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn."

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Thanks by djdanlib · 2011-09-26 08:21 · Score: 3, Funny

Well, I guess he had to cash in his chips eventually.
Thanks for the flavors, sir!
1. Re:Thanks by tripleevenfall · 2011-09-26 08:39 · Score: 2
  
  Time to Frito-lay him to rest.
2. Re:Thanks by Samantha+Wright · 2011-09-26 08:50 · Score: 2
  
  I dunno. I think it may have been more corny than cheesy.
  
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Do you? by akedia43 · 2011-09-26 08:25 · Score: 2

Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants!
Ambivalent feelings... by cayenne8 · 2011-09-26 08:27 · Score: 3, Interesting

You know....kinda sad, but also kinda angry.
I mean, as a kid...I used to like doritos. Heck...I remember when they had plain doritos....not sure when they stopped those and only started the flavored ones.
But I'm a bit mad now...this guy contributed to the crap food we in the US eat on a regular basis. Highly processed foods, with no nutrition....contributing to the high obesity rate we see out there today.
But then again...I guess I can't put the blame on this guy....hey, they taste good. Trouble is, people abuse fast food today. A bag of doritos in my house when growing up, was a rare occurance....maybe for a special weekend if we were going to grill out burgers or the like. It cerainly wasn't day-to-day food.
Ok..so, goodbye Mr. Doritos Inventor Guy....thanks for a fun treat.
It is just too bad, that somewhere in the past couple generations, we've lost parents that actually care about what their kids eat....than actually had at least ONE parent that knew how to cook and prepare a nutritious meal, and knew the importance of that, and at least the insistence of at least sporadic family sit down meals.
It isn't your fault that a 'treat' is now viewed as a regular daily fucking food by so many Americans that are so fat, that if they drop the bag on the floor at their feet, they can no longer easily see the fucker sitting there.....nor can their 2nd grade kids...

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1. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by vlm · 2011-09-26 08:42 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  But I'm a bit mad now...this guy contributed to the crap food we in the US eat on a regular basis. Highly processed foods, with no nutrition....contributing to the high obesity rate we see out there today.
  Please reread the original article
  
  age 97
  Yeah I know, anecdote is not data, etc. But your rant is not gonna sit well about a dead nearly centurian. Sure, no corn and he might have lived to 110, but I think 97 is pretty good... If I "only" make it to 97 I'll be pretty happy. Pissed that I didn't make it to 98, but still pretty happy.
  Also your rant is nonsense, regardless if corn and its byproducts are healthy, if it were not nutritious it would not make farm animals and people fat.
  The final nonsense of your rant is the dorito was invented in 1964, about 40 years before widebodies started beaching themselves at the local walmart. I'm just guessing here, but I don't think it's the doritos.
  non-nutritious would be stuff like sawdust, non-digestible fiber, cellulose plants in general...
  I think you're confusing nutritious with good, just like some clowns confuse "natural" or "organic" with good.
  In summary, I agree with you that corn and corn byproducts are not good for anything but fattening up cows and pigs before slaughter, so I try to eat as little corn and corn byproducts as possible. But your arguments are incredibly counter productive.
  
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  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
2. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by vlm · 2011-09-26 08:53 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  A bag of doritos in my house when growing up, was a rare occurance....maybe for a special weekend if we were going to grill out burgers or the like. It cerainly wasn't day-to-day food.
  Everyone I personally know still treats them the same way today. Maybe I'm out of touch, or maybe you're imagining the problem is bigger than it really is.
  I checked the wikipedia and they typically sell around half a billion bucks worth of doritos per year in the USA. The vending machine in the basement sells a little lunch size snack for about a buck. There are about half a billion americans, plus or minus a heck of a lot of illegals. So the average american eats about one snack sized bag per year, or with an order of magnitude anyway. Supposedly that one annual bag is why one third of us are "fat" now. I'm thinking, no. Even assuming that only the fatties eat them and the skinnies never eat them, thats still only 3 snack bags per fatty per year.
  I think this much like the widely quoted claim that the average american watches 8 hours of TV per day. Yeah, OK, whatever, its a gullibility test, nothing more.
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
3. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by Homr+Zodyssey · 2011-09-26 09:14 · Score: 2
  
  People would think you're a lunatic if you drank ketchup like it was beer.
  But...Ronald Reagan told me it was a vegetable....
4. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by newcastlejon · 2011-09-26 09:23 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I've got two words for you, just two words: slow cooker. Yes, I realise that they're only good for casseroles, soups and the like, but you can also come home to braised beef that melts in the mouth and if you like curry you'll love one of these gizmos (lamb works particularly well). A timer comes in very handy for things that need less cooking.
  I'm also single and have little trouble cooking, subsisting as I do on slow-cooked fare, salads, stir-fry and other quickly-prepared meals. Another piece of advice I'd like to share is that you will probably find a lot of good recipes in so-called student cook books: they're packed full of meal ideas meant for people who have little time to cook. In fact, my book was the most useful thing I bought in my university years, next to a jug type water filter, which dramatically improves the quality of cheap vodka.
  
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  If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
5. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by SleazyRidr · 2011-09-26 09:48 · Score: 2
  
  Doritos are made out of corn.
  
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  Is 1563649 a prime number?
6. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by Hatta · 2011-09-26 09:58 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If you actually put some thought into it it's a lot easier and cheaper to cook for yourself. Throw a hunk of meat into the oven, and simmer some rice. Walk away, come back 20 minutes later. You're done. Less than 10 minutes actually cooking, and far far cheaper than 5 guys.
  Or like the other poster suggested, get a slow cooker. Once or twice a week make up some large batch of food, and freeze it in aliquots. I've got curry, baked beans, spaghetti sauce, and gumbo in my freezer right now. All I have to do is toss it in the microwave and prepare a starch to go with it. About 20 minutes actual work, but you eat 6-8 meals off of it.
  Or on the weekend, cook yourself a big roast. Maybe a turkey. This is actually very easy. Just stick it in a bag, stick the bag in the overn, and walk away for a couple hours. The left overs will last most of the week, and you can do lots of things with them. Sandwiches of course. Or throw it in a salad.
  You know what's really easy too? Quiche. Just get a pie crust from the store. Toss anything you have in to it, and fill with an egg/milk mixture. Bake it about 45 minutes. Less than 10 minutes actual work.
  A lot of vegetables are really easy to make for yourself too. Try doing squash sometime. Just cut it open, remove the seeds, and bake it for an hour. Or microwave it for 10 minutes. Ridiculously easy, and do you have any idea how good squash is? It's really fucking good!
  Or Broccoli. Boil water, blanch broccoli for 2 minutes, strain. You're done! You can even just rinse the pot out and put it back on the shelf. Honestly, the idea of paying someone to do something so simple, and get worse results than I could at home is repugnant to me.
  As for dishes, there's a lot of good food that can be made in one pot. You don't need to be serving 4 course meals to yourself just to eat well. One pot, a plate and bowl, and your silverware. Is that really going to take you more than 10 minutes to clean? Unless you let your dishes pile up, there should never be that many in a single person household.
  Your only barrier to feeding yourself well, cheaply and conveniently, is your own knowledge. If you're constantly looking up recipes and trying to figure out what to do, that can be stressful. But once you have a routine down, and work out of a well stocked kitchen it's all pretty trivial.
  
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7. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by SeanBlader · 2011-09-26 10:47 · Score: 2
  
  a jug type water filter, which dramatically improves the quality of cheap vodka.
  Mythbusters tested, and busted. Sorry.
8. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by EdIII · 2011-09-26 15:25 · Score: 2
  
  Well I don't know if it is a rumor or urban legend, but old man Hormel was said to have condemned SPAM as the worst offense against humanity, second only to World War II (SPAM was invented in 1937). He wholly regretted his part in its creation.
  He said it was so bad, vile, and nasty that sending it to our troops was a mistake. We should have air dropped it on the enemy.
  If true, I highly doubt he was eating it either.
  Of course, I don't even know if that is true or not, but SPAM is some nasty looking crap in a can. Farking Hawaiians though act like it fell from Heaven. Although, I must admit that they can prepare some pretty tasty dishes with it. You just have to "suspend disbelief" as they say and forget what you are eating.
9. Re:Ambivalent feelings... by rcuhljr · 2011-09-27 03:29 · Score: 2
  
  Mythbusters tested it and found it DID improve the quality, the myth that was busted was that it would become equivalent to truly top shelf vodka, which it failed to meet. However it still had marked improvements each pass through.
Re:The architect of America's obesity epidemic by PessimysticRaven · 2011-09-26 08:38 · Score: 2

This person did not do the United States any favors by creating a type of junk food. Think about how many billions of dollars in unnecessary medical costs are due directly or indirectly to his invention. You may as well give a medal to the guy that invented cigarettes.
I'm sorry, I must have missed where it's become common place to blame the creator of something for the way it's misused by consumers who exist to, gee, I don't know, consume?

Very glad I arrived late to to station so I didn't board that bandwagon before departing.

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Re:Really? by somaTh · 2011-09-26 08:45 · Score: 2

It's September. Maybe you should consider cutting back a bit...

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Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
Mummification by Ukab+the+Great · 2011-09-26 09:01 · Score: 3, Funny

Are the Dorito's he's buried in merely symbolic, or do they also perform some sort of preservative function as well?
Re:Created what? by ari_j · 2011-09-26 09:15 · Score: 2

According to Wikipedia, the original flavor in 1964, and only flavor available until 1972, was Taco. Perhaps flavoring was novel at the time, but Wikipedia also points out that Doritos was the first brand of tortilla chip to be launched nationally. So I'll go with your last option: He accomplished essentially a marketing coup.
tata by trb · 2011-09-26 09:35 · Score: 3, Insightful

Good-night, salty prince.
Re:mmmm CORN by blair1q · 2011-09-26 09:37 · Score: 2

It's not the corn, per se. Corn is pretty good for you.
But this corn is fried, sugared, covered in salt and chemicals, then packaged in petroleum products.
It's like putting a slice of tomato on a Ring Ding and calling it a salad.
Re:Dirt over the urn? by MarkGriz · 2011-09-26 09:53 · Score: 2

And in this specific instance, after Art West's ashes have been scattered, you can fill the urn with dip and have some chips at the wake!
Just don't double dip. That's disgusting

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