Going into a corner of cyberspace, or to Hue-Man, a bookstore specializing in black authors, could not undo the feeling of invisibility that gnawed at me after finding only a dearth of images of my people and our artistry in bustling mainstream spots.
They certainly won't find khoresh ghourmeh sabz ($9 , khoresh tesenjian ($10) or khoresh bademjan ($10), at mainstream local spots.
Very few mainstream forecasters spotted the danger of the global financial crash of 2008, and nobody wants to be caught out this time.
They've been a niche trend for 2014 but they're crossing over into the mainstream next year, spotted at Gucci, Jil Sander and Giorgio Armani.
No song in the years since (and there have been many) were nearly as big, which hints at a sore spot – "mainstream radio, that's pretty locked up".
So will an accessible Revlon collab hit the mainstream market sweet spot, or is Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig's line destined to remain the stuff of awards show red carpets forever?
Venture capitalist David Pakman – who used to run digital music service eMusic – recently called on labels to "allow the price of subscription music services to fall to $3 $4 per month" in response to data showing that's the sweet spot if mainstream music fans are going to pay for a streaming subscription.
The Motorola Droid continues to pave the way for Android in the mainstream, securing a higher spot on the list (#3) than any other Android handset has in the past.
You might have thought that the mainstream media would have spotted at least the ghost of a story in this extraordinary progress: Caribbean migrant; "green" philosopher; literary explorer; maverick outsider, Essex man... Some hope.
I suppose it isn't that surprising that Ridley should be the figurehead on this particular ship of fools: the Economist was no better than any of the mainstream economics pundits at spotting the looming iceberg of 2007-8, and it's presumably some residual conscience about this that underpins all their hedging.
