Great Events of Fifty Years AgoAs 2013 draws to a close, I'm thinking about various anniversaries that have taken place during the past nearly 12 months.SNCC Sit-in, Atlanta, Georgia, ca. 1963The year 1963 saw a major effort in favor of civil rights for Americans of all races. In the spring of 1963, the sit-in above took place at…
Great Events of 1913It's almost the end of 2013. Time for an illustrated but not totally reverent retrospective of events of 1913, events whose 100th anniversary was in the past year. Especially, I want to celebrate one anniversary that takes place today.First let's commemorate the most significant food anniversary tha…
What's in your lunch box?Mona Lisa Lunch Tote from CafepressSchool started yesterday, so I've been thinking about what goes in all the lunch boxes and lunch bags all over the country. I remember from childhood the smell of a lunch in a brown paper bag. When I was in elementary school, I went home for lunch almost every day.…
Looking forward to ParisI read here and here (with illustrations) and lots of other places that beginning in 2009 you could get a Big Mac in the shopping center where you wait in line to get into the Louvre Museum. We are planning a trip, but will probably skip the burger.Or as a cartoonist from San Diego put it:…
What did Shakespeare eat?What did Shakespeare eat?Definitive answers here: The Shakespeare Cookbook by Andrew Dalby and Maureen Dalby, published by the British Museum Press this year. Andrew Dalby is a culinary historian, so this is a work of scholarship, using contemporary cookbooks and dietary advice books that were in pr…
Mysterious Edible Mona LisaDepicted here on the blog The Amateur Gourmet -- but who is she, this mysterious woman made of something edible but unidentified. Is she warm, is she real? Or just a cold and lonely work of salami?…
Today at the Detroit Institute of ArtsDaniel Spoerri's "Variations d'un Petit Dejuner, 1966" shows a conceptual breakfast; that is, a breakfast that someone has finished eating, and the cigarette they smoked during, or maybe after, the meal. Leftover foil jam pot; check. Coffee and milk pots; check. Used knife and butter wrapper; check.…
Chocolate Mona Lisa$24 is the price of a 6 oz. chocolate bar with Mona Lisa computer-printed onto it (or any art work, for that matter). A curiosity. If you have an extra $24 lying around you can get it here. I thank Aparna for the link!There's a lot of Mona Lisa stuff on this blog from Birmingham, MI -- in fact, I sh…
