Great Events of Fifty Years Ago

As 2013 draws to a close, I'm thinking about various anniversaries that have taken place during the past nearly 12 months.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgulqdLPGHo7ts3COvKtu-Yvs87km4b3A5g2efszBRATE5OlJaKLTYVutXJUypIxtMlKymQ0U9dgB4OLyMl7l6oU5bZPGPBHTZQdxf7wIp9tdwhUkjWPDvpoAmctoA7hmqWk2xT5z5-ZVb_/s1600/sit-in-1963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgulqdLPGHo7ts3COvKtu-Yvs87km4b3A5g2efszBRATE5OlJaKLTYVutXJUypIxtMlKymQ0U9dgB4OLyMl7l6oU5bZPGPBHTZQdxf7wIp9tdwhUkjWPDvpoAmctoA7hmqWk2xT5z5-ZVb_/s400/sit-in-1963.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SNCC Sit-in, <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Atlanta, Georgia, ca. 1963</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>The 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 a Tottle-House diner. While twenty-first century diners, with their exaggerated menus and retro juke boxes, evoke nostalgia in their younger patrons and may seem to embody the good things of a bygone era, not everything about them was really wonderful. The 1960 sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro NC is perhaps more famous than that of 1963. There were many others: Nashville, Arlington VA, and more.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCixAlyPI38gxmKJG0O7yFMhAZ4dlY_LBiEfUVd3gGPJNnJHBPOym315PiM0Yp9eBM7tq-9pHERNL0xe5Ac4R6nOXbnSYA5n6DB7LFvL5m8iR1RFXZDdVk6pD8MQiPtx6n6okJdP0xdF3N/s1600/mlk1963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCixAlyPI38gxmKJG0O7yFMhAZ4dlY_LBiEfUVd3gGPJNnJHBPOym315PiM0Yp9eBM7tq-9pHERNL0xe5Ac4R6nOXbnSYA5n6DB7LFvL5m8iR1RFXZDdVk6pD8MQiPtx6n6okJdP0xdF3N/s400/mlk1963.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin Luther King, Washington DC, August 28, 1963<br />At the March on Washington, he gave the famous speech "I have a dream."</td></tr></tbody></table><div>During 1963, the civil rights movement was widespread and very active, notably the March on Washington. Sadly, the year also saw violence against peaceful demonstrators, as well as extreme attacks on black people, especially the murder of Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 and the vicious church bombing in Birmingham on September 15, 1963.<br /><br />Needless to say, the most significant and lastingly important event of 1963 was the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22. Last month's commemoratives of the event were numerous and moving, so I need not say more. And in 1964, Lyndon Johnson managed to have major civil rights legislation passed, satisfying many of the goals of the movement, though certainly not changing everything that was wrong. We still have far to go in fairness and equality for all, even 50 years onward.<br /><br />One book about the civil rights struggle published in 1963 was <i>An Education in Georgia</i> by Calvin Trillin and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/12/rain-in-soweto-mandela-and-his-neighbors.html">Charlayne Hunter-Gault.</a> I believe it was the first book Calvin Trillin wrote. Since he later became one of the most wonderful food writers I know, I think it's appropriate to mention it here. I've never read it, but I have read Hunter-Gault's autobiography, <i>In My Place</i>, which includes a fascinating account of her struggle as a very young woman to be one of the first blacks to study at the University of Georgia, another big step in the struggle for civil rights. <br /><br />But now for a completely trivial food fact from 1963: according to the <a href="http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#blackforest">Food Timeline</a>, this was the big year for the introduction into American cuisine of the Black Forest Cake. While based on a German original, the Black Forest Cake was newly popular in many upscale restaurants and the subject of American recipe versions.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn9CQAhpQqu4G_4PUON753PQH2kMX-973ctgyp5yS7nzZ7RlU2bIXK4dHtGc992nvG84mea97jobd5LJLU6inMYioV3mpW-R-0ue79dM4zVuzVVxcSlquDlMS5iKS6B3GylRTRFl06U5o6/s1600/BlackForestCake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn9CQAhpQqu4G_4PUON753PQH2kMX-973ctgyp5yS7nzZ7RlU2bIXK4dHtGc992nvG84mea97jobd5LJLU6inMYioV3mpW-R-0ue79dM4zVuzVVxcSlquDlMS5iKS6B3GylRTRFl06U5o6/s320/BlackForestCake.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random current image of a Black Forest Cake <a href="http://thecakemistress.com/blog/freerecipes/cakes/black-forest/">from this blog</a></td></tr></tbody></table>"While the ingredients and general method of Black Forest Cake can be traced through hundreds of years, food historians generally agree this recipe belongs to the 20th century," states the Food Timeline. "We find no evidence of anything close to Black Forest Cake, as we know it today, in our small collection of 19th-20th century German-American cooking texts. The earliest recipes we find are dated 1960s." This source particularly cites a recipe from <i>The German Cookbook</i> by Mimi Sheraton, published in 1963 -- I couldn't find any images that claimed to use her recipe, though.<br /><br />Two other trends of 1963: Beatlemania, or enormous love of the Beatles was just beginning. And a wave of enthusiasm for Mona Lisa was inspired by her visit early in 1963 to the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, thanks to the diplomacy of Jacqueline Kennedy.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSr237WCqtmYpy3fy50nvRT4fcQu5VazC3FfI4CiSDQpohe-xH5QA1I_-FVQUBlNV-LUQ5U-I4Mnrl7n_vFS-zANc3OiYEAEg6Yd-joFYGXLiC7XSSqJmojTJ-_ir6F-zvjUvcF3W3M3q4/s1600-h/mona.in.us.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254234642968041218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSr237WCqtmYpy3fy50nvRT4fcQu5VazC3FfI4CiSDQpohe-xH5QA1I_-FVQUBlNV-LUQ5U-I4Mnrl7n_vFS-zANc3OiYEAEg6Yd-joFYGXLiC7XSSqJmojTJ-_ir6F-zvjUvcF3W3M3q4/s400/mona.in.us.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mona Lisa visits the US: the painting is now too fragile to travel,<br />so this was probably her last trip out of Paris.</td></tr></tbody></table>Note: I've added a duplicate of this post to my other blog, maetravels.blogspot.com .

Great Events of Fifty Years Ago

As 2013 draws to a close, I'm thinking about various anniversaries that have taken place during the past nearly 12 months. SNCC Sit-in, ...

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Great Events of 1913

It'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.<br /><br />First let's commemorate the most significant food anniversary that took place around a month ago:<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjruWnNI6UCXoc84tm2YDiRpw6anb_hlSwK7ga6lt7CWlvziRjSMjZ3desoa6jq2u_qQTSw_6BXgqxGjSdxKTD8kReTgzBXvvVfHPWvy0pQy7fZy_6P0dnjt-gMyrS-sv4GOk9i_tHtbUbF/s1600/mallomars5006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjruWnNI6UCXoc84tm2YDiRpw6anb_hlSwK7ga6lt7CWlvziRjSMjZ3desoa6jq2u_qQTSw_6BXgqxGjSdxKTD8kReTgzBXvvVfHPWvy0pQy7fZy_6P0dnjt-gMyrS-sv4GOk9i_tHtbUbF/s320/mallomars5006.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: center;">Mallomars were introduced November 13, 1913.</div><div style="text-align: center;">But is this as significant as the year 1912, when Oreos were introduced?</div></td></tr></tbody></table>A BIG event took place <b>100 years ago today</b>:<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJKcyVUCynHzkOqymRvwH-EUmt2vogBdGru1ulTfOC4FvZ9rhgv8cZXivac7HPfHQ6_cWYCdfcqfxJZNQysNGSWidJ35NkBoI15LH5_OzBou3KSK44c9zu3xG6ka5r8qmYhHlHtC3ZDDdY/s1600-h/theft3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176858804543504226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJKcyVUCynHzkOqymRvwH-EUmt2vogBdGru1ulTfOC4FvZ9rhgv8cZXivac7HPfHQ6_cWYCdfcqfxJZNQysNGSWidJ35NkBoI15LH5_OzBou3KSK44c9zu3xG6ka5r8qmYhHlHtC3ZDDdY/s400/theft3.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">After the theft of Mona Lisa from the Louvre, August 21, 1911, <br />commemorated in these antique postcards in my collection,<br /><b>she was returned on December 11, 1913.</b></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkaocJJpQU2WANHz47Rca3vfn3e3-JYMlxlaiZjlmk60rhWhp7xAGdUpsBei7588FBDLNsfGNBSAinUB3eHG4cH2jhOWA1AcHmpMQkhZxOnZsCnWKrgQswGvNNkfIePSaYIhCnXl0VqvA8/s1600-h/theft2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176859350004350834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkaocJJpQU2WANHz47Rca3vfn3e3-JYMlxlaiZjlmk60rhWhp7xAGdUpsBei7588FBDLNsfGNBSAinUB3eHG4cH2jhOWA1AcHmpMQkhZxOnZsCnWKrgQswGvNNkfIePSaYIhCnXl0VqvA8/s400/theft2.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The thief, as depicted on one of my postcards.</td></tr></tbody></table>Other centenaries:<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqX7YVAmHIFCJHwrxHvRV-EfeXe7qPnOURiux5sMZF5a2cUWVrFWzbY0rAIoU8VB-SkapNIzqf237YoBV1doUZEHoeVOviHR7MzgW0Bnk5hltd8FZkag9qSJwj6XG55Ppy1oenCraMpxi/s1600-h/Nancy_DuchampbyBrainard.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262627570447373570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqX7YVAmHIFCJHwrxHvRV-EfeXe7qPnOURiux5sMZF5a2cUWVrFWzbY0rAIoU8VB-SkapNIzqf237YoBV1doUZEHoeVOviHR7MzgW0Bnk5hltd8FZkag9qSJwj6XG55Ppy1oenCraMpxi/s400/Nancy_DuchampbyBrainard.gif" style="float: left; height: 396px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 236px;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">New York, February 17 - March 15, 1913</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Infamous Armory Show presents Duchamp’s </span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Nude Descending a Staircase"</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2008/10/another-parodist.html">(here shown for a change with Nancy's head)</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIOhdtQOmlF_-0x9yvXOT2bjQ-0o2hry8smB4aOKkGEzCA6J6HOd6AjvS-bR6W1e-wh_Lmg44icZYtkZqHReFOVWUkxGmUV10SA5ZejOX-WNHrzfAGAndRe-tEWGA5kvQv1i4V2SQfUalT/s1600/sacre-du-printemps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIOhdtQOmlF_-0x9yvXOT2bjQ-0o2hry8smB4aOKkGEzCA6J6HOd6AjvS-bR6W1e-wh_Lmg44icZYtkZqHReFOVWUkxGmUV10SA5ZejOX-WNHrzfAGAndRe-tEWGA5kvQv1i4V2SQfUalT/s320/sacre-du-printemps.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Paris, May 29, 1913 -- Premiere of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps."</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMPef_ThP6aw8ZkWn4OqUi2UTRlvDlpqDhtJD7a4HPRpL9tSVT6R0eVpvB1udLxliWhAbrztmgHWy3PAsoMZJ63Kv3YUYQ1t8myjDSHbPZjqKd4MTTQ8B4L8Tvzs0cPoitX0b6i62nTCW5/s1600/proust1stEdition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMPef_ThP6aw8ZkWn4OqUi2UTRlvDlpqDhtJD7a4HPRpL9tSVT6R0eVpvB1udLxliWhAbrztmgHWy3PAsoMZJ63Kv3YUYQ1t8myjDSHbPZjqKd4MTTQ8B4L8Tvzs0cPoitX0b6i62nTCW5/s400/proust1stEdition.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;">Paris, November 14, 1913 --<br />Publication of first volume of Proust's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;">Remembrance of Things Past.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />AND one poem: <br /><i>"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,</i><br /><i>"It's with O'Leary in the grave."</i> -- W.B.Yeats, "September, 1913"

Great Events of 1913

It's almost the end of 2013. Time for an illustrated but not totally reverent retrospective of events of 1913, events whose 100th annive...

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What's in your lunch box?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaRBvbdbeWZR8hGUow8G8ufCtuSBevzDGH4KsYMYfQuT5rqF6JQulS0Y_Y_evgMxQWeeKBRqBShlZrJggDa14bdiohUNdt2aPpekdu4p9dKPLqpGvtMdGJbVZ76uPb70LwX6B_FDTRMqC/s1600/mona_lisas_dachshunds_canvas_lunch_tote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaRBvbdbeWZR8hGUow8G8ufCtuSBevzDGH4KsYMYfQuT5rqF6JQulS0Y_Y_evgMxQWeeKBRqBShlZrJggDa14bdiohUNdt2aPpekdu4p9dKPLqpGvtMdGJbVZ76uPb70LwX6B_FDTRMqC/s400/mona_lisas_dachshunds_canvas_lunch_tote.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mona Lisa Lunch Tote from <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/+mona_lisas_dachshunds_canvas_lunch_tote,690632398">Cafepress</a></td></tr></tbody></table>School 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. But in Junior High, I remember the smelly brown bags with wax-paper-wrapped sandwiches, probably on white bread, and an apple every day. Maybe a carrot stick or a cookie. Inside the sandwiches: peanut butter (no jelly for me) or sliced cheese; cream cheese or some sort of meat; maybe tuna fish. My mother, who packed our lunches, didn't think it was a lunch without a sandwich. I almost always brought my lunch right through high school. I didn't like and rarely ate cafeteria food -- for one exception, <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2011/10/its-school-lunch-and-chili-month.html">see this</a>.<br /><br />Here's what I think is odd: the lunches my mother packed would mainly comply with the advice that parents are getting now to encourage healthier eating. If the food industry made small-sized bags of potato chips then, we never heard of them; Lunchables were distantly in the future. Yogurt wasn't a commonly sold or eaten food until some time after I was in school; it seems to have become a staple of lunches brought from home. Most yogurt -- especially the ones targeted to kids -- is a heavily sweetened and not particularly wonderful food masquerading as healthful.<br /><br />The lunches we rejected from the cafeteria were probably no better in nutritional value than the ones that are under scrutiny now, and probably didn't taste any better than the nutritionally improved ones kids are rejecting, either. I suspect that politics is behind some of the big objections that kids (no doubt encouraged by their parents) are making to the changes in school cafeteria food when the objectors seem to all be from tea-party country and they mention Michelle Obama by name and hold her responsible. I have this funny feeling that only a satirist (like <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/mom-unaware-little-note-she-packed-with-sons-lunch,29281/">The Onion </a>or Andy Borowitz) could do justice to the politicization of school lunch contents as well as to some of the other excessive trends.<br /><br />Lunch boxes, for some reason, weren't cool when I was a lunch-taker; neither were thermoses. I think they were for littler kids. After lunch, we could throw away everything that came with lunch. That didn't usually include any food: we were all inducted into the Clean Plate Club though no one ever named it. A few years after I was in school, instead of waxed paper or waxed sandwich bags, plastic baggies became common. Much more recently, schools have been nudging both mothers and kids towards reusable containers instead of disposable wrappings.<br /><br />Will this trend continue? Two years ago, an article in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/business/energy-environment/education-officials-and-retailers-push-for-environmentally-friendly-school-lunches.html?_r=0"><i>New York Times</i> reported</a> "Sales of environmentally friendly back-to-school products are up just about everywhere." By that time at Miriam and Alice's Oak View Elementary school, kids had already done an experiment to compare the trash on a day when everyone brought lunch in disposable bags and on a day when everyone who could brought their food in reusable containers. The resulting trash quantities really impressed the whole school! Nobody wanted to be seen making piles of trash like that.<br /><br />In the family, Miriam says she plans to take only a little bit for lunch because she'll be eating very early, so she got  a new small lunch box to start Junior High. Alice says she doesn't have a new lunch box yet. <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2012/10/school-lunch.html">Last year in Minnesota</a>, they did eat school lunches, which were designed to have healthy food and lots of vegetables in them and also were usually served on reusable plates. They also had a deal with a farm to send the edible leftovers and plate scrapings to the pigs.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BgWFCBXi6Qrs4wqsxMOVvZAWvKT4fNLTMbepqmDVJqux4jqABMmAMoyPoSrMkTfS7GhC8OyAGnJObxvAZ1PBaTjHOvwaq8Sm8VTfVZueutRFAe4e8gbU9t5n9aQhbpy5ilb_Aw3UBj2j/s1600/bento-lunch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BgWFCBXi6Qrs4wqsxMOVvZAWvKT4fNLTMbepqmDVJqux4jqABMmAMoyPoSrMkTfS7GhC8OyAGnJObxvAZ1PBaTjHOvwaq8Sm8VTfVZueutRFAe4e8gbU9t5n9aQhbpy5ilb_Aw3UBj2j/s320/bento-lunch.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>Overall, in lunch boxes this school year, I suspect that there will be lots of interesting and exotic foods as mothers strive to meet more and more competitive demands for health and fanciness. A few mothers might follow the trend of making highly decorative Japanese lunches, as illustrated by a screen shot from google images. A few might make labor-intensive gourmet treats based on recipes like those in a<a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/family-meals/slideshow/25-quick-and-easy-school-lunches-to-pack-for-your-kids/?slide=1"> pretentious article in <i>Bon Appetit</i>.</a><br /><br />Most kids' lunches, according to the news, will be some combination of convenience lunch food like yogurt cups and mini-bags of chips or carrots and traditional choices like my mother made. I hope there's really a trend towards better health and environmental responsibility, but that might be wishful thinking.

What's in your lunch box?

Mona Lisa Lunch Tote from Cafepress School started yesterday, so I've been thinking about what goes in all the lunch boxes and lunch bag...

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Looking forward to Paris

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt11ATqV1eaCnY39ELfACt30nA-uyzfKvxhi-Qoegz_IuaUQ9DLivR1apygbMHP-r81H4EK3ecuf-4hDxa3urhMMRHe5QeiF0LxBRey54TS9gbqT1TrHUdXPb3Ken12PlPumZEovt0QocY/s1600/macdonalds-louvre1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt11ATqV1eaCnY39ELfACt30nA-uyzfKvxhi-Qoegz_IuaUQ9DLivR1apygbMHP-r81H4EK3ecuf-4hDxa3urhMMRHe5QeiF0LxBRey54TS9gbqT1TrHUdXPb3Ken12PlPumZEovt0QocY/s320/macdonalds-louvre1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjedURRu-3geY7YO8QKV718r-NgD6BbtpbnfLQB-gig_FjUVnbYHsOqmM4QWIbKnc0mqYHpVjtxJ9b5imWiCkdUOIOsqcDUGIWEuVps-U2PflUNCHG7DH1TieRtyuYX_kTO-KP25LQFCxkR/s1600/macdonalds-louvre2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjedURRu-3geY7YO8QKV718r-NgD6BbtpbnfLQB-gig_FjUVnbYHsOqmM4QWIbKnc0mqYHpVjtxJ9b5imWiCkdUOIOsqcDUGIWEuVps-U2PflUNCHG7DH1TieRtyuYX_kTO-KP25LQFCxkR/s1600/macdonalds-louvre2.jpg" /></a></div><br />I read <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/burghers-flip-as-louvre-says-oui-to-mcdonalds-20091005-gjfp.html">here</a> and<a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/mcdonald-s-to-open-restaurant-the-louvre-french-uproar"> here</a> (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.<br /><br />Or as a cartoonist from San Diego put it:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfASLg0cAJeCKyBW7Qy_lhsOm5AfZu6BqvUpXX7Y3ZoZFUzp-yq128xBaxs8YW6Ye2AS6GYyDaD7rnPDfGfpsok4y2ldwKkv5gcb-4gcbhWV2f-3-jdNoyG1TQkfxlygH1NjWgyPBQaBw0/s1600/macdonalds-louvre-breen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfASLg0cAJeCKyBW7Qy_lhsOm5AfZu6BqvUpXX7Y3ZoZFUzp-yq128xBaxs8YW6Ye2AS6GYyDaD7rnPDfGfpsok4y2ldwKkv5gcb-4gcbhWV2f-3-jdNoyG1TQkfxlygH1NjWgyPBQaBw0/s1600/macdonalds-louvre-breen.jpg" /></a></div><br />

Looking forward to Paris

I 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 ...

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What did Shakespeare eat?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEish8tQAhMQCUMI1ZMJ0oCNhGxtJblJNiUfqR2UFT8Lj0O2GtpUZcUQIF7f9hthibQDoJf8EP9Ozs15ZHQfkKlmtsWNdAjLpJczWX03gXg9lM1X_akqNbZ2GV7VHqdIQf9V_jH7x_38iBA7/s1600/shakespeare-cookbook1085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEish8tQAhMQCUMI1ZMJ0oCNhGxtJblJNiUfqR2UFT8Lj0O2GtpUZcUQIF7f9hthibQDoJf8EP9Ozs15ZHQfkKlmtsWNdAjLpJczWX03gXg9lM1X_akqNbZ2GV7VHqdIQf9V_jH7x_38iBA7/s320/shakespeare-cookbook1085.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><br /><br />What did Shakespeare eat?<br /><br />Definitive answers here: <i>The Shakespeare Cookbook</i> 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 print during Shakespeare's lifetime. I had no idea how many such works existed!<br /><br />Another surprise: many recipes are simple and close to modern cooking. For example, chicken fricassee described on page 54 is almost exactly the way I sometimes use up leftover chicken, though the modern version often includes pimentos (a variety of capsicum peppers, which Dalby says hadn't reached England from the New World yet) and the Shakespeare-era version uses the spice mace, which isn't on my spice shelf.<br /><br />A variety of pies of all sizes combine meat, fruit, suet, and spice into a preparation that predates our mince pies. The small ones are called "chewets" and contain saffron and ground ginger along with cooked meat. If I could find suet, I would be interested to try pies or chewets, as I have always liked that funny packaged mincemeat that is featured at Christmas and Thanksgiving, and I would like to meet its ancestor. (If I could find a swan, there's another recipe in the book I might try too.)<br /><br />Similarly there are recipes for a sort of meatball including meat-egg-dried fruit and flavored with mace. Large ones were called Farts, small ones were called Fysts. I definitely plan to try these, as the modernized recipe doesn't require suet at all. And the name is so amusing! Dalby doesn't offer any word history on this. Although there are many references on the Web to the original recipe, a quick look didn't offer me any insight into why this word meant little meatballs in Elizabethan times.<br /><br />The explanation of what the word "cake" meant to Shakespeare is very interesting. "A cake, to Shakespeare, was a concept that overlapped with the modern English cake but didn't coincide with it." (page 70)<br /><br />So, the authors point out, cakes could sweet or savory in the famous line<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?" </blockquote>The word cake could refer to a loaf cake, a tea-cake, or a waffle. It could mean a biscuit. (I think this is the British biscuit, which in America we call a cookie -- the problem of terminology didn't stop in Shakespeare's time.) The book's cake recipe is for Barm Brak, made from white-bread dough, sugar, lard, eggs, raisins, and sweet spices.<br /><br />Every section of the book has a discussion of a food reference in a particular Shakespeare play, with elaborations from the literature of Shakespeare's contemporaries as well as contemporary food sources. Almost every page includes an illustration, also contemporary to Shakespeare. And every section offers a wide range of interesting references and information, as well as at least one recipe quoted directly from the sources and then a modernized version. A fantastic book, for which I'm grateful to my friend Sheila!

What did Shakespeare eat?

What did Shakespeare eat? Definitive answers here: The Shakespeare Cookbook by Andrew Dalby and Maureen Dalby, published by the British Mus...

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Mysterious Edible Mona Lisa

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4X8t835GgU1SYEJ8HtoF3N0xvkOSZ0iMsvLNuDiHzHNaWf_oV4kcREFeDdMd6Gv0UnUxM1bg5v9vhNe-_lPHZDDkE8LvTzZnfj-i-J3azyyqOP9lQwSDwe59lWPpWLFl0N89c4F8_D7aB/s1600/edible-mona-lisa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4X8t835GgU1SYEJ8HtoF3N0xvkOSZ0iMsvLNuDiHzHNaWf_oV4kcREFeDdMd6Gv0UnUxM1bg5v9vhNe-_lPHZDDkE8LvTzZnfj-i-J3azyyqOP9lQwSDwe59lWPpWLFl0N89c4F8_D7aB/s320/edible-mona-lisa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />Depicted <a href="http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2012/04/stop-it-with-the-small-plates-except-where-they-work.html">here</a> 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?

Mysterious Edible Mona Lisa

Depicted here on the blog The Amateur Gourmet -- but who is she, this mysterious woman made of something edible but unidentified. Is she wa...

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Today at the Detroit Institute of Arts

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxbF9hKfdReGbpdvgwo7FN794F1-JpC5A7YWi6OVnvG-o-sEpjapmOFNNu3zFnVpiJ8JLqQyYKjhZe_ZsZDGpYh3_OBaQlJ2bkfVjOfYsesCxnoTwcXf-HLPY_MO2371BKKD0vAQKH6N2/s1600/DIA+Spoerri7730.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653111617129106258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxbF9hKfdReGbpdvgwo7FN794F1-JpC5A7YWi6OVnvG-o-sEpjapmOFNNu3zFnVpiJ8JLqQyYKjhZe_ZsZDGpYh3_OBaQlJ2bkfVjOfYsesCxnoTwcXf-HLPY_MO2371BKKD0vAQKH6N2/s400/DIA+Spoerri7730.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br /><br />Daniel 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. Open and presumably empty sugar packets; check. Cup stained with coffee; check. I suspect these are real crumbs and remnants, an artistic selection from a real hotel tray somewhere.<br /><br />I've mentioned Spoerri before -- see this post about his work "<a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2009/10/use-rembrandt-as-ironing-board.html">Use Rembrandt as an Ironing Board</a>," in which I explained why the image was Mona Lisa, not a Rembrandt, on the ironing board. I like him for his humor in both works.

Today at the Detroit Institute of Arts

Daniel Spoerri's "Variations d'un Petit Dejuner, 1966" shows a conceptual breakfast; that is, a breakfast that someone has...

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Time for a New Mona Lisa

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_gEzViA-yRI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />Love that M&M character!

Time for a New Mona Lisa

Love that M&M character!

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Chocolate Mona Lisa

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8f3hA2MH0cwBzzeuYa5mmjxF0kNRxCYk8yO7NpMSkHp7h9PIb3dlBHpDNv3_z2cEE0j40ls-jJezbq8lM2LmkCwyH2XlyaKz_f5KV1vX9S4g-Fqvzs5hGHIwURWMNloYov2jGKu98_tBk/s1600/chocolate.mona.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520607769338370306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8f3hA2MH0cwBzzeuYa5mmjxF0kNRxCYk8yO7NpMSkHp7h9PIb3dlBHpDNv3_z2cEE0j40ls-jJezbq8lM2LmkCwyH2XlyaKz_f5KV1vX9S4g-Fqvzs5hGHIwURWMNloYov2jGKu98_tBk/s400/chocolate.mona.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 331px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><br />$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 <a href="http://everythingart.com/">here</a>. I thank Aparna for the link!<br /><br />There's a lot of Mona Lisa stuff on this blog from Birmingham, MI -- in fact, I shopped this gallery several years ago, and have purchased many of the items they are selling. The owner saw a Smithsonian article about the Mona Lisa fan club in Paris which mentioned one member in Ann Arbor MI (that would have been me). So the owner advertised in an Ann Arbor publication, and some friend (I wish I remembered who) saw the ad and sent me there. And here again is someone directing me to see it. Fate? Nooo.<br /><br />For a couple of dollars at Wegman's you can get a cartoon version on a wrapper:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-xonkubU1inKWdt-NFnnj6YHkVvDd5stmxxl_wwXlLcizhL8gn8eFv76Sh91bUFwpuLJ4nHzpROgYUM1FjaU-PfL0-Aaq1T1XS0-RB3P3U_DeqMY9eILmq27rQcEewliXe-8i_oxy9E/s1600-h/choco.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184693787999676050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-xonkubU1inKWdt-NFnnj6YHkVvDd5stmxxl_wwXlLcizhL8gn8eFv76Sh91bUFwpuLJ4nHzpROgYUM1FjaU-PfL0-Aaq1T1XS0-RB3P3U_DeqMY9eILmq27rQcEewliXe-8i_oxy9E/s400/choco.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br />For more on this subject see: <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-mona-lisa-didnt-eat.html">What Mona Lisa Didn't Eat</a>.

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 ha...

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