Working on a big recipe write-up of my new party trick while preparing for holiday travel and a new computer (transfer ALL the files?) has me busy, so in the meantime, here’s what I’ve been reading.

“Does the Rise of Men’s Sexual Objectification = Equality?” Sociological Images. 12 Dec. 2013.

Kraft salad dressing made a big splash with the naked picnic “Zesty Guy.” Does turning the tables and using men’s bodies to market food and other sundries toward heterosexual women (but actually let’s extend this to “folks who like men,” but not in the gross way mansplainers think that the male gaze benefits queer women) level the playing field? Lisa Wade is one of the few voices of reason in an AdWeek article about this. On Sociological Images, she elaborates,

First, because the ads are so tongue-in-cheek, they didn’t seem to be acknowledging and validating women’s sexual desire, so much as mocking it. ”It’s funny to us to think of women being lustful,” I told Gianatasio, “because we don’t really take women’s sexuality very seriously.” In this way, the joke affirms the gender order because the humor depends on us knowing that we don’t really objectify men this way and we don’t really believe that women are the way we imagine men to be.

Eric Westervelt. “These Days, School Lunch Hours Are More Like 15 Minutes.” NPR’s The Salt. 4 Dec. 2013.

My high school (early 00s) had a half-period for lunch: 23 minutes exactly.

“Lord of the Rings + Food,” via kenobiwalker.

Who else is excited for The Desolation of Smaug? More Hobbit food from all the films, please.

Makiko Itoh. “Artisanal rice and ‘ancient’ heirloom rice in The Japan Times.” Just Hungry. 22 Nov. 2013.

I could really go for the purple rice at Cajon in Kanazawa right about now.

Book I want: Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon by Cindy Ott

A book about the culinary history of pumpkins in the US. :grabby hands:

Next time: roses fall beautifully…ばらはばらは美しく散る。。。