06
Jan 11
Aggravated by the behavior of some eliminated contestants on this season of Top Chef, Tony Bourdain sounds positively patriarchal:
[I]t is useful to have a sense of humor about oneself. And when one is a professional, facing other professionals, and the chop comes down, it is always useful to comport oneself with dignity — and a measure of grace. Regardless of what one might think — or what pain and heartbreak may boil inside — one thanks one’s executioners. One stands tall and proud. One leaves this world — to whatever degree possible, looking GOOD.
Point the first: this is obviously excellent advice, especially given the myriad ways to find information on people nowadays, which I try to follow (though not always successfully). He also gets points for opening and closing with references to The Wire.
Point the second: Bourdain would look unbearably badass in a bespoke three-piece, right?
04
Jan 11
I’ve noticed that this blog, while reflecting a few of my interests in depth, rarely reflects what I’m doing or thinking about most of the time. So I’ll try and offer up fewer “here’s a bunch of stuff I found interesting” linkwads without any meat on the bones (I’ll save most of those for Twitter), and actually do a bit of writing here and there.
Cooking seems like an ideal topic to bridge the gap. Guesting for Andrew Sullivan, Zoë Pollock notes a study about men and women in the kitchen:
[W]omen and men see cooking in profoundly different terms: most women see it as a “sensual” act—something that “gives pleasure,” whereas men see it as “a performance and an activity at which they can impress.” Sounds familiar. See: other activities, other rooms.
Here’s a part of the research that’s easy to believe: when men do cook, they “enjoy the fruits of their labor more than women do theirs.”
This is also known as the First Law of Men: “He who rarely cleans or cooks, when does, is utterly proud of himself, which does not mean he shall start to thenceforth clean or cook more often, sorry.”
I’d buy it. I do cook pretty much all the meals in our house, and lean towards comfort food, but my version of “helping fold the laundry” would more accurately be described as “sitting on the bed with Quipu and vaguely pawing at a pile of socks.”