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"Cooking, in effect, took part of the work of chewing and digestion and performed it for us outside of the body, using outside sources of energy. Also, since cooking detoxifies many potential sources of food, the new technology cracked open a treasure trove of calories unavailable to other animals. Freed from the necessity of spending our days gathering large quantities of raw food and then chewing (and chewing) it, humans could now devote their time, and their metabolic resources, to other purposes, like creating a culture."

Michael Pollan

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Entries in culinary catastrophe (1)

Monday
Sep272010

Schadenfreude and Dalmatian pot roast

Dalmatian pot roast, aka dog's breakfast

We all have to admit that the real reason we watch reality TV shows, such as the X-factor, is in anticipation of those cringe-worthy acts where a talentless and deluded wannabe sings an appalling rendition of I Will Survive only to be brutally confronted with the harsh reality that survive they will not, certainly not in this competition anyway. In an article in The Huffington Post, Tom Alderman looks at why we are so obsessed with ‘shame TV’:

If a truth gun were put to our collective TV heads asking why we watch American Idol, and The Apprentice, the answer might be: we like watching people being humiliated ... [We] do cheer for the powerful singer. But aren't we really waiting for Simon, Paula and Randy to rip into some over-eager, untalented hopeful who actually volunteered himself for public degradation? ... We can't seem to get enough of these debase-me-now shows. 

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