At 10:36 AM -0400 04/12/2000, Marvin Long, Jr. wrote:
>I'm afraid I don't see the weirdness---it seems to me that this was a
>recipe invented as a way to cope with poverty and/or produce shortage,
>kind of the way coffee used to be spiked with chicory when it was scarce
>or when the economy was depressed in a region (or when coffee sellers
>wanted to gouge customers).
Quit talking about the Sellars that way. We are good folk. Really. ;p
>I can understand serving it as an April Fool's joke, but I think you're
>finding a political subtext that escapes me....
Oh. Well, it's kind of the fact that one of those things that is seen as
emblematic of nationality in the USA (isn't the saying something like Mom
and Apple Pie? something like that) having to be produced synthetically for
the War Effort -- and actually, even as part of the pioneer effort, though
it wasn't "Ritz" crackers specifically back then. I would be equally amused
if they produced synthetic Maple Syrup in Quebec during the Separation
Wars. *evil grin* The thing that makes us what we are is not what we think
is the thing that makes us what we are, is the ironic subtext. It's more
about the idea of apple pie than apple pie. And it is on those grounds
that, even when something is not healthy or working, people will accept it
on the grounds of it being tradition. This heightens the irony because what
is apparent to me is the possibility that someone could be fooled by such a
trick into thinking they are consuming something wholesome and wonderful
and good for them and expressive of positive intentions (and it is made
with such intentions), like an apple pie made with real apples, when it's
mainly just baked animal fat with a little flour in it, with (of course)
sugar added to fool you via the easiest route: sweetness on the tongue. Ha,
I suppose the degree of irony you see in *that* depends on your view of the
North American economic and "cultural" status quo of today.
Also, I just wanna make one of those pies and see if it really does fool
people, and so I get giddy just discussing it. :)
Gord
