Today's Small Incidence of Peevishness

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It's that sort of thing that sets in me a feeling of distasteful indifference, which is to say I'm insulting that kind of behavior because it is beneath my notice, and whenever I deign to look upon it I'm like "Oh.  You do this sort of thing?  How adorable."

The Japanese have traditionally made an art out of contriving hospitality, while scorning anyone who gets caught at it.  They may be Pink, but they at least put some fucking EFFORT into it.

[Freeky]

It's that sort of thing that sets in me a feeling of distasteful indifference, which is to say I'm insulting that kind of behavior because it is beneath my notice, and whenever I deign to look upon it I'm like "Oh.  You do this sort of thing?  How adorable."

The Japanese have traditionally made an art out of contriving hospitality, while scorning anyone who gets caught at it.  They may be Pink, but they at least put some fucking EFFORT into it.

Yeah, and they have the excuse of they've always done it, as flimsy and weaksauce as that is, and what have Better Homes and Gardens got to say for itself?  It's this season's rage?  It's a huge load of horseshit, all of it.

[Nast]

I was idly leafing through "Food and Wine" magazine today, when I was surprised to find that it made me angry. I was surprised.

Now, I like food. I like fancy food. I too have been caught up in unwise entertaining-related flights of fancy - anxious dinner parties, a feverish desire to bake the finest scones. But as I read through the publication, I immediately understood the reason behind my reaction: The whole thing is perverse. It's not about food. It's about selling a fantasy world in which you impress your social circle with your gastronomic sophistication, purchased authenticity, and packaged warmth. It's hospitality porn.

In recent years there has been a trend for things that once were shameful signs of poverty and pronvinciality, in ironic inversion, to become luxury commodities for the typically white, privileged and middle aged .  It's like hundreds of Marie Antoinettes, playing farm girl: it abounds with articles about with "wildcrafting" (a glitzy term for foraging), wood burning ovens, heirloom vegetables, and converted farmhouses. People practically compete with each other in shows idealized rusticity: I can just imagine someone rattling off to his friends about the vintage organic lemon press made from some Tuscan grandmother's peg leg hanging on the wall, while they nod, enraptured, over their glasses of wine. Isn't unfair that you can't buy an impoverished Ecuadorian family? That would really spruce up the patio.

Nast, I think you have isolated a whole new branch of Pinkness.  Hospitality porn.  Look how back to basics I am.  Or maybe, "Observe that I am a Don, but still a man/lady of the land". And there's nothing wrong with that sort of thing, I suppose, except that it is so obviously done to impress, rather than to satisfy a personal urge.  It is no different than the hipster who spends 3 hours perfecting the "I don't care what you think/I couldn't be bothered to dress up for this" look.

I don't want to sound dumb, but what is Pinkness? It's a Subgenius term, I think?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I was idly leafing through "Food and Wine" magazine today, when I was surprised to find that it made me angry. I was surprised.

Now, I like food. I like fancy food. I too have been caught up in unwise entertaining-related flights of fancy - anxious dinner parties, a feverish desire to bake the finest scones. But as I read through the publication, I immediately understood the reason behind my reaction: The whole thing is perverse. It's not about food. It's about selling a fantasy world in which you impress your social circle with your gastronomic sophistication, purchased authenticity, and packaged warmth. It's hospitality porn.

In recent years there has been a trend for things that once were shameful signs of poverty and pronvinciality, in ironic inversion, to become luxury commodities for the typically white, privileged and middle aged .  It's like hundreds of Marie Antoinettes, playing farm girl: it abounds with articles about with "wildcrafting" (a glitzy term for foraging), wood burning ovens, heirloom vegetables, and converted farmhouses. People practically compete with each other in shows idealized rusticity: I can just imagine someone rattling off to his friends about the vintage organic lemon press made from some Tuscan grandmother's peg leg hanging on the wall, while they nod, enraptured, over their glasses of wine. Isn't unfair that you can't buy an impoverished Ecuadorian family? That would really spruce up the patio.

Nast, I think you have isolated a whole new branch of Pinkness.  Hospitality porn.  Look how back to basics I am.  Or maybe, "Observe that I am a Don, but still a man/lady of the land". And there's nothing wrong with that sort of thing, I suppose, except that it is so obviously done to impress, rather than to satisfy a personal urge.  It is no different than the hipster who spends 3 hours perfecting the "I don't care what you think/I couldn't be bothered to dress up for this" look.

I don't want to sound dumb, but what is Pinkness? It's a Subgenius term, I think?

Pinkness is the act of trying to be something you're not, for the approval of others.

There's a little more to it, but that's the gist of it.

[BadBeast]

The intake of food is a natural function. To glamourise  it is pretty pretentious really. Especially to the extent of having every other program on TV about cookery. There is (In the UK, at least) a fucking plague of "Celebrity Chefs". And "Trendy foods" on every Supermarket shelf. Don't get me wrong, I love food, and I'm not a fussy eater. I'll eat pretty much whatever is put in front of me. (Unless it's Tripe, or fish roes) Being a lifelong angler, I have eaten most fish that it's possible to catch around our shores, and one of the finest, is Bass.

I've noticed in the last few years (ever since it became 'popular' in the 'right' kind of restaurants) we've started referring to it as "Sea Bass". As opposed to  . . . . . . ?  We don't have any other kind of Bass here! It's fucking Bass! I know in the US you have a fine freshwater Sporting fish called the Largemouth Bass, but we don't have them here. And I've never heard of anyone eating the big ugly bastards anyway. So why make the distinction?
Pretentiousness. That's why.

Making a virtue out of pretentiousness. And forcing it upon a public who largely, don't eat any fish other than Cod or Haddock. They've done the same thing with Pilchards. Pilchards used to be a poor man's meal, eaten only by Cornish beach dwelling wildmen. So to market them, the pretentious arseholes at the John West cannery called them 'Sardines'. To imply that they were exotic. But lately, they've turned around, and stated calling them Pilchards again. And selling them fresh. (Only, I suspect because the commercial fleets have fished the fuckers out in the Mediteranean) So now, for about £20 a pound, you can buy "Locally sourced Pilchards". A fish that, 20 years ago, the same people who are buying them now, wouldn't have fed to their fucking cats.

Now there are some beautifully tasty fish around, but no-one ever eats them unless they are dressed up as something trendy. Turbot, Brill, Flounder, Lumpsuckers, all delicious, but largely absent from the Supermarket shelves. I like to eat dogfish, but even the coastal fish and chip shops market that as "Rock fucking Salmon" because no-one wants to eat anything as un-trendy as dogfish. Although they'll eat Shark steaks for £60 a time and that's the same thing. With Japanese Shitake mushrooms, at £3 each. Don't piss in my wineglass, and call it Chenin-Blanc, fucker! Go and get me some sausage, egg and fucking chips!

These Foody wankers need to be rounded up and starved for a week. Then made to scrounge around Supermarket skips for a meal. See what trendy names they can come up with for stale doughnuts, or out of date processed reconstituted ham. Professional Turd polishers, every last one of them.