Re: the August 28 Time, watch me thumb straight past the cover article on Hillary Clinton and go straight to Joel Stein's piece in the "Food" section on one of the many apparently unnumbered pages (what's that about?) in the YOUR TIME section.
In his article, Cupcake Nation, he discusses a boom in specialty cupcakes and cupcake stores of which we in this unfashionably behindhand cultural backwater are still unaware. Cupcakes. Really? I haven't eaten a cupcake in 20 years. I love sweets, but the thought of the super-sweet frosting they use in cupcake icing---and for that matter the supersweet cake that constitutes the "cake" portion---makes my back teeth buzz and my forehead ache. I see them in the bakery section of the grocery store with their day-glo frosting, but even the chocolate ones can't tempt me.
The cupcake is part of my heritage. They were a key part of every birthday party of my childhood when---this was back in the innocently pleasure-loving early Sixties when we weren't being told about rising obesity rates and childhood diabetes----traditional birthday refreshments consisted of: birthday cake (yellow cake with sugar roses), a round plastic carton of Dixie Ice Cream (chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry), a cupcake (same as the birthday cake, only different), and if the hostess was really generous, cookies from the local bakery. It was the perfect food to get 15 or 20 kids in the correct frame of mind for shrieky games.
I asked Nick if they have cupcakes in England. "Little individual round tarty things with fruit jam on?" he asked. Well, no. The cupcakes I know don't have jam on them or taste in any respect of fruit. "What are those cakes called in England?" I asked him. "Cupcakes or fruit tarts," he said. Sorry; not the same.
Anyway, I rather resent Joel Stein's resentment of the power of the cupcake. He quotes the owner of a "cupcakery" in his article. "These are scary times. That's when people crave comfort food." To which he says:
[quote begins from Cupcake Nation by Joel Stein, Time Magazine August 28]
That's what bugs me about cupcakes; they're fake happiness, wrought in Wonka unfood colors. They appeal to the same unadventurous instincts that drive adults to read Harry Potter and watch Finding Nemo without a kid in the room. ...They are the dessert of a civilization in decline. The worst part is, I want a cupcake right now real bad.
[quote from Cupcake Nation ends]
He couldn't be more wrong. To eat a cupcake (or any sweets really) is to experience a temporary sense of melting sweetness in a world that offers little relief from the pressure of constant expectations and events out of one's control. It's not the dessert of a civilization in decline so much as a refuge from a civilization that constantly asks too much.
And I haven't seen Finding Nemo but I just ordered The Animaniacs DVD; and I have no children. There is nothing unadventurous about cartoons like The Animaniacs; and the adventures all end in the triumph of the subversive, the irreverent, the happy.
I don't do Disney/Pixar but perhaps someone who watches such films can tell you their appeal. At any rate, it's probably not because they are "unadventurous"---they're all about the adventure.
And as for Harry Potter, bite your tongue, Joel Stein. The Potter books are appealing partly because the characters are fully realized, completely distinct, and grow and develop over time and partly because of the amazing attractiveness of their world. But there's nothing "small" or "safe" about them, or at least the later ones.
Besides! If real happiness isn't happening for you, moderate doses of fake happiness beat the hell out of no happiness. If Americans are increasingly overweight, I see this as a response to increasing anxiety and the deterioration of communities more than a sign of greed. When you're afraid, you want to find some sweetness in the world, even if it's the temporary sort with chocolate icing.
Comfort foods, including cupcakes, are the sign of a civilization in transition and under pressure, and that still remembers under stress how to party like it's 1959. Don't say it like it's a bad thing.
AAAAAAND opposite page 43 in Time....BILL MAHER AND A PENGUIN. ON A MELTING ICE CAP.
"Inconveniently telling the truth," the ad says. Okay, that's going on the wall over my desk to remind me of what we all ought to be doing. It's an ad for REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER which begins on HBO this Friday. FINALLY.
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