Where's the beef?
No beef, no critique.
John
Sent from my iPad
On May 23, 2017, at 11:53, david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Having recommended a book of criticism and received no response, I continue
my investigation like a man exploring a canyon. I wonder if chewing is the
origin of criticism. The ancient spur may of course have been visual―look,
that is more useful or (why not?) more beautiful than that…don’t you love the
way our Neanderthal cousins use their putters?―but I suspect that the thing
one notices with cheap cuts of meat well cooked―that they’re wonderful except
for the bits one spits out―may well have led to the first criticism. “Nice
animal this, but a tad gristly. Nothing one, when asked to be in charge of
cooking, can do in the way of stomping it or adding leaves. Essentially the
problem is the part of the animal that we are given. Were I tribal leader I
might not have this kind of experience, but we of the lumpenproletariat get
what comes, with ten percent to them what carries it from the fire.” These
thoughts arrive from the appearance in our supermarkets of (to me) a new
category of dead animal, “petite sirloin,” which of course suggests that
sirloin is not, as it sounds, really quite masculine. It is entirely
possible that American supermarkets have been using this category for years;
my allergy to commercial shopping places often causes me to rush round them.
Those who know me will wonder why commercial shopping places are different in
my mind from Costco and estate sales, both of which I am content to explore,
within defined time limits. I think the proper answer is that if I told you
the answer I’d have to chop you into a petite sirloin.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
