Revenge is Sweet

In 2006, Julie Powell, the blogger now on screen in Julie & Julia, reviewed The Shangri-La Diet in the Washington Post

I’m almost 95 percent sure that Seth Roberts . . . is a snake-oil salesman. [Later true. Snake oil is high in omega-3] . . . He brings a whole lot of pseudo-science to the table, as diet-book-writing PhDs tend to do.

Now, from a review of Julie & Julia by Laura Shapiro, author of a book about Julia Child:

There’s no question that Powell had a great idea for a blog. What she didn’t have was anything interesting to say about cooking her way through Mastering. Her writing is hollow, narcissistic, and unforgivably lazy—qualities so foreign to Julia that it’s not at all surprising that she once said she couldn’t abide Powell’s work.

Curious that revenge (“sweet”, “a dish best served cold”) is associated with food.

One thought on “Revenge is Sweet

  1. Speaking of “a dish best served cold”… The earliest written record Google Books can find is in a French potboiler from 1841. At the time, the expression seems to have been a stratagem to trick a hotheaded friend into putting off revenge until mature wisdom can get a word in edgewise. The notion of revenge as an esthetic experience to be accompanied by a good Chianti had to wait for Hollywood.

    On the literal merits, we might say that revenge is a lot like jello, which is almost certain to be disappointing warm.

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