For Tuesday: Lavin, “Notable Sandwiches #75: Grilled Cheese” (48-51) & Mishan, “Taste the Feeling” (76-81)

 

Read the essays above from The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2024, and then answer any TWO of the questions below. However, you might read over them all, since they form an outline of some of the ideas I hope to discuss in class on Tuesday. Bring your responses to class if possible, so you can share them in our discussion. Answer each question in a short response, at least 2-3 sentences, but don’t give a quick answer or summary of the essay. Explore the question rather than just answering it—and feel free to use your own ideas/experiences.

ALSO: Try to define any words or terms you’re not familiar with. We’ll talk about several of these in class on Tuesday.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: According to both essays, why is flavor actually one of the LEAST important parts of enjoying your food? For many people, what makes a specific dish or food so satisfying? In other words, what else are you eating when you eat a grilled cheese sandwich, or whatever you consider your favorite dish?

Q2: Mishan writes that “sometimes a potato chip is just a potato chip” (79). Yet sometimes, she also suggests, it clearly is not. How does the way we eat and experience a potato chip (among other things) reflect our cultural values and history? Why might this explain why some cultures have different words for the various textures/sounds/tastes of a food than others?  

Q3: Lavin writes that “each grilled cheese sandwich is a reflection of all other grilled cheese sandwiches that have come before it…Each grilled cheese sandwich bears commonality with each other grilled cheese, in all their guises” (49-50). What do you think she means by this? Why does this make every grilled cheese sandwich special, and in the end, a “perfect thing”?

Q4: At the end of Mishan’s essay, the author writes that “What was once a dare is now just a night out” (81). According to her, what causes a culture to dramatically change its eating habits and values? What might be the advantage to trying, and adopting, other culture’s foods and textures?

Welcome to the Course!

 Welcome to our 8-week Freshman Composition 1 course! Be sure to keep the syllabus handy, as it will not only answer many of your questions about the course (how many classes can I miss? what is this paper worth?), but it all contains the course calendar, which is handy if you ever have to miss class, or want to know what we're doing in two weeks. 

BE SURE TO BUY THE BOOK FOR THE COURSE AT THE BOOKSTORE RIGHT AWAY! The book is (also on the syllabus) The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2024. We will be using this book in class on Wednesday, and you will have your first assignment from it due on Thursday. If you don't buy the book, you could easily wind up failing the course--so trust me, buy it immediately! 

I will post all assignments and readings on this blog INSTEAD of on Blackboard. I don't intend to use Blackboard this summer at all, so bookmark this site to keep you aware of assignments and due dates. But you can always e-mail me with questions at: jgrasso@ecok.edu.

NOTE: the posts below this one are from a previous class, and are NOT assignments for this class or anything you need to worry about. I just like to keep all my classes on one blog site.  

See you in class! 

The Final Exam! See below...

 If you missed class on Thursday, you'll need to know a few things:

1. Thursday was our LAST class. The rest of the semester (the next two weeks, though we only have one day next week) you can spend revising papers and/or working on your Final Exam paper.

2. The Final Exam paper is below. It's a simple paper, and if you were in class, you've already started it with your in-class writing. Make sure you get this in by the due date, since I'm doing this INSTEAD of a sit-down final. 

3. Repeat: there is NO Final Exam other than this assignment. You do not have to come to class for the Final Exam. This is it, but you must turn it in by December 1st (see below).

4. All revisions are due by December 1st as well. 

5. Let me know if you have any questions! The Final Exam assignment is below:

Paper #4: Final Exam

PROMPT: For your final paper, I want you to continue the conversation we had during our last class, when I asked you to respond to the question: “If someone was traveling to America from another country and asked you to recommend a specific activity or event that would help them ‘see’ America like an American, what would you recommend they do or see? What would teach them something about our country, such as who we are, how we think, experience life, and express our unique culture identity? Consider what they might not understand and would need explained to them, but at the same time, try to communicate your own experience and history with this event or activity.”

REQIUREMENTS: Expand your in-class response (or start a new one) and but remember to write to someone who isn’t American, and has never done or seen this event or activity. Think about what you would have to explain or translate for them. IN ADDITION, use at least ONE outside source that also explains and supports your idea about why this is an important illustration of American culture or beliefs. Quote this source in your paper and document it properly according to MLA format (or other, if you prefer).

ALSO: This response can be more informal than our previous papers, but you should still try to write with detail and interest, as well as cite properly. The paper can be as long or short as you want, so long as you fulfill the demands of the assignment and answer the question with sufficient detail to inform and persuade your reader.

DUE: The Final Exam paper is due no later than Thursday, December 1^st @ 5pm. Remember, this is your final grade for the course, so do your best work and turn it in on time!

For Thursday: Egan, Chapter 11, "What To Make Of All This"

 REMEMBER, we WILL have class on Thursday, and the Paper #3 assignment will be pushed back to Tuesday to give you more time. I want to spend one more day preparing for it, and discussing the very last chapter of Egan's book.

We'll do an in-class writing assignment when you arrive based on Chapter 11, which I also hope will help you with Paper #3. 

No class next Tuesday, since Paper #3 will be due then. After that, we're almost done with the class! Try to finish strong and turn in the paper, since no one can afford a zero this late in the game.

See you on Thursday! 

For Tuesday: Egan, Devoured, Chapter 8 "The Age of Stunt Foods" (see note)

NOTE: Remember, we have to cancel class on Thursday because of ECU's Interscholastic Meet, which will be taking over Horace Mann tomorrow morning. So take the extra time to start thinking about Paper #3, and of course reading Chapter 8 for next week. Don't forget to do the questions, since a few people seem to have forgotten about them! (hint, hint). 

Answer two of the following:

Q1: Since restaurants like McDonald's and Taco Bell are already world famous, and people will always go there, why do both places work so hard at "differentiating" (221)? Why are the 'stunt foods' necessary in the first place?

Q2: We might assume that creating a variation on the taco or the hamburger is as easy as adding some cheese dust, or using a different bun. But it's a surprisingly complex science that companies spend millions upon millions of dollars on. What makes it so difficult to "reinvent the taco," or to create a new variation on an old favorite? In other words, why is it so easy to mess up?

Q3: How does the "Food at Work" factor (in Chapter 2) also play into the innovation necessary at fast food restaurants? Since most Americans are now eating at their desks, how did fast food have to adapt to these new eating habits? What product seems to most directly reflect this? 

Q4: According to Chapter 8, what do stunt foods say about the American cultural psyche? Why would a culture that is always drinking water and going on Paleo diets be tempted by the lure of stunt foods? Shouldn't fast food restaurants even be out of business now? Why might they suggest that we're "at odds with ourselves"? 

For Tuesday: Egan, Devoured, Chapter 6: Diet Evangelism

NOTE: The Paper #3 assignment is in the post BELOW this one, in case you missed class on Thursday (or lost it)

ALSO: You can skip Chapter 5, "Secular Church," since it's less important to our paper assignment. Read if it you like, but I won't hold you accountable for it.

Answer two of the following for Chapter 6:

Q1: What does the word "proselytizing" mean? How does this relate to food and diets? Why can we talk about food (such as "Gluten is the new Satan") in almost Biblical, and apocalyptic, terms?

Q2: How has the 'conversation' about dieting changed over the centuries, especially from the 1800s to the present? What 'science' has been proven wrong, and what new innovations/discoveries might be equally unsound? Related to this, why might it be useful to know the history of dieting to understand the present state of losing weight (and its future)?

Q3: Why might it be easier for diet fads and theories to take root today than say, 50 years ago? And similarly, why is it even harder to today to establish which ones are based in sound scientific fact and which ones are nonsense? Consider that "in 2014 alone, the FDA recalled seven faulty weight-loss products, issued over thirty public notifications and other warning letters, and even sent some people to jail for peddling illegal diet products" (173).

Q4: Quoting Harry Balzer, an expert on food and diet trends, Egan writes, "Food is fashion...we wear our food like we wear our clothes" (184). What do you think this means practically? How can we 'wear' food, and how can it inform and perform our identity? 

Paper #3 Assignment: New and Improved for a Limited Time!

 

English 1113

Paper #3: New and Improved for a Limited Time!

INTRO: One of the most important questions about food, and the one we rarely ask ourselves, is “Why do we think about what we think about when we think about food?” (Egan 9). In other words, what makes us eat what we eat on a daily basis, and why do we often make such bad decisions? Did we ask for these bad decisions, or are we simply buying the every shiny new food product that comes down the line? What could we learn about ourselves from examining the new products that food companies (and restaurants) introduce each year to meet the insatiable demand of their hungry customers? Because after all, this is what we want, right?  

PROMPT: For this paper, I want you to choose a relatively NEW food product that has shown up in grocery stores or on the menu of your favorite fast food restaurant. It should be something that wasn’t available in exactly this form a few years ago, and preferably should have the word “New” or “New and Improved” or “Now With Added…” somewhere on the box or the advertisement. It should also boast some kind of health or wellness claim somewhere, too. Your paper should start a CONVERSATON about this product, discussing some of all of the following:

• Why do you think this product exists? Who asked for it? Or who is it targeted toward? Would YOU eat it? Why or why not?
• What category from Egan’s book helps explain this product? Is it “Food at Work” related? A product of “Having It Our Way”? Do we see an example of “Selling Absence” at work? Is it part of “Diet Evangelism?” Or is a proud member of “The Age of Stunt Foods?” Be sure to quote and use Egan to explain this.
• What does it say about our culture? Why is this product uniquely American?
• What do we need to know about this food that we might not know? What does the name and packaging hide from us? What’s actually IN the food?

RESEARCH: Make sure you’re incorporating not only Egan’s book, but find an additional 2-3 sources that can help you talk about the product. These could be the company or restaurant’s website, articles about this food, about food products, health and wellness, the dangers of what we’re eating, how food products are made, what’s in the food, etc. Make sure you actually TEACH us something about this product and where it comes from. If we leave the paper knowing as much as we started, you haven’t written a useful conversation paper.

REQUIREMENTS

• Should be 3-4 pages double space (at least)
• Double Space and Word Process, please!
• At least 2-3 sources
• Include a Works Cited page at the end with all your sources listed (and you must use all sources in your paper as QUOTES)
• DUE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10^th by 5pm [no class that day]