"An Englishman teaching an American about food is like the blind leading the one-eyed."

Food

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Food as articulated by A. J. Liebling. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Food provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About A. J. Liebling

Abbott Joseph Liebling was an American journalist who was closely associated with The New Yorker from 1935 until his death. His New York Times obituary called him "a critic of the daily press, a chronicler of the prize ring, an epicure and a biographer of such diverse personages as Gov. Earl Long of Louisiana and Col. John R. Stingo." He was known for dubbing Chicago "The Second City" and for the aphorism "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Liebling's boxing book The Sweet Science was named the greatest sports book of all time by Sports Illustrated. Liebling was a connoisseur of French cuisine, a subject he wrote about in Between Meals: An Appetite For Paris. Pete Hamill, editor of a Library of America anthology of Liebling's writings, said "He was a gourmand of words, in addition to food... he retained his taste for 'low' culture too: boxers and corner men, conmen and cigar store owners, political hacks and hack operators. They're all celebrated in [his] pages."

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More by A. J. Liebling

"The science of booby-trapping has taken a good deal of the fun out of following hot on the enemy's heels."

— A. J. Liebling
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"A city with one newspaper, or with a morning and an evening paper under one ownership, is like a man with one eye, and often the eye is glass."

— A. J. Liebling
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"The pattern of a newspaperman's life is like the plot of 'Black Beauty.' Sometimes he finds a kind master who gives him a dry stall and an occasional bran mash in the form of a Christmas bonus, sometimes he falls into the hands of a mean owner who drives him in spite of spavins and expects him to live on potato peelings."

— A. J. Liebling
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"If the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference of the total."

— A. J. Liebling
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More about Food

"The public should know that the liability issues here have yet to be resolved, or even raised. If you're a farmer and you're growing a genetically engineering food crop, those genes are going to flow to the other farm."

— Jeremy Rifkin
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"My grandmother was the greatest cook in the world. She could just go in there, the whole kitchen would look like a tornado hit it and then she'd come out with the best food. Then she'd sit at the table and she wouldn't eat!"

— Edie Brickell
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"We tend to connect bad food and bad habits with romance and sex."

— Marilu Henner
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"I don't diet, I don't do fads, I've just decided to not eat carbs. So no more bread and pasta for the month. I can't live without chocolate, though. I've always got a bar in my handbag. It has to be 72%. Any less and it's too sweet, any more and it's inedible. Like I said, I'm very particular."

— Nancy Meyers
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