'The New York Times' Doesn't Know What the Flying Spaghetti Monster Is
In Julia Moskin's piece on molecular gastronomy in the New York Times today, I couldn't help but notice a familiar noodly-appendaged creature. To my dismay, the caption for the photograph of the Flying Spaghetti Monster just read "a noodle monster."
Is it a conspiracy by the Times to deny recognition of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its Pastafarian followers? Or are writers and editors at the Times woefully unaware of Internet memes that date back to 2005? Did they not check their own archives?
What's the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you ask? Wikipedia has the answer:
The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is a character created as a satirical protest to the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution... Since the intelligent design movement used ambiguous references to an unspecified 'Intelligent Designer' to avoid court rulings prohibiting the teaching of creationism as a science, Henderson believed that literally anything imaginable could be used as this Designer.
As they say, knowing is half the battle.
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10 Comments:
They are clearly trying to avoid the potential for sectarian boycotts and infighting by keeping this in the secular realm. Another example of the slow death of this country's media -- better to pretend a religion doesn't exist than to risk the loss of ad revenue that might result from a boycott.
sloppy at 2:48PM on 10/29/08
@sloppy....I'm not so sure. Not that I disagree with you about the general state of media, but these guys were probably CLUELESS about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster....that was predominantly a cyberspace phenomenon that exploded via email, texting, etc. and unless you're hip to stuff like that (which, let's face it, most of them aren't) it would go right over your head.
http://gonzogastro.wordpress.com
vinovamp at 4:04PM on 10/29/08
Clearly this is a heretical attempt to divide the Pastafarians. The true FSM sees with meatballs, not malted milk balls.
A dessert schism?
For those of you not yet touched by his noodley appendage, the FSM is fond of beer and blames global warming on a lack of pirates.
tnword at 4:08PM on 10/29/08
Ahh - even more woeful in the article is this:
Rather than scenting mozzarella cheese with rose petals, they’re sticking metal forks into hot dogs and cooking them by electrocution.
Not a new idea at all! Does she not remember the Mr. Wizard's World episode in which Don "Mr. Wizard" Herbert cooks a hot dog by plugging it into a lamp? That's Volume 2, episode 5 in case you want to see it for yourself.
kenjialtci at 4:09PM on 10/29/08
This post (including the comments) is, by far, the nerdiest thing that has ever graced SE.
It's kind of awesome.
lawofmurphy at 4:28PM on 10/29/08
The NYT's deliberate failure to give appropriate recognition to the Flying Spaghetti Monster is just one more piece of evidence of the liberal media's bias against religious observance. Media bias, I tell you.
drosendorf at 5:11PM on 10/29/08
I thought FSM was the acronym for Flying Scientology Monster and was headed by Tom Cruise, the lead Pastafarian. Now I'm all corn fuzed.
PerkyMac at 6:43PM on 10/29/08
Seriously. Completely irresponsible reporting.
I saw that earlier and thought the caption meant they didn't know, but I didn't read the article to be sure. Seriously. NYT = lame. I'll never believe anything they say again.
wunami at 1:02AM on 10/30/08
Hah! I totally noticed that and wondered how such people couldhave missed something as blatently obvious (and awesome) as that. The shock!
Stufsocker at 10:52AM on 10/30/08
Clearly, those at the NYT have not been touched by His Noodly Appendage.
Hmm, maybe they should be looking into that "number of pirates vs. temperature of the earth" thing...
Steen at 7:50PM on 11/01/08