PrintThe Devil's Food Dictionary
Need to look up a food term? Check out The Devil's Food Dictionary by Barry Foy where you will find only the most accurate and succinct definitions. For instance, butter is "the fatty substance said to have inspired the invention of margarine," organic food is "a term describing what our ancestors knew simply as 'food,'" and shelf life is "the amount of time that a food product can be offered for sale before finally being donated to poor people." Hopefully the dictionary will someday exist in physical form and grace the countertops of kitchens everywhere.
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5 Comments:
I'm shocked that there is no acknowledgement of The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce in your post or at the linked site.
Ann Fisher at 12:57PM on 11/07/07
I hadn't heard of it before! Thanks for the info.
roboppy at 3:22PM on 11/07/07
What a great resource! Thank you for the post!
cakespy at 10:23PM on 11/07/07
I'm shocked that there is no acknowledgement of The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce in your post or at the linked site.
Ann Fisher at 12:57PM on 11/07/07
I was surprised also, Ann, particularly as the recent edition of The Devil's Dictionary has a strongly worded copyright that insists parts of the book can only be used in "brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews" without permission. But then again, it is only the title and the concept being used here, so . . . (?)
Funny though. Turning to the first page of the Introduction (by Angus Calder) of The Devil's Dictionary, the very first sentence is:
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913?) despised realism. In his Devil's Dictionary he defines it as "The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads . . . or a story written by a measuring worm."
G*d, I love that line. I might have to find my embroidery hoop and get to work on a wall-piece.
I have a strong feeling that Bierce would not be upset with how his title and concept were used here. He might even think of becoming the thing he calls an Epicure:
An opponent of Epicurus, an abstemious philosopher who, holding that pleasure should be the chief aim of man, wasted no time in gratification of his senses.
(I'd better sign off now before The Unbearable Desire to Quote really takes hold.) :)
Karen Resta at 6:38AM on 11/08/07
Hey Folks,
Thanks for checking out the DFD. Believe it or not, apart from the title, this work was not actually inspired by Bierce's book. Though I had of course run across Bierce's name and the occasional definition throughout my reading life, as most of us do, I never actually acquired and examined a copy of the Devil's Dictionary until most of my manuscript had been written and the website had been going for a couple of months. A scan of my entries certainly reveals some that could be called Biercean, but there are as many or more that are far wackier than that great man would have gone for, as well as many that are less cynical than his tended to be. Anyway, I hope you'll keep an eye on The Devil's FOOD Dictionary, and that ol' Ambrose, wherever he is, is doing the same.
Barry Foy at 12:21PM on 11/09/07