Dietgeist watch II: Lazy ethicureans at dinner

And lo, in the Sept. 18 issue, another sign of mainstreaming leapt out at me. In order for this cartoon satirizing a diner's lazy menu detective work, the New Yorker's audience must be familiar with this kind of behavior. Admittedly, it's a long way from those top barometers of American herd behavior USA Today, Oprah, and Parade magazine, but it's a start.

On an entirely food-unrelated note: Avid New Yorker readers must check out this hilarious blog, Drunken Volcano, that reduces each issue's hefty features to a haiku. For example,

Notes of a Gastronome: TV Dinners
By Bill Buford

Food Network wants food
That's pretty, quick, comforting;
Same goes for its hosts.

(Thanks, DePeach!)