A press release just landed in my inbox: "Announcing CRUNCH!: A HISTORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN POTATO CHIP."
For starters, why does this press release have to yell at me?
Secondly, there's this little sales pitch: "Who doesn't love potato chips? What began as an accident in a nineteenth-century New York kitchen has become a global industry, and each year Americans consume over one and a half billion pounds of the salty treat. And yet, shockingly, the fascinating story of the history and culture of the iconic American snack product has never been told ... until now."
Now, I consider myself someone who's pretty interested in all things food- and restaurant-related. I eat out far more often than I probably should. There's a book by Anthony Bourdain on my nightstand as I write this. But I do not find the fact that a book has never been written about the history of the potato chip shocking. The Patriots' Super Bowl XLII implosion? Pretty damn surprising. The ineptitude of the Bush administration? Yup, that qualifies. But potato chips?
Not so much.
What are you not reading these days?
