A racist cookbook

Pasta book pulped over misprint

BBC News - April 17, 2010

An Australian publisher has had to pulp and reprint a cookbook after one recipe listed "salt and freshly ground black people" instead of black pepper.

Penguin Group Australia had to reprint 7,000 copies of Pasta Bible last week, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.

The reprint cost $18,000, but stock in bookshops will not be recalled as it is "extremely hard" to do so, Penguin said.

The recipe was for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.

"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind, and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," head of publishing Bob Sessions is quoted as saying by the Sydney newspaper.

Penguin said almost every one of the more than 150 recipes in the book listed salt and freshly ground black pepper, but a misprint occurred on just one page.

"When it comes to the proof-reader, of course they should have picked it up, but proof-reading a cookbook is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable," Mr Sessions said.

If anyone complains about the "silly mistake", they will be given the new version, Penguin said.

This article is incredible, not only for the crazy story but also because of this Bob Sessions guy. On the one hand, I want to get a job working for Bob Sessions. He seems to back his employees up no matter what. Oh, what's that? You didn't do your job and it cost us thousands of dollars and public humiliation? No problem, your job is tough! On the other hand, I would be extremely nervous working for Bob Sessions, as he seems to be completely baffled as to why anyone would be offended by a recipe calling for "freshly ground black people."

Gayest . . . cake . . . ever

Check out this awesome cake I saw on Martha Stewart today. No, I usually don't watch Martha Stewart but I was flipping around and had to stop and check this out so cut me some slack, okay?

If you're interested in making one yourself you can find the recipe here.

I've been doing it all wrong!

The above plaque is posted in every men's restroom in Disneyland. Thanks "Sparkle," I don't know what I would have done without you!

Went to Disneyland recently and had a fantastic time. While I was there I asked a couple of questions that I've always been curious about.  Here are the answers I got from some random park workers I surveyed:

• The costumes that the employees wear remain the property of Disneyland and are never sold to the workers. Employees can take them home to launder them (Disneyland will also dry-clean them free of charge) but the costumes must ultimately be returned to the park.

• The jokes that the tour guides tell on the Jungle Cruise attraction are scripted and the guides are never allowed to ever go off the cuff. The employees are given a script with about 20 jokes per area of the cruise and they can choose which ones to tell (which explains why you hear different jokes depending on which boat you get on).

Jung Yeezy*

Artist Yeondoo Jung has an awesome name. He also transforms children's drawings into photographs. Here are some of my favorites from his exhibition entitled "Wonderland."








*The title is a play on the name of "Young Jeezy" the rapper (also known as "Lil J"). At least these used to be his names before he grew up and changed his name to just "Jeezy." Jeezy is just his stage name of course, his real name is Jay Jenkins (which has no bearing whatsoever on this explanation but I thought I would throw in that extra bit of trivia). You see what I did with the title of this post was change his first name from Yeondoo to "Yeezy." I then moved his last name to the front since "Jung" is pronounced like the English word "young."

I realize that many people reading this post haven't even heard heard of Young Jeezy in the first place so my fabulous word play won't even register. I also will admit that I really don't know anything about Jeezy or his music (I had to look him up on Wikipedia just to get the spelling of his name right).

So wasn't that great? Jokes are always the best when you follow them up with a nice long explanation. I am just trying to be "hip" to fit in with the kids here people!

U.S. Americans need more maps!

This page used to feature a video of a Miss Teen USA pageant contestant giving a disastrous answer to a question posed by the host. I recently learned that the girl contemplated suicide after the clip went viral, which is not at all funny.

If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one click here or call 1-800-273-8255.