Well, Babbit has the advantage that it is a comedy, albeit a dry, satirical one. I found I liked it immediately. Then I liked it less and less as he just kept doing the same thing over and over again. But I liked it more toward the end when things actually started happening and there was character development and the…

It's boring, but in an interesting, funny way. If nothing else, the period language is inherently silly. It gets better in the second half.

I'd quote you the line from Babbitt that probably inspired that, but I can't remember it, and I can't be bothered to find my copy…

I think the idea is that a) they're fluffy cute animals everyone loves!, b) they run around in the wild, that can't be natural or hygienic! and c) they're peasant food.

"I like my seafood like I like my women…"

As I like to say to children: "I'm just telling you this story because you find it very boring now but will oneday appreciate it ironically in hindsight as you tell the same boring story to the next generation…"

If you're not serious about it, probably just carry on picking things from here and there.

I see what you did there…

It ought not to be too chewy. And it's only weird to eat squid if you're told that eating squid is weird.
[I think objectively it's probably less weird for a kid to eat squid than to eat lamb. I mean, kids know about lambs outside of eating them. Whereas squid, who cares…]

To be fair, I think probably where it went wrong was not being in Norway…

Aahhhh…. that does make more sense.

Well, their world certainly doesn't revolve around their kid. Their kid doesn't even get to try the kids' menu!

Disagreeing with the article is proving VERY popular.

…wait, you're right, I DO almost never eat out. so THAT'S why!

To be fair, if we all took offence at all the things restaurants charge insane prices for, we'd never eat out.

Actually, properly crispy deep-fried calamari with a nice dip is pretty good kids' food.

The meal money all goes on making sure the kid has the snootiest possible olives for her packed lunches.

OK - I'm not saying one can't be mistaken for the other. [the other way around also happens - psychosomatic symptoms arising from a psychological problem can be mistaken for the symptoms of a physical condition*]. Just that conceptually there are two different things there.

Yeah, let's be fair - "harmful" was "a" wrong word.

I can only think the writer is secretly a fried chicken store proprietor and wrote this as an agent provocateur…