In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

I of course went immediately to the Minnesota State Fair foods article in the most recent issue. It was only OK -- seems like a lot more could have been said about the various foods available, their history or popularity or strangeness or whatever -- and a lot less said about the woman behind Sweet Martha's Cookies, which are very popular so of course did deserve a mention but not much more than that.

I read that article today. I enjoyed it, but it left me with a question: Can you get refills of a bucket? If those buckets are plastic, they're not particularly environmentally friendly--and how many get sold at the fair? (That illustration on the first page doesn't seem to match the description of the buckets in the text, which says they have red plastic handles.)

But the really important questions are if the have deep-fried pickles and deep-fried butter? 

[serious crayons]

What a waste of time and ink that article was! There was nothing to tell me how the MN state fair is different than any other state fair, foodwise. Even the author admitted that the chocolate chip cookies were unremarkable, the only thing noteworthy about them was the way they were packaged so that they overflowed their bucket. If it were me covering Minnesota food, I would have hunted down Sean Sherman and Winona LaDuke to see what unique indigenous foods they had come up with.

Yeah, indigenous foods at the MN State Fair could be interesting.

Supposedly the MN SF is one of the best in the country -- competing only with Texas, and some say better.

[serious crayons]

I went directly to Patricia Marx's article. She's a pretty good read.

I usually agree, but I didn't like this one. I couldn't tell when she was joking and when she was being factual. Maybe that's the point, since the article is about AI? I may give it another shot.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I usually agree, but I didn't like this one. I couldn't tell when she was joking and when she was being factual. Maybe that's the point, since the article is about AI? I may give it another shot.

Yeah, it was not up to her usual work.

[Jeff Wrangler]

What a waste of time and ink that article was! There was nothing to tell me how the MN state fair is different than any other state fair, foodwise. Even the author admitted that the chocolate chip cookies were unremarkable, the only thing noteworthy about them was the way they were packaged so that they overflowed their bucket. If it were me covering Minnesota food, I would have hunted down Sean Sherman and Winona LaDuke to see what unique indigenous foods they had come up with.

But isn't this criticizing an author for not writing what you think they should have written?

I don't think her point was to tell how the MN SF differed food-wise from other fairs.

[serious crayons]

But isn't this criticizing an author for not writing what you think they should have written?

I don't think her point was to tell how the MN SF differed food-wise from other fairs.

True, but if the idea was to write about food at the MN SF, there's a feast of article possibilities (pun intended, obviously), so this is kind of an uninteresting way to do it. As Lee noted, the writer says she thinks the cookies are so-so, and the presentation is the main thing. OK, fair enough, then let's move on to a more interesting food. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

True, but if the idea was to write about food at the MN SF, there's a feast of article possibilities (pun intended, obviously), so this is kind of an uninteresting way to do it. As Lee noted, the writer says she thinks the cookies are so-so, and the presentation is the main thing. OK, fair enough, then let's move on to a more interesting food.

Perhaps I should go back and re-read the article, but my memory is that my take on it was that in the end the purpose was to write about a food that is immensely popular at the fair (even if only so-so), not to write about a variety of interesting foods that are or may be available.

[serious crayons]

Perhaps I should go back and re-read the article, but my memory is that my take on it was that in the end the purpose was to write about a food that is immensely popular at the fair (even if only so-so), not to write about a variety of interesting foods that are or may be available.

It certainly wound up doing that. But since she actually went to the fair in person, she presumably could have written whatever she wanted. So you'd think she could have found a more interesting focus than a so-so food with unusual packaging.

[Jeff Wrangler]

We've probably beaten this to death, I guess, but all I can really say for my conclusion is that I think it's perfectly fine to be disappointed in the article that was written (maybe not finish reading it) and to wish she had written something else, but I don't think she should be criticized for writing what she wanted to write, not what a reader may have preferred she had written.

[Front-Ranger]

I guess I am criticizing Hannah Goldfield's whole mission, so it's more of an editing problem. She was the food reporter for the magazine covering developments in the New York food scene, but now she's based in Los Angeles, and presumably covering the food scene there as well as in places like Provincetown, Houston, and now Minneapolis. But she usually ends up writing about just one person or food that is not representative of that place and so it's basically a waste of time, IMHO.

Nor are her pieces illuminating about national or global food trends, sticking to topics as pedestrian as chocolate chip cookies. Her writing allows stereotyping to continue, not bringing an appreciation for diversity, exploration and playfulness in cooking.

How different than the legendary Mimi Sheraton, who also traveled and wrote about food across the world. She was the food editor of the New York Times, back in the day.