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PINK_CHEESECAKE

                                                 November 25, 2013
 I find Pinker's Cheesecake
 example to be incredibly funny:

 "We enjoy strawberry cheesecake, but not
 because we evolved a taste for it. We                    STRAIGHT_PINKER
 evolved circuits that gave us trickles of
 enjoyment from the sweet taste of ripe
 fruit, the creamy mouth feel of fats and
 oils from nuts and meat, and the coolness        The claim is that there's
 of fresh water. Cheesecake packs a sensual       something vestigial about
 wallop unlike anything in the natural world      this-- cheescake is a
 because it is a brew of megadoses of             sneaky exploitation of
 agreeable stimuli which we concocted for         impulses left-over from
 the express purpose of pressing our              more innocent times.
 pleasure buttons."
                                                           But it's not like
    I'm afraid it's particularly                           cheesecake doesn't
    amusing to me because I sometimes                      have food value...
    appear to be the last person in the      DIETARY       it's just the sort
    United States who isn't on a diet.                     of thing a caveman
    This eloquent ranting appears to be                    on the go needs.
    inspired by a terror of cheesecake                     It's just the
    I don't share.                                         gasoline addicts
                                                           who have trouble
        (It's too bad you can't get                        with it.
        decent cheesecake more
        easily in the Bay Area...)

                                  Pinker is not alone of course:
                                  the cliche is that cheesecake
                                  is "decadent" and "sinful"   
                                  (no wonder these people have   
                                  trouble with their diets).   
                                               
                                                  Just as an aside, isn't 
      And there's something about this            it funny that "cheesecake"
      reasoning from a personal dread of          used to refer to a form 
      cheesecake that seems oddly bound           of softcore porn?  
      up in the present moment, while                                   
      trying to envision eternity--                 And Pinker has it in      
                                                    for porn, too--          
      It's like reading a Victorian                                          
      writer explaining that the poor                 
      are necessary for civilized life,                
      because who else is going to                     
      take jobs as horse grooms?       
                              
      Future generations will look     
      back on things like this and     
      puzzle over it...                
                                       
          "It is true that this was before metabolic
          control and simulated exercise was
          perfected, and that barbaric 40-hour work
          week made it difficult to find time to
          dedicate to sports (which were rather
          strangely more popular to watch than
          perform), but surely it was obvious that if
          they just stopped burning so much gasoline
          their health would improve and the Climate
          Wars of 2100 might've been averted."
      
      
      



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