On the Meaning of Pastygate
I'm trying to think of a US equivalent to the current media storm raging in the UK over whether or not the Prime Minister has ever eaten a Cornish pasty. Corndog-gate, maybe?
Anyway, the story goes like this: under new tax regulations, consumers of take-out snacks will now be subject to a 20 per cent Value Added Tax on their purchases if those snacks are still warm when they consume them. (But will be exempt from the tax if they allow them to cool, apparently).
One of the victims of this new tax will be the Cornish pasty. This is a delicious baked pastry fold containing diced potato, diced swede, and chunks of peppery lamb in a rich gravy. The pastry has a crinkly ridge, allegedly - so the old story goes - so that farmhands and factory workers with filthy hands could use the ridge as a kind of handle which they'd chuck away at the end.
Regular consumers of Cornish pasties (generally not hedge fund managers, top lawyers, prime ministers, you won't be surprised to hear) felt victimized by this. So Prime Minister David Cameron felt compelled to announce that he too was a pasty eater. He then made the mistake of trying to name the last place he ate one - and was exposed as a fraud.
What is it with politicians and their silly attempts to pretend to be men of the people? We don't need them to be authentically working class, we don't require that they be down with the kids or have cool musical tastes or even know the price of a loaf of bread. What would be nice though, if they tried to avoid doing stuff that ends up making our lives more constrained, poorer, more regulated, less happy. Is that really such a big ask?
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Comments:
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Aha! Rutabaga!
May '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
You Brits and your dry sense of humor. Surely this is all a joke. No one would tax a food item if it was eaten warm, but not tax it if it was allowed to cool. That is silly. It would be like not taxing an unsliced bagel, but taxing one that had been sliced. Oh, never mind.
Sep '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
KC Mulville: John Kerry leaps to mind....
On the 2004 campaign trail, John Kerry tried to ingratiate himself with the Philly voters by ordering a cheesesteak, and then ordered Swiss as his cheese.
This is simply not done.
The story went all over. A short while later, Dick Cheney came to speak in Nazareth. His wife introduced him (I'd no idea he'd worked his way through college as a utility company lineman--dangerous work), and he got up on the stage. Somebody yelled something about Kerry, and he said (grinning), "Didja see him on TV--with the creases in his cammo?" The crowd went nuts with laughter.
Mar '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Fredo: I believe that the Brits prefer diced Frog but it is too stringy for most tastes.
Edited on March 29, 2012 at 10:54pmMar '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
James: What if you order a hot dog and ice cream at a take out? Will the seller have to tax one and not the other and keep all documentation of every order? I can see why they took away your guns because they all need shooting. (JUST JOKING!!!!!)
Sep '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
I just damn love this.
I live in rural America--literally two miles from the Appalachian Trail. I live in the middle of a state park, and if you define "civilization" as that area within which Domino's Pizza delivers, I'm not in it.
But the diner in town has Cornish pasties on the lunch menu; and a bunch of local churches sell 'em as fundraisers.
May '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
I ate my last Cornish Pasty at the bakery a block down from Sidney Sussex College on Sidney Street in Cambridge.
Nov '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Hear, hear! James! And thanks to all for the cultural learning.
Oct '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Stephen Kaus: "For instance, if you've never eaten a chicken fried steak, it's logical for me to assume that you might not be completely trustworthy on the issue of gun rights. Can you see why?"
No. this is 100% nonsense. Giving yourself a heart attack and clinging to the stupid idea that we are safer if we all are armed are separate idiocies. What if Trevor Martin also had a gun?
O-kay.
I'm not sure who "Trevor" Martin is, but since that's completely irrelevant to the discussion I'll just move on.
My point is that if you've eaten a chicken fried steak, it's likely you've spent some time in the American South or Texas (a state that defies regional classification). Those areas also have a high concentration of people with a principled commitment to protecting the Second Amendment. If you've spent enough time there to enjoy a chicken fried steak, then you probably also got to know a few people with concealed carry permits and gun racks in their trucks.
That experience allows you to understand their perspective, and understanding them is critical to representing them.
Edited on March 29, 2012 at 11:42pmAug '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Up here in the Great White North, if you buy a doughnut it's taxed, but if you buy 6 doughnuts it isn't taxed.
Six doughnuts are "groceries". One doughnut is a luxury.
Jan '12
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Ah, Cornish pasties. I ate many of those during my summer abroad at Oxford in 2008.
Dec '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Misthiocracy
Up here in the Great White North, if you buy a doughnut it's taxed, but if you buy 6 doughnuts it isn't taxed.
Six doughnuts are "groceries". One doughnut is a luxury. · 2 hours ago
I worked on a project in Merced, CA last summer. When I hit the local Subway, I saw a small sign on the glass - "If you ask for your sandwich to be toasted we have to charge you sales tax. If you don't want it toasted, we don't."
Apr '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Madcap
Blake: James,
For instance, if you've never eaten a chicken fried steak, it's logical for me to assume that you might not be completely trustworthy on the issue of gun rights. Can you see why?
This reminds me. My coworkers and I were marveling over the concept of a chicken fried steak recently (all lifelong Upstate NYers, except me). "Wait, it's steak, breaded and fried?" · 8 hours ago
No, no, no.
It's so much more.
So very much.
Apr '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
tabula rasa
Rutabaga? Hmm, any vegetable with that complicated a name doesn't sound very good. But with enough gravy, almost anything is edible.
I am glad the cannibalism issue has been put to bed. · 8 hours ago
Rutabaga, when dowsed in sugar and baked into a pie (whose crust is made from both lard and butter) is quite delicious.
Aug '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
I am as proud as one can be of my Viking via Scotland, Welsh and English blood, but thank God for my French huguenot blood that gave me a sense of taste. It is not for no reason that the edible food in London is found in the Indian and Chinese and Japanese take away joints...Now liquor on the other hand,...
Dec '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Indeed.
I would never eat something named after an adhesive nipple covering.
However, were it to be renamed a "Pocket Pie", it might be a different story . . .
As for politicians lying, color me surprised.
Just as surprised as when I found water falling from the sky the other day.
Very odd, that.
Dec '10
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Yes, because those 48 states with concealed carry laws have rivers of blood running in their streets while criminals laugh all day and never have a second thought about committing their crimes.
Meanwhile, in the real world, hardly anyone (meaning a number so small as to be statistically insignificant) who shouldn't have gotten shot (IE someone who is not an actual bad guy) ever gets shot by someone with a CCW permit and crime has gone down everywhere that implemented a CCW law.
Stating falsehoods as fact makes me very unlikely to even read what you post from now on, and I'm guessing I'm not the only person that will come to that conclusion.
If you don't like guns, fine, go unarmed where ever you like, but your phobia does not automatically empower you to make decisions for anyone else.
Aug '11
Re: On the Meaning of Pastygate
Rutabagas were part of my childhood Thanksgiving menu and that's exactly how they were served: mashed with butter and covered with turkey gravy a la mashed potatoes.
Sometimes regional names can gitcha. When I first got to Austin I was at a hill-country family-style restaurant where they served calf fries and turkey fries. The whole animal wasn't fried, just a part of it. And not just any part. And not just any sex, neither.
tabula rasa
Rutabaga? Hmm, any vegetable with that complicated a name doesn't sound very good. But with enough gravy, almost anything is edible.
I am glad the cannibalism issue has been put to bed. · 13 hours ago