Kitchen as Gender-re-assigned Space?

Maybe I should just make this a blog ABOUT Mark Morford's columns. His most recent is about his salad spinner and his observation (which is definitely borne out by my experience) that most of the folks he knows who like to cook are men. And most of his women friends don't cook. Anyway, that got me wondering...if the fact that more men seem to be into cooking these days might have something to do with the very clear trend in the construction of domestic and commercial kitchens to conceive of those as social, performance spaces. The kitchen is no longer cut off from the dining room or hidden from view. Food preparation is no longer (women's) work to be taken care of backstage. The process is performance; and the performers are masters at work, connoisseurs, gastronomes (which makes them sound fat), epicures (which makes them sound effete), foodies.... And at least as often as not, they are men. He's not "the cook," call him "Chef." (BTW, I'm addicted to the food network.) And, is it just me, or does Martha Stewart always look incredibly uncomfortable in the kitchen? Like, just before the camera started rolling, somebody (a guy, no doubt) showed her exactly where to stand and how to turn on the food processor and how big a spoon to use to scoop the cookie dough. Not like Emeril. There's a man who's in command of his kitchen and who's not afraid to get dirty in it. Shine a spotlight anywhere (even in the kitchen) and men will grab it.

Another Thing For Free

STUBBY PENCILS. You find these in post offices, libraries...anyplace you have to fill out a form (except in the Department of Motor Vehicles where you're shit outta luck if you didn't bring your own pen). Pencils with erasers on them are an entirely different story. No one's giving those away. Somehow this pencil ended up under the front seat of my car.

Cuss-checker

So I'm back from fishing, and I've just upgraded my email program. Eudora rocks! And its full functionality is free if you can tolerate a small and only mildly annoying advertisement window on your desktop whenever you read or send email. I've always appreciated the built-in spellcheck, but now Eudora tells me when she (I don't know why, but I've always imagined Eudora is a she)...when she thinks I may be talking a bit too dirty. Well, one thing is clear: if she thinks one little four-letter word is highly likely to be found offensive, Eudora has obviously never met Nalini.