lunch

CIA's Cafeteria Food Maybe Sucks Because Good Chefs Can't Keep Secrets

Adam Weinstein · 07/17/14 04:40PM

National security wonks this week are wondering: Which U.S. spooks in Northern Virginia put out a classified ad seeking a chef with a Top Secret security clearance? Two things are known: The hiring agency runs the CIA's cafeteria, and CIA workers don't think much of their cafeteria.

Lunchables Allegedly Cool For Teens Now

Hamilton Nolan · 05/19/14 11:56AM

Lunchables, the popular cracker-n-meat-n-cheez combo meals indicative of how much your parents did not care about your health as a child, are now considered acceptable sustenance for even high school-aged kids. Are adults next?

Mom Gives Kids Homemade Lunch, School Forces Them to Eat Ritz Crackers

Neetzan Zimmerman · 11/18/13 02:44PM

A mom who thought she was properly parenting by sending her two young kids to school with a homemade, whole-food lunch was shocked to find a penalty note from school officials informing her that the lunch of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, oranges and milk she provided was "unbalanced" and therefore had to be supplemented with Ritz crackers.

Back to School: Lunch Is a Problem That Comes Every Day

Tom Scocca · 09/13/13 02:11PM

When you have children of your own, you realize for the first time what your own parents went through, things you couldn't possibly have understood when you were a child—and really are better off not having understood, because the knowledge would have been debilitating. There's the abyssal terror at having brought a fragile, trusting life into a world of hurtfulness and destruction, for instance. Not far behind that is the problem of packing lunch.

News From Abroad

Pareene · 06/26/09 01:45PM

Breaking: "While they have not abandoned their love of food, French people increasingly are resorting to a humble sandwich for the noon meal." But: "sandwich consumption per capita is still lower than in other countries." [WaPo]

The Recession's Latest Casualty: Picking Up the Check

cityfile · 02/11/09 10:55AM

Paging Miss Manners! The recession is now eroding the very cornerstone of our society's system of etiquette: the willingness to pay for a business lunch. Literary agent Larry Kirshbaum says that people have turned into such tightwads, he's often reduced to conducting business over lunch at a cheap diner instead of Michael's and that one "top publisher" wanted to take him to McDonald's. "People are really afraid to spend money," he reflects. "Anything that smacks of too much fun or self-indulgence is being frowned upon." Well, it's understandable. A few slimmer expense reports, and the demolishment of Western capitalism will reverse itself in no time.