Culturebox: The Worst of Times

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Holidays The Worst of Times Cookbook writers are ridiculously bad at guessing how long it'll take to prepare a meal. By Jesse Wegman Posted Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, at 10:20 AM ET Every Sunday, the New York Times prints capsule previews of the day's upcoming football games. For years, each one included a prediction of the final score--say, Giants 24, Eagles 17. As Gregg Easterbrook reveled in pointing out during his four-year crusade against the quixotic practice, the paper correctly guessed a game's outcome on only three occasions out of 1,085 attempts. The Times quietly dropped final-score predictions in 2003, and now contents itself with publishing the spread. I am reminded of this little misadventure whenever I see cooking times listed in cookbooks. I don't mean "saute the onions for five minutes"; I mean the supposedly all-inclusive, "start-to-finish" times. In my experience, these calculations aren't just a little bit off; they're usually not even close. To continue reading, click here. Jesse Wegman is a writer living, as required by law, in Brooklyn. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Will Retailers Finally Have a Good Christmas? Why Are Home Appraisers Still Wildly Inflating the Value of Houses? It's a Lot Cheaper To Export Things When You Can Send Them Over the Internet	Advertisement
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