Spectacular Spider-Man #159 (1989)
Written by Gerry Conway
Artwork by Sal Buscema
Inks by Mike Esposito, Colors by Bob Sharen
Chef’s Note: It is no secret that the pathos of Peter Parker’s life is what makes him such a relatable everyman character. That said, there is a difference between pathos and pathetic. Let’s go over his main points of complaint here-
- “Here I am alone…” Yeah, cry me a river Mr. Married to a Super Model Man.
- “Eating a lukewarm TV dinner…” Try reading the instructions on the back of the box, Mr. Super Smart Scientist Man.
- “In front of the tube…” There is literally a bookcase full of books right behind you, Mr. Turn My Butt to Books Man.
Verdict: Shut up, Peter!
Chef’s Note: Happy National TV Dinner Day!
If convenience was the mother of my mother’s contentment, the mother of the TV dinner was that old serial procreator, necessity. In 1953, someone at Swanson colossally miscalculated the level of the American appetite for Thanksgiving turkey, leaving the company with some 260 tons of frozen birds sitting in ten refrigerated railroad cars. Enter the father of invention, Swanson salesman Gerry Thomas, a visionary inspired by the trays of pre-prepared food served on airlines. Ordering 5,000 aluminum trays, concocting a straightforward meal of turkey with corn-bread dressing and gravy, peas and sweet potatoes (both topped with a pat of butter), and recruiting an assembly line of women with spatulas and ice-cream scoops, Thomas and Swanson launched the TV dinner at a price of 98 cents (those are Eisenhower-era cents, of course). The company’s grave doubts that the initial order would sell proved to be another miscalculation, though a much happier one for Swanson; in the first full year of production, 1954, ten million turkey dinners were sold.