Monday, December 07, 2009

Edible Pearl Harbor Sculpture?

Edible Pearl Harbor Sculpture?

By Walter J. Haan, www.war-books.com, www.southfarmpress.com

Last month while visiting in the beautiful Hudson Valley in New York State, I came across the fall issue of a beautifully produced magazine: Edible Hudson Valley. While flipping through the pages I came across an article about art made from food and there was one photo that shocked me. In it was a sculpture of the twin towers made from cheese with a little plastic or metal plane wired to look as if it was crashing into one of the towers.

I thought this so tasteless I couldn't help but wonder what possessed the magazine to show the art, or what the artist was thinking when he or she created it. And today being the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, thanks to my seeing that photo, I can't help thinking about how an artist could mark this day in cheese.

Here's what I came up with: A piece of cheese sculpted to look like the battleship USS Arizona sinking in the harbor as a Japanese plane is shown flying above. The Arizona could be made from white cheddar cheese to symbolize America's majority white race and the plane could be sculpted from yellow cheddar cheese to denote the yellow peril that the Japanese were thought to be during World War II. What do you think?

Obviously I am completely disgusted with food art that depicts wartime death.

A much better idea on this day would be to read about the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Southfarm Press published Till War Do Us Part by Frank and Mary Bogart, ISBN: 978-0-913337-24-0, describing the Bogarts' Pearl Harbor experiences during the attack. The Bogarts were newlyweds living in Honolulu when the Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. Frank was aboard his ship the USS Gamble, an old four-stack destroyer minesweeper. Though only a lieutenant j.g., Frank was the senior officer on duty. Mary, pregnant and at home in Waikiki, awoke to the roar of enemy planes and explosions all around her. It would be weeks before the two would see one another again.

The book is available only at www.war-books.com and there are a few copies still available. Till War Do Us Part is the Bogarts' wartime experiences, told by both of them in alternate chapters.
I promise you it's not cheesy. Copyright 2009 by Walter Haan, www.war-books.com, www.southfarmpress.com