Cook's Illustrated letter from the editor: Henry?

[buttertart]

I like the magazine a lot but have to wonder what gets into Mr. Kimball with his personal essays. Enough already with the oldtimey stuff! I am old enough to have read the comic strip Henry (subject of this issue's reminiscence) as a child and remember it being unbelievably, mindbendingly, unremittingly dull. Even duller than Little Lulu. Even then it seemed a relic of the far distant past. I know the magazine is his to do with as he wishes but why not put more food content and less maundering on about his idealized past in it?

[gfr1111]

I like Mr. Kimball's essays about Vermont life. The essays do seem incongruous in a magazine about cooking, especially since references to cooking or food are rare in the essays, but, nevertheless, they're fun and interesting. I hope that eventually, he will publish a collection of them as a book.

[al b. darned]

With all due respect, these essays do not, in any form or fashion, reflect real Vermont life.

As a native Vermonter (tho far removed from it for more years than I care to admit to), I find it more than a bit annoying this Flat Lander is trying to pass himself off as a Vermonter...and apparently succeeding. He is no more a native Vermonter than Hillary Clinton is a native New Yorker.

He is typical of the rich city folk who have the means to purchase land in Vermont that real Vermonters couldn't afford to keep up any more. They then come "to the country" on weekends to play what they perceive to be "country folk." I don't begrudge his success, but to try to pass himself off as an "aw shucks" country boy is off-putting.

[Up With Olives]

One of the reasons I cancelled my subscription. Dull blather about himself, his precious offspring, and religion.

And I love a man (NOT HIM) in a bow tie.

[lergnom]

He's an odd duck. Don't see him around the Village as much these days and yes he wears a bow tie. My take is that he's modeling himself on such characters as Henry Beetle Hough, who wrote a folksy (better) column for a few generations for the (Martha's) Vineyard Gazette.

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

There was a great profile of Chris Kimball in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine a while back that touched on the fact that everyone hates his essays. His quote was something along the lines of "It's my f---ing magazine and I'll do whatever I want with it." Which...fair enough!

I actually really like the essays, in large part BECAUSE they're such an odd, quirky thing to put in the magazine, plus he's not a bad writer.

[C. Hamster]

That crap from him and his farm drives me crazy. I wont read it anymore.

[buttertart]

I always do, and then wonder why!

[Sharuf]

Henry -- was that the bald-headed kid?

There were some pretty lame classic strips. The artwork was better then -- simpler and clearer.