Cobb's Bill-of-Fare

Holiday hunger sets the tone as a diner asks an elaborate city restaurant for the plain food he remembers from childhood. Turkey, mashed potatoes and a large cup of coffee become the occasion for jokes about menus, service and expensive meals. Irvin S. Cobb carries that preference for familiar pleasures into four sections on food, music, art and sport, using comic exaggeration and a conversational voice to turn personal tastes into essays.

The musical reflections include an affectionate response to a street musician playing My Old Kentucky Home. In the art section, the speaker wants pictures whose subjects he can recognize and pokes fun at the pressure to admire fashionable work. His comparisons repeatedly bring lofty cultural claims down to the level of everyday meals and household memories. Readers interested in American humor can follow the comic arguments about taste, nostalgia and the uneasy business of pretending to enjoy what others praise.