N29 : Twenty-ninth lesson S00-TITLE : Look how far we've come! S01 : Here are two pieces about food and cookery in Britain, one written in the 1860s and the other last year. S02 : It has been asserted that English cookery is, nationally speaking, far from being the best in the world. S03 : More than this, we have frequently been told by brilliant foreign writers, half philosophers, half chefs, that we are the worst cooks on the face of the earth, S04 : and that the proverb which alludes to the divine origins of food and the precisely opposite origin of its preparers is peculiarly applicable to us islanders. S05 : Man, it has been said, is a dining animal. S06 : Creatures of the inferior races eat and drink; only man dines. S07 : The rank which a people occupy in the grand scale may be measured by their way of taking their meals, S08 : as well as by their way of treating their women. S09 : The nation which knows how to dine has learned the leading lesson of progress. S10 : It implies both the will and the skill to reduce to order and surround with idealisms and graces S11 : the more material conditions of human existence; S12 : and wherever that will and skill exist, life cannot be wholly ignoble. S13 : Forgive the pun, but we English have had a chip on our shoulder about our food for far too long. S14 : People used to say: "I cook for fun, but for food, I go out to a restaurant". S15 : It's time to celebrate the rekindling of our interest in our culinary identity. S16 : The big problem with our national dishes is not what they are; it's what they're called. S17 : Let's face it, who in their right mind would want to eat something called "black pudding" or "spotted dick"? S18 : Does your mouth water at the thought of "toad in the hole" or "bubble and squeak"? S19 : Because of this inferiority complex, we tend to make a big palaver about a subject that's really straightforward: S20 : cooking great ingredients simply and well, and not bothering about keeping up with the Joneses. S21 : So if it's bangers and mash that rings your bell, then go for it. But if you want to nuke a ready meal, that's fine too. S22 : Just remember: follow your gut instinct - literally - and cook whatever makes you feel good." T00-TRANSLATE : Exercise: Translate T01 : Does money really matter in the scheme of things? T02 : Podcasting the meeting: now there's a thought. T03 : Nobody in their right mind would upgrade to the new operating system right now. T04 : Her name definitely rings a bell but I can't place it. T05 : The emergency plan is being implemented on a national scale.