Friday Pizza Box 11/19/21
Greasy box edition
Welcome to this week’s Wordloaf Friday Pizza Box, a roundup of links and intel on pizza and other topped flatbreads.
Licorice Pizza
While at first I hoped that the new Paul Thomas Anderson film Licorice Pizza might do for pizza what The Phantom Thread did for mushrooms (IYKYK), it turns out that, despite the title, it actually has little if anything to do with pizza. It’s actually taken from the name of a now-defunct chain of Los Angeles-based record stores, which in turn got its name from a comedy album:
As for that name, it comes from a throwaway joke on the album Bud & Travis…In Concert recorded live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1960. The comedy/folk duo are on a self-deprecating roll about how unsuccessful their record was, remarking that it had “sesame seeds on the other side” and could be played on a Waring blender. Just before going into their version of La Bamba, they mention that the platter was being sold at feed stores as a “licorice pizza.”
In any case, nearly every new PTA film is a cause for celebration, and the trailer and early reviews suggest this one is no exception:
Headline of the Week?
Really, there is no need to click through to the actual article, the title pretty much says it all.
Reuse, Renew, Recycle!
Apparently most recycling is bullshit, but not when it comes to cardboard. And this article I stumbled upon recently explains the science behind why you can throw those greasy pizza boxes in the blue bin without worry:
"The results of the study support the conclusion that there is no significant reason to prohibit post-consumer pizza boxes from the recycling stream," concluded the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), the national trade association of the paper and wood products industry, which peer reviewed and endorsed the study and ultimately awarded it an industry sustainability award for fiber recovery.
Pizza is for Everyone
Awhile back, I recommended the book Pizza for Everyone, the Chicago-centric, comb-bound pizza cookbook created by John Carruthers, founder of Crust Fund Pizza, a secret alley-based popup that slings square-cut pizza for community causes. At the time it was only available as a reward for a Kickstarter drive that ended soon after I posted about it. Since then, I received my copy, and it is as wonderful as I’d hoped.
Even better, it is has been reprinted (twice), and is currently available for purchase again (but maybe not for long, so don’t sleep on it if you want in on one):
In related news, a second, less Chicago-focused volume is in the works, and someone you know is currently trying to decide which recipe to contribute toward it.
That’s it for this week’s Friday Pizza Box. I hope you all have a peaceful and pizza-full weekend. (There is a slight chance I might get up to Portland for a Slab slice tomorrow myself.)
—Andrew
Regarding pizza box recycling: I was under the impression that the grease & cheese could attract rodents, etc so that is why I cut off any “dirty” parts of the box & recycle the rest.