Recipegate

[amykhar]

So, Mrs McCain and Bill Clinton are in trouble for sharing recipes that have been published elsewhere. Mrs. McCain said she got hers from a family friend. Bill Clinton said his came from the White House chef.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Turns out, the recipes were published elsewhere. And, people are clucking over it.

But, how do we know that Cindy McCain's friend didn't get the recipe and then give it to her? Or that the White House chef didn't do the same? I share recipes that I find online all the time. Usually, I just link to them, but if I were sharing it with a non-savvy friend, I would probably print it out or write it down for them. I might not even think to include attribution. After all, I'm not making money off it or claiming it's my creation. I'm just sharing a recipe I enjoy.

Frankly, do we expect these people to have made up recipes? I mean, is it important for us that a president's spouse can design a unique cookie? Isn't it more the point that we are curious about the kinds of cookies they enjoy baking and eating if they do indeed bake and eat cookies?

So, why the fuss? I don't know the provenience of the recipes you all share with me. Nor do I honestly care. If somebody finds them online, isn't it enough to give the attribution once the source is known?

[Prepoia[$]]

The fuss is stupid IMHO. If that shows a lack of integrity then integrity doesn't exist. I have only one recipe that I think of as "original" and the rest I've received from friends and relatives I just cook and enjoy. The name on the recipe is my friend and not the name of the person or source she got it from. My "friend" is giving me the recipe of something that she says is good or that I've tasted and thought good.

Even my mother's and grandmother's recipes could not be proven to be original and I see no reason why they should be.

[conradd]

I think it's just another made-up kerfluffle. The thought of making a decision on who the next president will be based on what kind of cookies their wives make is a bit insulting. Anyway, it's very much like the recipe that I've used for years - never knew where it came from, but I've never searched for the source doc when sharing it. If the magazine asked them to share their favorite cookie recipe and that was hers, I don't see the controversy.

[thinkerlady[$]]

Good grief. I am sure most all of my recipes come from someone who got them from someone etc.
At least we know now that there are urgent issues in the campaign to be discussed. Forget healthcare, education, energy, world peace. Let's debate cookie recipe origination.

[rmthunter]

amykhar said

Frankly, do we expect these people to have made up recipes?

No, but we expect the press (in its broadest sense, including the blogosphere) to make a fuss over irrelevancies.

Which is why I have read exactly none of the recipe stories, anywhere.

[pluckyduck]

So boring I could just snooze.

Recipes are not eligible for copyright. This post I am writing here is eligible for copyright but recipes aren't and for good reason.

Original sources aren't even traceable. Who knows whose mother exchanged what recipe with whose mother who then got handed down to somebody who became a famous TV chef and added or subtracted an ingredient or not.

I could go on but that's boring too.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I don't understand why Mrs. McCain or especially Hillary even distributed a recipe in the first place. We aren't voting for a president based on how well she makes cookies or how well his wife makes cookies. We don't ask the men to share their secrets for making fly-fishing lures, lawn mowing, or barbecue grilling. It is sexist and insulting to the women running for office or married to candidates, and if Hubby were running for office I'd be happy to show the press how I changed the brake pads on my 1987 Chevy Nova.

[conradd]

Hillary didn't. Bill did.

[thinkerlady[$]]

Trust me, if my hubby were running, and I had bake cookies, it wouldn't happen. I don't bake.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

conradd said

Hillary didn't. Bill did.

I misremembered Hillary's cookies from Bill's election, and she shouldn't have caved then. But the same thing still stands - who the #$%^ cares what the first spouses' domestic talents are (or aren't). More bread and circuses.

[emeleel]

I have that magazine around here - and it did not ask for their favorite *original* recipe, it just asked for their favorite cookie recipe. I had the same initial reaction over Clinton submitting the recipe from the former WH Chef, but when I realized how it was worded, I said, "eh". Any of them could have said the "$250 Neiman Marcus Cookie" recipe, or *anything* and it would have fit the request given to them by the magazine.

[brian_igo]

This is about politics.

It's kinda hard for Clinton or McCain to paint Obama as an elitist if they honestly answer that they have a chef to bake cookies and do the other kitchen work.

[drmomentum[$]]

A list of ingredients cannot be copyrighted. A specific expression of a recipe can be.

Even when I use someone else's recipe on my blog, I change the expression of it. Of course, I often change the recipe anyhow. If I'm not changing the recipe at all, I sometimes just link to it.

[Helen_B[$]]

My grandmother swore that her doughnut receipe, which contained mashed potatoes, was her original creation, and that she originated the name "Spudnuts". (She ran a bake shop.) She also said someone stole her receipe and marketed it. That was a long time ago. So who's to say? And what about her receipe for Parker House rolls?

[rmthunter]

Was her name Parker?

[mtomm[$]]

I used to live in Parker. And my family always talked about our house in Parker. So I grew up thinking my mom had invented Parker house rolls.

[rmthunter]

I love it!

[emeleel]

I used to think my grandfather had invented the piece of furniture known as a "chest of drawers". Down here, most people pronounce it more as "chester drawers". My grandfather's name was Chester. He made furniture as a hobby. Ergo, that furniture was named for my Gran-gran.

[pluckyduck]

emeleel said

I used to think my grandfather had invented the piece of furniture known as a "chest of drawers". Down here, most people pronounce it more as "chester drawers". My grandfather's name was Chester. He made furniture as a hobby. Ergo, that furniture was named for my Gran-gran.

Complete thread derail.

My mother was from North Carolina. I was embarrassingly old before I realized that they weren't Chester Drawers.

[Helen_B[$]]

rmthunter said

Was her name Parker?

I didn't find out until I was an adult that there actually was a Parker House, so I had no idea when I got the receipe from my grandmother that it wasn't hers. Btw, that item of furniture is called a chest of draws, thank you, and twenty-five cents is a quater. And I grew up in the Catskill Mountains, not Boston, so go figure.

[magenta321]

We had bureaus and hutches. No chests of drawers. I actually heard chest of drawers for the first time in EA when "Chester drawers" first came up.

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