A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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“You’re legally allowed to park in a handicap spot if you get back with your ex more than twice” (3/18)
“You can legally park in a handicap spot if you get back with your ex more than 2 times” (3/18)
Entry in progress—BP2 (3/18)
“It’s hard to save money when food is always flirting with me” (3/18)
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Entry from January 19, 2011
“If you can read, you can cook”

“If you can read, you can cook” (or, “You can cook if you can read”) implies that cooking is as simple as reading a recipe from a cookbook. “If You Can Read, You Can Cook” was a chapter title in Lucy Mary Maltby’s book, It’s Fun to Cook (1938). You Can Cook If You Can Read was the title of a book published in 1946.
 
     
Google Books
It’s Fun to Cook
By Lucy Mary Maltby
Philadelphia, PA: The John C. Winston Company
1938
Pg. 17:
IF YOU CAN READ, YOU CAN COOK
 
OCLC WorldCat record
You Can Cook If You Can Read
Author: Muriel Fitzsimmons; Cortland Fitzsimmons
Publisher: New York : Viking, 1946.
 
Google Books
Youth: the years from ten to sixteen
By Arnold Gesell
New York, NY: Harper
1956
Pg. 259:
And, as one girl remarked, “If you can read, you can cook. But,” she added, “there also has to be a little oomph behind it.”
   
Google News Archive
9 October 1957, Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance-Star, “Woman Runs Major Race Track,” pg. 5, col. 3:
“Can I cook?” She seemed genuinely surprised by the question. “If you can read you can cook these days. And I can darn socks, too.”
(Ann Murphy Clare of Saratoga Springs race track—ed.)
   
Google Books
Your Teens and Mine
By Eleanor Roosevelt with Helen Ferris
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1961
Pg. 106:
If you can read, you can cook— with a good cookbook. But the fact remains that if you master the basic principles of cooking before you are twenty, you will have a much easier time of it when later on you stand in front of your own stove and face the necessity of preparing meals.
   
Google News Archive
8 January 1965, Sumter (SC) Daily Item, “Artistry In The Kitchen,” pg. 6, col. 1:
A lovely young singing star of motion pictures and television made a statement the other day that can’t help but interest housewives—and homemakers, too.
(...)
“I don’t feel cooking is a challenge. If you can read and follow directions, you can cook.”
       
OCLC WorldCat record
The hungry as a Bear Creek cookbook : if you can read, you can cook
Author: Linda Overholser
Publisher: Boulder, Colo. : Once-Upon-A-Time Pub. : Printed by Boulder Valley Public Schools, ©1983.
Edition/Format:  Book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Seriously simple : if you can read—you can cook
Author: Bidi Jones
Publisher: Leicester : Matador, ©2005.
Edition/Format:  Book : English

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityFood/Drink • Wednesday, January 19, 2011 • Permalink


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