Down With Progress

You would think that the same science that brought us the miracle of plastic wrap could figure out a way to prevent us from gouging our thumb on the box's serrated edge. My wife's now departed Tuscan grandmother knew nothing of these modern wonders. She cooked for a big family every day, buying fresh food and discarding leftovers that were more than a day old. Once, on one of her frequent visits to Carla and me in Rome, we were both out of the house all day and asked her to fix dinner. We came home to discover she'd cooked everything in the refrigerator, a week's worth of food. It was the only way she knew how.