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What dinner time looks like across the USA
- strictnein 9y agoReally interesting pictures, although I hope people realize that this was meant to capture interesting things and not really represent the average dinner time in the US. My two favorites are: "Tuesday: Alex, Sophia, Kathy, David, Claudia, Eva & Ana." [0] "Wednesday: Nathaniel." [1] That is a huge table that family has, I mean that's really, really wide. And Nathaniel looks like he likes to party, which I respect. [0] http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/150526_karademas_fam_018.jpg http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1... [1] http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/140402_nat_018.jpg http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1...
- josephjrobison 9y agoMaybe I'm interpreting it wrong, but these are some of the most depressing pictures I've seen, in an ordinary sense! Reminds me of Stranger Things. Agree with your take on Nathaniel, perhaps he's having a gag with his bowl of lettuce.
- strictnein 9y agoYeah, the way they're shot and the expressionless faces on the people make them quite depressing. They actually kind of remind me of photos in Dwell (as captured by http://unhappyhipsters.com/ http://unhappyhipsters.com/ ), except with worse lighting and mostly in a different income bracket.
- throwaway2016a 9y ago> I hope people realize that this was meant to capture interesting things and not really represent the average dinner time in the US I'm not sure this is true. They may have not been meant to capture the typical American but I know many Americans represented in this group and I don't think it is atypical either. Also, kudos to Nathaniel for using his dining table rather than giving into the temptation to plop down in-front of a TV since he is eating alone. Although, all of these photos look staged. At the very least their postures were dictated by knowing they are being photographed. If you go to the blog there are more photos http://www.loisbielefeld.com/weeknight-dinners/ http://www.loisbielefeld.com/weeknight-dinners/ Edit: looking at the other photos on the photographer's site, I think they were told not to smile. And I think the combination of lack of smiles + dark lighting contributes to the kind of depressing feel. Even for the other not-dinner-related photos on the site. Edit 2: OMG the second photo on http://www.loisbielefeld.com/conceal-carry/ http://www.loisbielefeld.com/conceal-carry/ is terrifying. Never ever point a gun in the direction of another person you don't plan to shoot, people!
- strictnein 9y ago> Never ever point a gun in the direction of another person you don't plan to shoot, people! With their fingers on/near the trigger, no less. Ugh.
- icebraining 9y agoI probably don't know what I'm talking about, but maybe they are unloaded?
- strictnein 9y agoI'm sure they probably are, but the first rule of gun safety is to always treat all guns like they're loaded and there's a bullet in the chamber. Proper trigger discipline is to have your trigger finger extended like you see in a number of the pictures.
- throwaway2016a 9y agoThis. Unless the barrel is stuck in the open position and you can see daylight through the other side, always assume the gun is loaded. Even if you are 100% sure it is not loaded , we are creatures of habit. If you make a habit of putting your finger on the trigger of unloaded guns eventually you are going to do the same thing with a loaded one by accident. If I'm handing someone a hand gun I always remove the magazine and pull back the barrel. Because even with the magazine out, there could be a chambered round.
- protomyth 9y agoI know someone who thought one was unloaded. Lucky for him his wife took it away from him. Finger only goes near trigger when you are ready to shoot and have a target with nothing in the background. As an example, shooting at a bull while traffic is driving behind the bull is not a safety first response.
- RugnirViking 9y agoThe point is it could be. You only have to be wrong once
- kogepathic 9y ago> And Nathaniel looks like he likes to party, which I respect. He's rocking Windows Media Player!
- HashBasher 9y agoYa david and kathy are loaded. both currency and offsprings
- rokhayakebe 9y agoA lot of pizza.
- metalliqaz 9y agoI'm disappointed that my demographic wasn't represented: standing at the kitchen sink, eating room temperature baked beans out of the can, then sticking my head under the faucet for a drink.
- samdoidge 9y agoI think that was the only thing missing from this depressing montage.
- madengr 9y agoDo you use a spoon or just dump directly into mouth? Don't cut yourself licking the can. Also, could be on a sidewalk or squatter camp.
- Isamu 9y agoYeah, I try to warm my can of beans by the hobo fire while I take a few pulls from my brown-bagged rum bottle. Can't trust the water anyway.
- metalliqaz 9y agoI use a fork, but I rinse it off and leave it on the edge of the sink to possibly be used later.
- planteen 9y agoYour comment made me laugh. We've all been there. The worst I have ever seen is someone who ran out of paper plates and started using phone book pages.
- madengr 9y agoI always forget to bring a fork for lunch, so does everyone else, hence plenty of plastic knives; I use them as chop sticks.
- 1_2__4 9y agoThis is way more a artistic photo shoot than anything approaching journalism.
- overcast 9y agoYes, a lot of staged shots, and off camera lighting.
- maxerickson 9y agoThe photos aren't being represented as journalism, it's a profile of the photographer and collection.
- madengr 9y agoMy family is in the minority; 4 of us eat at a table. Though my son wolfs it down to get back to Roblox. Unless mom is gone, then we revert to animals.
- xexers 9y agoThat's a lot of screens at dinner time... either TV or computer screens. That's kind of sad. There are lots of reasons (and science) for why you shouldn't have screens while eating.
- jstanley 9y agoI'll bite: what scientific reasons are there for a screen to be worse for you while eating than while not eating?
- didgeoridoo 9y agoThere is evidence that distracted eating tends to increase overall food intake: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/97/4/728.abstract http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/97/4/728.abstract
- xexers 9y agohttps://theconversation.com/science-says-eat-with-your-kids-34573 https://theconversation.com/science-says-eat-with-your-kids-...
- readhn 9y agoCouples sitting at the table eating and looking at their cell phones are under-represented! Walk into any restaurant and there is plenty of that these days. https://d2v9y0dukr6mq2.cloudfront.net/video/thumbnail/DHmMj5B/young-couple-with-cellphones-eating-dinner-at-home_njwmwrml__S0000.jpg https://d2v9y0dukr6mq2.cloudfront.net/video/thumbnail/DHmMj5...
- losteverything 9y agoThey are missing something: if you don't feed the darn animals first you don't eat in peace! Where were the pets in the pics?
- bballer 9y agoThis guy has his locked in the kitchen http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/130828_nik_006.jpg http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1...
- tantalor 9y agohttp://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/131204_brandy_john_039.jpg http://huckcdn.lwlies.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1... "Wednesday: Brandy and John."
- gumby 9y agoOnly pictures on unhappy looking people? Was that for artistic or for didactic purposes?
- HenryTheHorse 9y agoThat's a very interesting point. Writer-filmmaker Errol Morris has written extensively about how there are no absolute truths in a photograph. A photograph, like art, can cover up facts, reveal new truths and distort reality. So when I view these pictures in a particular way, like you, I too sense melancholy. But seen in another way, these are little domestic vignettes, filled with pizza, contentment, sitcom laugh-tracks, boredom and some anxiety. The question is, how do we want to view these photos? What do we want to believe about dinnertime in the USA?
- cgy1 9y agoIn the first picture of Natalia and Maryann, is that a CRT monitor in the background?
- ashark 9y ago> “That being said, I was quite surprised to see a few families using paper plates rather than dishes. I’m keenly aware of my culture’s extreme wastefulness and have tried to make efforts to reduce my footprint, which is why I probably was more aware of it.” It's damn tempting to do it at least a couple days a week if you have kids. Stretches how long your kitchen stays clean-ish without a bunch of work, and is way cheaper than paying a human to come help. Especially effective if you couple it with frozen food that can be cooked in its own container, or a meal that can feed 4-5 but be cooked in one pot with no cutting boards or anything (so, something out of a box). That combo can buy you a day of zero-added-mess in the kitchen, which is so nice when you've got kids and two working parents. Actually, now that I'm writing it out like this, I'm thinking maybe we need to start doing this like Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I try to consider any possible way to solve household issues and not get stuck on particular solutions, think about our house as an environment to help us get stuff done, that kind of thing, but I think I've been neglecting the possibility of generating slightly more trash as a way of achieving ends. Yet I've considered the far more expensive option of hiring help. Just a couple regular, planned days a week of basically not using the kitchen could give us a perceived lower amount of work and an actual time-the-kitchen-is-clean much greater than the 2/7 it implies. And it's cheaper and (way) more convenient than dining out. Hm....
- gambiting 9y agoI don't mean this in a bad way - do you not have a dishwasher? I've long stopped considering them luxuries. The amount of time saved on cleaning is enormous, especially since I cook every day, and I can't imagine cooking even half as much if I had to do the dishes by hand afterwards. The electricity cost is so small it's not worth worrying about, and water happens to be free where I live, but the time saving is the biggest plus.
- beamatronic 9y agoThere are two kinds of people in the world. Those who don't do the dishes at all, and people with a deep appreciation for paper plates. :) What I'm trying to say is that even unloading and loading the dishwasher can be too large of a time burden for large families.
- jacknews 9y agoInteresting pictures, but they seem designed to convey "disappointment" I'd be disappointed too with most of the food, not to mention the anti-social eating arrangements, in many of the pictures. My personal take-away (ahem) - gay couples (or maybe just friends/family/room-mates) appear to have better dinners. Or better presentation, though in that case I'm not sure whose.
- jaclaz 9y agoCan't say if it's just me, but I noticed that almost noone (the ones actually sitting at a dining table) use an actual tablecloth.
- wink 9y agoRead the article while sitting at my computer with my dinner, what a coincidence. Yes, I can eat in the living room on the proper dining table, but I don't like it. When I was living with my parents, we had a decent table in the kitchen, where we had all our meals. Sadly my kitchen in this apartment is not big enough for any kind of table, which is really sad.
- synicalx 9y agoAustralia here, I guess our dinner times are reasonably similar to the US. Personally, I'm a fan of the old stable table in front of the TV. Alternatively, being inappropriately drunk at a nice restaurant seems to happen more often than I'd like.