Are Coffee and Sushi OK in Pregnancy? Book Says Yes

CNN Headline 8/20/2013

Pregnant women across America don’t know what to believe anymore. Neither, for that matter, do sushi chefs, the people of Seattle, illiterates, or anyone under 35-years-old. Why? According to an internet headline, something called “book” is challenging our preconceived notions and telling us how to live our own lives.

“I was into my second trimester,” says 27-year-old pregnant Portland resident, Sidney Morgan. “When I stumbled upon this headline on stumbleupon.com telling me a book said I could eat sushi again. At first I was like, ‘Awesome-sauce! I totes heart sushi,’ but then I got curious. I couldn’t find a website of this book. Not a Facebook page, a Twitter account, or a single pic on Instagram. I started to seriously question the credibility of this so-called ‘book’.”

Sidney is not alone. Once the hallmark of the written word, over the past decade books in America have seen a serious drop in their use, credibility, and importance. When once we’d turn to books for knowledge and information, more and more people have found clicking a headline and skimming an online article, or reading a 140-character blurb to be a far more convenient and reliable source of information.

Cullen Danks, noted internet explorer at Kirkwood Community College, understands the public’s rationale. “The times have changed, bub, and you best get used to it,” explains Danks. “Why read, like, a thousand, even two-thousand words in a book – which is basically just a dead tree with some ink spilled on it, by the way – when you could go online and get essentially the same info in like a second, then have plenty of free time to check scores or look at naked Asian chicks piss on King-Kong? It just doesn’t make sense anymore in today’s go-go-go culture. Books are so old and irrelevant. I mean, there are roughly a million stories right now on Google News about Kim Kardashian’s beef with Katie Couric, but will there even be one single book about the drama? I doubt it.”

 

Books are so chock full of words and paragraphs that it’s unreasonable to ask any one person to pay attention for that long. It’s that sort of unrealistic expectation that has led many, Sidney Morgan included, to distrust books and the “information” they might contain.

“What kind of person would write that many words about sushi and coffee and its relationship to pregnancy?” Sidney asks.  “I mean, they could just come out and tweet, ‘Pregnant ladies, it’s OK to eat sushi and drink coffee.’” Wouldn’t that be enough? Why do they need to go and write a kagillion words about it, with facts and studies and probably spreadsheets? Seriously, who needs all those words about pregnancy and sushi? What are they trying to hide?”

What are they trying to hide? Books, with their fancy tables of contents, page numbers, and billions of characters. Books, walking around town wearing a tie, holding a briefcase thinking they’re oh so much better then us. What are they trying to hide behind their facts and numbers and complex storylines? Sadly, we will never know.

-Pete Higgins