January 10, 2008
So everyone is talking about Jessica Seinfeld’s book and the lawsuit surrounding it. I thought for my cooking day today I’d throw my hat into the ring. First of all, I completely back the Seinfeld’s. Mainly cause I just love Jerry! Here are my reasons behind such backing… If you were someone who was rich and had an amazingly successful and famous husband, the last thing you would want to do is to open yourself up to a plagiarism suit. If you were to copy someones work, you would be absolutely positive that they would find out about it. You know your book is going to make it big just by who you are, so why open yourself up to that kind of criticism on purpose??
The other thing I don’t like about the lawsuit is that she is claiming Jerry “slandered” her on TV by making fun of her and the claim in the first place. He’s a comedian! That’s what he does. You know that everyone he and Larry David ever met in their life became a character on the show. He takes his comedy from his own real life.
The last reason I completely back the Seinfeld’s is what I like to call the “BSOD” factor. I swear up and down that I came up with the phrase “Blue Screen of Death.” when I was in college 10 years ago. Now I don’t believe for one minute that I’m the one that made it popular… I just know that I made it up in my mind before it was even a phrase that everyone said. That being said, there are things that mom’s have probably been doing for years (such as hide vegetables in food), that may have even come up with the same recipes that never wrote books about it. It is possible to have the same ideas. There are several ideas that I have that I get nervous all the time will become reality before I can copyright it. There are ideas that my brother has thought of that have become a reality without his help at all…. people have ideas. Some people even have the same ideas. It is very unfortunate that a person who is really famous had the same idea as you. I would say take it with some class and dignity, and come up with another really great idea!
I will say though that I have not been in her shoes. I don’t know how I’d like it if someone famous suddenly released something similar to Daily Home Planner (but we do have a copyright on the code).
What is all this leading too? My Sister. My sister is not a huge fan of hiding vegetables in the first place. She would like her children to know they are eating vegetables to help them to make healthy choices for themselves when they aren’t near a parent to tell them what to eat (or to sneak vegetables into their food). She does occasionally do the sneaking thing, but it is only in addition to the vegetables that are already on their plate. She explains more about that on her blog at http://blog.superhealthykids.com. So I join her in saying, be up front and honest with your kids about the food you are giving them. Sometimes they will like it, sometimes they will not. The point is, for me, to always be honest with your children about everything. They can understand more than we give them credit for sometimes.
Recipe of the Week
Chicken and Vegetable Pasta
8 oz. Bowtie Pasta
2 Whole Red Bell Peppers
1 Whole Zucchini
3 Chicken Breasts, Boneless Skinless
1/2 Cup Italian Dressing
1/2 Cup Pesto Sauce
1. Cut peppers into quarters & zucchini into halves.
2. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain; place in large bowl. Cover to keep warm.
3. While pasta is cooking, combine vegetables, chicken and dressing in medium bowl; toss well. Grill or broil 6 to 8 minutes on each side or until vegetables are crisp-tender and chicken is no longer pink in center.
4. Cut vegetables and chicken into bite-size pieces. Add vegetables, chicken and pesto to pasta; toss well.
Recipe by Incredibly Easy Chicken
Ok, I’m Sarah’s sister… but am I the only one out there who has never heard of BSOD factor????
I seriously have never heard of this.
I am with your sister on the vegie thing. I haven’t gotten into that cook book for that reason. I like my children to see the vegetables, and know they are eating them (but that doesn’t mean I don’t sneak them in occasionally). The other reason, I think my husband would refuse to eat some that had cauliflower puree in it, and I don’t have the time to puree batches of veggies every week.
BSOD??? I’m clueless, too. Guess we just missed out Amy! Love, Sarah and Amy’s mom
OK… I guess I’m a bit more geeky than I realise. Didn’t know that the entire world doesn’t know what the Blue Screen of Death is… it’s when your computer crashes and you are left with a blue screen… more commonly called the Blue Screen of Death. Which I thought of the phrase, but so did other people who actually made it a common (or not so common as i guess the case is) phrase.
I think the other author should thank her lucky stars that her book is getting free press alongside Seinfeld’s. Of course, the whole lawsuit is probably just a publicity stunt. Americans are so innovative–we all grow up with a collective conscious if in wildly different circumstances. Of course many of us will come up with similar ideas. I think Seinfeld’s sneaky take on feeding kids is just her “in.” If someone wrote a recipe book that was full of dishes with purees and veggies and long ingredients lists without pointing out the added nutritional value for kids it would probably just sit on the shelf. My kids know what whole zucchini looks–and tastes–like. If I serve them marinara sauce with pureed zucchini in it and don’t waste good dinner conversation noting that what’s the harm? Great article!
You back the book ’cause you love Jerry? The other author seems in the right and has much more credibility, although it’ll probably be pretty hard to win a plagiarism case dealing with recipes. I like Jerry too, as a comedian, but I wouldn’t put a trick like that past Jessica. She did meet Jerry while she was on her honeymoon with another man! So her likeability – not so much. I’d say that’s deceptively somethin’!!!
Lily – I did mention several other reasons that I back the book, besides my love for Jerry. I agree that it will be very difficult for the other author to win the case. My brother and I were looking into what constitutes copying with regard to recipes as we are trying to get our recipe packs together to sell with the Daily Home Planner. You can use the same ingredients, and the same amounts as long as you put the directions in your own words. Basically it’s the directions that make it their own.
As to her personality, I’ve never seen anything but pictures, and I have never met her, so I will not pass judgement on someone that I do not know. Maybe she had a rocky start, or realised she made a huge mistake… either way, we weren’t there, so we don’t know.
Like I said, I don’t know how I’d feel in the other authors shoes, but I just think that she could handle it better.
My whole point, though, was that I didn’t agree with hiding vegetables in the first place.
Thank you very much for stating your opinions though! I think we may have to agree to disagree. I hope you will continue to read my blog though.
It’s always fun to have good conversations!
[...] by adding fruits and veggies as appropriate for the recipe. However, as Brittney commented on my sisters blog, she doesn’t have time to puree batches of vegetables each week. Amen, Brittney, here I [...]
I got the opportunity to do an interview with Jessica and she did this AFTER she did her Oprah interview. When I saw her on the Oprah show, I thought there was no way she would follow through with an interview on a mommy blog. She emailed me answers the very next day and answered the questions throughly. Just this alone tells me that she is a class act and that she was really passionate about her mission.
It disappoints me to the slander she & her family have had to endure. I have read some really high profile publications rip her to shreds and the blog comments are just sad.
No matter what, she is a mom who was trying to do something good and share something great with the American public. It is disappointing to see the scrutiny that brought and the lawsuit disappoints me further.