Journalism / Fronch Dressing (Analysis)

The things I never knew about, errr…Fronch dressing? “French” dressing? The only-in-America all-out insane mindset that if one thing (pizza)is good to eat, then mixing it with at least one or even two other things must absolutely and definitively make it at least twice as good, right?

There must be a lot of Neapolitans out there who are either rolling on the floor in major fits of hysterics at those crazy Americanos, or else pounding at the keyboard in horrified outrage. ;-)

But whatever I think or don’t on the subject of gilding the lily, foodwise  - no slut or slouch in the kitchen, I! ;-) – this reads, all told, like something you might find in a local paper placed somewhere in the lifestyle section. This is, the subject matter considering, not at all a bad thing. You’ve managed to fulfill all the journalistic criteria of just such a piece. You entertain your reader, and you manage to be highly informative and descriptive about a local custom, and by doing that, you even manage to teach us barbarous Europeans a thing or two we didn’t know before.

Even as we shake our heads in wonder over our boeuf en croute over those crazy Americans. We thought the ranch and pizza thing was bad. We were introduced to fries and vanilla shakes, and were horrified to love it. Now this.

Whatever next? ;-)

This worked for me, I like the way you tie in several ideas, the movie, your own cooking, and local lore. I wish you the best. Belles

I thought this was a good article.  It kept my interest and wasn’t too drawn out.  I did think it ended a little abruptly with “Oh, and if you want to keep it authentic, wash it down with Barq’s.”  I’ve definitely never tried it, I’m more of a ranch and pizza kind of girl!

I definitely think that you work well as a journalist.

“And while the culture of Biloxi historically seeps from it’s French and Cajun roots. The dressing is about as French as Lane’s mothers accent during that Fronch themed dinner party scene.” The first sentence is a fragment. Maybe better if you combined these two sentences.

“It’s name is attributed to a surname possibly.” Maybe a comma after “surname”.

“brick oven” I think you should hyphenate this.

“There are several stories about that first bite. One being, two young kids on a date where the boy was so nervous,...” These two sentences could be combined, or at least the second one could segue a little better.

”...but went on to be with its owner ten years later.” You can substitute “joined” for a good portion of this sentence.

I liked this little foray into a sub-culture about which i know relatively nothing. The grammar mistakes don’t take away from the article, and the general theme stays true.

Travis

I like your voice in this piece – it’s straight to the point without a lot of fluff. The question, however, is what exactly is the point? The title led me to believe that we would be talking about “Better Off Dead.” Of course, that’s exactly where the piece started. Then if veered into a piece about your experimental cooking, which seeped into something about French dressing and finally wound around to the true point of the story: Hugo’s Pizza. I was a least half-way through the piece before I realized that. If this truly aims to be a piece of journalism, you need to pick a topic and stick to it. If you want to reference “Better Off Dead” make sure that it ties to Hugo’s Pizza. If you want to reference “But you like raisins” make sure that it ties to Hugo’s Pizza. I think this has potential to be a very strong and entertaining piece, but you need to cut to the chase otherwise your readers will lose interest and your piece will lose its punch. Good Luck!

I find this writing quite interesting. Not trivialized as I first thought it would be, but rather nurturing to the reader’s interest in new info.  It’s not only easy to read, it delivers a newness, and familiarity with things and people (mention of John Grisham’s usage).  

I found myself laughing aloud at:
“There are several stories about that first bite. One being, two young kids on a date where the boy was so nervous, he poured his salad dressing over his pizza accidentally and to save face, ate it anyway.”

Good stuff.  It delivers a learning experience, a human interest level.  If you had a column, I’d likely read it often.  I rate this very good overall.  I wonder how you’ll continue but do hope that you do just that – continue writing of this type!