I know I am late to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo party. Very late! Everyone read this book already except me! I know. But what I don’t know is, why didn’t anyone tell me this book is actually about eating sandwiches? Yeah, yeah, hunting down serial rapist/murderers is hungry work, but eat a g-d salad, Kalle Blomkvist. There are 18 mentions of sandwiches in this book. In the hardcover version, that’s roughly once every 26 pages. It’s also twice as many mentions as the word “rape,” and this is a book about catching a serial rapist. (There are 92 for coffee, which is twice as many as “murder.”)
He often eats the sandwiches two at a sitting, not unlike Lisbeth, who herself has been known to make “three big open rye-bread sandwiches.” Okay, sure. They even share some stuffed bagels, which are just sandwiches. Sandwiches, you guys. So many sandwiches. Unfortunately, Mikael doesn’t have a signature taste, so I’m kind of screwed when it comes to what to cook up for my Girl With the Dragon Tattoo party.
I’m not against literary sandwich consumption. Who would Harriet the spy be without her tomato sandwiches? (Just a snoop!) Meg Murray without her liverwurst-and-cream-cheese sandwiches? (Just an awesome time-traveler!) Characters have to eat, I guess? Okay, all this sandwich talk is making me feel like Joey Tribbiani. Bring on the sandwich book that springs to mind, PopWatchers!
Last night’s episode of Mad Men connected the dots between the globalization of the automobile industry and the sexual awakening of preteen girls. It was awesome — check out Karen Valby’s 
