Among our lesser worries …

… The Midlife Crisis of the American Restaurant Review - Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The old ideal of critic as neutral arbiter gives way to a modern vision of the critic as hip, multicultural storyteller. “I don’t see the critic’s task as one of simply deciding if a food or restaurant experience is pleasing,” writes Soleil Ho, “but rather using an aesthetic evaluation of restaurants to tell stories about the connections between people, cultures, and communities.”

Well, as Miss Jean Brodie said, "for those who like that sort of thing … that is the sort of thing they like."