Real Men Don't Eat Quiche
by Bruce Feirstein · first published 1982
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11HN commenters
2009–2024first – last mentioned
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Satire/Comedy about the perspective of being a real man.
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…need to read the "parent post" called "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal": http://www.pbm.com//~lindahl/real.programmers.html And to understand that, check on the grandparent, not a post but a book: Real Men Don't Eat Quiche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_Dont_Eat_Quiche).
on “The story of Mel (1983)” ↗I thought it was a play on the book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche which had a bunch of funny rules for "real men". The book wasn't supposed to be serious, and the formula is often used to poke fun at people who think that way.
This 1982 piece is a riff on "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche", which came out that same year. Quoting Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_Don%27t_Eat_Quiche , > Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, by American Bruce Feirstein, is a bestselling tongue-in-cheek…
on “Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL” ↗…who claimed that "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal"[1] were wrong, and St. Niklaus is having the last laugh. Muahahahaa! ___ [1] And all their latter-day followers who never read Bruce Feirstein's Real Men Don't Eat Quiche (and most of whom don't even know what quiche is), but spout off about "quiche-eaters" anyway -- yeah, I'm looking at you, Primeagen... Sigh.
on “I _____ hate arrays in C++” ↗…and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri." edit: it also occurs to me that "real men" was probably somewhat (re-)popularized by the 1982 book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche", which was poking fun at rigid and nonsensical concepts of masculinity, but a lot of people use the pattern of "real men don't X" very seriously.
on “Processing the Page Turn” ↗It's an old riff on a book called "Real Men don't Eat Quiche" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_Don%27t_Eat_Quiche#Cu... which is a 1982 book that poked fun at hyperbolically conservative masculinity.
on “Linux x86 Program Start Up” ↗Regarding the quiche reference, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche was a humor book and a meme back before there were memes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_Dont_Eat_Quiche (For those too young to remember... It's scary that if Marty from Back To The Future were…
on “Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal - Letter to the editor, Datamation July 1983” ↗In the stone age a guy wrote a book "Real men don't eat quiche". I think about that book whenever I Tweet. P.S. the only benefit I got from Twitter is it's incorporation throuh a financial, stock site.
on “What was trending on HN (February 21, 2007)” ↗The reference is pretty clearly to "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" (1982), which was itself a satire of exclusionary masculinity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_Don%27t_Eat_Quiche
on “Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL (1982)” ↗The origin (AFAIK) is actually about ten years older than that. In 1982, there was a short satirical humor book published called "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" [1] that generated what we would now call a "meme" in that vein. I think a number of folks here are taking the fab comment in a far more serious vein than I'm sure it was intended. (A 1994 audience would…
on “Formation of Tesla Advanced Automation Germany” ↗…mentioned may be more alien to young programmers. How many will know what's meant by keypunch? Timesharing? RATFOR? Listings? The email address in the header? BTW, the title (and text) refers to the book "Real men don't eat quiche", a pastiche of the genre that would later bring produce the weirdly unironic classic "Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars".
on “The Story of Mel (1983)” ↗Yes, it's a computing-themed pastiche of "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche".
on “Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL (1982)” ↗