Culture

Weekend Reading: Chicken Beauty Pageants, the Truth about Expiration Dates, and More

What we’re reading, cooking and clicking this week.

Photographer Ernest Goh turns his lens on the world of Malaysian beauty pageants, and we're not talking long-limbed women in bikinis—the stars of this show are chickens bred especially for their ornate plumage and uncanny willingness to strike a pose. —_Zoe Schaeffer_Colossal

There are over 700 wineries in the Napa Valley, and plotting out your tasting room game plan can be mind-boggling. So I love the zoom on the new Wineries of Napa map, which is as beautiful as it is functional. —_Betsy Andrews_PopChartLab

My two favorite things—death and food—come together in an infographic on how to kill yourself with household items. Did you know 40 tablespoons of cinnamon is lethal? —_Zainab Shah_Digg

The French coffee company Carte Noir put out a hypnotizing 2-minute ad that will have your mouth watering and taste buds tingling as you watch cream-filled, pink-frosted cream puffs being made from scratch, start to finish. —_Judy Haubert_Adweek

Mark Bittman tells us something that I think we all already knew but maybe needed confirmed: Butter is back. Get rid of the margarine and pack in the Plugra. Eat real food, not processed crap—sounds good to me. —_Farideh Sadeghin_New York Times

The "sell-by" and "best by" dates on stamped on packaged groceries are totally arbitrary—made-up dates that help move inventory. They're not scientific, or required by law (except for in the case of infant formula). So how did they end up on everything from Cheetos to gallons of milk? Smithsonian Magazine explains. —_Karen Shimizu_Smithsonian Magazine

Here's a question: Why are we, as a nation, getting fatter while low-fat and fat-free food options continue to proliferate? NPR's The Salt tracked down the answer: it turns out that this trend, like so many dubious ones before it, started with Congress. —Marshall Bright The Salt

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