Townsend, Susanne Grayson 1941-

PERSONAL: Born 1941. Education: University of Missouri, received degree.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Former advertising agency executive.

WRITINGS:

How to Eat like a Republican; or, Hold the Mayo, Muffy, I'm Feeling Miracle Whipped Tonight, illustrated by Tony Zamora, Villard (New York, NY, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: After retiring as an executive for an advertising agency, Susanne Grayson Townsend "decided she 'wanted to do something that might get her into The New York Times without paying when she died,'" reported Steve Weinberg in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Townsend subsequently hit upon the idea of writing a humorous cookbook that employs witty comments accompanying real recipes to poke fun at politics. In How to Eat like a Republican; or, Hold the Mayo, Muffy, I'm Feeling Miracle Whipped Tonight, the Republican Townsend pokes the most fun at the middle-class stereotypes of her fellow political adherents, though she takes a few jabs at Democrats as well. "Republicans are just plain funnier than Democrats," she explained in the Weinberg article. "Unintentionally so, but so. We're just so gosh-darned earnest."

Many of the recipes involve ketchup and Coke, shunning more haute cuisine ingredients like balsamic vinegar, and have names like "Unimpeachable Cobblers," "Buffalo Right Wings," and "Keith and Lorraine" (for quiche Lorraine). The descriptive text that accompanies the recipes is completely tongue-in-cheek. For example, Townsend describes one dish as being "rich as a Republican after a tax cut." Reviewers enjoyed this "funny, irreverent cookbook," as Judith Sutton described it in a Library Journal review. A Publishers Weekly contributor concluded that How to Eat like a Republican "will undoubtedly be snapped up as an impulse or gift item by members of both major political parties."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Townsend, Susanne Grayson, How to Eat like a Republican; or, Hold the Mayo, Muffy, I'm Feeling Miracle Whipped Tonight, Villard (New York, NY), 2004.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2004, Mark Knoblauch, review of How to Eat like a Republican; or, Hold the Mayo, Muffy, I'm Feeling Miracle Whipped Tonight, p. 1808.

Houston Chronicle, August 30, 2004, Lana Berkowitz, "Republicans Load up on All-American Flavor," p. 1.

Library Journal, June 15, 2004, Judith Sutton, "The Great American Sampler Cookbook: Recipes from the White House and Congress," p. 94.

Publishers Weekly, April 12, 2004, review of How to Eat like a Republican, p. 57.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 25, 2004, Steve Weinberg, "Republican Author Gently Skewers 'GOPeas' in Funny Cookbook," p. F8.