Lileks and Dislileks

Most amature web enthusiasts would be thrilled to have a site as cool as The Gallery of Regrettable Food, which is a repository of truly awful recipie book excerpts from the 50's, 60's and 70's coupled with some very sharp commentary. The Gallery, however, is merely one annex of The Institute of Official Cheer which is, in turn, merely a wing of Lileks.com. It is the sort of site that you can lose hours of time to with narry a regret.

The Institute's mission (such that it is) is to take an ironic look at the pop culture of days gone by. Although we live in a word where everyone is trying their hand at nostalgic irony, few aspire the competence and wit of James Lileks.

In addition to the Gallery of Regrettable Food, I particularly enjoy his send up of Little Big Book comics, his observations of the curiously misogynistic art of Art Frahm, and The Orphanage of Cast of Mascots, where he looks at little known and long defunct advertising mascots.