God, I love it that I get to say that again here. I'm sorry that this article about fake food from the fascinating and well-designed Retrofuture doesn't mention the freeze-dried ice cream that was all the rage when I was in third grade. Remember? It came in vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. I think John "Hot Rod" Rodwan, who really, really wanted to be a truck driver when he grew up, was the one who brought some to school, but I'm not sure. It came in a snazzy futuristic foil packet with an astronaut printed on the front. Or was it Phillip R., who commuted from Canada and regularly climbed up on a table to sing, dance, and wet himself? God, we were awful to him. But we would have eaten his freeze-dried ice cream, had he offered it.
Here, Eric Lefcowitz talks about how bad astronaut food used to be, and how the affected fought back:
To avoid the atrocious offerings, astronaut John W. Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard the five-hour Gemini 3 flight on March 23, 1965. Consumed by mission mate Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, the contraband sandwich resulted in a Congressional investigation and the first official reprimand of an astronaut.
Also via Bob.
