The Life Cycle of a Story: From Roy Choi's Musings to the Presumptive Death of Kogi
Muy Yum/Flickr Chego's business card
"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws," Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. To that short list of exceptions, we add sensationalized news, which seems to propel itself through the blogosphere on its own hyperdrive. Witness, for example, the rather amusing life cycle of a recent story: In a post ("Who") published on his own blog, Roy Choi (Kogi BBQ, Chego, A-Frame, Sunny Spot) ruminated on feeding kids and eating animals, wondered how he could cook without meat and asked who would step up to shake up the food industry.
Eater Los Angeles took a very literal approach to Choi's thoughts and had a preemptive meltdown of sorts. "What the what?!" it asked in its story tagged "?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?." It then announced, based solely on "Who," that Choi was now a vegetarian and that he may stop cooking. Forever, presumably. From there, the "news" -- because this manufactured panic was news now -- snowballed. After the jump, this snowball represented in infographic form.
OC Weekly's Stick a Fork In It hoped "Choi figures it all out soon, for his wellbeing and for our stomachs." Los Angeles news and political blog L.A. Observed saw it as news fit to reprint, sourcing directly from Eater L.A. for its piece (other news of the day: May Day rallies and arrests). Grub Street Los Angeles provided an armchair analysis of the situation despite the fact that the patient was missing from the chair.
As it stands now, The Huffington Post speculates whether we should call a time of death for the Kogi truck, and, according to VegNews, Choi may end his career. Before this game of telephone reaches its final caller, we'll probably field reports that Choi can consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning out of his arse. If only.
Editor's note: Check back soon for our upcoming Q & A with Roy Choi. Yes, we'll actually talk to the chef in real life. Imagine that.
Disclaimer: Tien Nguyen is co-writing Spaghetti Junction: Riding Shotgun With an L.A. Chef with Choi.
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Kogi BBQ Truck
12236 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
Category: Restaurant
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