When I was growing up, anything “modern” was good. Whatever the fab fad was, if it came wrapped in the “modern” packaging, we convinced ourselves that it was for the better.

We even convinced ourselves this was true about “modern food.”

Astronaut ice cream. [anyone remember that?]
Tang [another astronaut drink]
Cheez-Whiz.
But my favorite “modern” food was Jiffy Pop.

If you're too young to remember Jiffy Pop, it is just popcorn packed into a flat aluminum “frying pan” and sealed with a light, thin foil covering. The frying pan was put over a hot burner and as the popcorn inside heated up and hot air was generated, the thin foil-covering puffed up into a big, shiny balloon. To eat the popcorn, you punctured the balloon and peeled the tin foil back, revealing the steamy popcorn.

[If you…