Cindy McCain's secret shame

This is pretty embarassing: Cindy McCain has apparently been caught passing off Food Network recipes as her own. What's even more embarassing is the explanation: it's the work of "an intern". Because, of course, when I want to know what my favorite recipes are, I ask one of the Atlantic's interns.

Forget about my issues with John McCain; I'm not sure the nation can survive four years with such an inept liar in the office of First Lady. What on earth is she going to say the first time Lyudmila Putin says "What do you think of my suit?"

The bizarre thing is that there's a perfectly (almost) innocent explanation: most of us don't have that many family recipes, and given the way that tastes have changed over the last fifty years, many of the ones we do have are best left in the attic along with the other dark family secrets. Pimento loaf and some noodles-in-lard-sauce, anyone?

A lot of my favorite recipes come from Epicurious, or Julia Child, or Betty Crocker. I've tweaked a lot of them, but how much do you have to tweak it before it becomes yours? No one any longer expects a wife to have spent thirty years in the kitchen becoming a self-taught gourmet, and thank God for small favors. The honorable thing to do is attribute, of course, but the McCain team still seems to be intent on pretending that Cindy McCain derives all of her recipes from First Principles. What's the shame in admitting you used a cookbook?