The first thing we become convinced of is that man is organized so as to be far more sensible of pain than of pleasure.
-Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Football's over. You've known it ever since Eli Manning hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in one of the most unlikely outcomes in Super Bowl history, but the televised tax break/junket known as the Pro Bowl made it official Sunday. Let the denial end and the slow journey to acceptance begin.

Now that you're done sitting shiva, though, is there anything to make your life seem less hollow until inexplicably large men gather in northern climes to hit each other relentlessly come August?

The number of flavors is infinite, for every soluble body has a peculiar flavor, like none other.
-Brillat-Savarin

Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French bon vivant born in 1755, could rightly be called one of the fathers of gastronomy. He studied numerous subjects (law, women, chemistry, women, medicine, women, etc.). He was a linguist, a judge, a violin teacher in the New World during the French Revolution, and a trust fund baby of the first order.

However, he is most remembered for his last work: Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste), published in 1825 just before his death. This treatise on food and culture helped establish the field of gastronomy. He goes on about every subject relating to food, politics, eroticism, drink, dreams, and a lovely fondue recipe. Each chapter is a four-hour after dinner conversation on the veranda or in the kitchen with a proper wine, complete with gossipy tales of his day.

The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star.
-Brillat-Savarin

A true gourmet like Brillat-Savarin finds connections in all manner of food and drink to every other discipline of life, from dance to anthropology to sports. The gourmet demands an Epicurean balance from life and from food. Overindulgence in all forms is gauche and to be avoided.