Italiano
In an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper professes his love for pizza by saying:
My favorite shape of food – a circle made of triangles served in a square box.
Nope, you’re wrong Sheldon!
A slice of pizza isn’t a triangle, rather a sector: the area of a circle enclosed by two radii and the arc between them.
A triangle has to be made of three straight lines. And a slice of pizza has a round basis!
Wait, wait… we aren’t done yet!
There’s another scene where Sheldon slips up on pizza again!
Talking to the pizza delivery guy, Sheldon tells him that the elevator is not working and he has to go up the stairs. To the former’s protests, Sheldon replies:
“Of course you can. Pizza dates back to the sixteenth century while the first elevator was not installed until 1852; that means that for over three hundred years people carried pizzas up stairs. Be part of that proud tradition !”.
Well, no!
The pizza is mentioned for the first time in a document of 997, as well as in various documents dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries.
Yes, true… perhaps the name was generically given to “baked products“.
Although, in the sixteenth century pizza as we know it had already been invented for a while, given that a writer (Benedetto Di Falco) in 1535 wrote that “Neapolitan focaccia, called pizza” was a Naples’ ancient culinary tradition.
However, I’m glad Sheldon is a fictional character. I doubt he would have silently accepted my explanation. In fact, I’m sure he would have answered me in kind…
In conclusion: I sell retarder proofer to leaven pizza (and not only).
Bazinga!
