"pizza remains perhaps the sole redeeming feature of agricultural civilization"
I'd venture to say this is 100% fact :)
I've been finally losing weight after years of simply refusing to deal with the problem. It was nothing too terrible--just an extra 40 pounds and change, but it definitely made itself felt in my feet and knees when running or doing tai chi. After about 4 months I'm finally getting close to the target weight I set, which upon reaching I promised myself a single piece of pizza. I shouldn't have done that.
Aside from the myriad problems arising from the 'food-as-reward' mindset, there is a philosophical issue raising its head that the students in Epicurus' Garden school were no doubt familiar with: A real pizza slice simply cannot meet the near-mythical expectations I've assigned to this *particular* piece of food. While pizza remains perhaps the sole redeeming feature of agricultural civilization, I think I might have to just let this promised reward go.
Conflating the symbolic representation with the actual is fraught in so many unexpected ways.