This is the latest in a series giving you the cultural context behind certain comic book characters/behaviors. You know, the sort of then-topical references that have faded into the "foggy ruins of time." To wit, twenty years from now, a college senior watching episodes of Seinfeld will likely miss a lot of the then-topical pop culture humor (like the very specific references in "The Understudy" to the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal). Here is an archive of all the Foggy Ruins of Time installments so far.

Today we take a look at a sly reference in an issue of Uncanny X-Men to then then popular book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche.

In 1982, humorist Bruce Feirstein released the book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche.

The book was a satire of the notion that there is some defined quality that makes men "real men." It was extremely popular, staying on the New York Times Best Seller list for over a YEAR!

In 1983's Uncanny X-Men #171 by Chris Claremont, Walter Simonson and Bob Wiacek, Colossus is preparing an interesting meal...

This scene is practically the epitome of "Foggy Ruins of Time," in the sense that a modern reader reads this scene and thinks, "Okay, Colossus is making a quiche. Gotcha. Moving on." At the time, though, it was definitely a reference by Claremont to the then extremely popular best-selling book.

There was another Real Men Don't Eat Quiche reference a few issues earlier, in Uncanny X-Men #168 (by Claremont, Paul Smith and Wiacek), where Kitty's room includes a poster gently teasing Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstadt's Legion of Super-Heroes, which was at the time a major rival to the X-Men in terms of popularity...

That's it for this edition! If YOU have a suggestion for a future edition of Foggy Ruins of Time, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!