[Ads-l] "better than sex" (food, etc.)

[Ben Zimmer]

Spoiler for the Saturday 10/25/25 New York Times crossword... From Byron
Walden's constructor notes in the NYT Wordplay column:

---
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2025-10-25.html
16-Down [BETTER THAN SEX, clued as "Especially gratifying, so to speak"] is
older than I would have guessed. It apparently first gained currency in the
language in descriptions of food. (Paging Ben Zimmer for confirmation.) The
cake with that name was popular in the 1970s. The crossword immortal Alan
Alda’s character Hawkeye used it to describe his favorite Chicago ribs in a
“M*A*S*H” episode. Maybe there’s evolutionary theory about gratification
that promotes immediate survival surpassing gratification that promotes
future survival of the species.
---

Since I was paged by Byron, here's a bit of research. First, a couple of
early variations on the theme attributed to Hemingway and W.C. Fields:

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Perry Miller, "The Reimportation of Ideas"
in _The Impact of America on European Culture_, 1951, p. 91
[A]s Hemingway contends [...] whiskey is better than sex because after
finishing the bottle you can always throw it at somebody.
https://archive.org/details/impactofamericae0000unse/page/90/mode/2up
---
Gene Fowler, _Minutes of the Last Meeting_, 1954, p. 22
"On or off the record," said the red-nosed authority [sc. W.C. Fields] on
almost any subject, "you can say this for me. There may be some things
better than sex, and some things may be worse. But there is nothing exactly
like it."
https://archive.org/details/minutesoflastmee00fowl/page/22/mode/2up
---

Here are early examples where food items are described as "better than sex":

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Indianapolis Star, Dec. 21, 1958, p. 8, col. 3
Jane Allison, "Hoosier in Manhattan: Candyholics at Yuletide Need Careful
Watching"
"It's better than sex!" said the most uninhibited Candyholic we ever met,
yesterday.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-star-better-than-sex/183749625/
---
Charlotte (NC) Observer, Feb. 7, 1960, p. 16, col. 1
Rolfe Neill, "Everybody's Business: Superior To Sex?"
Moses Richter, the textile-farming magnate, has developed a luscious
variety of peach that is a cross between the nectarine, pear and peach. A
woman in New York who was the recipient of some of the fruit wrote:
"Honestly, those peaches are better than sex."
Richter's lying awake nights - unusual for him - trying to figure out how
to get that endorsement on a can label in a dignified way.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-charlotte-observer-better-than-sex/183749234/
---

In the '60s, the "better than sex" line also got applied to activities like
surfing and skydiving.

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Time, Feb. 16, 1962, "Sport: That Wall of Water," p. 38
For each wave rider, the thrills were different. Some, like Conrad Canha,
29, an unemployed dairy worker from Honolulu, came primarily for the
nightlong pre-meet beach parties. [...] Others, like Ernest ("Mud") Werner,
30, lived only for the competition: "When you crack through a tunnel, beat
it across the face of a wave, and come out the other side - why, man, it’s
a great thrill. You feel five or six emotions all at once. It's better than
sex. You own the world.”
https://time.com/archive/6625225/sport-that-wall-of-water/
---
Gardena (CA) Valley News, Aug. 12, 1965, p. 18, col. 1
Pete Eastman, "It's Better Than Sex"
"It's better than sex," he said, "almost like a narcotic. But it's safer
than playing golf, statistically."
The miracle sport is sky diving, and the speaker was Lyle Cameron, editor
of Sky Diver Magazine.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/gardena-valley-news-and-gardena-tribune/183755346/
---
Sydney Morning Herald, July 20, 1968, p. 22, col. 1
Margaret Jones, "Australian Film-Maker Acclaimed"
[Peter] Sykes' main claim to fame so far is that he managed to offend
deeply the censors in Australia with his portrait of Australian surfers in
a [1966] documentary called "Walkabout to Cornwall."
Even after a gap of two years, he remains surprised by this. It was by no
means an unsympathetic portrait, merely, he says with a grin, "showing them
at their natural pastime of getting drunk," and delivering profound
judgments like "surfing is better than sex."
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-better-than-se/183754476/
---
Cosmopolitan, Oct. 1968, p. 195, col. 1 [ProQuest]
Florence Lemkowitz, "Go West, Young Lady, Go West"
At the Oasis Hotel, there's a therapeutic pool next to the flower-bordered,
regular one. Some TV-production men were staying here to film a Herb Alpert
special, and I heard them shout enthusiastically from the therapeutic pool:
"This is better than sex!"
---

--bgz

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