The New York Times tone: It’s there whenever the Paper of Record takes a look at any of the quirkier aspects of modern culture — as if to offer a distanced, bemused reassurance to its readers of the entertainment value of taking a tour of the slums — it occurred to me as I read these two articles in quick succession. (That’s all they have to do with each other, of course):

• When Nerds Collide: Bots in the Ring
  

  At first glance, it’s obvious why “BattleBots,” the robot fighting show on Comedy Central, would draw television viewers like passers-by to a car crash.

  It is, after all, a series of staged battles between remote-controlled machines equipped with spinning blades, ramming spears and swinging maces. It has noise, wreckage, pseudo- sports commentary modeled on professional wrestling and the all-too-obvious décolletage of Carmen Electra, proffered to the camera as she asks a robot designer, after a bout, how it felt to have his weapon lopped off.

  In short, it is mildly nasty, mechanically brutish and thoroughly tasteless — the perfect television show.

  And yet, talking to one of the show’s creators, you get the idea that the whole BattleBot universe is a giant math class, much more effective than those that take place in a classroom. Trey Roski, president and chief executive of BattleBots, would have you believe that the show is almost nothing but redeeming social value.
  

• “Kiss someone who has just eaten Marmite, and you’ll think you were licking paint…” Long live Marmite! Only the British could love it. The vegetable and yeast extract celebrates its centennial.
  

  That no foreigner has ever been known to like it simply adds to its domestic allure and its iconic status as an emblem of enduring British insularity and bloody-mindedness. Were Hogarth to paint a still life in a 21st century British pantry, a jar of Marmite would have to figure in it.