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Chipotle To Cover Cups With Think Pieces, Poems By Famous Writers

Chipotle Just Got A Whole Lot More Highbrow

Starting Thursday, the massive demographic that comprises both burrito-lovers and literary aficionados will find a real treat at Chipotle: Cups and bags imprinted with short stories and think-pieces by the likes of Jonathan Safran Foer, Malcolm Gladwell, Toni Morrison, George Saunders and Michael Lewis.

The initiative, spearheaded by Foer -- author of the non-fiction indictment of factory farming Eating Animals and the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- began when the author, who doesn't eat meat, realized he’d forgotten to bring reading material to Chipotle, according to Vanity Fair.

“I really just wanted to die with frustration,” Foer, who apparently didn't have a smartphone, told Vanity Fair.

According to Vanity Fair, he wrote to Chipotle CEO Steve Ells with the pitch: Replace Chipotle's blank paper cups with something a little more stimulating. Ells went for it, and the chain handed full creative control of the project they are calling Cultivating Thought to Foer.

The result is an eclectic and frankly pretty kickass lineup of heavyweight authors, essayists and comedians.

Twitter users have predictably poked fun at the venture.

I saw the greatest minds of my generation (and a few others) write for burrito bags: http://t.co/duSZ3Oj1rW

— John Williams (@johnwilliamsnyt) May 15, 2014

i have never sat anywhere eating a burrito thinking "I want to read my cup," but then, I'm not Jonathan Safran Foer. http://t.co/fRoBmbjHky

— Jen Doll (@thisisjendoll) May 15, 2014
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I'd like to see a Zadie Smith story on an In-N-Out burger wrapper. http://t.co/E0taFu2cWt

— Jason Diamond (@imjasondiamond) May 15, 2014

Each submission has “Two Minute” in the title, which, according to Chipotle, refers to the approximate amount of time it takes to read the text (or maybe to wolf down a burrito).

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