Feel-awful falafel and other abominations

Today begins a five-part feature inspired by Candyboots' Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974 -- an all-time classic that every living human should have bookmarked. My mother-in-law had a Weight Watchers cookbook in her house, published in around the same time. This collection doesn't have quite the level of unintentional humor and ghastliness of the 1974 versions; I could find only five that really merited highlighting, but anyway, here goes...

Falafel was obviously still exotic back then -- in fact, people were obviously in the dark as to what it even ought to even look like (and as to the flavor, I dare not speculate). Scabby and scrofulous pita bread... and why are these falafel pieces so perfectly spherical? Did they use a melon baller? (Looks like they got it backwards; the falafel is supposed to be sort of lumpy and irregular, not the pita bread.) But the worst part is their disturbingly smooth, cracked and dry appearance. I hope to God that off-white goop in the corner is Neutrogena. Nice copper plate, though. Probably licked clean by the food photographer, who just LOVES falafel.