Dream of the Rarebit Fiend He addressed religious leaders, alcoholism, homelessness, political speeches, suicide, fashion, and other topics, whereas his other strips were fantasy or had seemingly vague, timeless backgrounds. The strip referenced contemporary events such as the 1904 election of Theodore Roosevelt; the recently built Flatiron Building (1902) and St. Regis Hotel (1904) in New York City; and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The rarebit is a dish typically made with rich cheese thinned with ale and served melted on toast with cayenne and mustard mixed in. McCay used it despite its innocuousness—cultural theorist Scott Bukatman states rarebit was not the sort of dish
Toast lightest colour acceptable. The slang idiom "you're toast", "I'm toast", or "we're toast" is used to express a state of being "outcast", "finished", "burned, scorched, wiped out, [or] demolished" (without even the consolation of being remembered, as with the slang term "you're history")." The first known use of "toast" as a metaphorical term for "you're dead" was in the film "Ghostbusters" (1984), in which Bill Murray's character declares, "This chick is toast", before the Ghostbusters attempt to burn the villain with their nuclear-powered weapons. "Hey, dude. You're toast, man", which appeared in "The St. Petersburg Times" of Oct. 1, 1987,