Foodie Rants and Raves

"The notion of a 48-inch bartender, convenient though it sounds, is of course grotesque."

Bullshit. What's grotesque is whoring out your kids for writing material. But aside from that, I really don't see what's wrong in giving kids little sips of things. Granted I come at this as someone who got little sips of things throughout her childhood and spit them out. I also recall a weird instance of my dad pressuring me to taste his wine when I was about 9 or 10 in a restaurant down in the Outer Banks. My grandma was a steady provider of beer foam to the under 5 set. I've never liked beer or wine, and I don't drink them now.

Substance misuse and who falls prey to it and why is more complicated than "I had a sip at age 5 and now I'm an alcoholic." While I'm sure for some that might be true, more often there's a mental health issue or trauma that someone is self-medicating--and when they start out they might not even know that they are self-medicating or why.

But I just dislike Wells anyway. Dexter may not be a bad kid; he just has an annoying dad.

It's nice to see others find Pollan sexist too.

This interview with a scavenger is interesting-- although the interviewer should have pressed him more on the topics of safety and contamination. But in the end the argument fails because while I agree that if it grows, it should be picked and used (although those palm trees are so high it's hard to get the dates and nuts off them), it's not sustainable for a large population to do this and that brings up the point that really, is it just a bunch of food geeks using this as a way to be competitive? Although out here a lot of church groups go gleaning for service projects--they pick the citrus off municipal trees to give to the food banks.

I can't stand W. Hodding Carter. My least favorite trope of American memoir is "I was blind but now I see, and I see in TECHNICOLOR AND I WILL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THINGS THE WAY I DO WITH MY NEW EYES!" There's something about born again frugal people that really chafes.

The part where I really started grinding my teeth was when he went into his no-spend month without doing more prep than putting gas in the car, and started extorting groceries from friends and neighbors. No wait, he calls it bartering. Very lopsided bartering.

I find people who do any sort of 180 behavior or personality change annoying and suspect generally. I mistrust them.

The high irony of people who want to make sure their eggs are humanely and sustainable raised but yet won't seek professional medical attention for them due to cost. Really? You expect me to believe that your backyard chickens are better cared for when you shove medical remedies you found on the internet down their throats instead of, you know, medicine? Or fixing their habitat? Or protecting them from predators?

Here is a respectful and loving use of chicken though. I'd like to see the exhibit.

Alton Brown! I learned how to cook in part by watching "Good Eats." Although I haven't watched it regularly in 5 years, I am thrilled that AB has released a collection of recipes based on the first years of the show. It's $22 at Costco. It's on my list of things I want.