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  • lanie
  • Member Since Jun 7th, 2009

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The Jacksons, Week 12: The Adventures of Cooking for a Choosy Eater {ParentDish}

Dec 31st 2010 12:27AM How do you seriously expect your child to learn to eat healthy if you're intentions are to cater to his whims? If my nephew had his way he would eat a meal consisting of ketchup, butter, and orange soda. Even when I get to "spoil" him as his aunt he eats his veggies first, or, at least, makes a real effort to do so. A real effort. He is 5 and orders his own water to drink at restaurants. He doesn't get special meals when we eat together. He eats what he is given. And he loves tomatoes, green beans, and, yes, even brussels sprouts. He doesn't get to turn his nose up. He is a child. It is vastly more important that he learn to eat healthy than to learn that he can manipulate his parents (and god knows who else!) by whining about not liking it. He learned about ketchup on play dates, and mcdonalds parties. He never learned bad eating habits through his family, let alone how to successfully throw a temper tantrum in order to develop type II diabetes. Teach your child to eat well, not how to decide your menu.

Grimy 'Lemonade' - What Can I Get You Folks? {Slashfood}

Apr 26th 2010 11:03PM Ok, forget everything I just said. Evidently everyone is more concerned about concepts of water and lemonade. There's a realy sad metaphor in there somewhere.

Grimy 'Lemonade' - What Can I Get You Folks? {Slashfood}

Apr 26th 2010 10:55PM I'm a germaphobe and I manage a bar. There are ideals and, then, there is reality. I've bathed in betadine after scrubbing with salt and H2O2 and before rinsing with rubbing alcohol. I've actually done that many, many times.
If I worked at a bar where I had time to wash my hands each and every time I picked up a used glass and before each and every time I made a new drink, picked up a fresh lemon, then there's no way I'm making enough money to survive (betadine's not cheap ;-) ). You aren't going to be patient enough for me to take that time. I'm not going to be paid enough, by my boss or your tips, to justify the staff necessary to do that.
And, let's be very clear, here: I wash my hands when I use the facilities. I'm sure you do, too. But what about every other customer? I have to touch their germs.
And, no, gloves are not the answer. Will you wait longer and pay more so that I can change my gloves every 5 seconds?
I'm a germaphobe and I come into this armed with a knowledge of microbia that would make you run for the hills if they weren't swarming with microscopic death.
It is my knowledge that helps me to accept the risk and the reality. I carry toilet seat covers with me. I touch nothing in a bathroom once I've turned the water on to wash my hands without a paper towel between me and the sources of disease.
I know that each and every time I eat, drink, touch anything in a public place I am exposed to a littany of micro-organisms. I know that people can drive themselves crazy trying to be perfectly clean as individuals (have you doused yourself in rubbing alcohol?). I know that it is even more impossible in an industry meant to touch hundreds of unwashed hands every day. Especially when the staff is exactly what you can get at the price you can pay to, hopefully, have some vague consideration for social hygeine.
How much more should we pay our staff to get the OR level of clean you want? How much more are you willing to pay in menu prices? In tips?
I've a germaphobe customer who tips me thrice what he tips others because I use cocktail napkins to get his limes and cocktail stirrers even after he's seen us cut the limes bare handed. We both know it's an illusion but we feel better for the effort.
You are outraged every time you learn of a health risk that has always been and will always be there. We know the reality and, what's more, we know we blow it way out of proportion. We choose to adapt in whatever way we can.

Petsmart Basket Giveaway {Pawnation OLD}

Oct 13th 2009 12:10AM My cats, Ariel and Caliban, both love long ribbons. Yards of ribbon. They drag them all over the house in their mouths, the ribbons trailing between their legs and behind them on the floor. Caliban will follow behind Ariel attacking the ribbon and a tug o' war ensues. Eventually the ribbons end up deposited in and around their food dishes.

Panera makes news by not discounting its bread {WalletPop}

Aug 19th 2009 2:20AM I'm not overly impressed with Panera but they do have relatively good sandwiches for a chain. Their soups are more lacking.

Do I care about their attitude in not slashing prices based on a bad economy? Heck no!

I'm a bartender in a small Southern city. "Disposable income" is not a phrase in my lexicon. That said I work in an industry where discounted prices negatively affect my income far more than they help my spending.

And, really, I'm sorry but $7 for my fave Panera sandwich isn't killing me the two to three times I crave it per month. Really, it's more the health factor that keeps me from indulging more often.

Oh, and lobster anything. I grew up in New England. It astounds me the prices people will pay for something I got for $5/pound, retail, in season and, at the very most (and rarely) $10/lb out of season. McDonald's had lobster rolls there! If you're outside the coastal Northeast lobster is going to be crazy expensive no matter what. You really want to talk about crazy pricing?

I rarely buy Panera bread simply because it's bread. Yes, it's far better than that wonder kind but it's still just bread. If I cared enough about the quality of my bread then, yes, I'd have no problem paying their prices.

Seriously, though, don't we have better things to do than whine about how others are not doing us financial favours at their own expense? Obviously you aren't willing to pay the same to support others in this economy. Why should they pay the same or more to make the food and take a cut on profit to sate your miserly ways? Especially if it is working for them?

Not too cool for a lawsuit: Abercrombie & Fitch dinged for discrimination {WalletPop}

Aug 14th 2009 3:12AM One of my mother's prosthetic legs is tie-dyed. It's her favourite. It rarely matches what she wears but, with her sense of style, the fake, tie-dyed leg is the last thing you notice. It's just a part of her delightfully expressive and eccentric personality. She is astoundingly intelligent, strong-willed, passionate, compassionate, and effortlessly diplomatic. She's a former debutant who can make swearing like a sailor sound perfectly graceful because she knows exactly how to make everyone around her feel at ease.

Still, she has no sense of style.

I'm an artist. Use of colour, shape, and line come naturally for me (if not by her). I used to be dumbfounded by her choices in every day expression. I, ever so mind-numbingly slowly, came to realize her gifts far outweigehd her inability to match a shirt with a skirt, let alone considering her body type. But, eventually, I learned to realize that her outstanding ability to communicate with others, to gain their trust, and to genuinely be interested in them was her version of my ability with colour, line, shape, lighting, and whatever.

Put me in a room with strangers and I'm searching for the way out. Give her a brush, canvas, and paint and she'll have a blast painting something an average two-year-old could improve upon.

Just so you know, I may not have first hand experience with prosthetic limbs, I do have some limited second hand experience.

I want to be on your side. I want to be all up in arms, real or fake, about this discrimination but you give me no evidence.

Furthermore, I hate writing. I loved my courses in persuassive writing. It's all about logic and rational presentation. This was when I learned the KISS rule. This was when I learned to write a persuassive piece adhereing to my own position but giving real consideration to possible arguements.

I learned, in my freshman year of high school, never to make an arguement without considering and, AND, fully addressing the counter-argument.

your piece seems to me to be overly opinionated, self-righteous fluff. You have given me no real idea of the context of the situation other than the version you support. Even your links only support your view. You make it so that I have to search and research for any objective view of the story.

You make me feel like you have only invested yourself emotionally in this and can't find any logic to back up your position. Or, at least, can't find the time to bother.

There could be a real, human story here but, in my humble and erringly human opinion, you negate it by simply refusing to give consideration to reasonable views when they differ from yours.

I honestly believe you are probably right but all I see is your soap-box.




Cat Licks Tiny Fox to Death {Lemondrop}

Jun 13th 2009 2:03AM Oh, that fox is loving it just like any cat does! Heck, when my cats grom each other like that it lasts, maybe, 20 seconds before it becomes play fighting. That fox and that cat are just the sweetest things!

So long, Joe Sixpack: beer's going upscale at $1 a sip {WalletPop}

Jun 7th 2009 5:03AM Why don't we all just drink Bud, then? It's cheapest and still beer?

Why should beer require only the cheapest ingredients, labeling, bottling, and marketing?

We do, actually, sometimes, pay for the quality we get.

I hate beer. It smells and tastes exactly like rotting bread smells to me. I also have learned to appreciate wine and worked at a micro brewery. I learned that beer can and does have the same complexities as wine.

I also learned that Americans, like me, have been conditioned to drink ice-cold beer because it dulls the flavor. Really, that ice-cold cheap Bud you drink you love for its lack of flavor.

Beer was all-American cool because it was cheap and easy. Gin came from the same roots. Not incidentally, so did wine, vodka, and what have you.

What effect does it have on you if someone is willing to drink a beer that doesn't need to be served at a temperature low enough to freeze your taste buds?

If you really think it's just snobby to give beer the same gastronomical credit as wine then why would you care how much anyone pays for anything ever?

I still hate beer. I can do a brown, porter, or, preferably, stout simply because the toasted notes overwhelm, for me, the hoppy and rotten-bread flavors; they're less bitter even at room temperature.

But I also really tried to appreciate beer. I learned what hoppy tasted like and worked to understand and appreciate the difference between an IPA and an amber.

You want a communist version of beer: cheap in cost and quality while accusing those who dare to discern in quality and condemning those who would pay more that what you are willing.

Frankly, I've had champagne that goes for $500/bottle. I don't care for white wines enough to discern. I'm just as happy with a $20 bottle.

Amarones, on the other hand, I thought were great at $60/bottle until I tasted something so deliciously much better and will continue to dish out well over $100 for a bottle, a couple times a year, for four glasses, to share with friends (because something that good is best shared), just because it is such a wonderful treat.

I love that beer has the variation and complexity that wine does. I love the art in it even if I still hate beer.

I still drink relatively cheap wines. I don't drink Gallo.

If you really enjoy the flavor of cheap beer then, by all means, go to. If you like it then why bother spending more just to look like you're as trendy as the next.

But don't pretend like your taste is the only taste or that all beer tastes the same.

Yes, people will pay more just to look cool but some people do pay more just because it is that good and that worth it.

Snobby isn't just saying that something is better because it costs more. Snobby is saying something is better simply because you believe it is (for what ever reason) then condemning others for thinking differently.

You hate expensive beers because they're expensive. I think others trashy and shallow when they snub a restaurant because their wine list doesn't include a $500 bottle, or whatever. Either way you are both judging based on cost and not quality. Neither of you are bothering to learn.

I can name a dozen blended scotches that ghetto rappers exalt for the price then proceed to mix with Sprite, killing the flavor they are cool enough to pay for. I've listened to master brewers extol the beauty of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer for its simplicity.

It is art, pure and simple. It can be inexpensive and easy to get or it can require risking an entire year's crop just to get the right partially dried grapes (read up on your amarones) when you could have made a healthy profit with no risk and only the fresh, juicy grapes.

You're a writer. Should you be paid the same as someone who just vomits out whatever without any concern to the finished product (like, ya know, me) or should you get paid more because you take the time and effort to do what you do well? And where, exactly, should that line be drawn?

At the very least, I'd say, for rarity. And I'll continue to dish out a few thousand a year for a few dozen good wines while I read this common-place proletariat/Marxist sort of rant for free.

But, of course, I'm willing to pay a little more when I, personally, value the quality. I'm also not so concerned that my taste isn't good enough. I still won't pay more than $20 for a bottle of sparkling wine unless it is for a gift to someone who will appreciate that quality.