Hey H.B.
What's Up? Question: Why do you think most people don't think about what they eat? Is it all the marketing around food that makes most people mindless when it comes to choosing what they put in their mouths? I've been thinking lately (luckily it's not the first time) about all the food recalls, and I'm getting a bit paranoid about it all. I mean, I was already paranoid, but now it's not just Maple Leaf products I've got to watch out for (Google it, that recall runs deep), but every other friggin thing on the grocery store shelves. Since when are jalapeno peppers dangerous (remember last summer?) or green peppers (Hep A anyone?) and now peanuts? WTF?
Someone at work recently said that by law meat packers are allowed to have a certain amount of feces in the meat that they pack. I was like: human feces?
On a sidebar note, what's with the people who still eat at McDonald's? Um, hello? Anyone want to comment on that?
—Running on Empty |
You know ROE,
We can't blame everything on the marketers. We come from stupid stock. Our parents, and their parents before them, had the strangest ideas concerning diet (and just about everything else). Although, the olde timey marketers may have been toying with our ancestors, setting off this chain reaction so perhaps they are to blame after all. Either way, we got lazy about our diets when we got greedy. Fast food equals less effort which means you can work more and afford that second car that you need so badly, that bigger house, that next child. And of course cost plays into the equation, people seem to think that "good" food is only for the rich but I'll tell you eating crap is probably going to cost you so much more in the long run. Loss of valuable time due to illness is significant when a diet is not balanced and healthy.
I might be preaching to the converted here, but let's review the priorities when it comes to eating habits that benefit not only you but the world at large. First off, buy fresh, buy local. The fresher and more local your selections are means a lower dependance of those preservatives, additives and other nastiness used to mummify our food. Secondly, try as hard as possible to make sure over ninty percent of your groceries are found on the perimeter of the store. Staying away from the aisles will help keep you from giving in to processed foods. Fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy and meat (for those so inclined) are the easiest and healthiest things to find in a grocery store but you still see people working their way through congested aisles to buy "food-ish" products that work against their long term well being.
As for the fecal content in packaged meat, I'm not sure whether we're talking fact or urban legend. It's nothing we all haven't heard at one time or another, but most of us have managed to tuck that information away cause it's just too much to contemplate. Either way, I would presume (please, please, let it be so) that we are not talking about human feces. I don't even know how that could happen on the job. It's not like hairdressers are allowed to get a certain amount of feces in your hair, or lawyers are allowed to have a certain amount of feces in their briefs.
Lastly, I do not know why anyone eats at McDonalds. I have to admit a sick weakness for a bacon and Egg McMuffin every now and again, and I don't know where it comes from (the weakness, not the Egg McMuffin). But here's another rule to try and follow. If a clown is telling you to eat somewhere, don't do it. If any sort of animated character ever tells you to do anything at all, ever, don't do it. Remember this rule, it applies to not only food, but just about everything in life.
Dear Half,
I need advice, and you're just the guy to give it. I have been in this city for a long, long time and I'm starting to get itchy feet, proverbially speaking—this is not a Gold Bond moment. I currently have no attachments to speak of and I'm thinking about relocating to the country. I have cultivated many strong friendships here in Victoria, but lately the city's gone cold for me. My fears around moving are that I will find myself restless and out of sorts somewhere else, and if that's the case why not just stay and feel like that here because inevitably something will change. It sounds irrational I know, but I need an outsider's take on this.
—Should I stay or should I go now? |
Dear SIS-SIGN,
Need help packing? Seriously, get out of town! When we have attachments they tend to ground us, for better or for worse, and we often lack the freedom to take a chance, spin the wheel, move to the country. Itchy feet occur for a reason. They let us know when it's time to take a chance and try something new. Trust me, our feet know us better then most other parts of our bodies (the navel being the exception). Give it a shot and get your ass out of here. If things don't suit you in your new digs, pack up some boxes and head on back to Victoria. Your friends will still be here anxiously waiting to hear all about your adventures "off-island" and will probably do their best to help you get back into the Victoria swing (which should be easy cause it's not really that swingy of a swing). So go ahead and move. Just try not to treat it as an odyssey, but rather as an extended vacation with an option to stay if you find things are working to suit you, but with the awareness that you can just as easily skip town if the torch bearing locals make your new life less than you had hoped for.
Drop me a line when you get there,
HB
Dear half-baked,
I'm an average guy of average height in a pretty average job with average pay. How's a guy like me supposed to get noticed in this world of gigantic televisions and microscopic computers? I feel like the world is convinced that things (including people) aren't worth utilizing unless they are over-the-top (under-the-bottom?).
—Good Fit |
Hey GF,
I know exactly what you mean. It's so amusing when a friend goes on and on about his brand new 60 inch television, and then won't stop talking about his 1 inch IPod screen (which I'm sure must be the worst way to watch porn ever). People in our society love their extremes. From SUVs to Smart cars, we are impressed with everything more or less than ordinary. How else can you explain the fascination of places like Miniature World and IMAX, or the Guiness Book of Useless Records. It amazes me that most people who watch the best TV has to offer will overlook the mediocre fare, but are enthralled by the worst of it (Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Inanity, all CSIs). I think that perhaps it is only by the extremes that we can judge ourselves. Big or small, good or bad, one end of the scale enables you to feel superior, the other humbles you. Who wants to measure themselves by anything average? That just makes you feel, well, average. Personally I like being an average guy so welcome to the club.
And now I would like to take a moment to thank Amelia Martin for holding down the fort while I was Up-Island last issue. She's one smart cookie so listen to her!
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