Thoughts on checking The Ultimatest Grocery List

Get your copy at GroceryLists.org

I am experiencing technical difficulties typing this. One of the animals sprayed on the bed, a definite no-no, and because we don't know which one did it, we've limited bedroom access to creatures who can twist a doorknob. In retribution, the cat most vocal in protest has sat on my list.

The grocery list isn't exhaustive. Every subcategory in Foodstuffs and Household has two blank lines for specialty, unusual or local items. I did not see a category for dried beans, peas, legumes and bulk grains. Cereal is in "various groceries." How we shop for foods is more complicated, now that our eyes have been opened to food politics.

The devisers of this Ultimatest Grocery List have a hilarious Household subcategory of Carcinogens: pick up arsenic, asbestos, cigarettes, radionuclides, and vinyl chloride. Radionuclides I wasn't aware of until now. Judging from my family's history, I don't have to work hard to get cancer, don't understand why I should pay for it.

Meat we usually order once a month from a rancher in Walla Walla.
Fish we get either from a longtime company in the Univ District or from the Farmers' Market. Although we have been buying from Trader Joe's.
Dairy and eggs we get at Trader Joe's or nearby supermarket in a hurry.

When we feel we have a big list (20 items or more) we'll go to a regional chain store that offers bulk cereal, grains, and features food offerings from local producers.

But seriously, the more reading one does, the more one comes to understand a lot of processed food just isn't good or healthy.
Costco is where we go for toilet paper, olive oil, detergent, cat litter, toothpaste, tooth brushes, bleach, fruit juice, coffee, soup base, broth, soups, chicken breasts, pens.

Vegetables and fruits we get from a Community Supported Agriculture subscription or from farmers' markets or farms in special cases, like our annual county Harvest Celebration tour.

Now that we've learned to read labels, there's so much we no longer buy from the supermarket. We used to spend about $5000 at the corner supermarket, but management idiocy, irritated check-out personnel ("I know the other store's club card works but I'm not allowed to scan it and neither are you.") and displays that restrict foot and mobility wheel traffic keep us burning fossil fuels elsewhere. Another reason to consider moving, I guess.

Wherefore attitudes about (not) watching television

I used to have cable television. I liked it! It, along with books, the beach, cooking, public market and my friends kept me entertained when I was single, alone, and not yet hooked up with Internet access at home.

Then I moved to the U.S. And I knew I wouldn't be able to get my cable shows. So we didn't get cable. Now all channels are in high definition format, so we use my 20-year-old TV set for the Wii, DVDs and VHS. As far as I know, no one thinks the worse of us for not having cable, and we don't think worse of people who have cable. They have tastes different from us, and most of our friends don't have children, as we do.

Links:
Stuff White People Like: Not Having a TV
Encyclopedia Dramatica: I don't watch TV

I find it interesting that a few people who watch television, upon learning someone doesn't watch [network shows, cable shows, news] infer that there's some holier-than-thou or snobbish attitude. Maybe someone just can't manage the expense of cable? How is that holier? Maybe someone has children to raise and a job to tend to and doesn't have time to merit the expense? How is that smug? Is the second-guessing a defense mechanism because the questioner didn't ask: "do you watch television?" Or is it merited, such as when the respondent starts a militant lecture or weird rant as to why s/he doesn't watch (brainwashing, better things to do, verbal smackdowns of that ilk). The defensive snark's causative factors are usually undefined, perhaps internal.

I'd be lying if I said I don't watch television, because I do rent DVDs and they go into the DVD player, hooked up to the television set. We watch maybe 18 hours a year of recycled television specials and cancelled series. Movies we see probably 40 hours a year, and maybe one-third to one-half of those hours are on the computer.

For watercooler talk, why not ask someone "hey, what websites do you follow?" or "what books do you read?" or "where have your cooking adventures taken you?" or "did you see such-and-such exhibit?" or "did you follow last night's [insert sport of choice] game?" Maybe someone caught the game live or on radio or through streaming media via the Web.

Humour

I'm watching "Bananas" and am surprised I haven't seen this before. So cute the references to City Lights and Battleship Potemkin are. Slapstick, four-star film.

I have a list of very funny novels to read while the fall/winter season approaches. I have tried to get a list of funniest films but the ones easiest to find assume that humour is exclusively American, there were no funny films prior to "Caddyshack", and the final arbiter of what is funny is a white American male between the ages of 15 to 24.

Reader's Digest's list probably has a broader perspective, at least chronologically and there is at least one French film and a few Italian films:
http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/the-top-100-funniest-movies-of-all-time/article13866.html
----------------------------------------------
Links to discussions of what may be funniest novels:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15374_wit-lit-101-five-classic-novels-that-bring-funny.html

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/whats-the-funniest-novel-ever/

http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/fivebest/?id=110008077&mod=RSS_Opinion_Journal&ojrss=frontpage
(read three of these, saw the movie adaptation of one. Lucky Jim is certainly ranked highly for humour. That must be why I can't ever find a copy in three library systems.)

People who compare other people to Hitler...

don't recognize that they cannot possibly be taken seriously. Show me where the person compared to Hitler authorized the concentration camps, show me their government terror squads smashing windows of storefronts and brutally beating innocent citizens, and I'll consider changing my opinion.

I do not know why irrational and absurdist statements are used to bolster opinion as fact. This gambit is very popular in my adopted country, and probably in other countries where there is at least some free speech. Say something truthful and sensational and backed up by facts. Anything else makes you sound like a loon calling other loons.

A moment of intuition?

I am reading a book: _The Intuitive Edge_, by Philip Goldberg. I am not intuitive, although I am a good predictor of people's behaviour at times.

Here is my intuition anecdote of the day:
There is a woman I have met whose child is in a grade higher than my child's: both our children attend the same school. I'll call her Honora. She wanted someone to look at her computer as it was not working correctly. She asked if my husband would come look at it. I said I would ask.

I did ask. Hubby said okay. We went to the woman's house, and she wasn't there. Fine. The next day Old Man L. says "I...I...I gotta go walkies." And I suggest a nearby chain restaurant known for healthful food, that we've been to twice. So we go, and lo! on our third visit, there is Honora with her friend! And I direct Old Man L. to her.

What possessed me to suggest a place we don't frequent?

breast cancer prevention foods: what's the real story?

source: The Breast Cancer Prevention Plan

Here are what are suggested to reduce one's chances of getting breast cancer
green tea
organic milk and milk products
buy meat from livestock ranchers you can interview directly
eat cruciferous vegetables every day
consume more yogurt (organic)
brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, cabbage, turnips, collards and cauliflower should be eaten frequently (unless you're pregnant or breast-feeding).
raise your Vitamin B12 and folate levels: eat green leafy vegetables, peas, beans, and enriched cereals -- supplement with methylcobalamin
eat fruits and vegetables that have not been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides
avoid dioxins
reduce or regulate your blood sugar
N-acetylcysteine

never eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
never eat anything that would not spoil easily
never eat anything wild animals will not eat


touching, hugging and sex all increase melatonin production
make sure you turn down your lights especially after 10 pm. this includes turning off the TV or using the computer after 10 pm

the velveteen rabbit

I read Margery Williams's classic to my kid last night and he leaped across the bed to hug me when I finished reading. This is a parental thrill. He doesn't hug his father after his father reads to him.