Food has been much on my mind lately, as I seem to be dwindling away. It used to be that I had to be careful not to swell like a giant pumpkin, and adding pounds was as easy as looking at cheese. But these days the pounds aren’t sticking, and I have reverted to eating lots of carbs in the hopes I can join the Sumo wrestling team once again. Why we eat what we eat is not nearly as obvious as it can appear, and the history of food is fascinating (unless you read The History and Social Influence of the Potato, which my father-in-law has nominated for most boring book ever, which I question, having attempted to read Ospreys: A Natural and Unnatural History), and not just a question of taste. Public policy has come to play a remarkable and not so benign role in our diets, as we get nonsensical food pyramids thrust at a diverse ethnic population, and grow fat and diabetic listening to the advice of the “experts” who are frequently compromised greatly by their funding and academic in-fighting. At least according to the very convincing Gary Taubes and his excellent work Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health, which is a better title than his more recent Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It, and also considerably longer.
It was the inestimable Russ Roberts who lead me to Gary Taubes, and he has just interviewed the author of Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History:
Rachel Laudan, visiting scholar at the University of Texas and author of Cuisine and Empire, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the history of food. Topics covered include the importance of grain, the spread of various styles of cooking, why French cooking has elite status, and the reach of McDonald’s. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the appeal of local food and other recent food passions.
Most enjoyable, and as you root around like a pig eating potatoes, you will at least understand why. Bon Appetit.
I hope it was for good reasons! And did Mr Fix really turn blue? It seems too much to hope for.
I just managed to make the whole site disappear – updated a plugin, not even an active one, and poof, everything gone, and then I became a web genius and managed to get into the files behind the site through my hosting site’s cPanel, and then was able to rename the folder containing the plugin I updated so it couldn’t launch, and bam, everything back. Thank the mighty spirits that other people have had similar enough problems and leave detailed trails of crumbs behind for us who have no knowledge of what they are doing. But holy panic batman! Blank pages everywhere. I need to back this up somehow!
That was a horrible feeling and I can’t quite believe I solved it.
I went to all the places where we used to go, me and my blog, but she was gone, early in the morning ….
And I just like this song:
Just sitting on the boat in the rain but we got the stove working, mostly by hooking up the propane and turning it on, bypassing the weird safety gas leak detection system that seemed to only cost $300 on sale and we decided to live (or explode) without it, as turning off the tank is what we would do anyhow. It is really nice to sit in a boat in the rain.
OMG! But for once he is right, and your cat might well be trying to kill you:
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/gen_info/faqs.html
Dawn at the sailing club:
Sunrise over the city:
For someone who has had some bad luck in the last little while, I am feeling very lucky.
don’t really know what to call these. trying some different tricks. hope they are at least interesting.
what a nice morning you had Xty. you are lucky!
Hey I like those – they look almost like metal that has been electrified. Are they from that fractal programme? And that is a smoke ring! And I am lucky and hope I am appreciative when things go well. We ate yummy leftovers, and these local ravioli with a cheat camping sauce of fried mushrooms, mushroom soup, cream and white wine. And bacon and eggs for breakfast with mango kefir and coffee. Good thing Scott Walker wants to build a fence to keep you guys out of here … or maybe I misunderstood.
Here are the eggs, just because, and then our beautiful morning. I know it looks ridiculous, the boat, and obviously we aren’t down to our last nickel (no pennies here anymore) but we decided to live and not panic about dying, and offspring #1 is going to have to house the elderly parents if we make it that far. I think the last years of mum’s life really influenced me, as well as my health problems, and we are going to say good-bye to inheriting cottages that we can’t afford anyway and saving up for too many rainy days that might never come – this has no municipal taxes, we can take it anywhere and the foundations aren’t crumbling. Well, maybe they are, and it needs new tramps and a host of repairs and it is twenty years old but we cleaned it up nicely, and it is our floating cottage. I have dreams of getting to the Sea of Abaco next winter … somehow if we dream it might happen, but if we don’t we know it won’t.
i used 3 different art programs to get the right colors and effects. to get the fractal triangle effect i used Sumo Paint. i am going to submit these to your city counselors in charge of the paint job for the tree thingy. i hope it isn’t too late to enter the ugliest dog contest.
the smoke ring picture is “photo shopped”. it’s meant as a sort of inane commentary.
wow… Scott Walker looks like an even bigger douche bag obamafied. (hope it’s OK to say that considering the circumstances)
i just found another art program. this was so easy to make that i can’t tell you just yet how i did it.