Blissful Ignorance

Beef. Comes from the supermarket. Right?

A familiar sight on almost every kitchen counter
This is about factory farming.

I love veal. I haven't eaten veal in 20 years. I accidentally channel hopped by CNN one night. There was a film regarding how calves for the veal market are treated. I wouldn't go out of my way to see something like that. I'd rather not know. I haven't eaten veal since.

CA Senate Bill 1520 has me thinking about this. It bans foie gras in California as of 1 July.

I usually land on the animal rights side of things but I have to agree completely with this Bon Appétit article that suggests the bill is misguided.

I love (almost) everything about food.

I just *love* old orchards.

And of course I *really* love vineyards.

They have weddings here
Now and then I visit New Bedford. For the most awesome seafood.

Our neighbors plant tomatoes...

Tomatoes. Thirty acres of tomatoes!
I love lamb. I'm lucky. I get my lamb from a family farm within walking distance from my house. I visit that farm and I pat the lambs on their fuzzy little heads and I kiss their wet noses.

I've thought about it and for me it's a quality of life thing.

Factory farming is horrific. It's an ugly thing and I admit - I close my eyes and I put my fingers in my ears.

I'd decided to use alternatives to factory farms at every opportunity. I do and I'm happy with that.

I've personally seen geese in France raised for foie gras and I've found nothing offensive about it. I understand Hudson Valley Foie Gras treats their birds well.

Frankly I think banning foie gras is a completely (ridiculous) empty humanitarian gesture.

Storm report

It was a little breezy and wet.

28 August 2011 9:10 am
I lost power around 9:30.

It really was raining like a .. um, well..it was raining buckets.

Pouring rain
Some trees and wires were down. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic...

Branches and clutter

Big old trees came down here and there
Some small trees came down around the barn. Kind of funny. There'd be a gust of wind and a loud crack and all the horses would pop over their doors all bug eyed. One really needed their wits about them picking stalls!

Small trees downAnd this used to be a corn field.

Total loss I think
Still no power at dinner time. Good thing I love Chef Boyardee. I didn't have the good sense to have a book handy. I saw the damaged lines down the street and it looked to me like about 30 minutes work to restore power. I figured the power would be back on any minute. After all. They said they were ready for this. (They = the combined electric utility companies)

So I passed the time for what I thought would be a short while...

That short time became longer.

So I hit the National Geographics. I have every National Geographic back to March 1960 and when I'm *really* bored they provide hours and hours of amusement.

I mean look!

Here, thanks to Bell Telephone, back in 1962 The cook has everything she needs.

And, after dinner, in 1961, while the cook did the dishes, the man of the house could Tune out trouble with a Zenith TV! Anybody remember Red Skelton?

And look carefully at that advertisement and note the Space Command remote control. That was the very first remote control - it was mechanical. It used ultra sound. In 1961 I think that was a second generation improved model.

And this was air travel back in the day? Really?

Gregory Peck?!
I was lucky. Very lucky. I got power back at 1:30 Monday morning. I threw out some crab and some goat cheese. I'm told getting into some bad shellfish is one of life's worst experiences so I didn't feel it was worth it. The goat cheese might have been on its way south before the power went out.

---

Rant alert!

I am appalled. Positively appalled. With the electric utilities here. This wasn't a bad storm and they were "prepared". I have nothing to complain about. I went for 16 hours without power. There are many people around here went 4 and 5 days without power and some people still don't have power.

It was not a bad storm. It was a passing tropical storm almost 90 miles inland, 60 miles from here. It got breezy for a few hours. It rained like crazy. Our electric utility companies reassured the public they were ready. And what I find appalling is the fact that after the storm, while some trees were down and some lines were down, and roads were closed, the utility company crews were nowhere to be seen.

We have old trees and all of our services are strung along telephone poles. The wind blows and wires come down. I can't emphasize it enough: all week long I've seen two utility trucks. In storms past I've seen those crews out in convoys and I've seen them work like pit crews to restore service and they're to be commended for that.

But regarding tropical storm Irene (60 miles away) they should be ashamed.

And we should all be concerned about what will happen when we have a real storm come through.

Hold it, hold it

I have a little extra time on my hands..

Does anyone think this is a good thing: Americans work longer hours than workers in most other developed countries.

Anyone? Anyone at all?

This isn't the way we thought it was going to be. As bad as the 60s were, and they were, even with Vietnam, and civil rights unrest, and the assassinations, there was a sense of hope for the future. We gathered around our black and white TVs and watched the NASA launches with a real sense of wonder. And we thought for sure peaceful use of "atomic energy" would make electricity free by now.

Our heroes were Engineers and of course cars would fly.

In the 70s we thought the bathroom would be the biggest room in the house by now. Because advances in technology would make us so efficient we'd have oodles of free time to say, sit around in our whirlpool bathtubs.

No, we really did think those things.

Admittedly that's rather naive. But still, I think if pretty much everyone agrees we work too hard then why do we do it? Somebody must think it's a good thing. And they must be important.