Perfectionitis in the Produce Dept.

Over on Tigers and Strawberries, Barbara and her commenters are having a good old time talking about frugality. In an aside, Barbara asks,"What is it about American’s quest for “the perfect—-fill in the blank with the name of a fruit or vegetable?” This quest for perfect produce is what has led us to beautiful but tasteless Red Delicious apples, huge, perfectly smooth skinned pumpkins with watery, tasteless flesh and giant, sweet-smelling strawberries that taste like styrofoam. It is all a passel of aberrant behavior on the part of food marketers and people who eat with their eyes, not their mouths–in other words, they want food that is pretty rather than food that tastes good." Let me take a stab at answering that.

Think for a moment about a produce section: bins and bins of produce, each offered at its own price. There is no way to tell within a bin of, let's say, Pippin apples, which are good and which are not, unless 1) someone has shown you how to tell, or 2) you've eaten enough to have learned how to tell except by looking for whichever ones are less "damaged", except by looking. Rooting through a bin of Russett potatoes, it is an intelligent choice to only take those which are perfect-looking, because why would you take a different one if it is not cheaper or better in some way? My point is, when there is a choice between good-looking and not, it is a rational choice is to take the best looking.

But Yogi, you say, what if the best looking isn't the best tasting? My answer is, when you don't know how it tastes, you go for looks. And now the grocers are left with bad-looking (but perfectly good) produce that they have to sell at a discount or toss. Their rational response is to only buy what sells, yes? And so on up the chain. When you match this with the agribiz push for monoculture, you end up with the modern-day produce dept. To blame this on consumers who are simply trying to decide what to buy for dinner is to miss the essential point: why do they not know better?

The answer is in the pattern of immigration and movement: when people move out of their native zones, they no longer know what is the standard for selection. Over many, many years (about 5 generations, at this point, maybe more in some cases) their reliance on visual cues for produce selection combines with the other rational choices to give us what we see now. When I moved to NY 10 years ago, I was appalled by the low quality of produce, and lack of selection, particularly varietal selection. I literally didn't know what type of lettuce would be best, out of the sorry selection I was offered. I found out quickly, because I have cooked for years and am passionate about it, but our housekeeper at the time was Guatemalan and there were many things in the anglo market she would have had to guess at. Conversely, when she took me to the local hispanic/latino markets, she had to show me how to choose chayote and such, as I had no clue. Migrants (whether immigrant or not) often had no choice but to choose with their eyes. I'd also like to point out that even now, in my 50s, I still can't always get a great watermelon. But I can afford to toss it if it's really bad. Many people can't.

Another video

Hey there. Had a good Valentine's Day? Me too.

Now that that's out of the way, here's video you should watch, courtesy of the site The Reality Based Community: Jayne Torvil and Christopher Dean, skating for the gold at Sarajevo, in 1984. If you haven't seen it, you're in for a treat. If you have, it's great revisit.

Hope you all are the same...

Hmm.

A couple of times in the last few days, someone has described someone else as "Christians", meaning that they are honest and fair-dealing. In one case, the person was referring to themselves.

I don't think they hear the inherent bigotry of that. Or am I just being sensitive?

How's about YOU put your life on display, Jackson?

Lots of talk about the mother of octuplets here in SoCal. The most charitable thing I can say to the folks who are having a problem with this is, "Who the fuck made you arbiter of all that's good and holy?"

Really, now. Why are you so upset? She made a choice that you wouldn't have made, fine. I get that. But why the hating? She's not on public assistance, she's not asking you to baby-sit, you're not responsible for the baby's college funds, so what's the problem?

I think some people just can't get their heads around the possibility that someone might raise their children differently. One lady in the NY Times comments said something about taking the kids to soccer practice and the like, and doesn't seem to get that not every family is into the same sort of yuppie child-rearing. The Bad Yogi gets fish-eyes from some people because he and DW insist that YD not have a completely full day, every day of the week, and weekends too. Our opinion is that she needs down time and so would not be well served by being entertained 24/7. I imagine the lady in question is going to be in the same boat.

To me there's a distinction here between thinking that she made a mistake (personally, I think she's not terribly intelligent, but so what?) and dumping on her for what are supposed to look like moral reasons: It's not fair to the kids!!! I call bullshit. Many kids are still raised without being kept busy all the time, and they can learn to be self-directed, if they are not simply handed the remote. But there is the "idle hands make devil's work" meme running through our society, and I think that this is a major part of what;s going on.

Anyway, my prescription for these people is, Sit down and have a nice cup of Shut The Fuck Up.

Get 'em out, NOW

So, a few of the nominees have turned up with tax issues and the like, and are withdrawing. Good. Anyone in this day and age who didn't pay the nanny tax and still wants to be in public office is too stupid to be considered.

Folks, this isn't rocket science. These people KNOW that they are going to be scrutinized to the n-th degree. If they STILL can't get their shit together, they don't belong in public office. And if they are Democrats, that's fine with me: we need to clean house.