The news is flooded with reports about the Tabloid Phone Privacy scandal. It seems someone in the tabloid media finally crossed some line that might send someone to jail. Aren't we all shocked - aren't they unbelievably insensitive. But wait ... who pays their salary? We all do. Or, at least those of us who buy the tabloid papers. What if we all just stopped buying their papers? What if we encouraged our friends and family to boycott tabloids? Can we make a difference?
I know, you are saying "I'm not the one who buys that stuff!" Ok, but do we listen to it on the radio? Watch it on TV? On the Internet? Perhaps not. Perhaps you try to avoid it - I try too. But someone is buying the stuff. Why?
So, fine, maybe we aren't contributing to tabloid / paparazzi insanity.
Then, let's talk about Chocolate. Do you buy chocolate? Have you heard yet that most of the world's cocoa comes from Cote d'Ivoire and that some is produced with child slave labor? So, do we think about this when we buy our chocolate? It's pretty easy right now to buy Fair Trade chocolate: buy Mars (Dove) and not Hershey. Buy Divine Chocolate or Cadbury and not Nestle. Is this too hard? Why?
(And the same can be said about Coffee.)
Ok, you are not ready to stress about Chocolate right now - Chocolate is your stress reliever - you'll think about it later.
Fine, then now it's time to think about Juarez, Mexico. ... ... ... do you already know what I'm going to say?
Someone out there in America is buying drugs from the drug cartels in Mexico, and Juarez and other cities and towns in Mexico have become the kind of war-zones that we callously watch in movies, but would not step foot in ourselves. From a Congressional Research Service report "Mexico, a major drug producing and transit country, is the main foreign supplier of marijuana and a major supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Although Mexico accounts for only a small share of worldwide heroin production, it supplies a large share of heroin consumed in the United States. An estimated 90% of cocaine entering the United States transits Mexico. " "Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States. "
So, it's us. It is the United States that is the market that is responsible for all the violence and death and destruction and terror and fear. How does that make you feel? It makes me feel sick and I don't know what to do about it. I don't participate in the illicit drug market. You probably don't either. But someone does. Enough someones that it drives $15 billion to $50 billion per year sales. Why?
Why?
Because we don't care about consequences. We don't care about others.
We care about ourselves and our pleasures.
Well, I don't believe that about you!
I believe that you do care. I believe that you will do even more to avoid tabloid reporting and you will talk to your friends and family about it; I believe that you will think about which brand of chocolate or coffee to buy for yourself and for others; I believe that you will pray for the people of Juarez and Mexico and think about how we can take some kind of stand to stop enabling the terror.
I believe that you will take as much responsibility for the consumer footprint you are leaving in this world as you do about your carbon footprint and your garbage footprint.
I also believe that i'm preaching to the choir. So, you tell me now. What should I not be buying? I want to chose to care.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Salad - Oh Bother - Lettuce too big to eat
Why can't restaurants cut dinner salads into bite size pieces?
You know as well as I that we are all trying to eat our 5 fruits and vegetable servings every day, Right? Well, at a restaurant that means getting a salad, either as an entree or as a opener dish. So, why is it that the lettuce (or spinach or other greens) is almost never cut into bite size pieces? I just got back from 5 days of vacation - mostly eating out for dinner.
Old manners books say that we should never cut our salad with a knife and fork while eating, but they also say that the salad should already be bite-sized. Newer etiquette books and videos tell us that we can cut one bite of salad at a time (if our knife is stainless steel, not silver) and eat that before eating the next bite. Neither of these methods works for me in today's average restaurants. Here is why...
Our server brings us a salad of large pieces of greens on a very flat plate. There might be a few carrots or wedges of tomato and slices of cucumber or some croutons, or maybe not. On the top center is a very large dollop of dressing. So, what shall we do?
The salad needs to be tossed to spread the dressing around, and the leaves need to be cut to fit into our mouths. If we cut just one piece of lettuce at a time, there is no way to spread the dressing around. If we try to 'toss' the salad, we'll be tossing it all over the table but very little will stay on the flat plate. We can either stuff the large leaves into our mouth and eat the dressing alternately as large amounts followed by small tastes.
So, let us ignore the etiquette police and just cut the whole salad. Grabbing our knife and fork firmly, we start cutting across the salad as if we were dicing an onion or cutting a piece of meat up for a small child. Of course, every slice sends bits of salad off the plate and onto the table, sometimes carrying dressing with it. So using your knife and fork, scoop that errant salad back onto the plate, folding it over top to spread the dressing. Do this again about 5 times in this direction, then rotate the plate 90 degrees and do it 5 times more. A bit more folding of salad with knife and fork, and we have a very nicely chopped salad with evenly spread dressing, half of which has spent some time on the table.
Of course, you and I could just order a chopped salad, if it's available. I'm fascinated by the fact that getting a salad that is actually ready to eat requires a new special term. Shouldn't all salads be ready to eat? Is there anyone out there that prefers the really big pieces of lettuce? Please let me know.
You know as well as I that we are all trying to eat our 5 fruits and vegetable servings every day, Right? Well, at a restaurant that means getting a salad, either as an entree or as a opener dish. So, why is it that the lettuce (or spinach or other greens) is almost never cut into bite size pieces? I just got back from 5 days of vacation - mostly eating out for dinner.
Old manners books say that we should never cut our salad with a knife and fork while eating, but they also say that the salad should already be bite-sized. Newer etiquette books and videos tell us that we can cut one bite of salad at a time (if our knife is stainless steel, not silver) and eat that before eating the next bite. Neither of these methods works for me in today's average restaurants. Here is why...
Our server brings us a salad of large pieces of greens on a very flat plate. There might be a few carrots or wedges of tomato and slices of cucumber or some croutons, or maybe not. On the top center is a very large dollop of dressing. So, what shall we do?
The salad needs to be tossed to spread the dressing around, and the leaves need to be cut to fit into our mouths. If we cut just one piece of lettuce at a time, there is no way to spread the dressing around. If we try to 'toss' the salad, we'll be tossing it all over the table but very little will stay on the flat plate. We can either stuff the large leaves into our mouth and eat the dressing alternately as large amounts followed by small tastes.
So, let us ignore the etiquette police and just cut the whole salad. Grabbing our knife and fork firmly, we start cutting across the salad as if we were dicing an onion or cutting a piece of meat up for a small child. Of course, every slice sends bits of salad off the plate and onto the table, sometimes carrying dressing with it. So using your knife and fork, scoop that errant salad back onto the plate, folding it over top to spread the dressing. Do this again about 5 times in this direction, then rotate the plate 90 degrees and do it 5 times more. A bit more folding of salad with knife and fork, and we have a very nicely chopped salad with evenly spread dressing, half of which has spent some time on the table.
Of course, you and I could just order a chopped salad, if it's available. I'm fascinated by the fact that getting a salad that is actually ready to eat requires a new special term. Shouldn't all salads be ready to eat? Is there anyone out there that prefers the really big pieces of lettuce? Please let me know.
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