best thing since sliced bread

This was on display today at Whole Foods:

Batter Blaster

The best part is that it's all real ingredients. That's my new thing these days - I want to be able to pronounce the ingredients on the things that I put in - or on - my body. I try and only drink natural sodas now; I even bought Tom's toothpaste.

Which leads us to an interesting issue. Here's an article at Organicconsumers.org speaking about who owns brands that tout themselves as organic, natural, earth friendly. Somewhat ironically, many well known 'natural' food and product brands are owned by HUGE companies that are faaaarrrrr from natural. Examples - Odwalla is owned by Coca-Cola; Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive; Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox - the list goes on.

So the question is, is this a bad thing? In some ways it's equivalent to a local, unknown band making it big. You know the situation. It leads to such statements as "I've had that CD since 3 years ago" or "Yeah well I heard about them in the 90s when I went to see their concert in a tiny little club." Personally, I'm completely against this. I think no matter the origins that when someone or something is successful it should be met with excitement. And, let's be honest, in this society how can a small business make it without some help from the big guys.

Another thing, H made a good point that the reason these products are even remotely affordable for us, the consumer, is because they have the financial backing of huge conglomerates. The crucial issue then becomes - who controls these companies? When Tom's is bought by Colgate, who makes the business decisions? When Dannon buys most shares of Brown Cow and Stonyfield, are their cows still treatment humanely?

Then all you have left to decide is exactly how pure you wish to be. The argument could be made that by buying these products you are supporting the big companies. By wearing Burt's Bees chapstick you are giving money to Clorox - a huge contributor of chemicals and pollutants in our world. But aren't you also perpetuating the use of natural products? If natural and organic can become corporate than who wins?

Quotes from the childrens

*One early AM last week, when J, in true "brother" style plants himself just outside T's door and proceeds to constantly kick it. T rips open the door and screams, "You're ruining my life!!"

*M: Yeah, and in Sunday school they taught us about evil house crickets, and they fly east.
L: They fly east??
M: Uh huh, and I saw a movie of a guy gettin' eatin' by one.

*J: I wish I had a girlfriend
S: Why J? You might be a little too young to have one.
J: Cause I want to talk to someone about Bigfoot all day.

a little sad

I don't feel like organizing my thoughts on this, just noting that I'm a little sad. So here is a link to a blog post that says exactly what I feel about Maine.

Passing it on

I always tell my kids (whom I work with, not my own kids, because they're unborn) that things do not have a gender, like people or animals. Examples -

Those are girl socks! (Socks aren't boys or girls, they're just socks.)

I want some girl toys. (So boy's can't play with pots and pans? They can't play with hula hoops?)

If you read that book about princesses then you're a girl. (This last one came from an older boy who loves the princess books... and sheets... and pictures... and coloring... and toys... and socks.)


Here is something I came across that I just had to pass on.

Kleenex for Men

... On a cold, wet day

Warm drinks...

Sized Down

There's been a few interesting articles and opinion pieces around lately stemming from a model used in Glamour magazine who is a size 12, therefore plus size, model. She's beautiful, no doubt. Almost because of how natural she looks as a result of her size.

I think it's sort of funny when these things pop up. I guess I wonder how much commentary we can have about how skinny girls are put in magazines and given perfect skin and perky boobs using photo editing software. It seems... redundant, unnecessary, cliche, in fact almost degrading. As in 'you poor women, always having to look at photos of completely unrealistic Barbie type figures whom you can't compare to ever; not in a million years. And we sympathize and identify the problem and it is truly horrible... but we won't change it.' So I say, what's the point of humoring us with the talk.
There is no editor of any "women's" magazine that will honestly only portray everyday women; no editor that will stop writing stories about the right way to apply make up to get that man to think your sexy so that he takes you home when you first meet, but not on the first date because what about safe sex practice, and then you please him immensely in bed, but also win at sports while still respecting his manhood which will make him want to settle down, bare your children, and support your every whim - as an independent woman, of course.
So what's the point. Don't pretend like the talk is the solution.

Oops. I ranted. Well, in the midst of the commentary and the effects of this woman's photo I have found some cool stuff. One thing is a NY Times article on the actual size of people these days. Interesting to note that the average women is the dimensions of size 12 clothing (I phrase the statement that way because there's the idea that clothes are labeled smaller sizes than they truly are - as in, the dimensions of Marilyn Monroe's size 12/14 were actually smaller than today's 12/14.)

Also, another kind of cool thing I happened upon is a model named Crystal Renn who has a quite successful career in Australia (and somewhere in Europe?) She is definitely plus size by model industry standards - I believe a 14 in US sizes. And Here's a post that comments about a Harper's Bazaar photo shoot in which the photographer actually does an amazing job of highlighting the curves and lines of her body instead of the more typical tendency to mask or hide it.

I'm not quite sure what I get out of these discussions, or even what I hope to convey to anyone reading this particular post. I know two things though - I don't buy fashion magazines and you don't have to tell me twice to appreciate the human body and form for exactly what it is. Without the editing software.

Eating Conscience

About three years ago, this movie turned me, once and for all, into a vegetarian - Baraka

And, now this author is educating me as to why - Michael Pollan

Oddly enough, Baraka is not a film about vegetarianism, the treatment of animals, or health, or eating. In fact it is not a film about food, necessarily, at all. It is a documentary of sorts, completely nonverbal, about daily life in a variety of different cultures, countries, and continents. It is about, in so many words, the interconnectedness of people.

Three scenes from this film always stand out in my mind.

The first is of the Kecak Dance in Bali. The rhythmic sounds and movements; the apparent trance like state of many of the men involved; the seemingly perfect understanding of every one of them; and the mystery, the meaning - it is so fascinating to me. How many peoples must have witnessed this or even been involved with it over how many centuries?
The second scene is from a factory (?) that 'processes' chicks. They ride conveyor belts through a dirty, metal factory, dropping from machine to machine where they are sorted, picked over, beak tips burned off, and then, finally, dropped to cages of some kind; I believe they are to be used to lay eggs.
The third is also a factory scene, from Indonesia, of a cigarette factory. It is so machine like and yet employs probably thousands of people. They roll, cut, count. It's such a different feeling then the sight of a simple, neat pack of cigarettes in a store somewhere.

So these three scenes, somehow combined in my mind, pushed me to stop eating meat. The interconnectedness of cultures... perhaps I felt that if I ate those chickens when they grew up I would be ruining traditions like the Kecak Dance and forcing most of south east Asia to work in cigarette factories. No. OK, I wasn't really sure why. I just felt like it was the right time.

I've just recently started reading Michael Pollan's books. I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma first, even though I believe it was written second. He has been able to identify and explain all these difficult, confusing food concerns so simply and thoroughly. The blurb on one of the books said something like 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly vegetables.' So simple. So now, after over three years of changing my eating habits, I will finally find out why.