(Untitled)

[annieover]

Instead of doing the very, very important work * that I have to finish today, I read the first 50 pages of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, book I was so sure I wanted to read that I purchased it used not once, but twice. (I couldn't remember if I already had the book.)  As I sat there eating my sugar free Jello with sugar free Cool

Comments

[dimfuture]

I like Jell-O.

[annieover]

I don't much care for Jell-O, but it's on the very short list of approved "sweets" for this diet. I'd much rather have pie, but that's how I got to be 30 pounds overweight again. Dammit.

[dimfuture]

Yeah, I've been on South Beach. It's not nearly as bad as Atkins (which was a horrible idea), but it still leaves something to be desired. Have you tried that AWESOME DESSERT made with ricotta cheese yet? (I don't think it's that awesome).

[annieover]

Yeah, I've had the ricotta dessert. I'd rather eat a fudgesicle. Raphy thinks it's AWESOME. I consider it the anti-dessert.

[gryphonwing]

Love that book. I read it either as part of my coursework in the sociology of food, or alongside - I can't remember. But I adore Kingsolver's writing in general; she's definitely one of my favorite authors. I go for thoughtful treatments of complicated situations, you know? Prodigal Summer might be my actual favorite book, although I'm actually really awful at the "favorites" thing. I put it in the same category with Leguin's The Telling, or her Four Ways to Forgiveness (and the Fifth Way, published later as a short story

[jimbow8]

I am probably making excuses to an extent, but I do think it has gotten much harder since we were kids to find "good food." It's all become factory mass-produced and cheap.

[dimfuture]

Really? How has it become harder? When I was a kid, you couldn't find an organic produce section in any supermarket, much less rows of food from small, green companies who make their stuff in tiny batches.

My childhood had no shortage of scary processed foods, either... I remember "Frankenfurters," hot dogs stuffed with processed chili. Those things probably took five years off my life.

[annieover]

It's harder because at least when we were kids, Monsanto hadn't reengineered all the produce. I really resent how grape tomatoes have replaced cherry tomatoes at the supermarket. They don't taste nearly as good as the cherry tomatoes. Also, there were a lot more farm stands when I was a kid(at least here in Illinois) and those farm stands had a wide variety of food. Now the few that still exist carry basically the same produce that can be found in the supermarket. Also, organic produce usually has two to three times the price of the regular produce. And there was a lot less corn syrup and hydrogenated oil in the food 30 years ago.

But part of it is perception: we are a lot more aware that the produce is sprayed with crap than we were in the seventies. So produce "felt" safer even if it wasn't.

[jimbow8]

I also think it is a shame that we have devalued actual work. As you say, people go to school to escape a life of work. I remember when having a job at McDonald's was reasonably respectable. Now it's not even a respectable first job for teenagers. These workers are looked down upon. (I don't mean to single out McDonald's; there are plenty examples like this.) I think it may be good idea to once again promote trade schools and such as an alternative to college.

[dimfuture]

It's particularly funny when you look at our pop culture heroes and find that they're almost all blue-collar anti-intellectual types (every role Bruce Willis has ever played, for example).

[annieover]

That's the backlash against American intellectualism. We talk a lot about how Americans often make ignorance into a virtue, but the academics helped create the antagonism against intellectual by making the whole thing into a competition. I think it's best summed up by the bumper stickers: "My kid is on the Honor Roll at Blarg High School" and "My kid beats up Honor Roll students."

[dimfuture]

That had not occurred to me.

[drmagoo]

I've often argued that we need more emphasis on training in the trades and an acceptance of the value of that. For someone who isn't inclined to love textbooks and "traditional" educational settings, becoming a plumber or electrician will provide relatively high pay (in a lot of cases, more than what I make), job stability (they can't outsource your job to another country when the sewer is backed up), and it is valuable (ask anyone who's had a utility emergency). That's all good stuff, in my book.

[annieover]

I think the real value in college education is that it gives you a broader base of knowledge and analytical skills that can be applied to every profession. But flat out, some people just aren't ready for college at age eighteen. Most of my older students are far better students than their younger counterparts even though many openly admit that they are in college in their late twenties and beyond because they didn't like school and weren't very good students in the past. I think the plumber still has use for a certain level of college education, but it shouldn't be because it's the ticket to a more financially lucretive life, especially since that is a somewhat unreliable promise in the first place. Six years of college certainly hasn't made me rich.