The beaches are open.

Don't you feel kind of funny when there is some big disaster and you are worried sick because the consequences just might be catastrophic or at least highly dangerous... then someone who happens to have a vested interest in things assures you that everything will be fine. Those assurances just don't work very well on the skeptical.
I mean, you have to keep the beaches open, keep the fishermen and shrimpers working, keep people coming to the hotels and restaurants. Remember last Spring and Summer when the reports seemed to be rolling in about how seafood was pretty safe to eat, and even that the oil had nearly disappeared!?! (except for those tar-balled beaches)

Like this report from April of 2010:

Expert: Gulf Oil Spill Won't Ruin Your Shrimp Dinner
Says Mike Voisin, past president of the National Fisheries Institute:
“No one should be worrying about whether the shrimp they're having for dinner is going to have oil on it... First, no company wants to put that kind of product on the market... And those areas that have oil in them will be blocked by state health officials and not harvested.”

Voisin also claims that fish like tuna and shrimp will instinctively migrate away from the oil spill. He did admit that oysters are the most at risk because they lack the ability to move.

Here is something more recent that suggests otherwise:

Multiple independent lab tests confirm oil in Gulf shrimp

In two separate cases, a toxicologist and a chemist independently confirmed their seafood samples contained unusually high volumes of crude oil and harmful hydrocarbons -- and some of this food was allegedly being sent to market.

One test, conducted by a chemist from Mobile, Alabama, employed a rudimentary chemical analysis of shrimp pulled from waters near Louisiana and found "oil and grease" in their digestive tracts.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) tests, which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have focused on the animal's flesh, with samples shelled and cleaned before undergoing examination.

Unfortunately, many Gulf coast residents prepare shrimp whole, tossing the creatures into boiling water shells and all.

{shudder}

I don't eat seafood, as you probably already know, but this is a pretty big concern for the health of the general public, in my opinion. Have you read about the recent rash of baby dolphin deaths? At last count it was up to 60, which is many times what is considered normal. Dolphins are on top of the food chain, and it's still not clear what is causing this death. Wondering how long it will be before the human health consequences become evident, and also wondering how the corporate-influenced media will spin it.

Not a headline I like to see

The Six-Legged Meat of the Future

OK, I don't eat meat of the 2-legged, 4 legged or no-legged variety, but 6-legged food is not for me. 8-legged food will not be considered.

I am starting to see bugs being sold as food in the grocery store...

I would notice $3,000. Pretty sure of that.

From HuffPo: How to Save $2,997 a Year on Food Without Even Noticing

Another pet peeve helpful numbered listing that I can't resist picking at. I am just hoping to find one that's really helpful to me personally someday...

1. Eat Vegetarian a Few Nights a Week
Savings: $210 per year. (Replace 1 pound of sirloin [$5.99] with a 14-ounce block of tofu [$1.96] once a week for a year.)

We eat vegetarian every night. No help here.

2. Minimize Waste
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw out more than 25 percent of the food we prepare.
...
Savings: $590 per year. (Estimated value of the food an average American household of four wastes in a year.)

25%?? We throw out almost nothing, except the broccoli stalks that MrB won't eat. And those are made into compost along with coffee grounds and empty toilet paper rolls.

3. Plug in the Slow Cooker
Savings: $78 per year. (Replace 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast [$4.99] with 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs [$3.49] once a week for a year.

Their reasoning is that the crock pot lets you use cheaper meat because of the stewing process. N/A, no help.

4. Discover Great Ways to Use Canned Fish
Savings: $224 per year. (Replace 1 pound of fresh tuna [$7.99] with 1 pound of canned tuna [$3.68] once a week for a year.)

Canned fish is cat food. N/A again.

5. Don't Order a Pizza. Make One at Home
Savings: $520 per year. (Make pizza once a week instead of ordering.)

OK, this one is debatable. The last time I created a pizza myself, it cost more than ordering it, but it was such a long time ago that there was meat on it. Any thoughts? Cheaper or not?

6. Pack a Lunch
Savings: $1,375 per year. (Replace an $8.50 lunch with a $3 lunch from home 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year.)

Now they're talking! We always pack lunches and it does save a bundle - as promised. I guess this one and #5 both have enjoyment factors to consider. Do you enjoy cooking enough to make pizza from scratch and then clean up the mess?

Do you like a social setting for lunch, something away from the office? Most people do, I think. I really don't. I have an office, so I close (and lock) my door during lunch, eat my cheapo nonfat tofu dog with lo-cal bread and fat-free condiments and garnish, plug in the earbuds and watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, or maybe Rachel or Keith, on their respective websites. So... already doing this one so adapting it wouldn't represent change.

Indeed!

Ugh inspiring

When I was a kid, I might've eaten the Spam out of this. Now, I would feed it to the raccoons. And what is that sauce? It could be Elmer's Glue and they didn't mean for it to show in the picture.

(I will eat Lima beans now, but not after they've been Spammed)

Cookie robbery

This morning I opened a fresh box of my darling little 100-calorie bags of chocolate chip cookies from HEB, the ones that help me get through an afternoon of munchies, desk boredom, and sweet cravings – and inside the sealed box, instead of the little fun bags (and now I’m reminded of something Dr. House says, except he’s not talking about bags of cookies), there is an *opened* package of a completely different product. It was an opened package of sugar wafers, a different brand, and there were a few loose wafers at the bottom of the box.

Whine.

Some assembly-line worker’s practical joke means an extra trip to the store for a $2 refund, and no sweetness or chocolate chips for me.

Who could resist this mushroom?

Not Baracky Road?

Yes Pecan!

Ben & Jerry's latest! Actually, this might be an even better choice than Baracky Road, except that "pecan" has several different regional pronunciations besides rhyming with "we can". Sometimes the 2nd syllable sounds like "con" (peck-con).

Grab it and growl*

Waiter!! There's a hair in my... um... looks like it's pretty much ALL hair.

*"Grab it and growl": something my mother used to say at the dinner table

Yes, I know it's a Furr's Cafeteria. A chain that used to be my extended family's favorite place to eat. I think I'll just continue to drive past it now - infinity.

Disturbing company-wide memo of the day

To: allstaff

The refrigerator on the first floor is a FOOD ONLY fridge. DO NOT place samples to be sent out for chemical analysis in a “food only” fridge.

The box has been removed and placed on the top of the file cabinet directly across from the fridge. Since the samples are being sent out to be tested for Arsenic, it is unimaginable that someone would place bottles that have the potential of arsenic content in a fridge with FOOD!

Please retrieve them.

Happy Monday!!

[actual memo sent out in my office today]

Killer weed

Celebrity chef Anthony Worrall Thompson recommended in a magazine article that henbane weed (a.k.a. stinking nightshade), made an excellent addition to summertime meals.

[source] Henbane, or Hyoscyamus niger, is toxic and can cause hallucinations, convulsions, vomiting and in extreme cases death.

[...] Henbane, a close relative of deadly nightshade, was used by Dr. Crippen to kill his wife in 1910, and is thought to have been the main ingredient in the poison Romeo took in Shakespeare's play “Romeo and Juliet.”

The chef had intended to refer to fat hen, a weed rich in vitamin C, that is edible, media reports said.

It too can be harmful because of its high level of nitrates, but cases of poisoning are rare, Garden Organic said on its Web site.

When it comes to food, I generally avoid anything containing the words "stinking" or "nightshade." The chef has apologized for any confusion he may have caused.

Starbucks won't be missed here

...mostly because hardly any of them are going away in Austin. They are closing 600 stores, and in a town where a missing Starbucks would be likely to nurture a local coffee house, they are closing only 2 locations.
HuffPo has published the entire list, and this is what I found:

6403 S CONGRESS AND ACADEMY (1007 S CONGRESS AUSTIN TX)

OK, this one, if unprofitable, is kind of surprising. It's located within an apartment or condo complex, so you would think it would have a built-in customer base.

14121 MOPAC and SLAUGHTER (5000 W SLAUGHTER AUSTIN TX)

This is way down in a suburban wasteland where they are ripping out trees as fast as they can and replacing them with chain businesses that look the same as they do everywhere - stuff like Walgreens, ugly fast-food places, banks, etc. There is a picture of it on this page, and says it just opened April 2008 - so BOOOOOO on Starbucks for opening a new facility just to almost immediately close it down. That sucks!

There is another Starbucks about a mile away from that one, and I don't object to it so much because it's kind of famous for being green. The rooftop is a landscape of native Texas grasses and plants which help to filter runoff so that fewer pollutants will run into ground water, also they collect rainfall for irrigation. Read more about it here and here. It's part of a new development near us, and I hated to see that whole shopping complex go in, but at least they have not made it ugly. It's a good area for parking and walking around (or getting there on a bike), and it's mostly local businesses (except for the Starbucks with the plants on the roof). What a contrast it is from the other ugly crap just down the road that they are cutting down perfectly good trees for.

Missing Starbucks? Support local businesses! We love Ruta Maya, Flipnotics, Bouldin Creek, Jo's Coffee, Spider House, Whole Foods, Central Market, Pacha, Mozart's, and there are plenty more we haven't even visited yet. All have their own personalities.

Tags: Austin - coffee - Starbucks