23 Jun 2006
Spying at the salon

This is getting creepy, indeed. I wonder when we'll begin deputizing bartenders for the "War on Terror"?

Should hairdressers be agents in the campaign against domestic violence? It's a close call. Several states encourage and train stylists to look for signs of abuse. It's already a bit creepy that stylists may be sizing you up and analyzing your conversation for signs that your husband or boyfriend is beating you. It's much creepier when hairdressers are supposed to report to authorities about what they think is going on in your home. Maine has just joined the list of states that have such programs. The Bangor News reports: "The idea is that women often open up to their hairdressers, so they should be alert and report problems." If so, hairdressers are now being trained to be snitches, using rapport and friendship with their customers to gather information for authorities–for the customers' own good, of course.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

14:44 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Small Fries

Has anybody else noticed the trend away from sizing food items as "small, medium and large"? Everybody still has three sizes, but nobody calls them what they are anymore. Starbucks has "tall, vente and grande". McDonald's has "regular, large and extra large". Super-size me?

I'm sure in some cases the amount of an item served under a particular moniker has actually changed, and in some cases has actually disappeared. McDonald's used to have "small, regular and large" but simply stopped selling the smaller portion and added the humongous one. So the smallest order of fries you can get at Micky-D's is what used to be a medium portion.

The companies all claim this is by public demand, but is it? How do you gage such a thing: how many customers walked up to the counter and said "Gimme two large drinks, 'cause you don't sell one big enough for me!"

Somehow, I don't see that happening ...

14:40 /Home | 3 comments | permanent link

Hot juicy burgers from a bioreactor. Yummy.

We're already faking butter and cheese, how much longer will it be before "I Can't Believe It's Not Dead Animal" makes an appearance in our supermarkets?

For the life of me I cannot understand vegetarianism: in order for you to survive, something else has to die, be it a carrot or a Bambi. Life is life, and death is death, and to me the only difference between an onion and a cow is the "cute and cuddly" factor. Rank sentimentalism. You've still participated in a killing when you eat your tofu and salad, just as surely as you did when you chomped down a rib eye.

And if this is the end result of the vegetarian philosophy, I surely want no part of it! How much more out of touch with nature can you get then synthesizing "meat" in a "bioreactor"? Soylent Green, anyone?

I ate a field roast for dinner last night, because I am a vegetarian and those are the types of things we eat.

(link) [CNET News.com]

13:35 /Agriculture | 4 comments | permanent link