Carrot Top

As Calvin Coolidge said (oh yes, of course I was right there when he said it. . ) "Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped". Sounds like your employers are utilizing their prosperity in a very good way.

Thank you for this knowledge, Native Speaker. Startling though this may be, what you say, to someone grown in the Big Apple, I do believe it. Such a cultural shift and difference from where one's day is spent trying to avoid murdering the person next to them on the crowded subway or trying to avoid them murdering you or at the very least to stop them from grabbing one's behind secretly within the masses of people to meeting an old lady at a church supper one single time whom after twenty minutes of simple conversation openly invites one to come to their home SEEMINGLY ALMOST ANYTIME and who means it.

Is "giefu" an acronym for something? At least the last two letters?

A gift card to Cracker Barrel would do quite nicely too, don't you think? Less obvious - less chance of being called (too) cheap - more Macchiavellian. Lovely.

What exactly is it that Hooters (Hooter's?) sells?

No, that is Hardee's. Or is it "Hardees"? After the advent of their "four-dollar burger", you will find that anyone that eats this thing is guaranteed to be able to do nothing except go home and lay on the couch in a greasy satisfied tummy-hurting stupor without any ability to think clearly for days afterwards. Grammar is the least of it.

The use of the word "gift" in this way is a purposeful use of inference that extends the concept of "giving" into something that has a higher purpose that reflects back onto the person doing the action in a way that adds two points to their self esteem. Not that it really matters - for in reality, it is still McDonalds. But the personal pat on the back is sensed for having "gifted" (you know, as in when universities have "gifts" given to them for their higher purposes of education by their alumni or anyone else hungry to see their last name engraved on a building for posterity). Yes - one's own personal piece of McDonalds. Not simply given you know. . .but by god, it has been "gifted". How incredibly important one can be with their four dollars or so. Is this equality of sorts for the masses? ....................................................................... As far as "I could care less" that has confused me for years, as have several other double negative statements that float around in common use. It is troublesome for how can one have a normal conversation when someone comes out with one of these statements - personally my mind sticks at the statement and ponders it endlessly, wondering what on earth they really mean to say while on and on the conversation goes without any attention being given to it by my confused brain. Here's another one: In New York, I clearly understand what "Let's do lunch sometime" means. I've even said it myself. What I've NEVER been able to clearly understand (as a transplanted Northerner) is what on earth "You come on by and visit me sometime" means when said by a native Southerner. They seem to mean it. Indeed they keep repeating it. Does this really mean they want you to visit? Does it really mean "Drive up the road ten miles to my house and knock on my door anytime at all with a fresh baked cake and we'll sit down and shell beans or something"? Or is it a convoluted form of what a New Yorker says but longer and with a bigger smile? Please advise if you are privy to this information. To date, I have only smiled stupidly in response and said "Yes, you too now". Then went off to ponder what it meant, for eternity as of yet. Gift me with this knowledge if you have it, native speaker? Merci.

That sounds like a great idea but most likely it will not happen short of a catastrophic event that affect the entire country. Plus it is a fact that many people do not enjoy cooking. Strange but true, and it will not be changed no matter how often or how loudly the pulpit of cookery love is approached by the bringers of the message. Personally I hate the mess that is made in the car, but we continue to eat in the car when we "have to". Therefore my preference would be to see more light, healthy, low-salt/sugar/fat foods available with less obnoxious tons of wrapping papers that they come in - along the roads that we travel. Plus a new small business with a niche in "quick-cleaning" car interiors from eating in them would be a great idea, too. Yeah - with an ice-cream parlor attached to it. That way we could go from the car straight to the ice-cream parlor for a quick little bite of ice-cream while someone quickly and efficiently cleaned out the car from the last meal we ate in it before we trundled back into the car to proceed wherever it was that we were going. Where were we going anyway? Work? The mall? Oh, yeah. I forgot. A restaurant. That's it. That's where we need to go. Gobble gobble.

Zabaione. Mayonnaise of all sorts. Bearnaise sauce. In a "Morning After" drink to fix a hangover?

Great idea, Lois. Here is a link to an old thread if it is useful: What is there to eat in your backyard? Added to my previous list are now apples and black walnuts in the back yard. And when I lived on a boat many years ago, I made a fishtrap out of chicken wire -used to pull up small sole and once in a while a lobster when the crabs did'n't sneak the bait out.

Food at its best should taste of itself. A chicken should make one swoon with the lusty juice of chicken-ness. Fruit should bury one with the intensity of sweet flavors and sugars. Vegetables should bring the rich savor of earth and sunlight and rain to our palates in their varying personalities, so that a sense of rootedness to nature is sensed. But how often does this happen in our world of everything-available-all-the-time-picked-processed-shipped-protected? Not often. I would like to make a list of the foods that hit this mark of taste of essence - but not include those things that one needs to take extreme measures to procure. They must be available to most people in most places as a rule of thumb, a "usual" sort of thing. These essential foods must have enough taste to be eaten plain and unadorned as is as if in a Zen like simplicity. They must shine their essence through themselves without requiring fussing, heavy seasoning, complicated cooking methods or other trickery to coax taste. Foods that can take the stage and dance a wondrous dance of flavor as soloists. Are there any in your grocery store? What are they? I can think of one: Dole Gold Pineapples. And another: Angus Beef from Kroger. Another I've heard of which has not arrived in this area yet: Smart Chicken. More, please, more. . . More? Karen

I've been trying for years to find someone who knows where the original uncut manuscript might be, if it still exists. ←

On the other hand, if looked at with a different eye, it could be a challenge to creativity due to how the canvas is shaped - and at best, the food may be "secondary" but in such a way that a good bra is secondary to the way a woman's blouse hangs. (Sorry. Just trying to make a clear statement here, and it is the season to keep receiving Victoria's Secret catalogues and e-mails.) (And a second apology for choosing the feminine sex for commentary. I will undoubtedly make up for it later somewhere by mentioning the male sex in some equal manner if I can. ) The food can be and should be a charming, warming, and somewhat quietly elusive support to whatever goals have been set to happen at that table. At best, it is. Surely everyone knows how food can make the chilly amicable and the hostile soothed. If the food is *only* about the chef, then of course it would not work as a politically astute repast.

It really shouldn't "alarm" you if there is nothing to it, or if you think the comment foolish. No need for you to "go there". Some people might want to, though. You do want to be inclusive, I am sure.

There are two things that stand out in the difference between food in Thailand and food in the US (to me). The first is taste. It is likely that most Thai food is served close to the source. Both in the way of farm to mouth and in the way of ingredient to recipe. There is a visceral reality to the food in general that is not found in the food in general in the US. You will not find a general trend towards foods taken and transformed into Twinkies - or frozen concoctions that are then reheated for people to eat (even by mid-range restaurants), as exists here in the US. We have a high degree of falsity of taste (or lack of flavor) in what is generally available to us here, often. I figure that is only out of the goodness of our national heart, dontcha think? Gotta keep the bio-techs and the food chemists employed somehow in this great country of ours. The second is the thread of something (forgive me, those of you who grimace at this word) spiritual that runs through the food that runs through life in Thailand, something that does not run through our food here. Here, food is considered essential not only in that it provides calories and nutrition (or alternately at the other end of the scale a great experience or a great story to tell about the fantastic theatre that a high-end restaurant can be). In Thailand it seems it is also, as a part of daily life in general, a carrier of good wishes - of care to others - of a shared history that resides not only in the soil but also within the heart. Does this have something to do with what our characters and strivings are (or have been) in general as nations? Who we are, as nations, philosophically - "what we stand for" - might have a great deal to do with what our food is like.

If I were walking into your store, Pam, one gift idea I would either love to have or love to give would be a gift certificate for "A Soup a Week" for (however many weeks). What a treat! One of those gifts that "keeps on giving". (Wait! There's still time! Got a computer and a printer? Instant gift certificates. . . ) Karen

The idea is spreading even to the Goyim, Pam. My ex's family (half French-Canadian Catholic/half English High Anglican) used to have Chinese food for Christmas. Every year - on the day *after* Christmas. That apparently makes it uh, "kosher" shall we say? Karen

Hopefully someone who has both at hand will chime in with a better response than I can give, Lyle - for I gave the newer version away some time ago. I just remember a sense of importance seemed to be lost in the newer version - to me it was this more than anything else. The descriptions seemed shorter and blunter, and it seemed as if some ephermera was lost. It would seem strange that an "encyclopedia" would get smaller rather than larger over time, but this was my feeling. ................................. I just opened the door to find another package. This time it is the two-volume set of The Oxford Enclyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Suddenly I am tired. Though pleased. I wonder how this one stacks up against Mariani's.

What do you see "real food for real people" as being, Austin? It would be good to hear more specifically what you have in mind. Karen

Even though not on a desert island anymore (I was, in a sense all those years ago while reading Larousse as I lived on a boat with the only responsibilities being to make sure it didn't sink ) it is true that reading food-geekery is still a vibrant attraction of mine -so I make my own island. What this means is that the bed gets covered with books thrown in piles, some coffee nearby (obviously it would not do to live on a desert island that had no coffee) and a cat, and I am stuck desert-island like with my own company and the wonderful piles of books. Oxford does seem the best bet for this as I look more closely at the books here. Waverly Root's "Food" is good, but it may be that some "facts" have been updated in the Oxford book. His style is loveable, though. It might be worthwhile to do some side-by-side comparisons of entries to see if any discernible differences are to be found. The Cambridge set is very serious. There is more of a focus on "health" in these volumes, lots of science with "tables" of this and that, so that might require browsing rather than reading or I may fall asleep too often. Mariani I haven't read yet - will have to add that to the list. I have heard many good things about it. Thanks for the reminder. P.S. Yes, the old Larousse is the right Larousse. Karen

An early Christmas gift arrived today and I opened it, being not of the sort who waits. In the box were several wonderful volumes. The Cambridge World History of Food; and The Oxford Companion to Food. From my bookshelves I've pulled out Waverly Root's "Food" and Larousse Gastronomique. I've dabbled in all of these books - Larousse and Root are falling apart at the seams. Larousse I actually read in its entirety many years ago. ............................................................ Tell me, what do you think each of these volumes has to offer in their own individual way? Do they each have a "personality"? Is each of them worth reading entry-by-entry or not? Any exceptional things you have found or do you have any curious personal notes on any of these books? Would love to hear your comments before deciding if I have to read them all entry-by-entry. For that is fun in ways, but tiring, too. (Must I put this on my "to-do" list? ) All advice welcomed. Karen

I adored this entire post, Zuke. Quiet is like air, to me. Sometimes one just needs to fill oneself with a huge breath of it and feel its expansiveness. I did have to laugh a bit at the Starbucks bus stop visual. Now that does seem a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, to me.

Smoke without fire? Or not. You decide. Advertising and Children's Eating Habits: Scholarly Data Bless you all who have the strength of purpose and sureness of act that will enable you to manage your own children through it all. If you don't have them yet, then when you do. May you never have to be a single parent, without family support or perhaps without family; or even a parent who for some reason needs to take a low-paying job (through some strange inexplicable action of the universe that would require this even though you may have a degree or two and vast and good work experience) and therefore perhaps have to leave your child(ren) home alone sometimes because babysitters cost more than you can afford to pay on a meagre income. Ah! Let's not be sure this will never happen to anybody. Life can be stranger than fiction. Of course the television could be monitored so tightly that no ads could come through and the computer the same. Yes, of course. And of course when you told the children your very good reasons for not liking whatever junk they were asking you for, they would finally agree and definitely not go against your wishes. ............................................................. Personally, I've found that each time I've snickered at what someone else thinks is a problem that I may have felt superior to, from just being human and part of the human condition that pushes one at times into being so damn sure that one is *right* about things - and that everyone else should just "get it together" - somehow the universe comes along with a lesson to teach me about the reasons why sometimes not everyone is equally strong or smart or whatever it is that one thinks one is. These lessons are the sort that enter directly into life are not fun to learn. They are, however, humbling. I say the child and the parent are more important than the advertising dollars that are made through these freedoms that extend into our homes. I feel for the child and the parents. Not for the corporations or for some pipe-dream of "non-utopian" intellectualized sloppy lines drawn by whomever has the deepest pockets.

2006 will be the year I eat whatever I want to without apologizing to the Culinary Polizia. At all. As a matter of fact, I believe I will indeed be laughingly rude to whomever questions what I eat. I'll make friends this year with people who are curious about food in ways beyond the mundane or simplistic, in ways philosophic that extends beyond the fork plate cut of meat tastebud and perfectly placed napkin (of recyclable paper or linen - doesn't matter much to me). In searching each day, I'll find a path that fits me, where there are smiles and welcomes along with any shared recipes. This is possible, I know (for anyone that doubts it, for themselves or for me ) for I've experienced it before. I'll learn to walk away when it is time to walk away without looking back in either anger or disgust, from any bad meal that I might eat without being aware that it *was* bad, before tasting it. I have no ideas of what I have to teach, if anything, except just to do one's best at whatever task happens to be there. Maybe I can teach someone that if the bread comes out strange or lumpy, just make it into croutons. . .if the cake is flat, make it into a trifle. If the fruit is tasteless - well. Just don't buy fruit at that store again. I'll read Rochefoucald and Martha Grimes, SJ Perelman and Oscar Wilde. I will try to rid my shelves of the endless piles of cookbooks that sit, quietly, waiting, never to be used by me. Someone else might like them very much. To taste? More things that taste of themselves, hopefully. That might mean starting a garden and building a chicken coop. I sort of hope not, though. I'll use the things in the cupboard up before buying more or different, for this mass consumption is beginning to seem endlessly obnoxious. I, we, my kids: All I can hope for here is health and goodwill. That, is no small hope, is it. I hope this for each one of you, too. Happy 2006 and many returns.

Patrick: Personally I have set up my life so that my children get as much of my time as they need. But I have already had a successful career and have had a full life and have enough money to do this. I do *not* wish to make this a "class" issue. What I wish for is to see the children who do *not* for whatever reason, have someone supervising them in a good and positive manner, to be free from things that will bring them down rather than up. Fast food marketing is one of these things, in my opinion. I make no excuses for parents who are not there for their children. But it is not really them that I care about. It is the children. The children can not make their parents give more time or care than the parents have or can give - and the children do not have other resources, often.