Wednesday, April 30, 2008

TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS AND TROUBLES

Male and female carrots?
Don't forget to click on the header for another adventure.
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I haven't been particularly ill lately. Although I did pick up a virus somewhere. Or at least the dumb computer did. (It must have been the computer's fault. Couldn't have been mine.)
I tried out a new (to me) browser and discovered, too late, that for some reason it failed to connect with my anti virus screening. And then, of course, it took me to a page I wasn't familiar with. Sigh.
Bad decision. Wound up spending several days (probably would have been easier to reload Windows (shudder), but I'm the type who wants to be a fixit man.
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Anyway, lots of thoughts have been swirling around here. For instance, staring at a bottle of Chewable Aspirin, I finally noticed the directions for using these pills.
"Chew One Tablet By Mouth Every Day."
How else, I've been wondering, could I chew them? What other part of my anatomy is involved in chewing?
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Wild Thing went to the dentist the other day. It was discovered that she had a cavity that would have to be filled.
The dentist asked her "What kind of filling would you like for that tooth?"
Without hesitation Wild Thing replied, "Chocolate, please."
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“Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight,
Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up.”
— Hillary Clinton "Now if I remember the movie correctly, doesn’t Rocky get the crap beat out him and then loses to the black guy?” — Jay Leno
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Barracks is in trouble now, with the white voters. The man's minister has said a number of things that really display him as a bigot. Barracks has cut all ties with the guy, pointed out that he seems to be a different man than he was 20 years ago and is no longer someone he holds in esteem. If you'd like to read more: http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/politics/2008/03/14/Obama.Pastor/
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Grandparents are similar to a piece of string - handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of their grandchildren.
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Actual conversation I overheard today in a convenience store while trying to pay for a cup of coffee.
The young woman cashier was enmeshed in what sounded like a quiet, defensive argument with an olive-skinned gentleman, who I took to be her supervisor. The subject had something to do with an earlier transaction by a woman who was paying for lottery tickets with a $100 bill. As the clerk waved her hands side to side, from the lottery ticket cabinet to the cash register, back and forth, explaining the details of those proceedings, she made a statement in a somewhat higher volume and pitch than she had previously used. This certainly persuaded me...
"I know I did it, because I don’t remember not doing it."
The prosecution rests…
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And then there's this yum yum...
(Look at what White Chocolate really is.)
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There is daily talk, chat, blogs, TV presentations, radio talk show people, newspapers, advertising (and on and on) about one particular subject that is a mainstay among all the media today. But no one, including the FDA, has faced an ugly possibility.
What we're hearing about, in spite of the cruelly increasing price of groceries, is the fattening of much the world's peoples. Particularly the American people. And all of a sudden, it seems.
I'd like to offer a point for speculation: (First, let's admit that much of the world's populations follow American styles of eating since the mega expansion of the fast food business.) My concern is something that the medical associations should point out, but seem reticent about bringing up.
When I had my heart attack I was warned by the physicians to cut back severely on my salt intake. Good ole NaCl. Sodium chloride.
I have never over used salt and so I asked them why this restriction. They solemnly informed me that salt made the human body retain water, although used wisely it aids in supplying us with needed water. Over use results in our bodies retaining water which means increasing the weight of our body.
When Wild Thing had her heart attack she was given a salt free diet in the hospital.
We like to eat out fairly often and I have noticed over the past few years what seems to be an increase in the salt content of certain restaurant foods, such as gravies, soups and certain entrees. Some of these items are so heavily salted that I can not eat them.
And since when has bacon become almost impossible to consume because because of its ridiculous salt content?
I realize that:
1. Food companies want to make money.
2. Food companies do not want their food to spoil while it is on the grocer's shelves nor in warehouses.
3. Salt has been a cheap form of preserving food stuffs for more centuries than I can imagine.
4. Extra, extra salt will apparently keep food edible (to some people) for long periods of time.
Thus, if people do not return spoiled food to their grocer, and the grocer does not return it to the manufacturer then everyone makes extra money.
Good system, eh?

10 comments:

Buck said...

From that chocolate article:

Recent studies have revealed that pleasant chocolate-eating experiences result in increased blood flow in the same portions of the brain activated by cocaine.

I sense an alternate drug-addiction therapy a-borning. Lindt, for the afflicted!!

I hear ya about the salt, too. I always, repeat...ALWAYS... specify "no salt" on my rare trips to the fast-food emporiums. You get fresher food as a bonus, too.

Shrinky said...

Yeah, that insiduious salt intake is used universally to help make the inedible, edible!

I love wildthing - "chocolate" (hehehehehehe)!

ps., tag, you're "IT"

The Future Was Yesterday said...

Man oh Man! A book full of good thoughts! Doing guilty laundry first... I've been "sitting" on you for some time, wondering why you never posted here. Now I know. For some reason, I can't pick up a RSS feed from the site we're on now (using Feed demon 6.2, tried twice last night, and twice today), but I picked up the other site fine. So there's my lame excuse.:P

Virus. Don't know what you;'re using, but I know the best is free right here. If only my wife would do what it does. All it does is sit there and shut up.:P (She never reads anymore so I get away with stuff like that). I've had all the big boys, and got sick with every one of them at one time or another. Been using AVG for four years, never as much as a crash.

Oblahma. NOW he suddenly finds Wrong reprehensible. I'm not buying. Not only is he an idiot, he's a closet racist idiot.

Salt & Heart attacks. Had two of the latter so far. Too much of the previous. I agree with you - EVERYthing is salted to last four hundred years!

Grandparents - You're one too, huh?:) Now that I've found a living body, I shall return periodically to destroy your day..... I only owe you...what, couple hundred? Sigh. It ain't easy being cnile and having CRS all at once. Last night I took a sleeping pill and a laxative together at bedtime.......

BBC said...

"My grandfather came to America to gain freedom, but it didn't work. My grandmother came over on the very next boat."

That's pretty damn funny. :-)

Now I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, I have a cousin that lives in Albuquerque. Haven't seen her but once since I stopped long haul trucking though.

It's okay, she is just a screwed up L.A. turkey that moved there when they retired. Now she lays eggs on the golf course, or some frigging thing like that.

I think she is the vice preznut of your local chapter of THE INSANE CHICKS SOCIETY. [TICS]

Peaceful paths.

Towanda said...

Great post, catmoves. A little something for everyone. :)

Been busy with my NM move, but trying to get here to read as often as I can. You always have something interesting to say!

~Towanda

alphonsedamoose said...

Great fun under the headline.
I also use very little salt but restaurants seem to think it is a requirement. May be to mask the taste of the food.

Catmoves said...

Buck, I'm one of those who is NOT oppposed to this new drug. In fact, I welcome it and prescribe it to everyone.

Catmoves said...

Shrink, I agree that often salt is used to cover up the taste of what we buy.
Tag? Me? Huh?

Lin said...

Cat, I know what you mean about the salt loading! Mark calls a certain brand of dry soup "L----'s Cup o' Salt". Then we bought 10 rolls of sausage for a buck each (heckuva deal since they are normally almost $3). OMG ... the salt nearly killed me on the spot. I ended up boiling the next roll and changing water twice before adding it to the gravy and biscuits. Eight more of those puppies to go. Bwechh!

Catmoves said...

Lin, I'm guessing you mean that nameless brand Lipto.'s.
I'm also guessing you got that deal on the sausage 'cause the grocer wanted to get rid of it and the manufacturer refused to take any more of it back.
Thanks for the tip on the boiling water to get rid of some salt.
Maybe if all of us who can't stand the high salt content started returning these products to the stores, the manufacturers would get the message that it destroys the taste?
We love the sweet corn on the cob that Chili's serves.
I have never had corn on the cob served with pepper already on it. I called the waiter over and asked him to take them back (it was inedible to us) and he did without hesitation, but also told us they always served it with pepper on it. I asked why, didn't the customers like the taste of very sweet corn? He looked at me and remarked "I dunno. We always have."
P.S. We've just about quit buying bacon any more. Salt, salt, salt.