Filed under: vegetarianism
On Monday night I feasted on Morningstar’s mini veggie corn dogs and haven’t stopped thinking about them since. These really are amazing little things! They taste just like the real deal!
They satisfied this boy’s craving, anyway.
Filed under: board games
After months gathering dust on the shelf, the hubby and I took down Ticket to Ride: Europe the other day, and have played several games since. I’d forgotten how fun and intense this board game can be!
A bit like Rummy with trains, your task is to connect the cities of Europe with train routes in order to gain points, and you do that by collecting sets of matching cards. It’s very simple to learn, but unexpectedly complex and intense as you try to complete your routes before your opponent, and without getting blocked by your opponent’s trains.
The original version of the game used a map of the United States instead of Europe, but I’ve read the versions are very similar otherwise. There is also an edition set in Germany as well.
Happily, it plays great with just two people, which is a plus for couples. We’ve played it with up to six before, and it was fun then too, though more challenging.
Filed under: beliefs
The controversial vaccine Gardasil, which has been recommended for young girls as a means to reduce the risk of cervical cancer by protecting them from human papillomavirus (HPV), is now being sought out by gay men, at least in the UK. HPV can cause all kinds of nastiness in men as well, and gay men are at a higher risk, according to the article.
So will young boys be next to be vaccinated? From the article:
Roger Peabody of the Terrence Higgins Trust said if the trials were successful, there would be a good case for vaccinating young boys, not only to stop the spread of HPV to women, but to protect men against HPV-related disease.
Dr Szarewski agreed, saying: “It is bad enough suggesting to people that their 12-year-old daughter might need a vaccine against a sexually transmitted infection.
“I would be interested to see the response of suggesting to parents that they should vaccinate their boys at 12 in case they become gay.”
Heaven forbid.
Filed under: old movies
While snowed in last week, I had the pleasure to see Douglas Sirk’s 1956 film Written on the Wind. And what a wonderful piece of trash-art it is!
This is “Dallas” with style, complete with oil tycoons, troubled marriages, alcoholism, machismo, and sex (both expressed and repressed). Sirk seeps his film in lurid colors, and the sets and backgrounds, with a few exceptions, are obviously fake. It all serves to emphasize the hollow pretense of these characters’ lives, as does the artificially heightened melodrama throughout. These people, I ended up thinking, are rather ridiculous. And I think that is the point.
I like how the film’s style is so brazen. But Sirk is never one for subtlety. If I were to tell you that the film features a character, the seductress played by Dorothy Malone, who at one point in the film lovingly caresses a model oil derrick in her daddy’s office, would you understand what I mean?
These days I can’t see a film starring Rock Hudson without thinking of his closeted life as a gay man. And the film is interesting when viewed in that light. There is the suggestion of a homosexual relationship in this movie which I think is intentional. It is difficult to be sure, given that subtlety is not typically one of Sirk’s techniques, but I suppose that with that subject, in 1956, he may have felt the need…
Filed under: vegetarianism
To address the concerns of some of its consumers, Smithfield Foods is making some changes in how it treats its pigs:
Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest pork company and a mainstay on the North Carolina agribusiness scene, will phase out its use of the cages in which breeding sows are confined after they are artificially inseminated and before they give birth. The confinement is now so close in the 2-foot by 7-foot cages that the pigs cannot turn around.
This would seem to be at least a little more humane. Nice to see a company actually listen on this issue. But there is a long way to go, given the barbaric nature of today’s factory farms. These are some of the world’s most intelligent animals, folks. I think they deserve something better.
Filed under: vegetarianism
I’ve been a peanut butter addict all my life, and since becoming “vegetarian”, its been a good, if fatty, source of protein. So it was with considerable chagrin that I was forced to pitch a new jar of peanut butter last week, as it was the part of the salmonella-laced batch. Too bad I didn’t know you could get a refund.
Last night I went to the store to get more, only to find the peanut butter section completely ransacked. All the Peter Pan products had been removed, of course, but it appeared other brands had been too. Only a few lowly jars of Jiff and Skippy remained. I bought creamy Skippy and went home.
Filed under: beliefs
New Jersey is now registering same-sex partnerships as civil unions. Its a nice step, but doesn’t go far enough for me, of course.
Meanwhile, in Tanzania, Anglican archbishops have been meeting this week to discuss the whole gay thing. The group has issued an ultimatum to the US church demanding an end to blessings for gay couples and the appointment of gay bishops. This issue, as you may know, is threatening to split the church. The ultimatum is one attempt to stay off such a split.
Given the lack of violence, wars, and humanitarian crises these days, I suppose it is only right that this issue is high on the church’s agenda.
Last year, Monty Python’s Life of Brian was named the greatest comedy of all time in a UK poll. Now one member of the Python troupe, Eric Idle, has penned an oratorio based on the controversial film. If its half as good as Idle’s Spamalot, it will make for great entertainment. The husband and I saw Spamalot in Chicago with the original cast just before it premiered on Broadway. Even from the last row in the nosebleed section, it was brilliant.
Filed under: mystery novels
Agatha Christie. Dorothy L. Sayers. Ngaio Marsh. Margery Allingham. The four original “Queens of Crime”, each immensely popular during the “Golden Age” of British mystery. Of these, Ms. Allingham seems to get the least respect these days, particularly here in the States. Only one of her novels, The Tiger in the Smoke, is currently in print in the United States. But what a novel it is!
While the book does feature Allingham’s famous detective, Albert Campion, this novel is less a whodunit than a very gripping suspense story. Campion does some detecting that moves the story forward, but for the most part the story belongs to Jack Havoc, a serial killer who terrorizes the foggy streets of London.
The novel has a philosophical richness to it that sets it apart from many novels of this era. Characters in the novel come face-to-face with evil, and it is interesting to see how they deal with it, both intellectually and emotionally. The novel has much to say on the nature of good and evil, and the dangers of greed and violence.
And of course, the nature of what is discovered in the end is certainly no accident, and the author’s message is clear. I don’t completely agree with that message, but I wouldn’t want to give anything away, so you must read the book for yourself to find out what I mean.
I might add that even if the book were less profound and suspenseful than it is, it would be worth reading just for the beautiful and evocative descriptions of fog-shrouded London that pervade the novel.
Out of the Forest 