Comments Truly Scrumptious has made

Oh, dear.  I have been ignoring this topic in our house for awhile now.  Like the author, we faced the Comcast bundle conundrum.  We don't watch TV (don't tell my son, but the TV does actually work!), but between the computer games and the Netflix rentals ("has a movie for me come yet?! can I go check the mail?!") the screen time is too much, but frankly, I don't want to have to limit my screen time, and that's why it continues in our house.

Is there something wrong with gaming so much?  Actually, there may be, although we don't know how much is too much or at what point health problems begin, and of course that will be different for every person.  We also are conducting an experiment on our kids, because this is the first generation to grow up with gaming from birth.  So we don't know what effects the constant gaming will have on other areas as they mature.  But studies already tell us that adults and children who spend too much time gaming have higher risk of obesity, and we already have many, many adults with carpal tunnel and other posture-related complaints.  So I'm a little scared for the information that will come when we start to do longitudinal studies on people who grew up gaming for hours on end.  Like my son.... :(

" twilight zone materials like homo-pathy"

I sure hope that typo is simply your ignorance about the correct spelling of word homeopathy, and not a intentional slur against homosexuals.

HALLI620, you can say no.  As a small grocery owner (1 employee!) who used to work for a large chain grocery, I can tell you that small businesses will not be raking in the money with this bag fee; 20 cents isn't worth our energy.  As a matter of fact, your concern would be more legit if you were talking about large retailers, where hundreds of minimum-wage employees give out bags like there's no tomorrow, and if you give a bag back to them, thinking they'd use it on another customer, they throw it away.  (I think even that attitude will change with the fee - at retailers large and small - and part of that change will come from the customers refusing the bag - that's you!)  Bags are expensive and while 20 cents more than covers the cost of a bag, I'll be glad to make fewer trip to Cash'n'Carry to restock bags; it'll basically be a wash.  Small businesses do not have the resources to administer returning part of the fee to the city, large retailers do.

By the way, at my store, if someone wants to pay the bag fee, 100% of it will be donated.  If you actually IRL find a retailer that seems to "push" a bag on you as a result of the fee, you can always suggest they donate that money.

And in the final analysis, with bag-pushy retailers, your logic is not a good reason to avoid the bag fee, it's a good reason to avoid that retailer or let the management know you find their bag-pushing a shifty pracitce.  Most retailers do not want to piss off their customers....

HTnaturals has had comfy and cute soy undies (and boxers for teh guys) for years.

oh, great.

The same investment and advisory firm that is working diligently to convince states to privatize toll roads and has a fund that invests in toll roads is going to bring wind power to Texas.

Why do I have this unsettled feeling in my gut right now?On Goldman Sachs and other financial powerhouses get into the Texas wind biz posted 2 years, 8 months ago 8 Responses

My son was there. Was it age-appropriate?

You bet!

Thanks to a contest here on Grist, my son attended this show.  And he loved it, and got a lot out of it.  

To those of you who worry about age-appropriateness, and unintended consequences, I say, "oh come ON!" Obviously, the critics haven't seen the show.  Lisa Shimizu figured out how to make it age-appropriate, so on what are they basing their fears?  Musing, suppositions.  Yeah, let's do that for a few more years....

In America we've grounded our kids with materialism, egoism, violence (kids movies only leave out the overt sex, but violence seems to be fair game), killing, convenience at any cost ... and you're worried about "Eco-phobia?"

Nevermind that we are past the point of pussy-footing around.  Our generation hasn't shown itself to have the gumption to fix our mess, so it falls upon our kids (we were so smart, weren't we?) to actually do something.  If we don't send children the message now while they're young, they'll grow up to be the greedy, consuming jerks we are.  Or be overwhelmed by the impossible task we've left for them to deal with.

The show is specifically for 8yrs and up - it was fine for my 7.75 yr old, as well as our 8 yr old friend Emily, quoted at the end of the article - and certainly if a parent thinks their child isn't ready for it, that's their call. If my son were a worrier, or was easily made fearful, I would have taken that into consideration. But fear of creating demons doesn't mean we shouldn't try - it just means we do it carefully, as Ms. Shimizu has clearly done.
On Can Al Gore's message be tailored for kids? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 16 Responses

Dave is in SEATTLE??

<friendly-teasing voice> Jeez, Dave, I was starting to kinda, sorta, "feel" for your dilemma - put on the hotseat by strangers holding up your ethics as reason to either sh*t or get off the, uh, hotseat.... but then you let slip that you're in SEATTLE, fer cryin' out loud!  You couldn't be in a better place to be vegan! So, what bit of sympathy I had for you (I went vegan in freakin' La Belle, Florida, so my sympathy was scant to begin with) flew out the window. </friendly-teasing voice>

I'm a mother, I work full-time; my partner (who also works full time) and my son are vegan.  Here in Seattle, we have a group just for veg families.  We have kids of all ages; we hold potlucks and other gatherings like Mama's Night Out and Kid-Free Night.

You can join us, as you begin your grand adventure.  Wholesome, delicious meals await you and your family.  And (although this may fly in the face of everyone's favorite stereotype), truth be told, we are nice to not-quite vegans, since we were all there once.  We have an email list to chat and communicate and share recipes and struggles.
We can help.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seattleveggiefamilies/

Hope to see you there.On Why the vegetarian critique of meat-eating should make meat-eaters squirm posted 2 years, 9 months ago 103 Responses

cotton's time has come and gone

While I will always celebrate organic over conventional, even organic cotton is just not good.  Chemicals are just one problem with cotton.  You need lakes and lakes of water.

Those California cotton farmers should be telling their governor to pass the Industrial Hemp allowance that he rejected this year, so they can grow something that takes far fewer resources to grow - whether conventionally or organic.
On The U.S. organic cotton industry has a tough row to hoe posted 3 years ago 12 Responses

Quality Standards

Thanks for the links, Shawn, and for introducing me to the word monopsony.  How did I miss it until now?

I didn't see quality standards for the humble bean itself, or did I miss it?  I see in individual Producer profiles mention of "sun dried" and "technical training in __" as examples of their attention to quality, so I'm not sure what's happening between farm and shelf that I can't see that quality coming through.  Maybe jet lag is furthering the problem by making what's on the shelves/in the shops a bit old (stale) and also not up to newer standards...?

Anyway, when I must buy coffee I'll take the fair trade mud over the monopsony's "finest" any day!  :)On The ethical and environmental dilemma of coffee posted 3 years ago 11 Responses

But does it taste good?

I feel like I should preface my comments with some of my credentials.  I have owned and operated an independent coffee shop for years, complete with 25lb roaster. I learned to roast from my step-father, a Roast Master. I've taken countless roasting and tasting classes from other bests in the business.  I've stayed on a finca for a week picking, processing and hand-roasting beans.  Not that a week is particularly long, but it helped me understand more of the phases of coffee production than the typical coffee consumer.

I am also a big fan of fair-trade in general, and often shop fair-trade products for everything from gifts to housewares.  With that and having had a glimpse of the worklife of coffee farmers, I have great respect for what Equal Exchange does.

But what I have found with fair trade coffee is that the quality of the green bean is, uh, inconsistent. The range in size/grade is so wide that roasting can only result in an uneven product.  Some beans end up burned to a crisp, others are under-roasted.

Buying roasted beans is no better.  Besides starting with beans of varying sizes, and therefore having the same uneven roast in the end, they are often roasted too far past the second crack.  This is partly due to consumer expectation (rather recently developed by Starbucks and Peet's) that all coffee be "French" or dark roast (burnt), and partly due to inexperience.  A bean can only fully develop its full compliment of flavors and undertones with a slow, gradual roast, and released from the roaster immediately after the second crack (unless you're going for an espresso roast).  Some human roasters are doing this; some roasters are automated and programmed to work quickly to crank out more beans.

As every coffee company across America has caved to the charred standards, we've lost a lot of variety across the spectrum of coffee shops, from indies to large chains, but it seems to me that only in Fair Trade coffee has the over-roasted "flavor" been so thoroughly embraced, and coupled with roasting too quickly, it makes for a rather unpleasant cup with an aftertaste reminiscent of an ashtray.  I keep trying every Fair Trade coffee I can find (most recently, Sol Colibri), but they never seem to be able to break free from the Charbucks Starburnt Starbucks-defined standards of flavor to present a low-acid, complex and interesting medium roast that excites the tongue, and that I cannot support.

If Equal Exchange is going to focus on the small farmer, I wholeheartedly urge them to also support those farmers in meeting the highest standards for the grade of bean, and to send their roasters back to roasting school* and eschew the dark standard (double entrendre intended).  Until then, the sad fact is that there are many who will continue to equate fair trade with poor quality.

*OK, there's not really a roasting school.  Unfortunately.On The ethical and environmental dilemma of coffee posted 3 years ago 11 Responses