Frozen Cauliflower from China???

This afternoon my wife returned from food shopping, and mentioned that at the “Tops Friendly Supermarket” here in the Rochester, NY area, she had picked up a bag of frozen cauliflower,  looked at the country of origin, and was shocked, “shocked I say”, to see that it came from CHINA!

What the heck???

She had been expecting either the USA, or Mexico, or  possibly Central America, or maybe even the Philippines, but this was completely unexpected.

She put down the bag from China, and drove over to the nearby Wegman’s store and got a bag of frozen cauliflower – it came from Guatemala, and that was perfectly acceptable, as expected – and we had some for dinner tonight.

Mort baby, what were you thinking?

On this Bastille Day of all days, Mort Zuckerman had a piece printed in the Wall St. Journal that sounds way too much like real truth-telling:
        The Economy is Even Worse Than You Think!

He starts with the fact that the length of time the average person is unemployed is now longer than it has ever been, since measurements began in 1945, and he goes on to chronicle a laundry list of bad economic news items that have received little notice from Obama’s cheerleaders in the press corps and the TV nightly news programs.

Unfortunately, Mort takes a very different lesson from all of these carefully researched facts than I do. Mort thinks we need “STIMULUS PACKAGE II – THE RETURN OF THE WISE AND NOBLE CONGRESS!”

A Chai Wallah?

If you saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and enjoyed it as I did, you’ll remember  the game show host continually making snide comments in a very derogatory tone about the chaiwalla!

He made it sound like the lowest of the low, and that anyone so employed could not possibly have any intelligence whatsoever.

The movie piqued my interest, and I thought you might like to read some of the background info I gathered ….

A western couple now living in India ask (and answer!):
        What’s a Chai Wallah?    and    About Chai Pilgrimage.

Some enterprising immigrants in England set up a chai shop:
        Chaiwalla

Exactly what is it that they drink?
        Masala Chai

While I drink straight black tea all the time, I’ve never been offered chai.  With all this new understanding, I will definitely give it a try if I get the chance.

A Thoroughly Musical Ford

Check this out –
        Making a musical Ford

Kim Komando wrote about this in early March, 2009 – I don’t know where or
when this ad actually aired, but it is incredibly ingenious – and it had to take
a ton of time and money to put it all together.

First Ford refused bail-out money.
Second, they didn’t go bankrupt.
Third, they are increasing market share and maybe increasing production, in the
spirit of the original Henry Ford.
Fourth: They put out the bucks for an ad like that!

This is definitely the kind of spirit and thinking that once defined America – and we need to foster that attitude and encourage such enterprise again.
(btw – it appears the ad was made in London, England …)

We’ve been a mostly GM and Dodge family for the past 25 years, but now I’m starting to think that maybe Ford really does have a better idea …….

Here’s Kim’s original article:
        Kim Komando: Ode to a Ford

[Thanks to Tom for putting this in front of my eyes.]

Encountering the Enchanting Eva Marie

Eva Cassidy lived only 33 years, but her soulful and sometimes haunting voice lives on in her songs. Though she died in 1996, her recordings only started getting notice after her death.

I first heard her a few months ago, and have been blown away by her wonderful tone, perfect pitch and delicate phrasing. On top of that, her guitar playing could justify listening all by itself – what a combination! It was only recently – after I was completely captivated – that I learned she was gone from this earth.

Bill Hearne, R.I.P.

The Rochester area lost a solid citizen on Thursday. Bill Hearne died while climbing Mt. McKinley in Alaska at the age of 61

He was one of the founders of the Oven Door Runners that runs on Saturday mornings at 6:30am (7am in January) year round from the Hitching Post Plaza in Bushnell’s Basin.

For the couple of years I ran with them, he was always there bright and early, and managed to be cheerful at that ungodly hour. Rain, shine or snow, he would have some challenging route picked out that would take an hour or two (or more) out of your early Saturday morning, and we would grab coffee and pastries afterwards at the Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters. (Mark Roberts captured the Saturday morning Bill very well in his 2003 piece – My First Long Run.)

Bill was also involved with music – he was a member of Mercury Opera Rochester, and would promote their performances to the running community – a “new age” form of cross-pollination bringing culture to the running heathens.

A “hail fellow, well met” , a Kodaker, an engineer – a true Renaissance Man in every sense of the word – he will be sorely missed.

Update – May 17, 2009:
In doing a post about Eva Cassidy, I was struck by how she was taken from this life years too soon, in much the same way many feel about Bill’s passing.

I’d like to think he might have enjoyed her version of the traditional Irish tune:         Danny Boy

Bill certainly had all the great spirit of a fine Irish fellow!

Twin Rocks, Oregon

And now for something completely different …

I stumbled over a singer I’d never heard of
before – named Shawn Mullins (a decent
Irish sounding name -even if his parents
didn’t know how to properly spell his name
as Sean!)

He has a piece – part poem, part song – that
intrigued me.  It starts off with a passing
reference to Richard Brautigan – who wrote
“Trout Fishing In America” back in the 1960’s.
I read it then and had not heard of him since.

Twin Rocks, Oregon

If you get a chance to listen, leave a comment
to let me know how you liked it – especially any of
you Irish, and particularly the Mullin clan!

Obama, the Smart Shopper!

Although various politicians have denigrated the citizens
who actively participated in the April 15th “Tea Party” protests
as fringe elements or an “unhinged mob”, the majority of
Americans supported the protests, while the mainstream media
outlets gave it sparse notice, and were often quite disparaging.

Not surprisingly, President Obama took notice, and in his first
full cabinet meeting, he announced that the government agencies and
departments were going to cut $100 million dollars in government
spending (from the $4 trillion planned for this year!!).

Here’s another way to look at it. If you had 40,000 piles of money,
each with enough hundred and thousand dollar bills to make a
pile of $100 million dollars, you would be looking at $4 trillion dollars
(and you could proudly say to everyone – put it on my tab!!!).

Rotten Eggs: Bad Drywall from China?

WAIT! No – don’t tell me….let me guess. Another basic, garden variety,
low-tech product made in China at an amazing low cost, by using
low wages, shoddy practices, and substandard or illegal materials.

But bad drywall??? What could possibly go wrong with plasterboard?
How about a constant rotten-egg sulfur smell – like hidden Easter eggs
that were not found for a few months.

This story appears similar to to previous stories where Chinese product defects
only came to light when:

• – children started dying (melamine in powdered milk)
• – children got sick (chemically tainted toothpaste, lead paint on toys)
• – people died in car crashes (tread separation on defective tires)

The list goes on and on. Western companies aided their own destruction
by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new Chinese factories to take
advantage of the wage disparity. Unfortunately, it seems that the Chinese do
not as a whole share our traditions of trying to create the best product at the
lowest cost; the Chinese ethos seems to be “create the lowest cost product
regardless of the consequences.”

Europe Syndrome in America?

Last month Charles Murray gave a speech to the American Enterprise Institute titled:
        “Europe Syndrome”

It’s a good speech, and I would have liked to hear him deliver it in person.

Many of you might remember Randy Pausch – the Carnegie Mellon professor who developed terminal cancer. He gave his last speech “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” to a packed hall filled with students and friends, and before dying he expanded it into a best-selling book “The Last Lecture.”

Charles Murray’s speech was equally compelling to me, but discusses the “meaning of life” concept from a different perspective.