As seen on I - 75

"Angels watch over me"

Yeah, I'm sure they do.
It's a good thing, too.
You drive like crap.

Wow

I love Alton Brown.
For those of you who don't know of him, he is a philosopher-cook who gets down to the basics:
www.altonbrown.com
www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm
www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea3

So, I like to read his blog, and I ran across this tonight:

Here’s what it comes down to kids. Ronald McDonald doesn’t give a damn about you. Neither does that little minx Wendy or any of the other icons of drivethroughdom. And you know what, they’re not supposed to. They’re businesses doing what businesses do. They don’t love you. They are not going to laugh with you on your birthdays, or hold you when you’re sick and sad. They won’t be with you when you graduate, when your children are born or when you die. You will be with you and your family and friends will be with you. And, if you’re any kind of human being, you will be there for them. And you know what, you and your family and friends are supposed to provide you with nourishment too. That’s right folks, feeding someone is an act of caring. We will always be fed best by those that care, be it ourselves or the aforementioned friends and family.

We are fat and sick and dying because we have handed a basic, fundamental and intimate function of life over to corporations. We choose to value our nourishment so little that we entrust it to strangers. We hand our lives over to big companies and then drag them to court when the deal goes bad. This is insanity.

Feed yourselves.
Feed your loved ones.
And for God’s sake feed your children.

Don’t trust anyone else to do it…not anyone. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go out to dinner every now and then…that is after all one of the great joys of life…but it isn’t life itself and that’s what I’m talking about.

Is MacDonalds food bad for you? What do you think? Does that mean you shouldn’t eat it? No, it just means you shouldn’t live on it or anything else made by someone you wouldn’t hug.

Burgers don’t kill people.
People kill people.
Don’t be one of them.

And again, I say, "Wow."
Kinda cuts to the heart of the matter, ne?
It underscores a point that I have been thinking of for some time now, i.e. that the industrial revolution was a mistake. Well, that's a bit harsh, but I think that nobody really noticed, save perhaps the Luddites et. al. , that the corporations spewing out their technological marvels with mass-produced economies of scale inherently have more power and influence than they deserve, or, for that matter, need or should have. And it has all come to this. We don't even know how to properly and regularly prepare a good old-fashioned home-cooked meal. I find it highly disturbing the research that has gone into the effect that the presence of a dinner table has on such social ills as unemployment, drug abuse, divorce, etc. It doesn't even seem to me that such research needs to be done, but the results are quite stunning.
Now, I must mention that I work, and indeed have, on and off, for the past 12 years, in the foodservice industry. I represent this mess. Hell, I am this mess. My livelyhood requires the frequent and gratuitous emptying of ones wallet on the dinner table, and I stand here to say:

eff it.

1.Learn how to cook.
2.Cook.
3.Cook for your family, your friends, your neighbors, that jerk down the street and those jerks in the office.

4.Learn how to listen.
5.Listen.
6.Listen to the birds, the wind, the crickets, the s i l e n c e.
7.Listen to your children, your parents, your friends, and especially that jerk down the street. He just might not be that big a jerk.

8.Learn how to drive.
9.Stay at home.
10.Spend some time with your friends and family playing board games or just talking and eating. Leave the digital babysitter in the closet where it belongs, and just gather.

...and that's (not nearly) all I have to say about that...
-b