Randomness

[enterprikayak]

Yay kitties!
At the international air security from Canada to Seattle, the great-grandma (85) got mad they wanted her to not carry on her massive shower gel in her purse and she got all pissed and made a loud scene and started saying "Oh sure! I'M AN 85 YEAR OLD TERRORIST! I';M GOING TO BLOW UP THE PLANE! yeah, RIGHT! I have a BOMB!" and the security guard was all "Ma'am, stop saying that! You're not allowed to say that!"

I would probably love your great-grandmother. HAVE FUN!

probably

[WarpGirl]

Well that speech is kind of on par with the one I gave, "Yeah I can't get out of my wheelchair but you shouldn't be lax because its hollow and all I have to do is pack it with C4, so please stop discrinating against people with disabilities, we might be terroists too." This was after I observed me getting passed over and people with a darker skin tone being rudely treated. Fortunately I was only 15 and about 90 pounds at the time so I looked like an itty bitty girl with a soft voice. Wheelchairs make you look smaller too.

[enterprikayak]

awesome


okay, so I was at the WalMart on Maui (that is so wrong) getting some basic groceries (again....*SO* wrong) cause Foodland is way too expensive.

I am feeling like a foreigner in this here land of the free....

Why does almost all the "juice" have this "high fructose corn syrup" as the 2nd ingredient after water?

The bread and pasta and stuff is all white? I finally found some whole wheat crammed over on the side.

The milk is all homo or 0% fat? where are the inbetweens?

Ummmm.....the milk aisle has milk, but also a bunch of....BOOZE?

And the booze is CHEAP?

Like a $30 wine from Canada is like, literally $5. You could get soooooooo drunk.

And all this premixed 20% mai-tais and stuff? Next to the milk? For $8?

Wow. Our Wal-Mart in Canada has dealcoholized beer, and that's about it.

Canadian sold booze is marked up about 6000% and sold unrefrigerated in governement stores, or "cold beer and wine stores" who charge even more cause they - ooooooo - reFRIGerate the booze FOR you. How MAGical.

Met a really nice new yorker/californian lady in the pool with a girl exactly Aureilia's age, and within 2 minutes, the girl and Raily were hugging each other around the neck and giggling and tickling each other. Ahhhh to be 5 again. The mom had this brooklyn new york accent and to me she sounded like she was straight offa seinfeld. I bet I sounded all Canadian.

The weather is PERFECT!

You can tell my sister (whose condo this is) doesn't have kids. The cupboard under the sink is simply JAMMED with household poisons (oven cleaner, etc).

Fixed that first thing.

[WarpGirl]

Welcome to America you wanna know how we eat, watch the documentery "Supersize Me" Seriously everyone should see it. Yes our food is gross, but good news in Hawaii fresh fruit stands are easy to find, get pineapple and put SALT on it. This is not optional if you want to experience fresh fruit nirvana.

[crystalswolf]

Don't forget "Food Inc."

Enterprikayak, you'll find High Fructose Corn Syrup in almost everything... take a look at the bread's ingredients list. There's been a small trend to return to sugar but still, not sure why our foods have to be so sweet and salty.

[honeybee]

Having grown up on a tropical island, I know you'll find a lot more processed/preserved food than even a normal grocery store in the mainland and it's going to be expensive. Everything has to be trucked/flown in over long distances, with the exception of the few things like pineapple and fish that might be produced on the island. And on top of that, they are going to jack up the prices in the tourist areas. Prior to preservatives and processed food, the lack of food made life very difficult on islands - especially for non natives who needed those carbs and such.

Although a lot of America has bad eating habits, some of us do eat healthy. I'm a big farmer's market and food co-op shopper. It's cheaper and better, but I live in Pennsylvania, where farms are plentiful. I know it's much harder for my friends in Tuscon, but they try. It's just a lot more expensive and you have to work harder to find it.

[aadarshinah]

Sugars mean carbs. In olden days, quick energy like carbs ensured our survival. Ergo, if you can't sell it with sex, you can usually put sugar in it and have it sell. Salt isn't as high in the body's need list, but it's up there too...

[WarpGirl]

"Food Inc" I'll look it up on netflix. Truth be told, I will never go to a drive through again except the BBQ joint down the road because everything they make there and the pigs are local. However, I cannot torture myself with obsessing over every mouthful. If I lived on a working farm, yeah... But I don't and even though I'm surrounded by them, its still next to impossible to afford all natural, non-processed, local, stuff. I'm sorry but unless you don't have a family and work a full time job, it can't be done unless you're in the upper middle class. Just access is a problem. I'm still going to eat chinese takeout just once a month instead of more.

[honeybee]

There's been a small trend to return to sugar but still, not sure why our foods have to be so sweet and salty.

Salt was the first preservative, and I think we are acclimated to it because for centuries there were months where all meat was salted because it was not fresh. Same goes for a lot of fruits and veggies - and then humans developed a taste for salt on their food, which was only natural.

Cane sugar, is like a drug however, akin to cocaine. The more processed, the bigger the high. People crave it as well as like it. Prior to 1492, those of us of European descent, our ancestors only had access to honey and the sugars that occur naturally in food. When cane sugar was brought back, people took to it like ducks to water.

I'm yammering on from memory, but I think the jury is still out on why high fructose corn syrup is so bad - some data seems to indicate it is - but they aren't sure why, since it should be no worse than regular sugar. I did an article on this - and the nutritionist said that the only good sugar is the kind the comes from fruit naturally.

I did do an article where I lived as a locavore for a week. It was hard, and I live in farm country and did it in harvest season.

[Aquarius]

Welcome to America you wanna know how we eat, watch the documentery "Supersize Me" Seriously everyone should see it. Yes our food is gross, but good news in Hawaii fresh fruit stands are easy to find, get pineapple and put SALT on it. This is not optional if you want to experience fresh fruit nirvana.

Okay, it never occurred to me to put salt on a pineapple, which is my favorite fruit. I may try it though, but this brought up an interesting observation:

When I moved to the suburbs, a lot of people looked at me cross-eyed when I mentioned that in my family, we put salt on watermelon before we eat it. Not as a preservative thing, but as an "it tastes good" thing. Or, let me rephrase--most white people didn't get it, but I did encounter a lot of African Americans who did salt on watermelon as well. So I guess I'm thinking this is something that started in the South, since Mom's family is from Missouri and Dad's is from West Virginia. Most of the black folks I encounter around here are like me, maybe born in Michigan but have parents or grandparents from the South.

Also, my Grandpa used to put salt on his grapefruit. Said it made it less bitter.

[WarpGirl]

Thank you Alton Brown! I know this... Salt has a chemical reaction to citris and melon making both sweeter. So that's why salt on lemons or grapefruit and lime is so good. Strangly enough it doesn't change orange at least it didn't for me when I could eat orange. And considering you have a cat named Elvis I'm shocked you never heard of salt on pineapple Aquarius you must have seen the movie Blue Hawaii it's the second best Elvis movie ever. After King Creole... Viva Las Vegas, slightly over rated. Try the salt on the pineapple, better than a Trip fantasy.

[Alelou]

When I was growing up we always put salt on our oranges, and sometimes on our watermelon, and my mother always put it in her beer. It tastes good, but salt also helps you cope with heat. People used to take salt pills, too, especially if they had to do a lot of work outdoors or something. They may still do it in really hot weather.

I went to Wal-Mart in Hawaii too. It's probably your best deal for developing photographs, and we were there for a wedding so we had plenty. I did notice those Hawaiians are really into sweet stuff, with that sweet Hawaiian bread everywhere. Not a lot of healthy options beyond fruit and veggies.

Also noticed a hell of a lot of obesity. At Hulihee Palace in Kailua-Kona they explained that the arrival of white flour and pork that came over with the Europeans was NOT good for the native population.

[Linda]

Well, I am almost among the employed again. And I will be doing the same job I did for my first job as a teenager! Which is teaching swimming. This week I finish up the YMCA swimming instructor course. I used to have Red Cross certification, so this is a bit different. They break the skills down into smaller grouping at the Y. Instead of Beginner, Intermediate, with the Red Cross, the Y has Pike, Guppy, Fish, etc. Kinda cute. I had to practice teach a skill for 8 - 10 year olds on how to stop bleeding. Brought one of my granddaughter's red crayons from my home so we could draw a red cut on one of my fellow student's arms to illustrate how to put pressure on the wound and bandage it. Since we were all wet from the pool, the crayon mark on her arm ran like real blood and everyone in the class clapped for my mini lesson!

Success at one thing breeds energy for another thing. So I am back to writing fan fic and have two stories in the works. Sometimes it is the little things in life - like a three-year-old's half used up fat red crayon from which the paper cover has already been removed, that makes your day.

[Alelou]

That's great news, on all fronts.

[honeybee]

Well, I am almost among the employed again. And I will be doing the same job I did for my first job as a teenager! Which is teaching swimming.

How wonderful! I learned to swim at the YMCA, in fact one of my earliest memories is doggie paddling with one of those Styrofoam bubbles strapped to my back. Everyone who can should learn to swim for safety, as far as I'm concerned. And, Linda, it's a job that where you will get in good shape and learn all sorts of skills. So, that will be a very rewarding experience all around Linda.

Also noticed a hell of a lot of obesity. At Hulihee Palace in Kailua-Kona they explained that the arrival of white flour and pork that came over with the Europeans was NOT good for the native population.

Very correct. A friend of my parents is a social worker who was at one time in charge of the big housing projects in Hawaii - she implemented a healthy eating/gardening program because of the obesity. It's the same thing in Aruba, not just white flour and processed food - but since they decided to really go for the tourist market, fast food has arrived. When I was a kid, there was no fast food at all and I don't remember so much obesity. Now, it's everywhere and the Arubans love it (as do most people). Obesity has become a huge problem, and the dynamic is really amplified because very little food is produced on the island itself. You can't be a locavore unless you can live on fish and maybe a fruit tree in your yard.

The sad thing is that all this processed food was originally considered a good idea by many because it made food cheap and accessible.