The Decaying Evolution of Education...

[Lean'n'mean]

' The decaying evolution of out of season fruit & veg '

 

[HudsonHawk]

Many of our fruits and vegetables are out of whack priced here... Tomatoes for instance are usually $3.99-$5.99 per pound!!! Cucumbers are $1.59 each. Lemons are 89 cents each. Crazy I know. If I drive up to Palm Beach, prices drop big time...

Part of the high price of tomatoes and cucumbers might be that they are out of season. If they're still that expensive in July, you just live in an expensive area, and are frankly, getting gouged. The price you pay for living in Miami, I suppose.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's been customary for our local supermarket chains to give at least some of their outdated stuff to the area food pantries and soup kitchens, but one of them recently sparked a huge outcry by announcing that it would no longer be doing this due to "a change in corporate policy." Once this hit the papers, they had to backpedal fast, but finally agreed to contribute only the waste food from one store, to a single shelter. The rest, in their view, can go hang. They also make a point of locking their dumpsters to keep the homeless from scavenging. Guess where I *don't* spend my money.

We usually put out a big spread at work for performers appearing live on our stage, but I insist that the workers have the right to scrounge that table after the performers have eaten what they wanted. We'll put out a full spread of cold cuts, expensive cheese, fine bread, fruits and salads and drinks and all sorts of other such stuff, and nine times out of ten the performers will eat half a celery stick and a ribbon of prosciutto and leave the rest. As soon as the show's over, we all race down there to eat our fill. "For it is written in the scripture, 'You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain.'"

As far as shopping goes, I'm in full agreement with the shop small/shop daily routine. I'm shopping for one person, I have a six cubic foot refrigerator with a freezer compartment the size of two shoeboxes, and I see no point at all in loading up on a lot of stuff that would spoil long before I could ever use it. I hate these deals where you can't get just one small chicken breast, you've got to buy a package of six of them or none at all, and I refuse to do it.

Wow, that is a supermarket management team that, one, seems cold hearted and, two, is completely out of sink with the current zeitgeist. While I like to believe that all charity is heartfelt, it is clear that it is also social currency today - kids use it for college application credit, young job applicants for character proof, businesses for the halo effect and every government program is couched in some social good even if the reality is it's a payoff to a favorite patron or union. Even Scrooge, if alive today (and he seemed just ornery enough to never died) would have "done charity" to increase business at Scrooge and Marley.

We would regularly order in a "spread" of food for corporate clients, bigwigs, etc., who rarely ate and, then, the rest of the "regular" workers would "raid" the conference room once the muckety mucks had left so that the food didn't go to waste.

My girlfriend and I did the math and a larger freezer made economic sense as so much of food is priced well in bulk. We don't like to waste food or money for both budget and moral reasons and have found that an intelligently managed large freezer quickly pays for itself. We wish it wasn't this way, but since the world won't bend to our will, we just do what makes the most sense in light of the parameters of the real world.

 

[philosophygirl78]

Part of the high price of tomatoes and cucumbers might be that they are out of season. If they're still that expensive in July, you just live in an expensive area, and are frankly, getting gouged. The price you pay for living in Miami, I suppose.

Miami sucks...

 

[GHT]

Miami sucks...

Oh I wouldn't say that, but then, I used to feel the same about London. Some ten or twelve years ago, I was driving down the I95. As the highway approached the Miami area it merged with two other Interstates. So now the highway is nine lanes wide. Suddenly my wife exclaimed: "There's our hotel." And she was right, you couldn't miss the neon sign, but just as I thought at the time: "How the hell am I going to get over there?" Somehow, more by luck than judgement, we got there.
Miami, was fun, and at the end of our stay as we were heading to the airport in a taxi, our driver asked us where we were heading. "London," I told him, not realising that the world had quite a few Londons. "London?" He queried, Ohio or Arkansas? "Er, neither, London, England's capital," it blew him away, but then he was a recent arrival from Cuba, so he hadn't probably had that many English tourists.
We had a fabulous time in Miami, even when we wandered inadvertently into what you might call, the red light district, we came to no harm. This big, and I mean big, guy stepped out in front of me. It was obvious that intentions were less than honourable. "Pardon me Sir," I said, smiling. He cracked into a massive smile, "You guys are English!" He exclaimed, "Quite so," I replied. "Quite so," he repeated, chuckling. "Look you don't want to hang around this district," he advised, "not a safe area." "Thanks for your advice," I said, offering my hand. We shook hands, with him still chuckling, and quickly exited the district. Were we lucky? Probably, but sometimes you make your own luck.

 

[DanielJones]

Going bac to education for a moment... These videos of speaker Sir Ken Robinson are a tad older, but mostly still ring very true, if not mores today.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[DanielJones]

One more for good measure. Revolution instead of Evolution.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[DanielJones]

I think this one fits here too.

An unanimated talk on education.

I have to say I dig on his talks, and really agree with him. It makes perfect sense to me.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[sheeplady]

I always think of grocery shopping as an interesting "divide" between those who are rural and urban.

I grew up in a rural environment. Grocery shopping meant a 45 minute drive each way (assuming the weather was good). You could buy eggs, milk, and bread at the convenience store two towns over, but that was 15 minutes each way. We slaughtered our own meat and grew most of our vegetables and froze them.

My husband grew up in the city and is perfectly fine buying one item at a time. If we need toothpaste, he brings home a tube. If I ask him to buy some tuna, he brings home two cans.

I shop like the apocalypse is coming next Wednesday. Need toothpaste? 3 tubes is my minimum. Need shampoo? At least two bottles. Down to one can of tuna? We need 10. We have enough canned food and water to survive a month. I shop sales, if it's a good deal, we need it, and non-perishable, I buy lots. For most items, it's one in use, and at least one in storage. When I get the storage item out, I buy another. I've owned a freezer since I was 19. I rotate canned goods.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I shop like the apocalypse is coming next Wednesday. Need toothpaste? 3 tubes is my minimum. Need shampoo? At least two bottles. Down to one can of tuna? We need 10. We have enough canned food and water to survive a month. I shop sales, if it's a good deal, we need it, and non-perishable, I buy lots. For most items, it's one in use, and at least one in storage. When I get the storage item out, I buy another. I've owned a freezer since I was 19. I rotate canned goods.

The one thing I do this for is cat food, especially in the winter -- I'll buy nine cans at a time, even if I've got several cans left. This habit formed the day I had to walk to the only open grocery store in town at the height of Winter Storm Nemo because there was nothing for The Cat to eat. I can live for days on uncooked oatmeal if I have to, but she won't stand for that.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I have a friend who is obsessive about buying toilet paper. Every time she goes shopping she buys like a pack of like 24. She has probably at least 1,000 rolls on hand at all times. Now I'm as cognizant as the next guy about the need for TP, and certainly have a healthy "fear" about not having it available when needed. But I'm not irrational about it. After many years, I think I have a pretty good feel for the pace at which I go through it.

 

[tonyb]

In the supermarket checkout line behind a quite elderly fellow who was purchasing, besides several grocery items, the polygamous family pack of toilet paper. I mean a HUGE bundle. Barely fit in the cart.
The clerk and I agreed that perhaps optimism is a key to longevity.

 

[philosophygirl78]

I have a friend who is obsessive about buying toilet paper. Every time she goes shopping she buys like a pack of like 24. She has probably at least 1,000 rolls on hand at all times. Now I'm as cognizant as the next guy about the need for TP, and certainly have a healthy "fear" about not having it available when needed. But I'm not irrational about it. After many years, I think I have a pretty good feel for the pace at which I go through it.

I am sure there is a deeper reason for this... Poor lady.

 

[philosophygirl78]

I always think of grocery shopping as an interesting "divide" between those who are rural and urban.

I grew up in a rural environment. Grocery shopping meant a 45 minute drive each way (assuming the weather was good). You could buy eggs, milk, and bread at the convenience store two towns over, but that was 15 minutes each way. We slaughtered our own meat and grew most of our vegetables and froze them.

My husband grew up in the city and is perfectly fine buying one item at a time. If we need toothpaste, he brings home a tube. If I ask him to buy some tuna, he brings home two cans.

I shop like the apocalypse is coming next Wednesday. Need toothpaste? 3 tubes is my minimum. Need shampoo? At least two bottles. Down to one can of tuna? We need 10. We have enough canned food and water to survive a month. I shop sales, if it's a good deal, we need it, and non-perishable, I buy lots. For most items, it's one in use, and at least one in storage. When I get the storage item out, I buy another. I've owned a freezer since I was 19. I rotate canned goods.

I wish we lived in a time where you could walk to a bakery for bread, fruit stand for fruit, bitcher for meat etc... I wish they were everywhere instead of supermarkets.

 

[Bushman]

I shop like the apocalypse is coming next Wednesday. Need toothpaste? 3 tubes is my minimum. Need shampoo? At least two bottles. Down to one can of tuna? We need 10. We have enough canned food and water to survive a month. I shop sales, if it's a good deal, we need it, and non-perishable, I buy lots. For most items, it's one in use, and at least one in storage. When I get the storage item out, I buy another. I've owned a freezer since I was 19. I rotate canned goods.

Not going to lie, you sound like my father when it comes to ketchup. I sincerely think he fears running out of ketchup. It's the oddest thing. His pantry is constantly stocked with at least 10 bottles.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I wish we lived in a time where you could walk to a bakery for bread, fruit stand for fruit, bitcher for meat etc... I wish they were everywhere instead of supermarkets.

Not sure about the bitcher's but you can still find those types of shops, even in Miami, you've even got some Farmer's markets down there, try googling....you never know, there might be something within walking distance from work or home. Now all you need is an excuse not to use them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I live in a small town, and there's a co-op selling fresh vegetables and meat about a block away from where I live. And there's a bakery next door to where I work. And there's a fish market with right-off-the-boat fish two blocks south of where I work. The only problem with these shops is that they aren't priced for working-class people -- the day will never dawn when I pay six dollars for a loaf of bread, no matter how "artisanal" it is.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I am sure there is a deeper reason for this... Poor lady.

Oh I'm sure there's a deep rooted psychological reason for this, most likely born from some particularly embarrassing moment. We all have those. But when you have bedrooms filled floor to ceiling with TP, you have a problem.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Not going to lie, you sound like my father when it comes to ketchup. I sincerely think he fears running out of ketchup. It's the oddest thing. His pantry is constantly stocked with at least 10 bottles.

My refrigerator door is dedicated to mustard. I have probably 40 different jars of it any time, though it's out of love of mustard, not out of fear of running out. Though that would unsettling. My wife thinks I have a problem.

 

[sheeplady]

Not going to lie, you sound like my father when it comes to ketchup. I sincerely think he fears running out of ketchup. It's the oddest thing. His pantry is constantly stocked with at least 10 bottles.

Oh, things like ketchup and peanut butter we don't buy in doubles. Just tooth paste, flour, tinned tuna & soup, soap, shampoo, pasta, pasta sauce. It really sucks to be hungry or unclean. Having an extra package of spaghetti and jar of sauce in the cabinet is good insurance for when you get sick or can't afford that much that paycheck.