Monday, December 24, 2012

"Food" Review - Banquet Deep Dish Sausage & Gravy

It was a pure impulse buy. But when I saw this bright, cheery yellow box at the store with the words "SAUSAGE & GRAVY" on it, I knew that I was soon to be parted with eighty-eight cents. So how was it? Even though it only contained 18% meat, as compared to the usual 25% meat in their regular meat pies, I can say that it was quite tasty. Yummy, even. Much better than the mini fruit pies they started selling recently. However against my better judgement I read the ingredients. Soy (probably GMO) protein, BHA AND BHT, hydrogenated (probably GMO) cottonseed oil, mysterious "flavoring". But for a manufactured food product the list was relatively short and included many normal ingredients such as nonfat dry milk (fortified with vitamins A & D) , wheat flour (probably GMO), and water (possibly fluoridated). It's been a full ten minutes and my stomach hasn't exploded so I'll give this one a thumbs up! Way to go, ConAgra Foods!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Confessions of a Weird Uncle

You may have already experienced it at Thanksgiving and will surely suffer at Christmas... maybe more than once: The weird uncle. But before you roll your eyes and try to think up a good reason for pulling slowly away (never make eye contact) let me remind you that being a weird uncle is not an easy task. In today's world, yesterday's conspiracy theories have an unsettling habit of becoming today's realities. Auditing the fed, a return to the gold standard, the Kennedy assassination and fluoride being harmful are no longer topics only heard out of the mouth of that ostracized uncle. No, it takes time and effort to maintain the "weird" adjective, researching and sorting through all the latest conspiracies, be it black-eyed children, FEMA camps, aliens working with government officials in bunkers under the Nevada desert, or the manipulation of our currency and a push to a one world order. So this Christmas/Festivus, when you see your own weird uncle, know that his ranting about aliens on the moon and doctored NASA photographs are the result of hours of research, and give him a friendly smile. Safely, from across the room.