First?

Not much to say. Just wanted to be sure that the boodle started off the day in its usual way.

"Notice how all their blogs have specific themes. They're about something. Why didn't I think of that????"

Achenblog: the "Seinfeld" of the Internets.

"Not much to say. Just wanted to be sure that the boodle started off the day in its usual way."

You got it right, then, skiohio. You've got us figured out.

I will point out that I read Joel's article yesterday while eating leftover Lo Mein from our local Chinese carryout. It was a little disconcerting, since I've always wondered what Five Spice is anyway.

Why not pin down FDA's Acheson during your interview with him? If putting an increased number of inspectors at U.S. ports of entry is NOT the answer, than what does Acheson think the answer is? Just sitting on our American hands and twiddling our American thumbs? Letting the legal system take care of the miscreants?

What is the answer, especially since the chain of production is so widely distributed, down to the village level in China, as you point out? Shouldn't the folks who stuck melamine in dogfood be executed as well? Where does justice begin and end?

Did Acheson say anything at all about buying local? Certainly he knows the very troubled history of the agency he now supervises.

I bought local many times at the farmers' market in Modesto, but I had no knowledge whatsoever of what pesticides a farmer may have used on his field or her patch. I did know that what I was buying was fresh off the vine, the stalk, or the bush--days fresher than what I could have purchased at a supermarket in my hometown of Tracy. There are no guarantees about buying local, as the contaminated spinach from the Salinas Valley amply demonstrates.

There are two women who have recently written books--one, profiled this past week on NBC, about how she tried for a year to not buy a product made in China, the other who attempted, for about the same amount to time, to buy only local foodstuffs. Are these efforts really the answer?

To repeat: What is the answer? Media storms are not entirely unjustified, as in this case, when news reports are clustered in time and shed light on the fact that many different products emanating from China have been adulterated to contain harmful or death-causing substances.

We subscribe to the Tampa Trib at Chez Frostbitten South, but the St. Pete Times blogs are much better. I check in regularly at "Standing By"
http://blogs.tampabay.com/standingby/
written by an army spouse whose husband is deployed in Iraq. (I accidentally used my boodle handle there once and felt so naked.)

Good morning all. Light boodle week for me. Off to a follow up leadership retreat then Mr. F, the Frostrents, and all the Frostcousins descend for the annual "Cousins' Weekend." This is an off year so there won't be a full blown reunion. Good thing too. I'm still recovering from last year.

NYT's op-ed today titled, "Killing the Regulator."

Killing the Regulator
The Chinese government's extraordinary decision to execute its chief food and drug regulator for taking bribes and allowing the sale of tainted drugs is a perfect example of all that is wrong with China's approach to regulation.

Beijing's leaders -- who disdain the idea of their own accountability -- may think that killing the regulator is enough to reassure consumers at home and abroad that China is now ready to guarantee the safety of its products. But they're wrong.

What China needs is an effective and transparent regulatory system and a clear understanding that its export boom will suffer if it continues to sell tainted food, toys and toothpaste. Until that happens -- and there is no guarantee that it will -- American regulators will have to do more to screen Chinese imports to protect American consumers.

China's dysfunction has deep roots. The Communist Party leadership has muzzled consumer advocacy groups and the press. The government is also loath to do anything that might hinder the country's breakneck economic growth. With no public accountability, shoddy companies are allowed to cut every possible corner in their pursuit of business, often under the protection of corrupt government officials.

The results include rivers laced with ammonia and toothpaste sweetened with an industrial solvent, as well as tainted antibiotics that have killed more than a dozen children and sickened hundreds. The good news is that for the first time China's leaders are talking about the need for more and better regulation. And Washington and other governments can help with offers of technical advice and warnings about the cost of failing to take it.

But the scope of the problem is too big, too complex and too urgent for the United States -- with $300 billion worth of Chinese imports a year -- to wait for Beijing to act. American importers need to provide the first line of defense. Companies like Wal-Mart should send inspectors regularly to visit the factories of Chinese suppliers, to ensure that products are up to acceptable standards. Ultimately the American government will have to enforce these norms.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration has spent the last five-plus years emasculating the American regulatory system. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has seen its budgets repeatedly cut. The Food and Drug Administration has not received the resources it needs and today inspects only a minute share of all imported food.

It is hard to imagine anything good coming out of the China export scandals. But perhaps they will persuade Congress's new Democratic leaders that America also needs a stronger and more transparent regulatory system.

Re. Chinese food: TBG, I've suddenly become a little leery of ordering the "Happy Family" anymore.

With or without MSG.

'twould be a bad thing if that "Happy Family" consisted of convicted bureaucrats and dissidents.

"'Happy Family' is... *people*!"

Good morning, everyone.

And Joel, thanks for the Naughty Link.

bc

Glad to see the finished article! Question for the boodle: there was also an Outlook piece yesterday that defended the Chinese in terms of the place of honor that food holds in the national culture. And accused the U.S. media and public of racism for the way we're treating these incidents. Comments?

Also, I'd love to hear more from Acheson on ports inspectors and his preferred methods for addressing food safety...

Joel, as someone who has been known to mangle the english language frequently, I read the quote from Bush. I am still trying to figure it out. I am feeling better about my limited skills :-)

Re: Chinese imports - we are getting what we pay for correct?

Howdy y'all. I find it particularly interesting, and disheartening, that although the Chinese government executed the regulator it has been reluctant to go after any of the businesses or institutions which bribed him. Personal responsibility is great (and I wish we could see some from our own administration) but only when included as part of a system of responsibility.

The more I rely on farmer's markets in the summer, the less I buy out-of-season produce in the winter. We also don't use much in the way of processed food. This has the advantage of being cheaper, and I have a good idea about where our food comes from. It is true that farmer's market growers may use pesticides etc., but at my local market the growers themselves, or close surrogates, are also the sellers. I can always ask them about their farming practices and, if I don't like them, buy elsewhere.

I haven't and won't read the Outlook article Natalie describes as defending "the Chinese in terms of the place of honor that food holds in the national culture. And accused the U.S. media and public of racism for the way we're treating these incidents." I do wonder if the similar outcry over the recent U.S. spinach and peanut butter contaminations were also racist, or if it is only racist because the contaminants are originally found in another country. And what of the fact, admitted by Chinese officials, that most of the contamination is to products consumed in China, by Chinese? How is it racist to report this? In other words, that accusation makes no practical sense to me.

The Chinese may well hold food in high cultural esteem. That doesn't appear to me to have any connection to the apparently widespread problem of contaminants in food within China itself, and in its exports. Here's pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if two other apparent Chinese cultural trands aren't colliding here. First is the cultural prediliction for the many over the few. That is, in China, like many Asian countries, society is more important than any individual. While this was exacerbated by Communist ideology, I believe it has roots in earlier Chinese culture. Second, the Chinese are just beginning the economic experiment of capitalism, with popular culture encouraging the amassing of wealth. What strikes me is the sheer numer of producers, large and small, who appear to have no qualms about adulterating their product to increase profit even when they know it will harm their neighbor the consumer.

Does NYT editorial carries more weight than the op-ed articles?

Last night, I spotted the Useless Tree blog's photos of public executions in China.
http://uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/2007/07/china---still-l.html
The theme (this is a Confucian blog by a professor at Williams College) was the Confucian notion that you can't rule by killing. It seems the other philosophy (Legalist) is that it's essential to kill.

On the food side, Japan (and I'm sure Taiwan, too) have some food problems and foibles, but my unsubstantiated feeling is that both countries have lots of tiny local producers, and the food is of very high quality. Even if I can't work up much enthusiasm for all the fried stuff in Taipei's night markets.

Portland, Oregon is sort of a paradise for local food, if you define "local" to include the Hood River Valley on the other side of the Cascades and Sauvie Island closer to town. And maybe even the wasabi farm on the coast.

I remember Reading, Pennsylvania as being that way in the summer.

Long ago, when Sears pioneered catalog sales, then nationwide stores, the company had an elaborate product testing program. Additionally, they maintained long-term relations with trusted suppliers (Whirlpool would be the classic and possibly the most enduring example). So at a time when shoddy merchandise abounded, consumers could trust Sears.

I suspect that today's Republicans suppose that such private concern for ensuring quality is more effective than anything that government would do.

I'm somewhat confused as to why the issues with Chinese food goods are a surprise to anyone. The whole point of of our huge trade defiicit is that companies on both sides know they can use lax environmental and labor laws in order to squeeze yet another $0.02 out of each unit.

In hard goods it's maybe not so bad, the thing just breaks on you and you throw it out and get another one, and it's actually hard to find stuff NOT made there. But for any kind of consumables it's all invisible, and you're at their mercy.

Flouride in childrens' ice cream Mandrake. That's how your basic Commie works.

I was in St Pete for my high school reunion over the weekend and saw Joel's article and thought that this Outlook deal where he gets syndicated must be pretty sweet. Obviously, that is not the case.

The SPT also ran Weingarten's rerun where Gene calls Joel "Guy With Three Daughters" as if that were some distinguishing feature.

I used to read the SPT 80s blog, but that guy posts every day and people stay on topic and the 80s are too depressing to dwell on continuously.

When we went to China, it was suggested that we bring a lot of gifts since that is a big part of their culture. Finding suitable items that were not made in China proved troublesome. Fortunately a lot of Nike apparel is made in Central America. Problem solved. Nike tee-shirts and golf shirts went over great.

"I suspect that today's Republicans suppose that such private concern for ensuring quality is more effective than anything that government would do."

Dave o'C... I think that may end up being the case with Chinese imports, too. If the public decides that Chinese imports are shoddy (or tainted) they will, eventually, protest with their pocketbooks.

It may be hard at first and may take a long time to get these products out of the food chain, so to speak, but it will eventually happen if Americans believe the products (and/or the exporters) can't be trusted.

Of course, that doesn't take the place of government controls, but I think the businesses who depend on these Chinese imports will face big troubles if they don't enact their own controls.

In the meantime, more of us will still likely be hurt by of the high-fructose corn syrup in everything than melamine or bacteria in some Chinese imports.

A book I read last month, "Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan, had a pretty impassioned defense of sweatshops as the bottom rung of industrialization.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2007/07/booksfirst-travel-edition.html

It seems some people find being chained to a sewing machine preferable to being a subsistence farmer, which in turn beats being a starving refugee.

Consumer protection is a separate issue. Wheeler makes the case that clean air and water are luxury goods developed nations have glommed onto only recently. The problem is that acid rain and global warming don't respect borders very well.

TBG,
And China is now playing hardball back as Joel whiffed the scent of trade war. We are not squeaky clean ourselves when it comes to food safety. Two can play that game.

Billy "Put On Your Rosey Glasses and Drink The Kool-Aid" Kristol is doing a WaPo chat at noon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/07/13/DI2007071301490.html

Oughta be a laff riot.

Our Farmer's Market requires that the sellers be the growers of the produce, and I see many signs saying "No pesticides."

Saturday I saw a sign by some tomatoes saying, "Grown Outdoors."

Now that is getting really specialized. And what is the matter with being grown in a greenhouse?

Here's the Outlook article I mentioned earlier: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301712.html. I'm not saying I agree with it - just curious about other opinions on it. I'm certainly a big fan of buying local and seasonal!

yello-When you were in the area for the reunion did you have a chance to ask your Seminole Heights pals about Starbucks? Urban homesteading in general?

I don't know what's happening with my tomatoes. They've been fed with a manure tea of guinea pig droppings and rainwater collected off the roof and the little patio darlings were supposed to be ripe by now and just larger than Santa Sweets (trademarked, over petrochemicaled, migrant worker exploiting burst of flavor those, but envied nonetheless). Instead I have roma shaped, larger than golf balls, just turning yellow beauties. I am a week or more away from ripeness, but when they do come in I'll have a bumper crop.

I wonder if the FDA employs excellent mathematicians and statistical analysts to provide the very best random sampling procedures possible. Such as grinding up 10 or 100 products and testing them simultaneously for bad stuff. If the sample is clean, go on to the next 10 or 100. If not, narrow the search. That sort of optimal search strategy. One fears that crony appointments by the Bush administration might hamper science more than the usual bureaucratic hoops.

bc, thanks for the kind words about my blog. Joel, for good or ill, my blog has no theme either. It's whatever I feel like writing about. Blogger recommends against this sort of thing. Hmmph. Feh.

I think the problem with consumers voting with their pocketbooks is twofold: the sheer volume of material from China, and the current regulations which permit sale of imported food without establishing its country of origin; plus, of course, the problem of foods which contain ingredients imported from China without attribution. It is hard to boycott Chinese imported foodstuffs and ingredients when you don't know that's where they come from.

Yearly during the height of peach season here, I struggle to find the excellent South Carolina peaches in regular stores. The shelves are usally jam packed with California peaches that taste like - cardboard. Mostly one must drive farther and find roadside stands or farmers' markets. But one-stop shopping burns less gasoline. I hate extra trips if they are out of my way. I guess I could bicycle 14 miles and buy peaches that way...

Lately I have urges to just strangle anyone who buys "Fiji water."

My Seminole Heights friends love the Starbucks. They say it's a great place to run into your neighbors. They put a lot of sweat equity into the place and like the location.

Funny how people's prejudices can influence their food buying. We were visiting cousins in Oklahoma and one walked in from the market and said, "Ugh. They only had those *Arkansas* tomatoes."

I looked at the graphic accompanying yesterday's article about possible ways to reduce greenhouse gases. It looks like Australia/NZ win the award for most per capita GHG production by a mile.

While we are speaking about local produce, Yoki if you are out there, picked up some Ontario Green Beans the other day, very lovely. Hopefully truck loads will be on the way out west soon. The last couple of years they have been of poor quality in the stores (OK at Farmer's markets) but this year seems better.

I am guilty of bias when purchasing produce but I think it is more from familiarity than anything else.

Protologism: produjice: n. the irrational belief that our county's tomatoes taste better than THEIR county's.

It's not irrational with the peaches. I should just shut up or just lie and say "No, do NOT eat South Carolina peaches! They are awful!" Then there would be more for me...

That's okay, Jumper. Oklahoma peaches are like that too. When I lived in California, the same was true, and I always pick up Colorado peaches when we go there. I think it is wherever they are closest to their tree.

That said, Oklahoma peaches really are very good. I'm eating one with my lunch now.

Sneaks, so sorry about the grandDane.

Slyness, sending happier thoughts your way after your day of memorial services.

On the way to the country house, I stopped at a roadside stand and bought corn, yellow squash, peaches, and melon. I trusted that they were locally-grown and not from a produce wholesaler (wish I could say the same for my local farmer's market). Since there was a huge vegetable patch out back, it seemed like a good assumption. The flavor proved it to be true. Not quite as good as childhood 20-minutes-from-garden-to-table memories, but nevertheless.
The bonus of the weekend was the discovery of a blackberry patch on our property. An hour in the scorching sun and a scratch-mangled arm later, I had makings for about three pies. Only one got made, because I ran out of flour. The rest might just end up in the freezer for another time.

Actually, TBG, it appears that it is only you that I have "figured out". I'll keep working on it.

Yes, Ivansmom... but what about those *Arkansas* peaches?

(These were the cousins from Grove, by the way, which is about 18 miles from Arkansas.)

I'm not at all certain that it is fair to count New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions against the manmade world total. While it is true that the gases are emitted, they are part of the world's overall ecological system -- the cows and sheep burp loads of methane, which reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, which plants consume and react with water through photosynthesis to produce cellulose and sugars and starches and so forth, which the cows and sheep eat, and so on. This system is skewed by the fact that synthetic petrochemical-based fertilizers are used in producing the feed, which contributes extra carbon that would otherwise be sequestered deep beneath the surface. Still, most of the carbon is part of the active ecological cycle and not part of the ADDITIONAL CO2 that has been put into the atmosphere specifically by humans. SOMETHING was going to digest that photosynthetic activity and produce gases -- bacteria, bunnies, wombats, or the bacteria that live in the rumen of livestock. It would have been something. So you can't blame NZ's livestock.

The same fallacy appears in calculations showing that ethanol produces about as much CO2 per passenger mile as gasoline, so it is supposedly no better as a fuel to reduce global warming. That is irrelevant, because the source of the carbon is the atmosphere, not the Earth's crust. Plants incorporate atmospheric carbon into organic molecules as an energy-storage medium, eventually resulting in CO2 as the stored energy is reaped. The carbon will be recycled, with no net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, except for the component that comes from fertilizer. There are other problems with ethanol as a fuel (specifically, energy-to-weight ratio, energy-efficiency of different feedstocks), but this isn't one of them.

1,500 comments is a bad day for you, isn't it? You could write about draw-strings vs. twist-ties in garbage bags and the debate would rage well beyond 1,500 comments.
Enviously,
EZ

I just looked up your George Mason U. source for your Style article: Robert Clark--older fellow, undergrad from Tulane, advanced degree from Johns Hopkins. Teaches health law. I hope he knows more about the law than he does about viruses. Does any Washington Post editor fact-check the science within Washington Post articles?

Jared Diamond links flu to swine and ducks, and cattle to smallpox, in his 1997 Pulitzer prize-winning book (p. 207), yet the dates of virology publications, both here and overseas, that show the close similarity of the camelpox and variola viruses were published in 2002. How is Clark sourcing his material? Is he relying on old stuff?

Along the same line of thought, I picked up the phone on Friday--for the second time, having called on Thursday morning when the news broke locally about San Antonio being one of five finalists for a naional Bio- and Agro-Defense Lab, finally reaching Rene Munoz of Rep. Ciro Rodriguez's office. He had not picked up his phone messages from the day before--amd my inquiries, so I repeated my questions, and the reporting by AP reporter Gamboa about the other diseases that may be included at this proposed agro-defense lab.

Munoz got back to me with an e-mail lickety-split, the fastest turnaround I have ever had after phoning a Congressman in D.C. He provided me this DHS website (weak overview):

http://www.dhs.gov/xres/labs/editorial_0762.shtm

Munoz also supplied the names of the "diseases of interest." I'll copy it exactly, since it's short:

The following diseases have currently been defined by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Agriculture as possibilities for study at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF):

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)
Classical Swine Fever (CSF)
African Swine Fever (ASF)
Rift Valley Fever (RVF)
Nipah Virus
Hendra Virus
Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP)
Japanese Enchephalitis (JE) virus

Never heard of Nipah and Hendra viruses? Neither had I. National Geographic magazine, however, published an article about them in 2003.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0121_030121_tvvirushunter.html

More info on these two obscure viruses from the WHO:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs262/en/

The devastation caused by the Hedra and Nipah is in swine. The vector is fruit bats. Given that our county is home to one of the densest populations of Mexican free-tailed bats, does it make sense to put the national agro-lab in San Antonio?

We have so few swine. North Carolina has pigs hand over fist. If four of the viruses to be studied involve swine, why not put the lab in North Carolina, closest to where the pigs and objects of study are?

Plum Island incinerated its dead experimental animals. Will the proposed lab do more than just benchwork?

Now THERE's an important topic. Personally, I eschew both drawstrings (an effete affectation of the moneyed classes) and twist ties for sealing garbage bags. I prefer to tie the corners, opoosite-to-opposite, using square knots (reef knots, to Mudge). Cheap and effective, requiring no additional components nor specialized products. Admittedly, one must empty the trash before the bag reaches the bursting point. I don't think one needs to leave more excess baggage (one might say) than for either of the other offered bag-sealing techniques.

Discuss.

I always loose the twist ties, so it's either drawstrings or the SciTim knot technique. I am too lazy to ensure sufficient additional volume for compaction, so I often just place the open bag on the community section of the garbage pick-up area rather than in my yard.

Thanks yellojkt!

OK, we've been yammering about Chinese food and to a lesser extent about Murikin food for four or five days now, and exscept for channeling a bit of Rodgers and Hammerstein, I've been noticeably reticent about commenting (er, you *have* noticed, haven't you? well, maybe not, then. Strike the "noticeably," if the court please). But now I have a few comments:

1) All this talk about food is making me hungry.

2. The question of "race" doesn't belong anywhere in the discussion about the Chinese food problems. It ain't about race. Jeez.

3. Inspection of imported food as well as domestic food is just one of dozens of massively underfunded government agencies--immigration, EPA, education, port security, defense, civil rights, space exploration, funding for Sesame Street...just slip on your blindfold and throw a dart at the dartboard; you're bound to hit something. The list can (and does) go on seemingly forever. In six months everyone will have forgotten this issue, and the next problem on the agenda will be defective toboggans, or the cost of flood insurance, or whatever the crisis du jour.

Of course, what I can't figure out is why the Chinese were putting all that stuff in various food and feed in the first place. The contaminents have a cost, just like anything else; who the hell has a couple hundred sacks of melamine lying around?

4) Is "skiohio" martooni?

5. The Starbucks in Beijing just closed. Maybe the Beijinese thought the coffee tasted burnt and bitter, and was overpriced. In which case, they're right. Or maybe they just couldn't pronounce "barista."

6. Will Haygood's magazine piece on Simeon Booker was excellent.

"Square knot" is fine, Tim. I was a Boy Scout before I was a sailorman.

I prefer to gather two corners together then make a double square knot between those pairs. When the bag is less than full a single knot with the whole top bunched-up together is quick and offers the best grip for heavy bags. I should know, I worked a few of years as a part-time or night janitor.

Yes, Mudge. We had a discussion this weekend over which is more expensive: pork or caustic soap.

And maybe the Starbucks closed because the customers kept asking for small, medium and large drinks.

I tied the garbage bags as well, are twist ties recyclable I probably have a life time supply unfortunately I can never locate them when I might have a purpose for them.

Hi all,

1. methane. Tim, doesn't the CO2 neutrality of livestock including sheep assume that these animals are part of the natural ecosystem?

2. I disagree that the Bio-Agro thingie has to be close to the largest hog producers. It's not like they look out the window to see what the hogs are doing today, or send the interns to abduct a few. Speaking of hogs, I suspect the location eventually selected may have something to do with pork barrels.

3. garbage bags. I confess to the drawstring bags, but only in the garage so that I can hang it up. Otherwise I use the corner ties. I think a reef knot in the circumstances is overkill, but it may just be me - remembering to switch which side goes over for the second half is apparently too taxing.

Oh, and I went to look at Eric Zorn's blog. I find very persuasive his point that Amy Jacobson's firing and treatment would have been different if she had been male. For one thing, it's unusual to see a man who looks like a slender and very attractive blonde woman. Of course, I do not know what she looks like from the neck down, as I have found only head shots. Apart from that, I suspect men felt her presence must have been untoward and inappropriate, because men (and I am speaking as one) are jerks who would have wanted her to come to their own pool in a bikini for entirely untoward and inappropriate reasons. Not being a woman, I am not privileged to oversimplify the female psyche and attempt to deduce why women might (or might not) have disapproved of her actions and presence in that situation. She brought her children to a pool party at the home of a target of investigation who may well have murdered his wife. Would it have been wiser for her to go without them and in the absence of a social event? Should she wear a burqa and be seen in public only in the presence of her husband or male relatives? What is the appropriate level of distancing for a female reporter who happens to be attractive, when she is working a source? Would it have been all right if she were hefty, or had only one leg, or were just really ugly?

I suspect, as Zorn notes, that the problem is that she wore a bikini, which men would like to imagine is a sign of flirting with sexual availability. But she also brought her children, and attended an event with others present -- rejections of sexual availability. These days, a bikini also can be just a bathing suit. So, let's get over it.

Victory gardens. Bring them back.

I had strawberry-spinach salad last night. Spinach & onions: grown 15 feet from my door (and that was a lot of work tilling the garden, I tell you.)

Strawberries: bought off the back of truck locally. They TASTE fresh and sun-ripened. Delish. If it has cardboard in it, it's damn good cardboard.

You can always buy and cook from scratch (like nobody does anymore) to ensure the ingredients do appear to be what they are supposed to be.

Buying local can cause a higher risk of liver cancer if, for instance, you buy peanuts that have not crossed state lines (they are not inspected), but overall you do gain in freshness and reduced time between field and plate for stuff to happen to food.

The best reason to buy as much as possible from local sources is that it ultimately saves fuel in transport between field to plate, as well as electricity in refrigating in the entire process, as well as delivers fresher produce. Likewise, buy fresh food seasonally.

Frozen and canned food do OK for out of season as they preserve nutrients better than shipping fresh from halfway around the world.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/buylocal/

Besides, I sure do like living in the wild rice capital of the world.

I keep talking about Chinese food, and just when I feel like I'm full of it, I'm hungry for more about a half-hour later.

To follow up on the plastic trash bag question: wouldn't it be more environmentally sound to do away with plastic trash bags enitirely? A biodegradeable paper bag would make more sense, or you could do away with bags entirely.

Move trash from the indoor trashcan to the outdoor trashcan, the the trash collection folks will just dump the big cans into the back of the truck once you've taken them to the curb. Wash the cans out with a small amount of water and a bit of biodegradeable soap once a week, and spare the environment from those plastic trashbags.

Just a thought.

Another thought: Drawstrings belong only on duffel bags. I'd rather hold my pants up with twisty ties than with drawstings, too.

bc

EZ<
Thanks for the reminder: I'm out of garbage bags.

Where is Mary Schmich? On vacation? I miss her.

Chemicals are also cheaper in the PRC TBG. Most of the hypochlorites (pool chlorine) used in North-America now comes from China. Ditto for sodium dithionite (a paper bleaching agent). Since most containers would be of the one-way type to avoid the cost of returning them in China sub-standard units are sometimes used, thus reducing the safety in transport. Once in a while a less-than-scrupulous Chinese chemicals dealer would sell to an enterprising North-American customer a container filled with all the products necessary to start a meth manufacturing lab. At the current rate of container inspection it's a pretty safe endeavour.

OSHA's recommended method to close a plastic bag (for asbestos waste and other hazardous @rap) is to duct tape the bunched-up neck 10 in. from the top, fold the top part against the taped area and tape it again. It's a little excessive for domestic garbage though.

I would guess that there were too many people buy "coffee" or "tea" and not enough getting "triple grande mocha-latte-frapucinnos with a shot of twisted lime-flavoured syrup". That kind of thing would stop any Starbucks dead in its tracks.

Continuing Science Tim's thought: Or, she could have been trying to direct attention to herself while her children scurried through the house filling the pockets of their jumpers with "evidence." It could happen. It'd make a great movie.

SonofCarl, I concur that the concentration of livestock in New Zealand is not natural. However, some mechanism would have contrived to digest and recycle the plant matter of New Zealnd, thus making it available fo rthe next generation of plants to consume it. Human intervention has caused that digestive process to be largely in the form of cows and sheep, rather than native species or bacteria, a major shift in animal populations. The net amount of plants as food, and thus the supportable biomass, is ultimately limited by the amount of sunlight available and the fficiency with which . The hitch in the system is that fertilizer makes plants more efficient at converting sunlight into vegetable material that can be eaten. I would be interested to understand the vegetable biomass of New Zealand without fertilizers, versus New Zealand with fertilizers. This is a question for Dave of the Coonties.

"he fficiency with which ." = th efficiency of plant photosynthesis.

bc, I'm withya on the paper bag v. plastic garbage bag concept, but I'd point out that this practice is only practical in the cooler months of the year. In the middel of July, garbage turns immediately into a breeding ground for, um, "baby flies" (aka "live rice"). By carefully packaging garbage in garbage bags, one can place one's garbage receptacle on the curb with confidence that it will not irritate, frighten, or otherwise oppress sanitation workers whose contentment and safety are in society's interest.

Off-topic (trash and contaminants) response to Cassandra's question from the last Boodle, regarding the Georgia man facing execution. He has a claim of actual innocence, since most of the people who testified against him have recanted (now claim they were lying), he did not confess, and still maintains his innocence. The federal statute (AEDPA) is basically designed to drastically restrict federal review of a prisoner's federal constitutional claims for a conviction under state law (which pretty much all criminal convictions are, as federal criminal jurisdiction is very limited). In theory the AEDPA has an exception which allows federal courts to review claims of actual innocence. In practice this is not so true. They'll probably execute him. Things like this make me wonder why I continue to be part of this system. Working for a state, I don't usually have to deal with the AEDPA, but I have taught it.

bc, you already DO hold up your pants with twist-ties.

"Buy local" and "cook from scratch," etc., sound good, but in fact aren't realistic options for gazillions of people. It may be OK for us middle and upper middle class types in some circumstances, but the fact is, most people live in an industrialized, highly mechanistic, highly technology world, and frequently an urban one at that. Many, many of them are poor. When you live on the 7th floor of a tenement, where exactly do you "buy local"? If you're an upsacale lawyer working for Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, and you work 80 hours a week and get home from work about 9 p.m., do you really think you have time to wander on down to the local farmer's market in the middle of your condo complex, and then go home and rustle up a scratch-built meal at 10:30 at night? Where do you buy locally grown peaches in Needles, California? If you've got a hankering for scallops or tilapia and you live in, say, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, aren't you pretty much s--t out of luck on local seafood? There's a reason why Cheyenne, Wyoming, isn't known for its crabcakes and why cattle rustling isn't a major crime issue in the Hamptons.

Watch it with the lawyer jokes. In fact, it is well known that only our associates work 80 hour weeks at good ol' DC&H:

http://requaweb.home.comcast.net/dewey/staff.htm

Mudge, I thought bc was more likely to fashion a belt out of duct tape.

Joel, "Acheson" makes it sound like you are the father.

Thanks, Curmudgeon, for reminding me why I live in the Glorious Midwest, Verdant Breadbasket of the World. Occasionally, when I feel coast-deprived (I used to sail to Santa Catalina on occasion), I question my decision to move right into the path of the dread Canadian Jetstream. But, we do have farmers' markets, right here in town. I can ride my bicycle to it. There ARE blessings to count. (Now sitting up straight, feeling self-satisfied and even somewhat morally superior).

Couple of items here:

Loomis, re. your 1:45. I don't see anything where Clark is contradicting Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" there. Did I miss something? I don't get it. Can you explain? Also, I don't know what Clark's age has to do with *anything*.
Re. the location of the lab and proximity to pork industries/farms, seems to me that you'd want to limit the economic impact of a lab accident by keeping it *away* from any industrial swine facilities.

I work in Washington DC and live near the famous (or infamous) Ft. Detrick in MD, so I have a little perspective on such things.

Leaping wildly off-topic:

"Bush Announces Mideast Peace Conference"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071600063.html

Who does he think he is, Madeline Allbright? Jimmy Carter?

bc

Local and organic can have issues also. I bought a head of (organic) Romaine lettuce at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago. When I opened the storage container the next day, there was a slug on the lid. I just washed it down the drain, but still. Gotta be careful to wash everything thoroughly.

Dear Joel
Please forgive my tardiness in responding to the addendum to your June 29 kit. I have been attending a Canada Day party for the last two weeks and haven't been keeping up with developments here on the boodle.

On the morning of June 28 2007 at 8:18 I informed the boodle that UNESCO had designated the Rideau Canal (I can see bits of it from the top of my tv antenna tower) a World Heritage Site. This is a designation of historical and cultural importance shared by the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Machu Pichu and the Taj Mahal.

A few hours later you posted a kit in which you described the P&O Canal as your local Great Wall of China and bewailed the liberties the local yokels were taking with it (the 'Merkin yokels, not the Chinese ones).

Let me just say here that while I have never seen the C&O Canal I do know a little bit about it having read a fine book called "The Grand Idea". Nevertheless I felt I must call you on your specious comparison of said canal with the Great Wall of China. I ignored the obvious silliness of comparing a canal with a wall but instead objected to their comparison on the grounds of significance and expressed my reservations in a post to your blog before going out to shop for beer and explosives in preparation for my national holiday.

The next day in your blog you invited me to analyze what you had written and pointed out that by describing your canal as a "local" Great Wall of China you had avoided the sins of hubris and braggadocio.
Upon consideration I must suppose you may be correct. I confess I'm still a little suspicious although somewhat mollified by your response. However, now that there is a World Heritage status canal, when you introduce the C&O to visitors you should say, "This is our local Rideau Canal." If they're from a 50 mile radius of where I live they'll know exactly what you're talking about.

Respectfully yours

Boko

So. 'sup?

Everyone in the DC area get ready...

Yes, Mudge, and while you may just eschew say, seafood in the middle part of the country, that doesn't solve the problem of urban areas where there is no "local" and you don't have any way to get what is trucked in from a few miles away. Fresh produce is expensive in grocery stores and it is not cheap at most farmer's markets; it is just fresher and seasonal. And of course, staples such as rice, flour, sugar and coffee are basically "local" to nobody, even if your state grows them.

I do shop locally when I can and cook from scratch as much as possible, but it is time-consuming and takes money. I may have mentioned my non-producing tomatoes; growing one's own food, even when one has the opportunity, doesn't always work out as we hope. I have the land but not the time to devote to cultivation. Lots of people have no land, not even room for patio or window pots.

As I've mentioned, there is only one full-fledged grocery for an entire section of this city. In addition, though they're now building and selling downtown housing at an amazing rate, there is no grocery there. If you don't have extra cash or reliable transportation, or if you just work long hours, you're probably going to find a dearth of fresh produce and rely on prepared foods. And the label doesn't always tell us where those ingredients originate.

bc uses duct tape for his suspenders, Lost (and also for his wallet).

I was only trying to make the point that the overwhelming majority of people, whether rich or poor, have something very close to zero chance to influence or alter where and how they buy and prepare their food. That some of us middle and upper middle class folks sometimes can indulge our yuppie dilletantish predilections (I include myself foremost in the category of yuppie dilletante) is nice, but the truth is we can't influence the overall situation a thousandth of a percent. We live in the world we live in.

Getting very dark and gloomy here (I'm speaking meteorologically now.)

Mudge, LiT wins that round.

Duct tape belt it is.
Duct Tape comes in a variety of colors and is much more comfortable. It makes for nifty suspenders and cummerbunds, too.

If duct tape's not availble, I'd go for zip ties ahead of twisty ties.

bc

You're right, bc; I forgot. You do wear a duct tape belt. It's your shoelaces you replaced with twist ties.

Thanks for the bean tip, dmd. I shall keep my eyes open.

I dunno, I fall somewhere between Wilbrod and 'Mudge/Ivansmom on the food question. I have a friend in Vancouver who is ridiculously over-privileged, and she makes sweeping pronouncements about how we should all be eating local, organic, etc. It makes me crazy. Well, that is lovely, if you can afford it, and if there is local food. Vancouver is pretty lucky on that count, Calgary not so much. Even if I had access to those, I wouldn't be able to afford them *and* do the other things I think are important for balance.

I compromise by cooking almost everything we eat from sratch and trying to construct meals on seasonal foods even if imported, trucked, etc. I work the sort of hours, most weeks, the DCH would require, but we still manage to eat real food and sit down together most nights.

All this to say, it depends on what is important to you, doesn't it, and declaring what is the right thing to do is fruitless; it will never be right for everyone.

Actually, that last sequence was me anticipating Mudge's post and agreeing with it although preceding it. Yet another stunning example of clairvoyance, from the same folks who brought you the duct tape dresser set.

I use drawstring trash bags because they are enormously convenient and Ivansdad buys them at Sam's. Ecological nightmare, I know. When one only has trash picked up once a week, and either have to haul the bin back & forth uphill or keep it by the gate, one appreciates the virtue of containers.

Is it that dark sky to which omni was referring?

Yup. Methinks we're about to get monsooned again.

Either it was the sky Yoki or a reference to Bush's attempt at brokering peace in the Middle East.

I'd also point out that the fact I'm cooking for others has some effect on our meals. For instance, I've spent weeks looking for a prepared pizza crust which I can use to make pizza at home. I've tried four so far. Although my dear family members profess to love pizza, only the most recent one has come close to meeting their standard -- which, mind you, is FROZEN pizza. That's all I'm trying to replace. Yes, the stuff that tastes like cardboard. Perhaps I should just take my cue from the Cninese vendor and use cardboard. Feh.

Don't get me started on the virtues of homemeade macaroni & cheese (my preference, when there's time) compared to the boxed version (their standard wins again). Double feh.

dmd, one was a thunderstorm prediction, while the other was a just wet dream.

bc, when I was younger --- up until 1965 as I recall in southern California --- garbage WAS put in a small can and the garbage truck picked it up. And you washed the small can out. No paper, no plastic.

And they took the garbage to the hog farm! Talk about recycling!

I know y'all are just having fun about the Starbucks in the Forbidden City closing, but if you want the real story, I'll repost this:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=starbucks14&date=20070714&query=Starbucks+China
yellojkt, hope you can find the picture that I'm sure you took.

On local food - I take the stance that you do what you can, and every little bit helps. So, if you can find local, fresh food and can afford to pay more for it, fine. It creates demand and helps the farmers. My chain supermarket now carries lots of "organic" vegetables, which it did not several years ago. I don't think they are necessarily local, though. And I don't always buy those over the lower-priced non-organic stuff. We also have a new grocery store that is selling itself on having fresh, local, organic products.

A poor person hankering for shrimp and scallops would be out of luck anyway. The authors discussing local produce are actually referring to food grown within a 100 mile radius (250 if you're in the boondocks).

You are correct that in many areas, poor people with limited transportion often have to put up with what their local store carries. When I was in college I shopped at a safeway in NW DC that carries food of quality that wouldn't be tolerated in the Safeways even 3 miles away.

However, there are movements to try and correct this-- Edible schoolyards, etc. Way too many kids growing up on food stamps or limited budget have never even eaten an orange or other fresh fruit.

http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/

There are such in New Orleans, New York City, and other places.
http://www.esynola.org/

And you'd be surprised at what people can manage if there are resources in place and the willpower to do so. Community gardens exist in various places. There are 8 in Washington DC alone.

I'm not saying everybody has access to those solutions, but part of a local food movements would also involve more access and education on food for the poor.

I mean, somebody survived on local foods alone in the desert, the major "farms" were barely within the 100 range radius. He learned to eat a lot of native foods-- and he had to be educated to eat so.

In the 1/2 acre I grew up on in VA (certainly more than most people have available), grapes, elderberries, mulberries, wild onion, dandelions, cherry trees, rose hips,etc. grew naturally.

With just one actual garden, we could have grown a lot of produce, had we known how to. I'm learning you can grow a lot of cucumbers in a typical wooden tub 18 inches in diameter. Not bad!.

That's why I said bring back victory gardens. I also mean the education and encouragment involved.

A Mediterranean diet can help protect again the burden of pesticides etc. in your diet, and reduces respiratory allergies in children. The limiting factor is fresh fruit and vegetables (and nuts) available for consumption-- a major reason why the poor do not eat as well they could.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070404203737.htm

Boko writes: 'However, now that there is a World Heritage status canal, when you introduce the C&O to visitors you should say, "This is our local Rideau Canal." '

I'll just say, "This is our big local ditch that sometimes stinks in summer."

Dare I admit I use twist-ties and actually know where they are?

Science Tim, great comment on the Zorn item -- make sure to post it to his blog (if there's any room left there for comments).

I am sure the joke predates Car Talk, but according to Wikipedia (and why would they lie):

"Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, the pseudonyms of Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk radio program, named their corporation for managing the business end of Car Talk "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe." The DC&H corporate offices are located on a third-floor office, directly above the corner of Brattle and JFK Streets, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The office is clearly visible from the square and, like the show, is a perennial source of amusement to the denizens of Cambridge."

I have posted photographic evidence of this office on the boodle before.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=453235175&context=set-72157600060420972&size=l

It's right over the kids book store with the monkey on the building.

I so wanted to be a lawyer, but I couldn't grow the dorsal fin.

Oh Yoki, those organic folks drive me crazy too.
Organic is good, but I can't afford it for everything and in fact, it makes more sense for some vegetables compared to others.
http://thefuntimesguide.com/2007/03/fruits_vegetables_pesticides.php

I'm kind of sad though, that peaches have the highest pesticide load and you can't really wash the pesticides off (apples are next). There go non-organic peaches off my normal purchase list.

On the bright side, eggplant, which I do like, is pretty pesticide-free, even without buying organic.

I've learned that many imported vegetables and fruit DO carry pesticides banned in the US or Canada. If you ever have odd rashes once in a while from handling or eating fruit or vegetables, it might not be an allergy to the food itself.

For instance, I had occasional rashes from tomatoes I was preparing while working at Roy Rogers. As far as I know, I am not allergic to tomatoes, never have been, but I was baffled by the contact dermatitis.

I learned that NAFTA permits produce produced with illegal pesticides to be imported into the country, and it made sense at last.

Me too, Raysmom. I use twist-ties for all sorts of things, like tying plants to stakes and closing up frozen vegetable bags (frozen vegetables! The horror.) I remember the pre-plastic garbage bag days, and I won't go back. But someday, Seattle will require us to put food waste in the yard waste recycle bin...not looking forward to that because of the logistics (which in my case are quite small, really, but still).

I have heard about this wonderful puppy who knows sign language and is in need of a home. Smokey's in New Jersey.

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8803042

Yellojkt, it isn't the dorsal fin so much as the extra teeth. If you remember seeing your kids teething, then imagine growing rows and rows in law school -- well, let's just say that's why lawyers charge so much. To recompense us for the pain.

Abridging my last post, I have to point out that during the Dead of Winter, our family must forage through the local supermarket for staples made or grown in countries other than our own. Lacking a root cellar, we're compelled to eat Chilean aprocots and probably stuff raised in (shudder) China as well.

Eric Zorn seems to have a nice blog, but he hit commenter gold with that reporter going undercover in the bikini. Each of his posts about her peg the comment meter, but when he posts about more mundane things, he gets a dozen or so comments and then the crickets start chirping. The Boodle is a full-service commenting portal. We don't allow pesky things like topics get in our way.

And our own Howie Kurtz has a nice take on reporters fraternizing with sources and objects of investigations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100587.html/

The Telemundo lady that is "dating" the LA mayor and then reporting on the divorce proceedings definitely stepped over a line. A line marked "Yowzah!" I can't really blame the mayor that much. She must have a very persuasive interviewing technique.

Who can afford aprocots in the winter? Even in season. My mother had a tree. Had hardly any for the last 50 years.

We don't tie our garbage bags. We freeze stuff that may decompose until the morning the garbage man comes. That way the can doesn't smell and avoids the live rice. Besides we have bears and coyotes that come around if something smells good (or bad). The big problem with bears around here are garbage cans in parks that have picnic facilities.

bh's comment reminds me of my misadventures in learning to live with bears. I was pretty slow on the uptake, I must say. When we first moved to the mountains, I set up our compost bin (of course). After the first few additions, went out one morning to find it knocked over and all the stuff that was still more or less in one piece missing. Same thing a couple of weeks later, and once again. I finally twigged and that was it for the composting.

Also, some brilliant mind had planted two fruit trees in our back yard prior to our tenure. It didn't take me long to figure out that they should be replaced.

Loomis writes: "Why not pin down FDA's Acheson during your interview with him? If putting an increased number of inspectors at U.S. ports of entry is NOT the answer, than what does Acheson think the answer is? Just sitting on our American hands and twiddling our American thumbs? Letting the legal system take care of the miscreants?"

I don't have my notes in front of me (am holed up at Library of Congress) but he spoke very intelligently, I thought, about the need to do more than play defense, but instead try to make sure that contaminated food doesnt enter the pipeline to begin with. that would mean working with other countries -- helping China, for example, establish a fully modern food safety system. And here in the U.S., enforcing safe practices in fields and factories. But I'd like to follow up on our interview and find out, for example, precisely how many inspectors there are. The FDA gave me a number but one knowledgeable caller has suggested that it's inflated. A pro-business Administration may be more reluctant to do anything to slow down or impede trade.

Hi Boko!

I'm starting to wonder. I just got some spam with the subject line:

企 ·业 ·如 ·何 ·应 ·对 ·全 ·新 ·劳 ·

Yes, Boko, welcome back! Hardly dared to wonder where you had gone...

Boko,
My sentiments on the C&O. I will have to check out the Rideau if and when I am ever in your neck of the woods.

Just reading Money Magazines' Top 10 Places to Live. I love the Pros and Cons (especially the Cons) on numbers 5 and 6...

5. Claremont, Calif.
Population: 35,900
Typical single-family home: $700,000
Estimated property taxes: $7,800
Pros: Tight-knit community with topnotch schools
Cons: Poor air quality, high home prices

6. Papillion, Neb.
Population: 18,800
Typical single-family home: $250,000
Estimated property taxes: $5,100
Pros: Outdoor recreation, growing local economy
Cons: Lack of arts and culture

bc,
See my post in the comments section of Joel's Style piece. That may clarify things for you.

Don't eat that spam, TBG!

Knowing absolutely no chinese, I think that says:
"Fire Mama makes your man-dart bigger with great mortage rates."

Gasping for air and begging for sympaki -- just put in another 6 hours. The pleading is being reviewed and I'm sooo tired. I'm much too old for this, although I admit that the compensation certainly pays the mortgage. And my knee is starting to ache and I haven't been to the gym for a month (oh b$tch, b$tch, b$tch).

Okay, I'm done. Feeling better for having pitched this whine into the ether. Although some cheese to go along with that whine would be nice.

gotta go

5,100 dollars tax on a 250,000 house - isn't that a little steep?

I also have neglected to pass on my sympathies to Bad Sneakers and her daughter.

Good to have you back Boko.

Just before I left work I decided to see what was happening on the Mommy Blog, topic today telling your boss you are pregnant again - Oh my they are a nasty crew over there.

Wilbrod like your translation, it is either that or TBG is being offered money from a Chinese Bank.

Re Joel's link to the Travolta bio in the NYTimes: Queen Latifah was on Letterman last week to promo the movie. She was her usual excellent self, and Letterman loves her, so it was a fun chat. The clip of the movie rocked. It's going to be fun to see.

From the piece on Travolta:
"I was beautifully parented by two very doting parents, so it's very easy for me to adore someone," he went on. "I adore my children. I adore other people's children. I adore other people. I can make a fuss over you like nobody can."

Wouldn't it be nice to know someone like that?

Does anyone else think the St Pete's version of Joel's article has a kind of weird headline?

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/15/Opinion/I_was_a_white_boy_bus.shtml

TGB,
I agree that it's weird. "The Boy on the Bus" vs "I Was a White Boy Bused for Integration." A slant to be sure.

Back to China: I just bought a new lampshade that has a "Made in America" sticker that looks just like a postage stamp. It cost twice as much as the lamp, which I bought in a consignment shop. I LOVE consignment shops!

Thanks for the good thoughts for my daughter. She's having a hard time even being in her house, it's so quiet and empty. Time will help her heal and I told her to keep as busy as possible with work and exercise. When my Dad died, tennis was my therapy.

Slyness, I laughed when I read about the slug in your lettuce. I have been harvesting ours and washing and inspecting each leaf carefully. The time and effort to do this almost makes me want to just go buy the stuff, of course that could have bugs too. Ah well.

THS, those of us who've attended BPH's do know someone like that... *glancing over at the iPhone-wielding Boodler*

:-)

And AI CHIHUAHUA, what a way to go back to work! Journalistically misrepresented on an international scale!!! :-O

Hi everyone! Been busy? I haven't.
At my buddy's Canada Day party I met an old friend who is having a cottage/retirement home built by a lake three hours drive from Ottawa. Because he has to work in Ottawa he isn't able to keep an eye on the guys doing the work on his house, so when he asked me what I was doing and I told him, "nothing", he suggested I go up to the site and supervise the proceedings.
After dragging myself from the party next day, coming home to gather dog food, clothes and rifles (he has 50 acres) I hied myself off to the lake to stay in a lovely trailer to eat free food, drink free beer and angle for free fish. . He even gave me a nice cheque! Oh yeah, the builders were very competent and did a fantastic job.

I got home late last night and the first thing I noticed after wading through grass that hasn't been cut in two weeks and opening the front door was an unholy stench. I hadn't emptied the kitchen garbage can before I left, so chucked out the offended offal, opened all the windows and went to bed. The first thing I noticed when I woke up this morning and came upstairs was the flies, hundreds of 'em. I must have killed 2 lbs. of the little buggers. I wonder if I had weighed garbage before I left and then weighed the garbage and the dead flies after returning I'd discover something interesting.
Anyway, so the next time you're going to leave your house for any length of time (ok, more than a couple of days) remember Boko and/or Sarah Stout and always take the garbage out.

*faxin' Boko a pest strip or seven* :-)

And he made a couplet!

I thought this a moving tribute to Lady Bird Johnson.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/15/AR2007071500410.html

But Boko... the real question is... twist ties or drawstrings?

TBG just when I was trying to uncrinkle my nose from the picture Boko painted I saw your comment - too funny.

Seriously Boko - Ick!

Scotty if you are going to be misrepresented at least you went big, probably not helpful huh?

Boko should have signed that one

LordoftheFlies999.

The Post did well in remembering Lady Bird. It's notable that the Washington "beautification" projects kept the garden-club ladies under control and enlisted the local residents. A good model for urban conservation.

Boko999's vacation reminds me that I might qualify to live in Canada if I study a lot of French to get some more points. That, or a more marketable degree.

D of the C,

*kept the garden-club ladies under control and enlisted the local residents.*

Should I take umbridge?

SCC: Umbrage.

Why can I not learn to spell it? I take it every day!

Future Bill Kristol WaPo articles:

If the laws of physics are suspended and we spend 20 gigazillion dollars, we will be on the surface of Neptune by 2010. He likes the odds.

If Jason Campbell does a mind meld with Tom Brady and the Redskins defense becomes the Monsters of the Midway, Washington will win the Super Bowl in February 2008. He likes the odds.

I could go on like this, but it would be piling on.

Maggie O'D, that was in fact very funny.

Apologize not. Neither for the spelling nor being a garden lady. My dear maternal Grandmother (Doris Howitt Doris Howitt, may her name live forever, from my mouth to God's ear) was a garden-lady, and also the wisest and most loving, hilarious, lively, dancing, funny and satirical best woman you could imagine. My life's blessing is that I knew her from the time she was aged 47 to 86. That is a good long time to know a beloved. I still feel her hand on my shoulder (Soldier, according to #2) and it makes me happy.

I hope the WaPo editorial board will take this opportunity to lampoon the adminstration's unilateral decision to hold a "peace conference."

What a joke. What a signal that the administration is flailing to find something that can be claimed as a legacy.
The epitome of pathetic.

Yoki,
Thank you for that.

Wilbrodog, I sent Smokey's info to a number of my rescue contacts and asked them to pass him on. I know some of them work with assistance dog trainers.

My home computer is down, and there's only so much I can do from my work laptop. If you're interested in writing them, www.dogsforthedeaf.org may be able to help. There are transports that a number of rescues use, I can get more info on them if they need him transported to another state.

On another topic, someone gave me _A Pack of Two_. Between that and _Marley_, I'm tired of reading about the experiences of neophyte dog owners. Please consider writing your own book!

OMG, I took a look at the Mommy Blog for the first time ever, and I killed the achenblog. The Power!

Love your titles for future Bill Kristol articles, bill everything. Did you see look at any of the comments on his Sunday piece. Many references to drug use as the only explanation for his remarks. My favorite referred to "Kristol Meth".

I found the peace conference proposal amazing too. Does anyone have the sense that we are backing the wrong horse? Not saying that Hamas is a positive social force, but what is the point of isolating them in this way?

I mean . . . I understand what they think the point is, but how can it possibly help?

OMG, I took a look at the Mommy Blog for the first time ever, and I killed the achenblog. The Power!

NOtSCC:
I think that the dictator of the blog must be asleep at the wheel or on vacation.

No no. The Boodle is never dead. It's just restin'

Or, not.

Hmm, maybe I qualify as a neophyte, too? Wilbrodog would say so.

But yes, there needs to be books about people who actually don't screw up their dogs in ways that are all too sadly familiar to rescuers.

Wilbrodog wants to do a funny first-dog narrative.

Meanwhile until that need is met, wilbrodog.blogspot.com isn't updated overly often, but always worth the fur time and pics ;).

arghrghrgh! I kil't it dead, I did.

hahahahaha (pant). Do a funny first-dog narrative, Wilbrodog.

Have you all read Donald McCaig's books? I read Nop's Trials quite a few years ago - about a border collie - very good. I think I may have read another, and looking at Amazon, he's written quite a few. Michael Dirda mentioned him in his chat the other day.

(insert theme from "Jaws")

Hi everyone! What's up?

I'm slightly amused by the WaPo headline: "Fenty Plans to Endorse Obama"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071601372.html?hpid=topnews

Well, yeah! This was in question, by whom?

Loomis, I looked at your comments to Joel's Style piece, and I still don't understand.

I was talking about this with a good friend of mine - someone quite intelligent and resourceful - and they later sent me this: "The 2002 Journal of General Virology reports that even though the camelpox virus and cattle virus both *probably* evolved from the same rodent
virus (and possibly even at the same time), and even though the camelpox virus
seems to be closer genetically to the smallpox virus, somehow or another,
the camelpox virus hasn't yet made the leap to humans, while the cattle virus has. (The article specifically says CMPV has not caused disease in humans.)"

Can you reference your source for smallpox being caused by or mutated/evolved from camelpox?

Humans and chimpanzees are between 94 and 99% genetically identical (depending on who you ask), but only humans came up with YouTube.

bc
bc

Maybe it's this article:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/smallpox/news/camelpox.html

Cowpox causes a milder infection than smallpox does, and apparently camel drovers do get a mild rash from camelpox. It's not gonna be a majorly lethal disease to humans, just camels.

For all we know, maybe camelpox is an mild cowpox-smallpox relative that got infected to camels through humans and became virulent in camels-- it can kill up to 25% of young camels.

You might as well devote your energies to re-engineering the influenza virus to be a bioterror agent; it'd take about the same level of work.

I assume this is part of the weapons of mass destrucamelotion hysteria proposed as a reason for going to Iraq.

I assume the U.S. would have received those WMDs C.O.D. (Camel on Delivery).

Wilbrod - My article on this very subject is still undergoing peer review, but suffice it to say that the monkey-cow-small-penis-spider-pox web has been unravelled (as it were) and will be fully revealed in a major subscription-only publication sometime soon.

I only wish that I was at liberty to elucidate further!

You might want to set up your website and your press agent to field all those media calls, Bob S, or you might get a pox on you from angry journalists.

Good evening late night boodlers. I saw a most curious sight along the river on my way home tonight.Three owls sitting in a tree. I think it was a mother and two younglings.I stopped and got out and looked at them for a while. Owls have got to be the coolest birds.

Here is another strange thing, with all the woods around here,how come all the deer hang out by the side of the road. Is that where all the good greens are.

I guess I should have asked Mrs. Owl for she is the wisest of them all.

Penn State ecologist Edward Bellis spent years trying to figure out how to keep deer off the roads. One solution was extremely high fences at the edge of the pavement. I think the other was to not have any grass.

Tonight, WSJ is looking like a deer a bit too close to the pavement.

Spotted a swallow-tailed kite yesteday. Perhaps even cooler than the crested caracara.

'Morning, Boodle. Very little to report this morning in the news. The highly renowned international peace negotiator, George W. Bush, has summoned a Mide-East Peace Conference, inviting only the nations that recognize Israel to attend. Let's see, that would include Israel, Great Britain, Nantucket and Samoa. I hope they get a lot accomplished. Among other things, I hope they manage to reduce the waiting times on those Nantucket ferries.

I was very disapointed in Gene Robinson's column on Barry Bonds this morning. Seems Bonds isn't such a bad guy after all (not withstanding his steroid use and complete, utter, total boorishness as a human being). Gene, Gene, c'mon. Gene seems to think Bonds's job is "to entertain, to thrill," and to hit home runs. Who, I'd like to know, does Bonds "thrill"? Who does he entertain? His teammmates hate him, most of his fans hate him, and baseball as an institution can't abide the man. Yes, he hits home runs, although many opurists would argue that's not quite the point of the game. Something to do with winning, and -- dare I even bring it up -- sportsmanship, team play, etc.?

My wife and I are a bit bummed out. We heard from our best friends last evening, the couple we're co-building our vacation house with. My wife has been friends with Sharon for close to 40 years. Seems Sharon found out yesterday or maybe over the weekend that she was just diagnosed with breast cancer. No details yet on how severe, how far it has spread, or course of treatment; everybody's still in shock and awaiting more tests. Their youngest daughter just went over to Iraq two months ago as an Army lieutenant. Our friend is an operating room nurse; her husband is a physician's assistant, so they have plenty of expertise between them, so that may help some.

Good morning, boodle. I'm up and moving about. Just wanted to check in, and see what you folks are up too. I see we're still talking about China, and the mess they send us to eat and drink.

Hello, boko.

And Loomis, you're right about the hogs in North Carolina. And we have chickens, too. One can travel not far from where I live, and get a wake-up call that opens everything. Many in the county have complained, but the commissioners don't pay them any attention. We live with it. And going east from here, it's even worse.

a bea c, thanks, but the people in charge of the program came up with the idea to take the children to the restaurant. I'm tagging along to help, but it is a good idea. The children love it.

Read Eugene Robinson's take on Barry Bonds this morning, and I just love the way that man writes. He expressed my sentiments exactly concerning, Mr. Bond.

I see the Post will have Cornel West expressing his views on race and America. That should be interesting, and more.

Have a good day, my friends. I hope it isn't too hot where you live. It is hot here, and getting hotter. We were outside most of the yesterday, but I doubt that will be the case today.

Mudge, I found some tomatoes from a guy here, and he had just pulled them. Not a lot, but I cooked them, and they were so good. Fresh is always better. I suspect we need to go back to farming in this country, and I mean small farming. That way we wouldn't have to eat cardboard from somewhere else.

I haven't live that long, but every Republican administration removes those things that are in place for watching and inspecting, and then you have mess. And people keep voting for these folks. It seems they believe in allowing folks to check on themselves, and people call me crazy because I believe in God. Hump!

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

And in reading the excerpt regarding the President's take on Cheney's daughter, I did not understand that. I just did not get it, which makes me wonder more than ever, why did people vote for this man? I mean at some point one had to know this, so there must have been convincing reason regarding some other virtue that would compensate for this lack? And the answer is? Fess up, folks? Can it be told in mixed company?

>I just did not get it, which makes me wonder more than ever, why did people vote for this man?

According to Orthodox SubGenius literature: "Know how dumb the average American is? By definition half of 'em are dumber than that."

Smart people scare dumb people, because dumb people are still smart enough to know the smart guy might pull something on them they don't understand. That's one of the reasons Al Gore bothers so many people.

Curmudgeon, I am sorry to hear about your friend. Sending good thoughts your way.

Knitting a bit on what Cassandra and Error F write:

it is the populist voice we tend to like, in our presidents.

I hear Westernness-- Texas cast on the Middle-West voice -- in GWB speech patterns, vowel sounds, and images. We (USians broadly brushed) like folksy, homey, non-elite leaders.
Lincoln
Teddy Roosevelt
Harding
Truman
Carter
Clinton
GWB (not GHB)

GWB also speaks in short sentences: contrast with John Kerry and Al Gore, whose speech patterns are built around longer sentences, often opening with qualifying -- read as hedging -- clauses.

And yes, some presidents defy this, but then, the politicking and luck factor in, or perhaps we occasionally try on the elite model.

FD Roosevelt
Kennedy
GHB (with such East Coast Patrician overtones grafted on a bit of Texas)

*treading-water-amongst-the-paperwork Grover waves* :-)

Hope to have more time to comment later today. As long as I'm not misinterpreted again... *L*

'Mudge, good thoughts headed to you and your friends.

Ahh Mudge, membership in the cancer club. I hate how that happens. Instead of YOU signing up, the mandatory membership package explodes on your porch like a pipe bomb.

They have you and darling Mrs. Mudge. I expect you will offer food and other gestures of practical kindness. Homemade vanilla pudding, light on the sugar, can be a lovely and soothing treat.

I suggest one of those Swedish pillows. I read recently about a pillow called a Chillow, that stays cool throughout the night. I might look into that, since fevers post chemo are common. Getting decent sleep can make a huge difference during the Cancer Club Initiation tortures.

>'Mudge, good thoughts headed to you and your friends.

Yes, and hopefully a good oncologist too. What I've learned is anyone looking at this really needs to come up with their own little team to navigate the system and side-effects and diet and all that. If you're rich all the better, but ad hoc help is better than none.

The doctors are good but there's so much they don't even address. Also remember THEY have never taken any of the stuff they prescribe, so accuurate and quick feedback is essential to help you through.

And eat. Eat like crazy.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, Mudge. It's frustrating to know a friend has cancer and all you can do is offer support. I wish I could do more for my friend, but I call her and she knows I am here if she needs anything. I'll add your friend to my list of people I send good thoughts and prayers to.

As I discovered quite by accident last night, I am not the only contemporary female Loomis interested in a virus or viruses. The article at the NYT discusses whether a herpes virus, one of the more recently discovered ones, is the underlying cause for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/science/17fatigue.html?

Information about Kristin Loomis' (she of Harvard Business School) HHV-6 Foundation:

http://www.hhv-6foundation.org/aboutus.html

Many more medical conditions in which Human HerpesVirus-Type 6 may be implicated:

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1035.htm

Good morning, all.

Mudge, I'm sorry to hear of your friend.

Wilbrod, thanks for that link. I was thinking the same thing you were; that the level of engineering or mutation required to change the camelpox virus into something virulent to humans;

a: hasn't happened yet, and
b: were someone to try to develop bio-weapons, there are better and easier places to start. For example, Ebola and Marburg are already quite virulent to humans, all someone needs to do is acquire (Ebola is still found in the wild, is it