March 29, 2013

Urgent : Does Miracle Whip go bad?

I urgently need an answer to that question.

Please, no joking, I will be relying on the consensus here.

We're talking about a quarter of a jar that's been hiding in the back of the refrigerator for, oh, maybe a year...or two.

Is there a way to tell if it has "gone bad"? Or does Miracle Whip not go bad, like Cool Whip or "cheese food" in a pressurized can or an unopened package. I mean, when did anyone ever eye a Lantz cracker sandwich and think, "That cheese must have gone bad by now." It does, after all, have "Miracle" in the name, right? Does it have a half life of, say, three years? Three thousand years?

And, if it has gone bad, will it hurt you? A test indicates that it has a slightly rancid taste, but is okay mixed with some garlic chili sauce (the Vietnamese stuff with the chicken on the label). So, forget what it tastes like, am I going to end up with some antibiotic resistant brain-eating bacteria while retching on the floor of the emergency room to get my stomach pumped?

Am I going to regret this?

March 17, 2013

Palin compares DC politics to "a bad reality TV show"

I don't know why I bothered watching the Palin CPAC speech, but the most breathtaking thing in it is where she compares politics to "a bad reality TV show".

Of course there is no end to the nonsense that issues from this person but, good golly, does she not have the slightest sense of self awareness whatsoever? She left a governorship specifically to do a reality TV show which was canned, and then her daughter did one that was canned (and which received taxpayer support through the Alaska state media promotion office).

A bad reality TV show? At least she stayed within her area of expertise there.

March 15, 2013

Does "Cooking and Baking" Include Ice Cream?

Back in the dark days of Usenet, the addition of newsgroups followed a familiar pattern. While various voting schemes were used for a while, there seemed to be a fairly common, but implicit and unexamined, belief that the creation of a group about a topic of interest would magically fill itself with content and discussion among interested participants - a sort of "if you build it, they will come" approach.

The thing is, it really doesn't work that way. The way the tallk.politics.* hierarchy most productively grew was to have a talk.politics.misc at the top level and, over time, it became evident that a topic generated enough discussion that a subject like guns, abortion, drug policy, and so on, could be peeled off as its own subject area, or, looked at more cynically, it was evident that, no matter what, there was a sizeable contingent who compulsively yammered on about whatever it was, to the exclusion of other subjects - a sort of conversational kudzu.

Looked at either way, the best way to to was to let the garden grow the way it was growing, rather than to tend and prune and train every bud. There's an apocryphal story, told on countless campuses, that when the walking paths were made, they just let the students walk where they wanted, and then paved the paths that got beaten down in the grass.

I could, for example, say "My God, the courts are an entire branch of the government, and we don't have a forum for the general discussion of the law, legal developments, cases of note, and the judiciary!" and browbeat you about that obvious deficiency of DU.

But, good golly, as fascinating a topic it may be, and as central to our system of government it is, aside from the occasional "Scalia said an inflammatory thing!" (again), from a practical standpoint I know that setting out the tea set and saying "let's talk about what I want to talk about, and hear you talk about" doesn't really stimulate a discussion - no matter how compelling or fascinating a topic it may be.

So, Skinner, here's my question:

What is your favorite dessert?

March 7, 2013

Tuna Recall Blamed on Seal

Source: ABC News (Blog)


Tuna giant Bumble Bee Foods has recalled cans of its flaky fish because of a possible problem with the seal.

(...)

The recalled cans were distributed to stores nationwide between Jan. 17 and Feb. 28. Consumers who purchased the recalled products are advised to dispose of them immediately.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/07/tuna-recall-blamed-on-seal-2/

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Good golly. First they find horsemeat in European beef, and now this.

They aren't clear about the "problem", but IMHO there shouldn't be any seal in it at all!