Isabella is almost on fire…

My sweet Isabella is under fire, almost –If you go to the story and look at the photos, you’ll see my mom drinkin at the bar with my friend Dana… she loves her rum and coke, my mom .

I love Isabella, it’s a very nice little “town” and a fantastic community.  Mom has been up there for 26 years — and when we go up that way everyone knows and loves her.  The people up there really do look out for one another and are a large, if slightly dysfunctional family.

My northwoods friends are on my mind today — they’re smelling the smoke in Milwaukee and Chicago — but most folks don’t know what it’s like to walk in the woods, take star photos in the dark, and generally be welcomed into the community.  When a forest fire threatens that, I worry.

A media vacation… can I do it?

 

As is quite clear, Andy and I are going to Colorado (Friday!!! YEA!!!!!) –

Don’t worry, we’ll still blog — (because you’d miss us, I know it!! ).

A few days ago, Andy proposed a media vacation. I’ve already told my students I’m going to be off e-mail and our on-line class until the end of break.

The point is to avoid news…. to see how it impacts our lives.  This includes Facebook, which can be pretty newsy.. It also means, for me, avoiding blogs and news feeds.

It’s going to be a bit of a challenge for me.  I’m used to having a pretty steady stream of information coming in.  I check facebook more often than I should.  I read several news sources on blogs and blogs that write about news… and I check my school e-mail more often than I should.  I also watch way too much TV.

I’ve also noticed that I read a lot less for pleasure than I did when I was writing my dissertation… I think that’s because I needed to give my brain a break from writing so I’d read anything I could get my hands on.

So — what am I going to do with my spare time?  I’m bringing my nook — which is awesome because I can always get another book.

I’m NOT bringing any class prep stuff, but I may write some philosophy stuff either on my class blog or for myself.

We’ve got the fipod (fat ipod) loaded with about 7 days worth of music — so, I’m guessing we’ll have enough to entertain ourselves — inside.  Of course, there are pictures to be taken, good food to be made and consumed and maybe even some extra sleep to get caught up on… although, I doubt that last one will actually happen.

We have agreed to blog — so you’ll get to be caught up on what we’re thinking without the media giving input.  If anything, it will probably be entertaining.

The People’s Coffee Shop

So here’s the idea, a place to exist, drink coffee and be who you are without bringing your wallet necessarily,  perhaps just something to share.   A place like this existed in Isabella Mn. except it was just called Patty’s Mom’s house.

Before you wing-nuts get bent out of shape, we should be clear that neither Patty or I consider ourselves communists. I would say I tend towards socialism, but as it happens I live in the United States and for the most part that’s a great thing.    Patty is over qualified to tell you herself where she lies on the political spectrum.

But here is the thing, Patty and I both believe that money is not the only reason to do something.

The People’s Coffee Shop will be like any other coffee shop in that it has chairs and good coffee but what will be missing is the cash register and the hours on the door.     There will be a can for donations and we believe those who enjoy spending time at the PCS will use it.     About the time S’bux would be closing for the night, our clientele may choose to take a cup of coffee (or other beverage) to the fire ring or out on the deck and they will be welcome to stay late.

There will of course be a set of unwritten rules such as “mean people suck” and “don’t be a douche” and there will be the general expectation that if you regularly attend PCS and can’t plug the can, you had better find another way to contribute.

But it’s more then a coffee shop.  It will also be a studio,  gallery,  stage,  future home of Tone Toad Vintage Guitars and a secondary community center with internet. We both also like books and reading so there will be plenty of interesting things to read while you put your feet up.

So are all these things free??????   Of course not!!!!!!!!   But they may be available for barter.   It may be a place to discuss business such as art or guitars.    But it may also be a place to kick back and get a free guitar lesson just because.

I believe local people will appreciate having a place to go and will care for it regardless. I believe visitors will love it for the novelty of visiting the commie coffee place in the woods and will donate what its worth to experience our slice of life.

What could we all accomplish if money wasn’t the only consideration??????????

Life is funny that way..

Thanks to xkcd

Hubby and I got married just before I was 22. He was in the military and I had about half of a bachelor’s degree.

Our life trajectory looked something like this…

• We move a few times with the Air Force…
• Finish our BA degrees,( maybe Hubby goes to law school).
• More likely, Hubby has a job in computers.
• I have some kind of an office job.
• We have a couple of kids.
• We have a couple of cats.
• We live a middle-class life in the suburbs of some state, not MN.

I never would have guessed that at 42 my life would look like…

• We live in Minnesota.
• Hubby is IN law school, after doing grad school in political science.
• I have a Ph.D. in philosophy — from Nebraska, of all places.
• I’m teaching philosophy in a community college and loving it!!
• Andy’s my BFF (I knew him then, kinda…).

I got the cats part right –

Who knows what life will look like at 62?  One thing I do know is that I’d like to have some adventures…

Make your own pizza night

Tonight we did something fun — we went to Andy’s brother’s home for make your own pizza night.

The idea is simple and brilliant — purchase pizza crusts, make some pizza sauce (i.e. fix up sauce from the jar ) — get plenty of cheese and yummy ingredients — then let your guests make their own pizzas.  The kids made mini pizzas — the younger ones did cheese only, Max had meat on top of meat (Canadian bacon, pepperoni and sausage, with a little cheese someplace in the middle).  Andy’s brother made a super Hawaiian, with pineapple, olives, sausage and other yummy stuff I don’t recall on top of red sauce.  Andy spread butter and then minced garlic instead of red sauce, then Canadian bacon, pepperoni, spinach, black olives and sausage — plus cheese.

The dinner was interactive, fun and gave us plenty of time to chat while the pizzas baked.  It was fun to try what others made — and everyone got exactly what they wanted…. brilliant

The photos don’t do the night justice…

Andy made greek salad — yummy — spinach, red onions, olives, feta cheese, roasted garlic, roasted red peppers and pistachios with Paul Newman dressing.

We put the ingredients on the dining room table and everyone got creative — in this photo you can see Andy’s pizza on the right and his brother’s pizza in production on the left.

Here’s Andy’s brother’s pizza — yummy!  I added banana peppers to mine –

Here’s Andy’s pizza — yummo!

We used a pizza stone and Andy’s brother bought the crusts someplace other than the grocery store — and they turned out quite well.

Organic Cuban black beans

I should begin by saying this is another cooperative project — it was Andy’s idea, we shopped together, I did most of the dicing, took the photos and wrote the blog post– Andy did the EFG thing (Evil Food Genius) — putting it all together.

After watching Food Inc, Andy and I decided to make an organic and reasonably responsible meal.  We decided on Cuban black beans — which ended up as a pretty thick soup.  It could also be served over rice.

Considerations: The main ingredients had to be organic.  We also tried to select local ingredients, within reason.  We bought them at the local co-op.  The goal was to see if we could make a satisfying meal that is modestly ethical, healthy and affordable.

Food sources: Celery:  Mexico, Carrots, Jalapenos and Cilantro:  California … note, we could have bought carrots from Wisconsin, but at $8.00 for a bag, we declined.  The canned beans were from New York, as were the tomatoes.  The ham hocks were from Iowa, raised on family farms etc…

I know we could get all of the fresh veggies and beautiful tomatoes from the local farmer’s market, in season — sadly, it’s winter here in BNCC and nearly nothing is growing except the piles of snow and dog poo in the back yard.

Cost: The whole pot cost $35.00 — and made at least 10 satisfying meals, so about $3.50 per meal.  This cost does not include the cost of the salt, lime juice or Jerk Seasoning.

Recipe & Instructions:

1) Small dice several stocks of celery, 1 large onion and a bunch of carrots & jalapenos.

2) Heat 3 Tbs olive oil, heat/sweat the celery, onion and carrot and jalapenos.

3) Add 1/4 cup of diced garlic — put it on top so that it won’t burn (an EFG tip!)

4) Add 3 large cans of black beans and the liquid.

5) Add 3 large cans of tomatoes with the liquid.

6) 1/4 cup lime juice

7) Chop 1 large bunch of cilantro and add to the pot.

8)  Add 2 ham shanks, making sure there is enough liquid to cover — add water or organic chicken stock if you have it — we didn’t.

9) Add salt to taste, bay leaves and Caribbean Jerk Seasoning (in the bottle).

10) Let it simmer, reduce, simmer some more — you’ll want to break up the tomatoes and eventually pull out the ham shanks, pull off the meat and return it to the pot.

The whole process (including shopping, prep and cooking) took us several hours… but the result is really  yummy!  The portions can be stored individually for quick lunches or dinners.  They can also be frozen for easy lunches for a couple of weeks.

Here are the basic ingredients — fresh from the co-op.

Here are the veggies all diced up and waiting for Andy’s EFG touch!  I diced everything but the jalapenos, as they still scare me.

Here’s all the goodies just before they became mixed up… pretty colors!

Here it is as it simmered… and simmered — about now, I wish we had a “smell this” capability on the blog… (many, many other times you should be glad that isn’t a feature).

I didn’t take a photo of my bowl — mostly because I was too excited to eat it.

I think this was a great experiment for a cold winter break afternoon.  The actual prep time wasn’t bad.  Andy’s suggestion is to get it started on the stove and then move it to the crock pot for the simmering stage.  A little planning will have delicious smells great you at the end of a long work day — well worth it!

In the end, it’s a healthy and satisfying meal — and moderately ethical.

Why do we want… part 2

So, I’ve been thinking about this… why the “American Dream” is owning the biggest house you can’t really afford…

Philosophers, Kant in particular, argue that human beings are the only inherently worthy things.  He says this because we assign value to other things, so a new Mercedes is generally worth more than my 5 year old Corolla (although, I may prefer the Corolla — I suspect that wouldn’t last long…).

So, I think it’s important to think about where those values come from… how do we get the idea that a big house in the ‘burbs with granite counter tops, hardwood floors and a whirlpool tub is a life goal?

Like many things, it seems to me that this particular value set is socially constructed.  By contrast, other values have a natural basis — for example, valuing a healthy body is prompted by the fact that being sick feels bad.  Valuing chocolate and sex are prompted because they feel good, etc..

One indication of a socially constructed value is that other cultures make opposite choices.  So, in Scandinavia it’s not a socially acceptable choice to build a McMansion (notice the term... hmmm...).  Instead, modest homes and living within your means are valued and conspicuous consumption is frowned upon.

Another indication of a socially constructed value is that it changes over time.  So, before WW II, most families lived in modest homes in or near the city center.  A combination of the GI bill, returning war vets and the interstate highway system — plus increased car ownership, prompted the creation of the suburbs.  So, folks went from living in modest homes to living in homes with yards, dens and a bedroom for every person.

Recently, it seems to me that the media and banking interests have pushed average Americans to want more home than they can afford.  It’s in the interests of the real estate and mortgage industries to entice people to take out mortgages they may not be able to afford, because then they can charge higher interest rates.  Then, banks bundled these less than desirable mortgages together, sold them several times and lead to a recession / depression.

The increased demand for housing (which was created by the real estate folks and others…) lead to a sharp increase in housing prices.  Of course, the real estate folks were paid by commission, so the higher the home price, the bigger the paycheck.  Also, the banks had more money to charge interest on.. so they weren’t complaining.

Finally, the concept of the “flip” created artificial demand and artificial values in homes — because the flipper needed to make money on the deal, so they did minimal improvements and then demanded higher prices.  Because mortgages were fairly easy to get (see above), the housing market was tight and folks who wanted to achieve the “American Dream” bought more than they could afford.

Sadly, the “American Dream” has turned into a nightmare for many people, as lost jobs and significantly decreased home values have turned what seemed to be a sound financial decision into the cause of their bankruptcy.

All of this was due to a powerful combination of a blurred distinction between need and want — and institutional shaping of wants for their own enrichment.

It seems to me that a recognition of the source of the desires is the first step in changing those desires.  Being manipulated into wanting something like a McMansion is less likely when it’s clear that the desire isn’t inherent to the person, but rather external.  As humans, we tend to resist manipulation when we recognize it — and this is one way we can begin to change things in ourselves.

Of course, I’m not the first to say we need to think about what we need — and I support Andy’s desire to live simply, in the woods…. although, I think some plumbing needs to be in the plans .

From inside the McFood Factory

I say that I teach in the philosophy factory because I have large classes etc.. but, my first job was at McDonald’s.

As we watched Food Inc, I saw a lot of truth in what they said — I also saw some inaccuracies — at least from my perspective.

The Food Inc. argument about food…

1. Fast food requires uniform products across the country.
2. In order to produce uniform products, the process must be uniform.
3. The best way to insure a uniform process is to buy from several large food manufacturers, who in turn buy from corporate farms.
4. Fast food relies on food being purchased at below the cost of production.
5. Lobbyists for the food industry have persuaded the government to subsidize food production, thus further concentrating power with multinational food corporations.
6. Therefore, the development of fast food, starting in the 1950s, resulted in the current food system which has people disconnected from the source of their food and permits a small number of multi-national companies to control the food source (conclusion 1).
7. Further, because fast food is produced below the cost of production, lower income people rely on it instead of more healthy food.
8. Therefore, fast food contributes to the obesity epidemic and has significant hidden costs to society (conclusion 2)

Really, I have no disagreement with this argument — I think it’s true.  I also think that if the multinational corporations behaved themselves, I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with it as I do.  I would prefer a world in which food that is wholesome and nutritious is less expensive than non-nutritious processed food, but that isn’t the case.

Food Inc. on fast food workers

1. The fast food industry has streamlined production in the kitchen in order to make more consistent food faster.
2. Uniform products are necessary to streamline production (see above).
3. Streamlined production is more similar to factory work than cooking in a home kitchen.
4. Fast food workers themselves, because the process is uniform and easy to teach, are easily replaceable.
5. Thus fast food companies can treat their workers poorly in terms of working conditions, training and wages (Conclusion).

Based on my experience at the Golden Breasts of America, this isn’t quite the case.  I agree that the process is streamlined and seems rather like working the line at a factory.

I also agree that it is the case that the training process at McDonalds is designed to accommodate a pretty low-skilled worker and it is relatively simple to teach someone how to complete the process, so replacing kitchen workers isn’t de facto difficult.

In fact, I learned how to work the grill from a store manager on crutches from a recent auto accident.  She verbally instructed me on how to work all the stations for breakfast AND lunch — of course, this was because she wanted me to be a manager for her and I was so good in the drive thru that I’d never been trained on grill…

My experience as a crew person, trainer and manager at McDonalds leads me to disagree with some of the observations made by Food Inc.

1. It is in McDonald’s interest to have crew people flexible enough to work all stations within the restaurant.  It was a rare crew person who didn’t also know how to work the counter and drive thru, in addition to the grill.
2. Working in the grill area wasn’t exactly an assembly line situation either.  It required a good deal of flexibility, creative thinking and general ninja skills to be effective at grill.
3. Good workers are hard to find and it’s in McDonald’s interests to keep them.  Training takes time and energy, plus it’s inefficient as two people are doing the work one should be able to accomplish.  It’s also the case that McManagement are people too, who become attached to their crew people, thus they don’t want to treat them poorly.
4. Therefore, it seems to be in line with corporate interest to treat workers fairly (not that they do — but, they should and could) as well as to train them in all areas of restaurant operations — thus, Food Inc. has some small part of their argument wrong.

This isn’t to say that I disagree with the gist of the movie, only that sometimes the movie reaches a bit far when it makes claims about the working conditions of fast food employees —

Then again, my experience is about 20 years old — they could simply wave a magic wand back there and make my burger for all I know.

There is no such thing as a dollar menu!

So today is part one of a two part assignment. Patty and I watched Food Inc. and we are going to recycle our thoughts and feelings on the matter. Part two will be what can we reasonably do about it.

I was affected but the portion of the film that showed agricultural companies advertising “now hiring” on billboards and newspapers along with pictures of stacks of American cash……….in Spanish and across the border.  Large meat manufacturing companies have  an agreement with the INS people to only deport 15 illegal workers per day in areas where the processing plants rely on workers. Non union workers. Poorly paid workers. Uninsured workers.

The problem is there are no more farms. There are only factories.  To have a respectable and knowledgeable, legal worker makes no more sense then treating your pig or cow with respect or even your customer. The idea started with Henry Ford and made it’s way into fast food in the 50′s and is now the dominating culture in food production. Profit and efficiency for the company and results for the owners are the only important factors.

It is not enough for large companies to produce the most inexpensive food and make the most profits, they would also have local and small producers put out of business by misinforming the consumer and tricky court room politics that keep labels on food dishonest and unclear.

Think that burger was just a buck?  That cow was fed corn that is subsidized by the government. That cow was processed along with thousands of other cows per hour that are for the most part covered  in poop. Because they eat corn instead of grass, they have a new and more dangerous form of E coli.   In case you don’t get it from the beef you will probably get it from the vegetables grown in the run off from the feed lot.

Since it’s so delicious, you will probably make a habit out of it and become desperately obese and diabetic.

So hows that Ronaldy Macdonaldi thing working for you now?

You would like to think big brother would be concerned for our safety with an agency named Food and Drug Administration except they apparently only hire professional who worked many years for the very companies they are supposed to regulate. All the way up to Judge Clarence Thomas who spent his time while not sexually harassing women  working as a lawyer for Monsanto.

So on to part two. How can I register my vote at the register? How can I keep myself informed and eat what my body needs instead of what it wants.

This should be fun!!!!!!

Why do we want?

I love the idea behind Andy’s simple living experiment.  I suspect that he’ll miss having an oven and stove — as well as a shower, but that’s just my prediction.  I also think that he doesn’t realize how far it is to a health club from the places he’s considering building his 100 square foot home — but that’s not my point here…

A conversation with Andy started me thinking about why many folks think owning a big house is achieving the American Dream?  I’m sure I don’t have the answers, but I’d like to think about it more –

First of all, I think that it’s preposterous to live in a house much bigger than the needs of your family.  Hubby and I did some house sitting in Omaha.  The two of us spent a significant amount of time in a 4,000 square foot home.  It was a lovely suburban home — built for a family.  The two of us spent nearly all of our time in two or three rooms — not even going into many of the others for weeks at a time.

This told me exactly how much room the two of us need — a livingroom/office, a bedroom and a kitchen.  We also did the usual homeowner stuff like mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, raking etc… and concluded that we didn’t want to do that stuff.  It’s important to note that Hubby and I only have feline fur-children — so a big house in the suburbs doesn’t fit our family.

The house sitting experience prompted us to make a move — literally.  We moved from a larger apartment about 30 minutes from BNCC to a smaller (but nicer, more expensive… sigh) apartment less than 5 minutes from BNCC.  In order to do so, we significantly decreased the amount of furniture we had — and gave away a lot of books, clothes etc.  I don’t miss any of it.   When we moved we decreased our carbon footprint by nearly eliminating my commute and significantly decreasing our electricity use.  I don’t miss the commute — or the higher electric bills.

I think that there are powerful influences shaping our desires and making them seem more like needs than wants.  Whenever I see one of those “buy your first house” shows, the young couple is usually planning to “start a family”, and thus needs 5,000 square feet, a pool, granite counter tops and a whirlpool tub.  Their desires for those things seem like needs to them (they reject nice homes missing those things) and those impulses didn’t start when they walked in the door of the first home.

It seems to me that there are more complicated reasons for this — and horrific economic implications to the housing bubble… and all of that will wait for another post…

For now think about what you need to be comfortable, verses what you desire…. you may find that you’ve bought into an ideal that just doesn’t make sense…