$5 Bargain

As some of you know, I just bought a juicer on Amazon. I can't remember whether I posted about it or not, but I had a $25 gift certificate, and so at its full price of $30 I got a factory refurbished Waring JEX328FR Health Juice Extractor (it extracts juices from health???) for a mere $5--almost less than what I'd pay for a serving of fresh juice.

So by all counts, it's a bargain, at least as a hunk of machinery to take up counter space. How well does it work? Significantly better than $5 worth, for sure, and well worth the original price of $30, although (as plenty of reviewers on Amazon affirm) it doesn't get the most juice out of the pulp, and if I don't clean out the pulp collector fairly often it lets quite large bits of stuff pass through unpulverized. The instructions say that it can handle spinach and other leafy things, but not grass, but I haven't tried any of that yet. Cleanup is no more a pain than any other juicer I've used, including the much-worshiped Champion brand.

Caveats aside, the juice I made last night was divine, and although I am sorry to throw away all that carrot/apple/ginger pulp, with a little foresight I can use some of that material for muffins, soup base, etc.--I just have to take the extra trouble to peel anything that needs peeling (like the apples). Today I try something involving celery.

Well worth $30.

Sometimes We Like Fire...

...and sometimes we don't. Thanks to Rob for sending me the news of a fire at DC's Eastern Market yesterday that gutted part of the historic building that was one of my regular weekend destinations, along with Rob, Tina, and others. I haven't been there in several years, but have been meaning to get down there the last few times I've been in DC. Alas.

(Ok, it's a little silly for me, in NYC, to be posting about what's surely common news in DC, when the vast majority of my readership hails from the DC area, but anyway!)

The Book I'm Not Not Reading

(The title reminds me of one of those GSOC union chants: "If we're not workers, then we're not not working," which was one of my favorites--and reminds me also that at least for a limited amount of time, being on the picket line was kind of fun. But I'm not going to get into all that here.)

Anyway--Linguistic Anthropology class is OVER! Woo hoo! Lots of great readings, but way too much work, and so I'm well shut of it. Now--only a few more classes, some reading, and a final project, and I'll be officially done with coursework!

Tomorrow some of us are off to the A2K (Access to Knowledge) conference at Yale--that should be fun. I've probably never sat around with that many lawyers, and I hope to have tales to tell.

Political Outrage: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Workplace safety has long been one of the issues I get really riled up about, perhaps from seeing Silkwood (1983) at an impressionable age--an era when the Three Mile Island (1979) disaster was a recent memory (especially for one whose mother worked for the company that built the reactor!)--not to mention Chernobyl (1986) and the poisonous gas leak in Bhopal, India (1984), that ultimately killed an estimated 20,000 people. And then, of course, are all the songs about coal mining disasters....

The main sticking point this article discusses is much smaller-scale, though no less cataclysmic for the people involved: fatal lung disease caused by exposure to diacetyl, a chemical used to flavor microwave popcorn and other products. I first heard about the problem in the Milwaukee newspaper while at the American Folklore Society conference last October--the article featured several workers who were trying to collect damages and who were calling for regulatory measures.

Here are a few quotations from the article in this morning's Times, "OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry." Not surprisingly, Bush and his administration are doing yet more to line the pockets of the rich while fucking over the working classes even more.

Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

The agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others. For example, OSHA has repeatedly identified silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise as health hazards that warrant new safeguards for nearly three million workers, but it has yet to require them.

“The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,” said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University who has written extensively about workplace safety. “If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they’ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.”

(snip)

Labor leaders and health experts say those numbers significantly undercount the problem, in part because the Bush administration has reduced the categories of recognized injuries and because many dangerous jobs are now performed by undocumented workers who do not report problems.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster vs. The Invisible Pink Unicorn

Last night, while looking for a translation of one of those pesky legal phrases lawyers use, I ran across a fun site about atheism. Linked to it is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Pastafarianism) website, which is probably no news to anyone (but in case it is, check it out!) Apparently there's been some sort of contest on YouTube for the winning video of the battle of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (the deity of Pastafarianism) and the Invisible Pink Unicorn. As far as I can tell, this video is considered the winning entry. The singing, I warn you, is godawful--but bear with it....



Ramen!

A Pretty Nice Girl, But She Doesn't Have a Lot to Say

The word came down from on high--or rather, from down south: Queen Elizabeth II will be visiting William & Mary on her brief visit to the US next week. Her itinerary is here.

In a weird kind of way, I wish I could go. I have no explanation for this phenomenon.

But somehow, it seems particularly appropriate to present this video of the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield doing "What Have I Done to Deserve This."

Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls Auction

Many of you know that I was a counselor at the first Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls here in NYC a couple of years ago. They're still going strong, although I haven't been able to work at camp for the past two summers (too much rovin'). This is the latest fundraising effort, and lots of very cool stuff on offer....

The “So You Wanna Be A Rockstar” Online Auction has begun!

This is your opportunity for you and yours to get the hottest rock star hook ups – all for a good cause! Awesome items are on the block, including a guitar signed by the Beastie Boys, a bag by Marc Jacobs, weekend getaways, recording studio time, and much much more.

The auction runs April 23 thru May 7. 100% of your winning bid will go straight to scholarships for girls.

Visit williemaerockcamp.cmarket.com. Let the bidding begin!