Food for Thought

I just thought of another positive result from the current financial crisis. Maybe portions will be smaller. Wouldn't that be wonderful? When did we ever get the idea that the bigger the portion, the better the meal? I have tried, from time to time, to order a smaller portion at a restaurant. I think it gives some indication of just how poor our eating culture is that, regardless of the supposed quality of the restaurant (and I live in an area that has many "good" restaurants) that I have always been told by the server that the portions are controlled and uniform, that I cannot have a smaller portion.

Of course, if I lived in France, this would not be an issue. The French don't serve big portions in the fine restaurants. It's all about quality. I realize that super-size McDonald's has made inroads even in France, but the French are resisting. Vive le resistance! If we were to celebrate the eating of small portions of good food as the French do, maybe we Americans would have less trouble with obesity.

Most of the good diet regimens now emphasize taking real time to eat instead of running through Arby's drive-through and eating the value-size meal on the way to the kids' soccer practice. Losing weight, they say, means that you take the time to sit down and enjoy the food you eat -- to really taste thoughtfully, chew thoroughly, and pause frequently to enjoy your surroundings and your companions. As a consequence, people who follow this practice lose weight and do not feel deprived.

And a word about taste. I ran into a French woman in my grocery store the other day. She asked me about some label she was reading and we began to talk about supermarkets. I started to brag about the ever-increasing variety of organic foods. She smiled sweetly, and without a trace of condescension, told me that most foods in France were organic. How lucky for them, because, have you ever noticed how much more taste organic foods have? I suspect that's one of the reasons we eat more; we are missing a lot of taste that has been "preserved" and "pesticided" out of our food. I know the organics are more expensive, but the more popular they become, the lower the price will be.

So instead of thinking that we have all the answers, that the American way is the best way, and that everyone in the world wants to be just like us, maybe we ought to acknowledge that we could learn much from those cultures, such as the French, that cultivate good organic food, a discerning palate, and the leisure time in which to eat.

A New World

The financial crisis looms large in everyone's consciousness right now, and people are much more pessimistic about the next few years, but there are some silver linings in the cloud of doom that hangs over us. Here are ten reasons in no particular order to be happy about the future:

1. People will not be able to replace things as easily, so they will take better care of and appreciate the things they have. There will be less waste and more conservation. Maybe there will be more jobs in repairs, and companies will make things that are more fixable instead of expendible.

2. Instead of a tv, vcr, computer, sound system, and telephone in every kid's room, maybe there will be more books, and maybe the kid will wander into the family room in search of company once in a while.

3. People will visit libraries again to borrow books. Maybe they will even meet like-minded people there who also like books. Maybe there will be new societies of people who like to read.

4. Mom and Dad will have to say "no" to their kids more often, thereby improving their kids' chances of handling life's roadblocks with less fuss.

5. With less money to spend going places, families might stay home more and spend time together. Real homemade popcorn and an evening of Monopoly might replace an evening at Movietown 20.

6. Courtesy in the business world might stage a comeback. After all, if jobs are scarce, bosses (and patrons) will not have to put up with the rude guy behind the counter. There will be too many polite, productive citizens waiting to take his place.

7. Maybe school kids will stop thinking that labels are essential. Maybe the kid who has never been able to afford the hot labels will feel more like one of the "in crowd."

8. Perhaps people will plant vegetable gardens again. Think of the fresh air, exercise, comraderie, and good food that could result from that!

9. With energy costs on the rise, maybe people will be more interested in goods produced close to home, thereby creating new homegrown industries.

10. Since people will choose more carefully what they buy, workmanship and the craftsmen who create it will earn more respect.

Of course there are negatives to each of the things listed here, but why not look for something positive? For the past twenty plus years, we have been building a culture mostly based on more and more consumerism. The more we bought, the better off we thought we were; but were we really better off?

Pigs, Sporks, and VW Bugs

This past week the newspaper in my town reported that nine seniors at a local high school had been caught trying to sneak into the building in the middle of the night to pull the traditional senior prank.

On this particular night, the deputy caught the kids in the middle of their mischief -- "Deputies checking the school for vandalism found toilet paper in trees, a golf cart propped on a second-floor railing, and bleach, detergent, chalk and Vaseline in the stairwells and walkways. Students had taken apart lunch tables in the courtyard and stacked them in front of doors and windows, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office." Five of them "were each wearing latex gloves, dark clothing and stockings over their head." According the to the paper, most of them were in the top ten percent of the class, and a couple were at the very top.

Oh please, will somebody please teach these kids some common sense and some common courtesy along with the calculus and physics? Just how stupid can you get? They were lucky they weren't shot.

As a recently retired teacher, I know that law enforcement agencies now use the summers to practice emergency drills in the schools. They prepare to deal with single gunmen and terrorists group. Columbine and 9-ll have sent a powerful message.

I can only imagine what the deputy thought when he encountered the five adult, masked shapes moving around the building. I know he called for backup; the kids are lucky he acted by the book.

Now all the kids are whining about the fact that is was only a prank and that pranks are a tradition. It's true; pranks are a tradition, springing from that universal urge of the young to spit in authority's eye one last time (usually close to graduation when kids think they are beyond the reach of school authorities). Pranksters in our town have:

• reconstructed a vw bug on one of our high schools
• planted a formation of sporks on the football field
• turned a pig loose in the school over the weekend
• set off fire extinguishers
• painted their mascot symbols on a rival school's sidewalk and walls
• set off stinkbombs

. . . and the list goes on, ad infinitum.

My chief objection to these pranks has to do with the janitors. I've known many of them over the years, and while certainly a few of them are annoying and somewhat lackadaisical about their jobs, the vast majority are decent, hard-working, soft-spoken members of the lower-income levels of our society -- people who really need the work, don't make very much money, but who are proud of their jobs and their contribution to the schools they serve. They are proud of their schools and the kids. The twerps who release the pigs, set off the stinkbombs and fire extinguishers, and generally trash the school are trying to say something to teachers and administrators. What they don't ever seem to realize is that teachers, and especially administrators simply call in the janitors (often very early in the morning, long before the school day begins) to clean up the mess. While the little jerks are sitting in class sniggering about pulling off their "harmless" little jokes, the janitors are in the hallways, choking on sinkbomb fumes or gagging on pig feces, and the administrators and teachers are going about business as usual -- with doors closed to avoid the unpleasantness. What a commentary on our students' lack of:

• foresight
• planning
• creativity
• consideration
• milk of human kindness.

So, students everywhere, if you really want to get in one last little jab at the figures of authority who have been the bane of your existence for your four years of high school, how about doing the job right?

• A good prank is very creative, with humorous irony and a bit of panache.
• A good prank doesn't cost the taxpayers anything.
• A good prank is not a disruption to school.
• A good prank doesn't make more work for janitors and maintenance people, often the lowest-paid and least-appreciated people in your school.
• A good prank isn't dangerous or mean-spirited.
• A good prank makes everyone laugh -- even at themselves.

Sounds impossible? Sounds like no fun? Then you haven't learned much in your four years in high school, even if you did pass all the tests; and you haven't learned that anything worth doing is worth doing well. You're not ready for college, and you certainly don't deserve to be "in the top ten per cent of the class."