Culinary profiling

[sabotabby]

I, for one, am against the War on Spinach. They can pry the saag paneer out of my cold, dead hands.

Doesn't take much to terrify the North American populace these days, does it?

Comments

[misfitina.livejournal.com]

lol war on spinach!!

i'm using that!

[sabotabby]

There's a new place near my work that serves salad and salad-related things. It's terribly yuppie, but also YUM. I went in today and they had a notice explaining why they weren't serving spinach. I didn't want spinach (I only like it cooked), but it was an irritating display of mass paranoia nevertheless.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

There was like a whole week while people talked about how easy it would be to pour poison into a cross-country milk truck.

There's this idea that we never thought about this stuff before and so now we're waking up to all the possible vectors through which a determined "asymmetrical" enemy could get to us. We see threats because the means of getting to us are infinite, of course - everything from atom bombs to evil migrant workers shitting on our leafy vegetables. It's a silly idea - 'the terror attack through unexpected means' has been a staple movie and TV genre since the sixties. I think now it's just that we have to see that one particular attack - you know the one I mean - over and over and over every day. Makes people jumpy. Especially knowing that there's a real threat out there to our freedoms, our livelihoods, our health, our very lives.

[sabotabby]

At least most Americans don't eat spinach. It's an ineffective way to cause mass destruction. Death by zeppelin is pretty sweet, though.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

There's always poison in milk trucks. It's known as milk. ;)

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

It's kinda funny. The world has turned in one big scene out of Airport '77.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

2 weekends ago, I was going through training so I can be deployed to New Orleans for spring break with a the Public Health Action student organisation.

Anyway, for some reason, they gave this guy, a toxicologist who works with the ahmurrcan armed forces, a 4-hour block: the first 2.5 to talk about chemical warfare, the second 1.5 to talk about bioterrorism.


Let me tell you, this guy was SICK. If I were the ahmurrcan government, I'd be concerned about employing him. He was talking about how the sarin gas could have more effectively been spread in Tokyo. Then he was talking about how the cholrine used in the water can be raised to lethal amounts, etc. And all sorts of fertilisers, food-borne illnesses, and anything else you can think about that would cause paranoia.

Moral of the story: if the public health officials are spreading stories like that, how do we expect to have a rational, informed public?

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

I think [spouse] and I may have actually gotten some E. Coli from spinach a couple weeks ago. We can tell you the exciting tale later this afternoon, if you desire.

[sabotabby]

Damn; I wish I'd seen this before I met up with you guys. Heh. Tell me Sunday.

[uberbitsch.livejournal.com]

How the FUCK did e-coli get into spinach anyway? I thought that was predominantly a meat based thing, and if so then WHAT the fuck is MEAT matter doing near vegetables?!

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

IM IN UR FIELDZ
POOPIN IN UR GREENZ

[goodlookinout.livejournal.com]

A++

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Alright, I have to ask. Do you happen to live at bloor/spadina?

[droneish.livejournal.com]

And I rant:

The spinach thing is seriously pissing me off. There is a farm up the road from me that grows naught but organic greens including spinach. There are about 20 others within a 1/2 hour's drive. None of these have any contact with the contamination source. Yet for some reason, none of our local restaurants/salad bars/groceries are are carrying spinach at the moment. It's like TPTB somehow think the Platonic ideal of spinach has become E. Coli adulterated. And meanwhile the local growers are screwed. Aargh.

/rant ::sneaks down the road to grab spinach::

[sabotabby]

I wish I'd had the forethought to grow some spinach. I thought the E. Coli was basically coming from one source, though. It doesn't make sense to ban all spinach.

[locustinferno.livejournal.com]

We're just on pins and needles over here.

[sabotabby]

You're either with us, or with the spinach.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

When are they going to start bombing Popeye?

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

noice!

[jordansc.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

Now I want some saag paneer...

[sabotabby]

And you should have some. It's cooked, so it should be safe. Also it's YUMMY.

[qraccoon.livejournal.com]

Someone came into Kroger's last night and yelled at some hapless produce clerk. Telling him that the *arugula* gave her husband e-coli. When he explained that it was the spinach that was tainted, she yelled that they were the same thing. She also threatened to sue Kroger. How I love working with the public.

I heard that the e-coli problem came from a water source and thus the disease was actually inside the spinach and couldn't be washed off.

Also, any disease that makes you bleed from an oriface is enough to terrify me at least.

[sabotabby]

That's just all kinds of wrong.

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go to the farmers market tomorrow and see if I can get a deal on some spinach. Then it's saag paneer time!

[sabotabby]

I bet you can get it at a really good price right now, if you can actually find some.

[jaymoh.livejournal.com]

I bummed about the spinach situation. I love spinach in just about any form, especially raw, and of course saag paneer.
I've been calling it the "war on Spinach" as well, but so far no one thinks it's funny. I thought it was!

[sabotabby]

I can't really abide raw spinach, but if it's ground up, cooked, and loaded with some kind of spice, I love it. I'm supposed to get more iron, so I eat a fair bit of it.

I think "War on Spinach" is funny.

[revolution-grrl.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, saag paneer...

No, they've got us trained pretty damned well, haven't they??

[sabotabby]

*sound of whip cracking*

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I'm frightened of plantains. I try to ward them off with my chard!

Who the hell buys bagged spinach anyways? Ew!

[sabotabby]

I ate plantain tonight at a Jamaican place. I am in favour of it, as long as it's cooked well, which this was. I'm also pro-chard, generally speaking.

I buy bagged spinach, since that's usually what I see for sale.

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

I love sag paneer. Except when I try cooking it myself. Then, not quite so awesome.

[sabotabby]

I haven't tried. I really should.

[ironed_orchid]

Mmmm. Sag paneer.

I'm glad there are many oceans between me and this e-coli thing. I'm going to have spinach salad for lunch.

[sabotabby]

Enjoy! Think of us poor North Americans.

[sadie-sabot.livejournal.com]

" They can pry the saag paneer out of my cold, dead hands."

darn tootin.

[sabotabby]

Saag paneer for all!

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

I'm right on the battle with you. Ahmurrcans are dum. And the public health professionals involved in all the PR stuff are a disgrace to the profession.

[sabotabby]

Canadians, apparently, are also dumb. *Sigh* It's like they want us to be perpetually panicked or something.

[andreazenith.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm, spinach. =^.^=

Sneaking out to a Farmer's Market for fresh spinach is a darn good idea. *huge grins*

The North American populace is paranoid... besides, the way they covered the "spinach epidemic" is the same way they cover most evil things. *wry look*

[sabotabby]

I hear Osama might be dead (of spinach).