The Trouble With Watching Oprah

The other day Sally tuned in to hear a guy on Oprah's show talking about how we should be avoiding processed foods. He is a college professor who wrote "Food Rules" (which Sally immediately bought) and is apparently wildly popular __ I mean, he's on Oprah, right?

Basically his deal is that if you can't pronounce any of the ingredients on the lable, don't buy it. In other words, most stuff is processed and full of nasty things. What you should really do is ignore the floorplan in your local supermarket ___ meats and veggies around the permimeter, processed stuff in the middle ___ and do your shopping around the outside, where the healthy, unprocessed food is.

This doesn't work out as a vegan thing but mac and cheese did not make the cut. Or cookies, either (I [snuck,sneaked?] a box of maple cookies into the basket at Trader Joe's last week and they are the most luscious cream-filled cookies I've EVER had. I'm really going to miss them).

As you might imagine this led to a flurry of label-reading activity and the results were not good. Food we previously thought was healthy did not fare well. Even basics like chicken broth for example hit the wall because not only did the can have 970 mg of sodium (40% of the daily limit) but, hold your breath ___ MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE ! That's right, a tongue-tangler in the flesh.

As it happens though I can pronounce this one because I used to work for the company that made it when I was in high school. so we're going to continue to use chicken broth. I mean, the label also brags that it's 99% fat free so there you go.

There were a couple other words that gave me pause too: does anybody know what "autolyzed yeast extract" is? Or "invert sugar"? Upside down sugar maybe? But at least I can pronounce them so I'll ignore them and sleep soundly after a delicious meal of chicken broth.

Job Description for a Congressperson

In a Barbara Walters interview yesterday President Obama said he would rather have an effective single term than hope for two mediocre terms in office. He went on to say that many politicians feel their job description is to get re-elected and spend correspondingly less time on the business at hand.

We seem to be in the age of professional politicians now, men and women whose "job" is to keep their job rather than to represent the electorate who put them there. I am no student of political science which I consider to be an oxymoron anyway, but I thought representative government was supposed to reflect the wishes of the people.

Yet the founding fathers were all wealthy and educated, not farmers who volunteered a month a year to serve in Congress as some idealists dreamed. How could they? Most colonists had no education at all, not to mention the time and broadness of mind to dream up a form of government and write a constitution.

So how can we have "representatives" who truly do what the word means? In the pure sense a congressperson from Georgia would oppose taxing tobacco for example, despite worldwide evidence that tobacco use is harmful. He is after all, representing his constituency ___ the voters who elected him. This apparently is where we get all the pork in the current health reform bill (and most legislation).

I applaud Obama for saying what he did. His candor is the biggest reason I voted for him. FDR was in a similar situation and faced similar challenges. Many of his programs didn't work either, but in both cases they tried. They acted. And without a proactive leader I'm not sure that our economy would not have slid further into trouble.

The main thing I would like to hope for at this point I think, is to quit the party bickering and get down to business. Address the issues, not the electibility. Stop voting in party blocks and get back to representing Main Street. We were doing that before, weren't we?

Boy, Am I Glad I Live in Lake Shastina

This was about how deep it was wading into Abrams Lake Mobile Home Park today. My son and I were trying to reach his mother-in-law who had been without heat and water for two days. No one had plowed and blow-downs blocked the roads anyway so we had to hike. Management was nowhere to be seen and we both wondered how many seniors were stuck in cold mobile homes with nothing to eat or drink.

Sally and I had driven to his home on North Old Stage Road near Black Butte where the snow accumulation was severe. Since he had a backup generator to provide heat and other essentials the main problem was getting out. He had been snowbound until we arrived to help free his 4WD pickup and while we drove north to Weed where you could still buy gas and groceries (nothing was available in Mt. Shasta) Pete plowed into the park in his jacked-up Dodge Ram and carried her to safety.

We returned with jugs of water, food, and a can of gasoline for the generator and snowblower and we invited all three of them to come over tomorrow (here in Lake Shastina) for showers and warmth.

Frank Christina explained it well: the moist storms rush up the Sacramento River Canyon and the water vapor condenses into rain and snow the higher it gets. By the time it reaches Mt. Shasta most of the precip has dropped out and Shastina is in the rain shadow.

I think I have shared these numbers before but from memory: precip in annual inches for Dunsmuir = 56, Mt. Shasta 36, Weed 28, and Shastina 16. I'm probably off and interested parties should call Frank but the picture is clear; we may have wind and lose power now and then but thank god we don't have what Mt. Shasta and Weed get.

Redding's New Walmart Superstore

We were in Redding yesterday and had cause to visit the superstore Walmart is building on Dana Ave. Even unfinished, it was enormous. The grocery area was the most obvious but there was another "wing" to the north of it that was not open yet and I have no idea what will go there.

The old store was familiar and a little less jammed than I remember. We used to avoid this Walmart because the aisles felt so crowded but they are spread out now and it feels more airy.

This is beginning to sound like a mystery shopper's report so I'll quit while I'm ahead. If I am. And just add that between this new mega-grocery store and Trader Joe's, we are closing in on shopper's heaven.