Wikipedia-free Wednesday

[Harriet]

Please forgive if I seem random in thought today, or don't seem to have read posts well - lots going on

Delighted for Booksaver to have her hands in fabric so much. Both you and Harmony have been cutting pretty cotton fabric. What a delightful occupation. Hoping bittersweet got some sewing in.

Yesterday's events troubled me, re: the Deen/FoodNetwork diabetes thing. If indeed she has had this diagnosis for 3 years and if it is true, as some say, that she was forthcoming with the network and they knew, too, but nobody told it until now, then her deal, now, with the med company does seem questionable. People weren't aware until yesterday that there was a way she/network would be profiting from her announcement, and that makes a difference. In other words, until all business associates were on board with a mutually beneficial financial deal, the viewers/public weren't included. That's not Kosher.

Also, I was frustrated by the ADA spokesman especially and reporters in general who keep inserting "southern" into this. What Diabetes is related to changes to the pancreas and blood sugar. Their claims that southern food includes more dietary fat are completely beside the point. If they want to point to sugar and white flour, in their various types in the Western diet, they will have to have a panoramic finger.

I've also been very troubled by the cruise ship tragedy, trying to comprehend last night's/today's news. Wow. In our regional newspaper, a cruise-travel company ran a relatively large ad, with a striking cruise ship line drawing, and you couldn't help noticing it while the upsetting coverage was on your mind. I had a half-thought it was a related article rather than an ad. I was thinking, no, no, not today people - have you even been listening?

My news from our household is busyness. I thought I was rushing fast enough but missed the trash pick-up with what I gathered today (some did get to go from other days). Only the fact that I didn't miss the recyclable pick-up kept me from too much frustration. Morning Daily Card is done except for folding towels.

Oh, well, interupted poof

[Nancy]

I'm up we have 5" of snow here and it's still coming down. The neighbors shoveled off their driveway about a half hour ago and it's covered again already. Advisory in effect until Thurs. for more snow doubt we will be going any where. School is in session here today. One good thing about snow is that it's quieter and I slept great! Biggest snow fall since world war two in the Seattle area I think it is the CNN channel was just saying. I'm SO glad I went to the library last night for the book I had on request! Got a chapter read on it.

I'm fighting a bit of a cold today here this morning bs was up a bit I'm not surprised by that.

Granny duty begins in a bit.

Re-Paula D. she's a paid spokesperson for the drug I assume she's taking for type 2.
I wondered if b/c of contractual obligations she could not say much it might be construed as bad mouthing her show / product cook books etc. I know the Ca. way of cooking eating my dsis did was way different than my mom's cooking she's from Ark.

I know for me it sure took me a while to learn how to eat/ cook differently.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Re: cruise news

I've followed it very closely, reading well over 2500 posts on the cruise forums.

It is a tragedy.

I'm basically trying to learn from those who got off, what happened to them and how to increase my chances if something similar happened.

The obvious difference is my next cruise has 400 people on the ship (total), not 4000. That takes far less time to get off. Plus the majority of the passengers speak English. That was not true on the Concordia and passengers were not able to understand crew. Cultural difference (pushing, for example) are in play for me. I'm used to that from my other travel and am thrilled I learned to body check playing street hockey as a young girl.

[Harriet]

You're probably right about complicated goings-on re: telling the public, Nancy. Interestingly, HRH has become more impressed with Deen on a personal level after hearing her explanations, and thinks she will eventually get past all this negative publicity. About the dietary fat thing, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the fact that Deen/Food Network had a contract with Smithfield (meat) doesn't have a bearing on the story - dietary fat/protein is not a villain in diabetes, so why criticize that. If reporters, or that particular ADA guy, want to criticize certain foods, then they should be clear, and also leave regions out of it. It doesn't matter if it's a pizza from Illinois or New York or a biscuit from Georgia or Texas, it's the white flour. Whether it's a marble cheesecake or a pineapple upside-down cake, it's the sugar. If our information isn't clear on that we could give a false sense of security to those who may assume they don't have risk.

Now, here's where my argument breaks down and I admit it: Consumption of corn-sweetened carbonated drinks very well may predict greater Type-2 diabetes onset in a population. If that is true of the southern states, and it looks like it is, it's because the sale of soda is easier to a person living in a hot climate, and that's a shame. But that shame resides in soda company boardrooms and how they have used vast midwestern cornfields, whose products southern populations never ate/drank before, to their advantage. In the past, when people in southern states chose a sweetened drink, it was more likely to be tea drinkers who put reasonable amounts of cane sugar, not super-sweetening quantities of corn syrup, into their glasses.

Kathryn, I think those bills are dead in the water. Washington Post had the quote today, "This is what happens when you make the internet mad." I thought that was funny. Anyway, they quoted some congressperson's aides as saying SOPA was a dirty word now, "beyond anything you can imagine". Noticed as I went to fetch an extra form for Household Notebook that CEO has an announcement about this on all her pages.

Kathryn, who are you kidding? You and Ken would be checking on the other passengers you've met and offering strangers a hand up. The main difference I believe you will find on your (or any villager's) next cruise will not be the population of the ship but extra attention of the (operational/officers) crew, with new more careful safety lectures and discussion.

[Sadie]

Hello dear ladies,

We having a full roller coaster ride for weather these days. I'm sure Okay is having something like it too. Monday was near 70 degrees and then plummeting temps to the teens. It is in the 30's now.

Yes our household is talking a lot about the bills over internet stuff these days too. Really don't want a lot of government involvement, as one dson pointed out, it won't really fix the problem and will cause others.

Just been busy, busy, busy it seems. Going over receipts for taxes and such. Also have added spending time going through coupon sites, printing, cutting, looking over grocery ads

[Nancy]

It has stopped snowing we have 8 1/2" outside now here I measured it on the deck before h. shoveled it off. Driveway has been shoveled by h., me twice, & sil; it needs a bit of spiffing up then will be cleared. Perfect snowman snow fort kind of snow kids will be doing that and snow ball fights at lunch.

Granny duty has begun.
I'll be heating a can of chili for lunch soon. x
Bed is not made as we were thinking snow removal when we got up today.

[Elizabeth]

Lunch has been obtained. Back to the document review.

[Sadie]

Hello again dear ladies,

DH and dsons came home for their lunch so I stopped posting to chat with them for a bit. They have gone out again.

I have found that I have saved some with coupons. Haven't come any where near the savings that people on extreme couponing show does. I've saved about 30% on total of groceries. Some items were 50-75% off with price matching at WM plus coupons but many items I buy, such as fresh veggies and fruits don't have coupons.

Of course most of the shows I saw were people adding to their stash, while I'm shopping with making meals in mind.

Meanwhile DH and Dsons have remarked that there is a difference in taste between brand name products and store brand. Hope they don't get used to it, cause if I don't have a coupon, it doesn't get bought.

Still listening to classic literature while I do some of my mindless tasks. I'm still with David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Finding Dickens was quite humorous in spots.

Going to make a phone call to a friend. Putter a bit, rest a bit and head off to work.

Have a great day all!

[helia]

Sadie, I hope your David Copperfield on tape does a good rendering of. . . "don-KEY!"

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: Nope, I've body checked men in India and I'd do so again if it is my turn. I might hold back a line so an elderly person could go in front of me, but I'm not shy about shoving back if there's an injustice. Must be my Northerner showing!

I'm looking forward to the next muster drill to see the difference. For our first cruise, we stood outside in the hot sun for about 30 minutes. For the next three, we've had the muster drill as a quick march past our gathering point and straight into the theater. Names weren't even checked off (as they were the first time and we were not released until all passengers were accounted for.)

The idea of mustering in the common areas inside makes more sense to me. In a disaster, having thousands of passengers outside in bad weather, dark, cold, or burning sun, standing around waiting makes no sense. Besides, whole sides of the ship may be unsuitable to stand by. It makes more sense to meet in a large area inside the ship. More light if there is still power, more shelter from the elements and then passengers can be led to the appropriate place to be evacuated and not milling around the life boats getting in the way.

The drill is still important, it has us following the closest path to safety and making sure we all know how to wear the life vest. On one of our cruises, our two vests had us going to two separate life boats and that was corrected. And our cruise line requires a drill before setting sail, not within 24 hours of sailing, which international law allows for (but not US law and 5 of our cruises have left from US ports.)

In a real emergency, such as the Concordia, experience saved a lot of people. Those that cruised before followed previous instructions, returning to their cabins and fetching life vests. Some also grabbed meds and a credit card, proper shoes and warm clothing. Others already had their passports scanned and available online so that when they were rescued, they could use any computer to download a copy of their passport giving them some ID and helping speed up the issuance of emergency passports by the embassies.

A lot of the 'frequent floaters' are going to carry a credit card at all times with them (you never need that or cash on our ships) and a small flashlight so they can navigate the ship in darkness. Plus they are going to set up a meeting point so if there is an 'event' when couples are apart, they will go to that area to meet up. These are all small measures that will help only slightly but the idea is to learn from the experiences of others. We actually have a flashlight in our carry on bags (to exit an airplane in the dark) and fly with our passports on our body, not in a purse or bag but we never considered that sort of safety measure on the ship which feels more like a hotel than a form of transportation. That will change.