Announcement: Our new patent agent is an ass.

No real analysis needed. Just an ass.

I remember reading an article about a school in Queens where the cafeteria workers were trying to make foods that the kids, mostly immigrants, would eat. Sloppy Joes and tacos were not going over so well. So they decided to try making a chicken curry, since a lot of the students were Indian. Within the NYC rules, they weren't allowed to use raw chicken, so they had to make the curry by tearing apart frozen rotisserie chicken. The cafeteria worker in charge of ordering the commodity foods was able to exchange and trade around a bunch of stuff to get a giant container of curry powder, but it took a whole lot of finagling.

Oh man, Matilda! She looks shockingly big all of a sudden.

nutritional analysis

That's a whole thing -- stuff in a box comes with it on the side. The lunch lady is going to calculate that?

Oh man, Matilda! She looks shockingly big all of a sudden.

SERIOUSLY

That's a whole thing -- stuff in a box comes with it on the side. The lunch lady is going to calculate that?

This was the reasoning behind NYC public schools banning homemade things at bake sales but allowing Doritos and Pop-Tarts. They can't regulate the calories in the homemade stuff.

Within the NYC rules, they weren't allowed to use raw chicken

OK, that's wack.

Those are the rules that seem particularly onerous.

nutritional analysis

That's a whole thing -- stuff in a box comes with it on the side. The lunch lady is going to calculate that?

sighhhh

And yet, that is the problem with the school lunch program. Why not draw attention to that, instead of feeding kids crap merrily along?

The WalMart issue is fresh on my brain, cause there is talk of one going in not far from me and there's a lot of hating on it. I'm more prone to the anti-case, if only for the traffic and the suspicion it'll take out what few city groceries in the area (kinda a big deal.) Yes, potential submarket prices for the local community (essentially subsidized by suburban stores) but at what cost?

This was the reasoning behind NYC public schools banning homemade things at bake sales but allowing Doritos and Pop-Tarts. They can't regulate the calories in the homemade stuff.

Which makes some sense to me, for a big institution. Obviously, I would pick a small homemade cookie over a 100 Calorie Pack (TM), but Mike Bloomberg is going to come over and tell me if I'm making the cookies small enough?

I love Matilda's doggie plate!

Is that still vegan then?

Not super-strictly so, but vegan enough for me. I still haven't settled on a firm stance on honey

Vegans eliminating honey makes the least amount of sense to me, since the bees aren't hurt or killed in the obtaining of honey. Although I should note I'm most familiar with people who eat vegan because of animal cruelty/animal rights issues, so that's the lens I'm viewing it though. Bee exploitation doesn't seem to be a big problem.

If it's a strictly letter-of-the-law thing, then I get avoiding honey. I assume that the same people are also scrupulous about avoiding certain wines.

And I don't get that he's shaming anyone. Not intentionally. He seems to genuinely care about health.

I can't see telling a parent "You are killing your child!" as anything other than shaming. Same for looking at a family's meal and telling them, "This is disgusting."

This.

He seems to genuinely care about health.

Hee- Jamie Oliver's a Concern Troll!

I love Nora.

I don't have as much problem with Biggest Loser, because that show actually is talking to individual people about individual choices.

Wow, is that show horrible and dangerous. Any time you've got people exercising for literally hours, and contestants weeping when they don't lose 10 pounds in a week (not that they gained, mind you; they still lost 4 pounds, which is a lot for one week), you've got a recipe for injuries and eating disorders.