Best Before

How much attention should we pay to expiration dates? Are they overly conservative? I have been told that we needn't follow them exactly, but have we been trained by the grocery industry to follow them too strictly, thus leading us to waste lots of food and spending excess money buying new products? I have my suspicions.

--Curly

Just Not That Into It

I admit that not long ago I saw the silly romantic comedy “He’s Just Not Into You.” That film could get me ranting for ages. First of all, the women are always referred to as girls. Second of all, they are portrayed as desperate; they are not happy unless they are in a relationship. They also act like they have to “trap” a man and convince him to be with them. They don’t “get” men and need to have men explained to them, while men apparently understand women just fine. Finally, marriage is considered the ultimate goal for all male-female relationships. One couple in the movie live together quite happily and they seem to recognize that a wedding is not necessary; but, no, it turns out the woman actually wants marriage. In the end, she gets her wedding.

What is wrong with living together? What is wrong with some people being single? Why are women seen as confused, needy girls who must have men in order to be fulfilled?

--Curly

The Chicken Trend

It must be a new trend to consider chicken vegetarian food. A recipe I saw recently was labeled “vegetarian” and yet one of the ingredients was chicken stock. Hmm.

--Curly

(De)construction

I walked by a construction site late at night. There was a fence set up around the site and lots of warning signs about how dangerous it was to try to go in there. And yet a group of teenagers (not surprisingly, they all had cans of beer in their hands) seemed to find it very amusing to climb over the fence and sneak into the site. Then they proceeded to wreck havoc by throwing pieces of construction materials at one another and push large garbage cans over, spilling waste. As usual, I couldn’t help but think about how sad so many people are.

--Curly

Here Come the Idiots

At my local library, there is a special shelf with a label “Here Come the Girls!” The books on that shelf are primarily by Virginia Woolf, Iris Murdoch, Isabel Allende, and a couple of “chick-lit” writers. This is offensive on a number of levels. First of all, these are women, NOT girls. Also, are these really the main, or the best, examples of female authors? Are there no other authors who can represent womankind? And why is that needed, anyway? There is no equivalent shelf called “Here Come the Boys!” What is the library thinking?

--Curly