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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Saturday, March 22, 2003

Your Future Tax Dollars At Work! President Bush won key congressional support yesterday for his bid to make deep tax cuts, as the House narrowly approved his budget blueprint and the Senate beat back efforts to slash the tax cut package by more than half. Senators did, however, vote to trim $100 billion from the president's proposed $726 billion, 10-year tax cut plan to help pay for the war and reconstruction in Iraq. GOP leaders said they will try to restore that amount when House and Senate conferees meet to reconcile differences in their fiscal 2004 budgets. 4:29:36 PM    comment []

Here is a comment from Christopher Key, posted verbatim: OK, Paul. Here goes. That $3.97 fish is almost certainly farmed Atlantic salmon. These fish are raised by the thousands in pens that discharge huge amounts of waste into coastal waters. They are fed a type of meal made from junk fish, or fish by-products. The stuff is fortified with hormones, among other things. The natural color of farmed Atlantic salmon is a grayish white. Chemicals are added to the food to give the flesh a salmon color. Indeed, the fish farmers use a color chart just like the ones in a paint store to determine the correct color. Some parts of the country like it more pink and some like it more orange. No problem. They just adjust the color balance. Anytime you have huge concentrations of fish in a small space, you run the risk of disease. That is a frequent problem for fish farmers. Sea lice are endemic at fish farms. This would be bad enough if it weren't for the fact that lots of these farmed fish escape the pens. The aquaculture industry plays down this problem, but escapement is not a minor thing. These escaped fish compete with endangered and threatened wild species for food and spawning habitat. Larger escapees eat the wild smolt. The potential for species dilution through cross breeding seems to be minimal, but not enough data exists to be sure. Yes, wild salmon is quite expensive. But from the point of both flavor and nutritional value, it is more than worth it. Please, everyone, think twice before you buy that cheap salmon. The real cost of your decision is much higher than what you pay at the register. Thanks, Paul, for the opportunity to sound off. Christopher posts regularly at The Barbaric Yawp, and when he yawps, I listen. 4:04:44 PM    comment []

Christopher Key has graciously volunteered to educate me on the varieties of salmon and I am a willing and intrinsically motivated student. I plan to google whatever I can. Right now, the $3.97/lb. salmon from Harris Teeter is sleeping in the salty brine, awaiting an 8:00pm rebirth to form a pellicle, that glazed-over surface necessary for smoking which resembles the look in the eyes of some people when you mention "internationl law." This takes about two hours in a normal oven heated by the bulb only. In my oven, that's about 108F. 10:53:02 AM    comment []

Not much to buy at the Farmers' Market this morning, plant sets and early blossoms, but spring has officially arrived! I had a short chat with Marianne and told her about the wool I purchased from her last year, which flew to Columbus where, in the able hands of MD, it became a a head band and a scarf, which came back to Carrboro for Liz. Marianne called it "a well-traveled yarn" and we chuckled at the pun. 9:42:21 AM    comment []

Last time, we had the Baby Milk Factory to amuse us. This time, nobody is smiling. 4:18:55 AM    comment []

If you can say "The enemy of my enemy" without thinking "enema". then you do not need to study history. 3:43:10 AM    comment []

Does anyone else feel that Colin Powell has betrayed those who respected him as a voice of reason and credibility in a spinning sea of rhetoric? Yes, someone does. It is Bill Keller at NYT, who says now Powell should resign. The editorial portion of this blog, which is not quite a grammatical "we" since it has nothing to do with foodplay, only other things (revealing an inner schism in our editorial intent) also believes Powell should leave. Go smoke some salmon, you hippie foodie! Go play with your toys, you insignificant other thing! (we'll take this private and get back to you later) 2:58:55 AM    comment []

On the BBC, the big story is Turkey's invasion into northern Iraq. When yhe Turkish foreign minister explained they were only "securing their border", the sharp-witted interviewer immediately said "shouldn't you do that from within your own border?" US officials, it was reported, condemned the raid as "unilateral". I guess that means it's okay. 2:08:51 AM    comment []