More obesity big-picture stuff. 14 October 2009 3:08 pm
Posted by Tracy in : consumerism,convenience,food snobbery,health,health at every size,history,politics,responsibility,writing , 5 commentsSo here’s a few thoughts I cut from last Wednesday’s post since it was running too long. I am tempted to make my health-at-every-size ranting a regularly-scheduled feature, but “Weighty Wednesdays” is just too cutesy and besides, I haven’t exactly been rocking the regularly-scheduled posts these past few months anyway.
So. Here I go. Despite its persistent reporting by both government and mass media sources, I am extremely skeptical about the oft-trumpeted assertion that we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. I should probably spend some time analyzing the hell out of the use of the term “epidemic” when I think “crisis” or “panic” are more appropriate, but for now I’m trying to get on with this post (more…)
About obesity: getting started. 7 October 2009 2:42 pm
Posted by Tracy in : food snobbery,health,health at every size,history,responsibility,school , 2 commentsI’m thinking about making a little comic called “Obesity: the big picture” (pun most certainly intended, and it will not be the last) because lately school has me reading a lot about how fat we’re all getting (or already are) and it seems like whenever I read more than a paragraph on the subject, it’s only a matter of time before I start trying to graph something. It would seem that this math nerd could graduate herself out of engineering school, but she can’t or won’t stop trying to hyperanalyze data, even if it’s just to say that the data aren’t very good. Anyway.
A few weeks ago, I tweeted:
This semester’s food studies are shaping up to be very fat studies-focused. Should be heck of educational in all sorts of ways. Whee? Eek?
3:47 PM Sep 15th from txt
and my Twitter forwards to Facebook, where I ended up expanding on the topic (the puns, I tell you, they just keep coming): (more…)
Oh please. 4 November 2008 5:01 am
Posted by Tracy in : eugene,news,pictures,politics,responsibility , 2 commentsI’ve got even fewer fingernails now than when that picture was taken:
…but according to the U.S. postal service, my ballot was received on Saturday afternoon. So. If you haven’t yet taken your turn, I want you to vote, as hard as you can. And even if you’re not eligible to do so in the U.S. this time around, I hope you’ll join me in hoping for the very best this Election Day. (more…)
On dinner parties. 19 March 2008 7:21 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cooking,friends,identity,politics,responsibility,school,time versus money,work , 2 commentsOh, lady. Stuff White People Like wins again with yesterday’s post on dinner parties, a subject I’ve written about on a few memorable occasions. The following little essaylet, first posted on Everything2.com on September 1, 2001, tells the story of one such occasion. (Writing it was another, and I suppose reposting it here is yet one more, in a very meta way.)
* * * * *
For years and years, my parents have belonged to a club that treated its members to gourmet dinner parties, sometimes in restaurants, but also for some time hosted at members’ homes and prepared in a prescribed potluck style by the guests, who were given recipes for dishes selected to fit the evening’s theme. In addition to these smaller seasonal events (four times a year; you figure it out) the club — ominously named The Establishment — used to meet in its entirety twice a year for an annual formal, black tie dinner in January and a much more informal outdoor picnic/barbecue in July. The venues for these latter two events were fixed for years, at the homes of the club members with the most extensive silverware, glassware, and flatware collection, and the largest back yard, respectively. But I digress.
As a result of my parents’ participation in those black-tie dinners, I learned quite a bit about the workings of the dinner party, first-hand, by working as part of its catering staff (with the help of a rotating roster of friends recruited to help) for five years in a row (the pay got better every time, especially when I returned to “the annual dinner” as a starving college student). However, I believe that it was as a result of this experience that I failed to earn a potentially valuable scholastic distinction during my senior year of high school. (more…)
Four ways of looking at Trader Joe’s 5 February 2008 10:34 am
Posted by Tracy in : convenience,environment,fangirl,friends,politics,responsibility,sustainability , add a commentI’ve mentioned repeatedly that I’ve been a month or so behind on all kinds of stuff since my trip to Nepal, which is why it was January before I caught up to the fact that it was open season on Trader Joe’s in early December, and I’ve been concocting a reply ever since. Today I’ll finally be discussing the two blog posts that got my attention, and sharing a few other pieces from even more way back in the day, just to add to the fun. (more…)
