shari danielson

Hey, you guys… listen up. Valentine’s Day is this weekend. If you're in a significant relationship, this is the one day every year when you’re expected – no, mandated – to express your undying devotion to that person in your life whom you love more than…
(a)  beer
(b)  pizza
(c)  your dog
(d)  your mother
(e)  all of the above

This is also the day, every year, when there is extra pressure to, um, “perform” like the stud-muffin that you are. In other words, Valentine’s Day would be the wrong time to fall asleep early in front of the TV, dressed in your wife-beater undershirt and ketchup-stained boxers.

Photo courtesy of RawFoodLife.comLast December, we wrote about ana Sofia Joanes, food policy activist and director of the movie Fresh, and her campaign against BigAg monopolies.

My husband. I love him dearly. He is my soul mate, my life partner, the father of my children, my BFFWB. But, sometimes, he really pisses me off.

When I told him I was writing about famous food scenes in the movies, the first example I mentioned was James Cagney smashing a grapefruit into the face of Mae Clarke. “Oh, don’t use that,” he said. “That is such a hackneyed example! Every film class, every women’s studies class, uses that clip. You know, most people haven’t seen the movie that it came from -- in fact, most people can’t even name what movie it came from. So, please! Don’t use that one.”

Photo from http://educate-yourself.org/As I type this, I am sick to my stomach.

No, it’s not something I ate. It’s something I read, this headline:

Forbes Magazine named Monsanto the #1 company of the year for 2009

Makes me want to puke.

If you want to read the article yourself, you’ll have to Google it; I refuse to drive traffic to the Forbes Magazine website.

I read it, and then had to create an account to post a comment. Here’s what I wrote:

Two articles that I’ve read recently have convinced me to never again let my children eat a school lunch.

The first, published in October by the New York Times, chronicles the flawed U.S. meat inspection process, and how an E.coli-infected hamburger permanently disabled Minnesota resident Stephanie Smith.

Michael Pollan’s new book, Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, is a breeze to read. The author himself says it will take you about an hour to, ahem, digest his 64 practical, even folksy rules – gleaned from doctors, scientists, chefs and readers – to eat better. Here are a few samples:

#11 – Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

#19 – If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.

#36 – Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of your milk.

Six months after a major milestone birthday, I approach the new year, the new decade, and the second half of my life with one question: Where do I want to be ten years from now, and what do I need to do – day by day – to get there? This past week, I spent a full day pondering the height, depth, and weight of this question. I sketched timelines, drew charts, made lists and commited a 120-month plan to writing. And then, just to make sure I didn’t overlook anything, I checked my horoscope.

James McWilliams:
Food writer, fellow, professor, blogger, and locagrarian contrarianCommunity. It’s a name for the place where we live, but also for the social connections that we live among. In yesterday's post, it was a word used by two people on two occasions to describe the benefits of opening a new food co-op in the Orono/Long Lake area, and a new farmers market in Edina.

Image Credit: Maven Mama"According to Japanese legend, a young man named Sen no Rikyu sought to learn the elaborate set of customs known as the Way of Tea. He went to tea-master Takeeno Joo, who tested the younger man by asking him to tend the garden. Rikyu cleaned up debris and raked the ground until it was perfect, then scrutinized the immaculate garden. Before presenting his work to the master, he shook a cherry tree, causing a few flowers to spill randomly onto the ground.