Dining and Opining

This is fascinating. McDonald's Canada made a video showing its food stylists at work: What's even more compelling for me than the actual styling is what this reveals about McDonald's search for transparency. They want consumers to be able to see where there food comes from--just enough so they can trust that they're not being overly manipulated. But it makes me wonder, what kind of styling did it take to produce this video itself? That is, what is behind the scenes of this behind-the-scenes video? And it also made me remember this video of another burger being prepared for its moment in the spotlight, that I've used for teaching before: Is it possible that any of these techniques are also being used in the McDonald's promo, and we just don't see them? The comments for the first video on youtube have been disabled, so we don't get to read the voices of any actual consumers, but I wonder what effect this kind of advertising will have on M...

One of the traditions around my office is what's known as "afternoon jam," in which one of the office-members chooses a song to play for the rest of the crew, as a little mid-afternoon break. Afternoon jams in the past have featured the likes of Skrillex and Cee Lo and Avenue Q and, of course, Spiritualized . It's one of those things that always makes my day a little brighter. But this week, we decided that afternoon jam could only be improved by adding a little, well, afternoon jam. Along with the jam, there were fresh-baked biscuits and backyard raspberries and goat cheese and fancy butter and iced tea: And some smiling faces of good friends, too: (even our jet-setting friend AC made a guest appearance! Can you spot him?) Afternoon jam featuring afternoon jam: I highly recommend it.

Last year, I had a fairly ambitious garden plan ... But it pretty much reverted to being a bunch of tomatoes . Delicious, yes, but far simpler. This year, I stuck with the basic plan of a bunch of tomatoes, but also threw in some other plants, based purely on the seedlings I had available to me--all of which I got for free from my various trusty sources (neighbors, CSA, GreenHouse). So, I used a free trial of Grow Veg to put together this little plan: Melon from seeds I saved Melon from seeds I saved Melon from seeds I saved Bok Choy* Super Zagross Middle Eastern Slicing Cucumber * White Clara Eggplant* Unknown Eggplant Variety* Rosa Bianca Eggplant* Roma Tomato+ Roma Tomato+ Roma Tomato+ Unknown Tomato Variety* Roma Tomato+ Roma Tomato+ Large Red Cherry Tomato* Green Zebra Tomato * Green Zebra Tomato * Sungold Tomato* (!) Red Pear Tomato * Cherry Tomato* Unknown Broccoli Variety* Cheyenne Pepper * Unknown Pepper Variety* Cheyenne Pepper * Round of...