Author: askmehowithappened

Stu·pid (ˈst(y)o͞opid/)

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

I had intended to write another post about information from the last Scientific American article. I also plan another recipes post. But my attention was drawn last night to this article, and the stupidity involved was so spectacular that I couldn’t let it pass without a comment.

It really makes me depressed, and what makes me depressed isn’t the behavior of the McDonald’s patrons. Instead it’s the spectacular ignorance of human nature displayed by the designers, analyzers and reporters in question. It’s so stupid that I sat here for a few seconds just now trying to decide if I even had the heart to discuss it.

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I’m an American, Scientifically

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.

  –Albert Einstein

I picked up an issue of Scientific American while in the airport recently. I’ve gone to doing all my travel reading on electronic devices, for convenience. But, inconveniently, there are those long periods on flights when one cannot use electronic devices, even if they aren’t cell phone capable and have everything about them that transmits turned off. I’m very tempted at this point to go off on a tangent, but I’ll show some rare self-restraint and come back to the main point. Continue reading I’m an American, Scientifically

Jet Lag

Usually, jet lag is not this big of an issue for me. I’m not sure why I’m so disoriented this time. It could be due to the amount of chocolate and french fries I’ve eaten in the last two and a half weeks.

–April Winchell

I’m not sure who April Winchell is. Some kind of actress. But she’s right on the money here. Sugar and starch will get you every time.

For any readers who have not traveled, or who haven’t traveled by plane to far away places, allow me to explain the phenomenon that is jet lag.

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That Dream Wivin a Nightmare

I had hoped by now to write you a post from the bosom of Asia, home and surrounded by grass-fed meat and butter. Alas, I’m still on a plane, and we’re putting our diet to the ultimate test. We shall call it: The Delta Test.

I had a direct flight from Seattle to my home on Thursday evening. The red eye. In preparation, I ate a hamburger at the airport, sans bun or fries, but with bacon and cheese. As with all my international travels this year, I planned to just skip flight meals entirely. The flight was to take 11-12 hours, and I skipped the first meal service without any problems.

I dozed a bit and thought it was odd when the pilot started talking about making our descent only 10 hours into the flight. I’m thrilled with shorter flights, of course, but I’ve been doing this Asia flight since 1997, and it never, ever takes only 10 hours.
Continue reading That Dream Wivin a Nightmare

Served with Apologies

Chocolate says “I’m sorry” so much better than words.

–Rachel Vincent

Well friends, it has been a while. I don’t have any chocolate, either. But if you’ve been reading then you know that I’ve been on the road. I touched down from Asia on July 3. Since then I’ve been in Washington, Montana, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Germany and Greece. After Greece I didn’t have my iPad’s keyboard for a while, and I’m not one for typing on screens.

Continue reading Served with Apologies

Germany

Andere Länder, andere Sitten.

–German Proverb

So today I was in Germany for a while. I had a ten hour layover in Frankfurt and I took off into the city on the regional trains to spend three hours hiking about Worms. Running about it, actually.

If it’s getting hard to keep track of where I am, I’m sorry. A friend gave me this trip as a gift, to go see family posted abroad for work. I haven’t seen them in years, so that’s the background to this little story.

I got off the plane after a miserable flight (note: Lufthansa seems to have the smallest seats of any airline ever, and that is saying a lot. I’ve flown all over Asia 145 pounds heavier than I am now and I was never so cramped as I was on this trup.) I wanted some food when I got off, and the first thing I found was a little restaurant in the airport advertising breakfast. More than half the breakfast choices were very heavy in fat and protein with only some token carbohydrates to go with them.

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And The Winner Is…

Grass fed beef.

Yup, sorry, but it is.

Back home in Asia, I can order grass-fed beef and lamb directly, in bulk, bypassing the middle man. That enables me to afford it. Just. Sometimes I have to compromise and get some grass-fed and some grain-fed. It’s just cost.

But since I’ve been back in America I have not been able to eat one bite of grass-fed meat in about six weeks. I’ve also not been able to find any grass-fed butter. I’m sure I could if I was in one place for long enough, but in six weeks I’ve been to ten different states. So I’ve had to subsist on “organic” butter, which though it is from cows not fed weird things, it is from cows fed grain.

Back when I first started doing this, I wondered aloud how important the grass-fed, grain-fed argument really was. There seems to be evidence to suggest grass-fed is the superior nutrition, but the reality is that it is more expensive. It’s out of the reach of many people and eating even grain-fed meat is still better than eating a lot of carbage and calling it healthy.

Continue reading And The Winner Is…

America

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.

― François de La Rochefoucauld

I haven’t been able to post as much due to being on the road in America for weeks. Either I have no internet, ala the World’s Worst Hotel, or I’m just not in one place more than a night or two and am trying to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in years and won’t see again for more years.

Oh, and I’m eating.

Everything.

In sight.

You see, Americans have this habit of eating constantly. Since I hopped off the Blood Sugar Express myself, I don’t need to eat like that. In fact, I actually prefer not eating a lot of the time.

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Inflammatory

It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication, and a government bureaucracy to administer it.

–Thomas Sowell

A little insanity is good early in the morning. It keeps you young. It revives your zest for life. When I was staying with Brother 4 a few weeks ago, their 1-year-old provided that for me in the form of various games such as “Crazy Head.”

Now that I’m away from their place, I am forced to search for insanity in the news. Thankfully, it’s not hard to find. I was assaulted by an insane article a little bit ago in Time. The gist of the article is a common one:

Continue reading Inflammatory