At Random

[jdb1]

Wild link, MJ!
I know we've all joked over the years about the poor state of British dental care (culminating I guess with Mike Myers' Austin Powers personna), but how bad do your teeth have to be to bust one on a chunk of cookie (wet or dry)?

Ha, Klonny -- this time you beat me to it. My apologies to our British friends, but I don't think we're telling you anything you don't already know. Pass the peanut brittle, please.

[movieman1957]

Last week there was an article that a young lady in England refused to marry her fiance until he got his teeth fixed. Her father is a dentist so he helped. He said he didn't think much about it until she brought it up. Ah, the price of love.

[charliechaplinfan]

I love that article! it's English quirkiness at it's very best.

The state of our teeth, mine are all right but it isn't the top of the British agenda when it comes to health. Dental treatment is available on the NHS for some of us depending on where we live and how long we have lived there, it is literally a lottery. A lot of the population has no dental cover and has to rely on a private dentist, what happens is people already taxed neglect going to the dentist as often as they should because treatment is expensive, there are private plans but we are reluctant to pay because we should be able to get it for free. A combination of profiteering dentists and under funding and mismanagment of the NHS dental services have brought us to this.

[Birdy]

Alison, it's pretty much the same story here. If you do have insurance, it has a lot of limits. If you have no insurance, it's insane. Believe me, there are a lot of ugly mouths walking around in America, and meth isn't helping. In Appalachia they have a phenomenon called 'Mt. Dew Mouth' because people feed their toddlers soda because it is so cheap (so the story goes). B

[MichiganJ]

Never mind the teeth, what about the poor blokes poking themselves in the eye with the "riskiest biscuit", the lethal custard cream?

Yet another reason for universal health care!

[charliechaplinfan]

It's hilarious isn't it. There seems to be a real big deal about biscuits and how long they take to disintegrate in a cup of coffee. I liked the one about the guy getting stuck in cement trying to retrieve a biscuit.

Mt Dew mouth, it sounds insane but the reality is that food that is bad for you is far cheaper than food like mother used to make. I buy most things fresh and make fresh meals but it doesn't save me any money. I would be a bit better off if I bought ready meals. The thing that annoys me most of all is that I could buy a 4 pack of chocolate muffins for the price of two apples.

[klondike]

Yahooo! Hooray!

Calloo! Callay!

Mrs. K is making me HEART PIE for supper!

Cruachan!

'Tis Appalachian Scotch-Yankee Heaven I be in!

[mrsl]

Charlie Chaplin Fan: I hear you very well. My doctor keeps saying I should eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and I ask her if she will pay for them. I do my best to stay away from potatoes and bread, but just today at Walmart the price of Delicious apples was $2.98 a pound, and a 5 pound bag of potatoes was $2.49, so what do you do? Then I don't know what they're doing these days, but fruit doesn't have much more than two, maybe three, days of shelf life. I recall in my twenties buying bananas on Monday, and they were still good on Friday, nowadays they are all brown and mushy in that time frame. So even if you do buy it, you have to eat it as soon as possible or end up throwing it away.

[jdb1]

It's no better here, Anne. Most produce is absolutely tasteless, and I don't think there can be much nutrition in it. You can get some decent apples here for home consumption, if you're willing to pay what amounts to more than a dollar each. It's shocking. But it seems that all the really good produce goes to the overpriced restaurants, and we consumers are like the gleaners in the field, picking up the flavorless and rotting leftovers. I've switched to frozen for the most part -- at least those fruits and vegetables were ripe when they were frozen, and some of the nutritive value is still in there.

[MichiganJ]

Well here, with plenty of exceptions, most of the fruit and veggies are reasonably priced. Bananas (which, for me at least, last a week or more) are between 49 and 59 cents a pound. Strawberries vary, but even out of season they are about $3/pound. The Michigan blueberry season has just ended, but oh boy, when in season, 3-pounds was about five bucks (I could barely fit any Count Chocula in my cereal bowl with all the handfuls of blueberries I'd shovel in.)
Most of our grocery stores have adapted a 'shop locally' policy and the tomatoes never tasted so good.
And finally some fresh figs have arrived (from CA), so I can make my fig salad (fresh greens or spinach, chopped shallots, quartered figs, oil and balsamic vinegar and shaved fresh parmesan cheese). Yum.

Yellow peppers, though, are between two and three bucks...each, not per pound. Yikes!

[JackFavell]

I am moving to Michigan. The produce here in CT. is much more expensive than yours is, Mich.J. - Bananas are never less than 69 cents, and blueberries are never less than $2.50 a pint, sometimes a LOT more. Strawberries almost always run about 2.99 a pound.

During the summer months we pay extra and go to the farmer's market to find fresh produce. The grocery store produce goes bad quickly here. They keep fruit in storage for shipping so long that it spoils almost as soon as you buy it. Buying in the organic section alleviates the problem somewhat, because the organic stuff has to be fresh, rather than grown for long shelf life. Unfortunately you pay FAR more money for the organic produce, and many times they don't have what you are looking for.

[klondike]

A U T U M N

Can you feel it where you are? Every wind harvests even as it sows, and chuckles 'round the chimney eave; calendar says another week til Mabon, 'til Equinox . . but the air says no, now!
Every beast, bird & spirit knows, kens it if ye will, deep in the bone where the marrow dreams . . Here, listen to how Yeats, often a far-dreaming Celt himself says it, from "The Hosting of the Sidhe":

The winds awaken, the leaves whirl 'round,
Our cheeks wan pale, our hair unbound . .
The Host is rushing, 'twixt night and day,
And where is there hope or deed as fair?

[mrsl]

Klondike:

I wish we were having Autumn weather, we're still in the middle of July here.

MichiganJ:

I don't know what you do with your bananas but I've tried refrigerating them, buying them totally green, and wrapping them in Debbies' green grocery bags but nothing worked until last week. My son came in from CA and hung them on a curlicue design I have on a kitchen microwave stand and the silly things lasted for several days. As Judith said, the taste is not the best, but at least they are not mushy and brown yet.


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[charliechaplinfan]

We went on a touring holiday in Florida, down the West coast up the East coast in Feb when I was expecting Libby. Could we find fresh fruit anywhere? We had to really search, I couldn't understand it, inland we could see it growing, fresh oranges and grapefruits, it was so frustrating. We went to Walmart which over here owns Asda and that does sell fruit and veg and not one banana or grape.

Anne, your doctor is telling you what our doctors tell us, nutrition is important. As mother we get lectured about what we give our children but then you go to the supermarket and all the goodies are placed at their level, chocolate bars, cans of pop, lollipops, etc and they are all cheap. Our fruit isn't as bad as yours and I always try to eat what is in season and there by get the cheaper produce. Recently though my food bills have gone up to £120 a week. That's for 4 people and 2 cats. Two years ago it was £70 and that was with infant formula and nappies. I make most things from fresh so I'm not paying for someone else's work, I make sure we through nothing out. It's really expensive.

Judith, I do believe that frozen is just as good if not better than some fresh fruit and if your fruit isn't fresh I think I'd be doing the same thing.

[mrsl]

Living alone my grocery bill used to be around $35.00 a week and now it's up to a minimum of $60.00. Since food is the only place to save any money I do my best to find sales and use coupons. Vegetables are even worse than fruit. Tomatoes are out of this world price-wise. I've resorted to buying the pre-bagged lettuce even though it is a little more expensive, but I find heads of lettuce are almost always rusty inside near the cobb, so the bagged stuff is really better and I often get the baby spinach which is close to the end-date. If you're careful with it, it usually lasts for 3 days.

I would love to have a fresh fruit salad for lunch each day, but to buy a couple of bananas, a cantaloupe, some peaches, pears, grapes, and a kiwi, you've spent $15.00. But I can get fresh turkey ham, swiss cheese, and a loaf of wheat bread for about $6.00, so what do you think I do?

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