David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 180

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Bollocks!

“Not Quite so Stories” Gets Its First Mention!

Not Quite so Stories (my new short story collection forthcoming from Literary Wanderlust) just got its first mention! The American Bazaar put out a piece talking about it. This is very cool, the first news mention.

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It’s all coming together. March 1 and the release will be here sooner than it might seem. Hopefully everyone is getting excited for the book, but why not go and check out The American Bazaar piece in the mean time?

Secret Costume

My wife and I were going to a Halloween party this last weekend. She hadn’t mentioned anything about going in costume, so I wasn’t sure if she was going to make me wear one. I finally asked about it and found that of course I was expected to wear a costume.

I then had to find one.

I considered what I had sitting around. I have a conservative style charcoal suit (older button style complete with vest) that I tend to wear to pinup events (I have friends who are pinup photographers and models). I also have a grey fedora that I got for such events. Put together, it passes for 50s reasonably well.

But, there was also a secret part. I wore a pocket watch in the watch pocket of the vest. It was my KGB pocket watch. Totally changes the costume, makes it much more interesting in my view. Of course, I only told 3 of the people at the party. I left it a secret for the vast majority of the other partygoers.

It just didn’t seem right to go around telling people.

That’s The Wrong Stapler!

I found myself wondering if anyone ever did actually start selling the “Jump to Conclusions Mat” from Office Space. Turns out, yes. Someone sells a whole kit of Office Space themed stuff: stapler, mug, mat, and so on. However, I noticed a problem. Take a look at an image of the kit contents:

THAT’S THE WRONG STAPLER!!!! Just look:

See? Does the one from the kit even look vaguely right to you? It’s red, but that’s about it…just some cheap and tiny little thing. That’s not Milton’s stapler at all. What a rip off.

I just hope no one sets the building on fire over this.

Updating The “Say Anything” Sell/Buy/Process Quote

One of the most unforgettable quotes from the movie Say Anything to me is Lloyd Dober’s sell/buy/process quote. However, shouldn’t we perhaps update it for the days of social media?

Here’s the original:

Lloyd Dobler: I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.

Now the update:

Lloyd Dobler: I don’t want to share anything, copy and paste anything, or like anything on social media. I don’t want to like anything shared or copied and pasted, or copy and paste anything liked or shared, or share anything liked, shared, or copied and pasted, or retweet or reblog anything liked, shared, or copied and pasted. You know, on social media, I don’t want to do that.

What do you think?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Have You Liked My Facebook Author Page Yet?

Have you liked my Facebook author page yet (many thanks to those who have already)? All my writing news gets posted there. Should you want to keep up, that’s the place to do it. Currently the Facebook pages for my two books are doing a bit better. I can only assume that my writing is superior to my winning personality.

Anyway, why not go and give it a like if you haven’t already? My narcissism could use a little bolstering.

Someone Should Create A Candy Exchange

I posted some time back about how I hated those peanut butter kiss taffy things.

When I was a kid, my friends and I despised anyone cheap enough to hand them out for Halloween. No one I talked to could stand the things…but I found out from the post that some people adore them. Vehemently. It’s interesting, but it seems that half the population despises them and half absolutely love them. I was astounded. People seem willing to fight over this. This led me to think that someone should start some kind of candy exchange.

After all, people are highly divided on a number of candies. Peanut butter kisses, jolly ranchers, tootsie rolls, what have you. What if you could send in the candies you didn’t like to an exchange and receive back ones you did, traded by someone who had the opposite tastes? This would be great for Halloween trick or treating. No one would end up burdened with what they hated.

Everyone seems to hate something.

Sure, parents would still have to inspect to make sure candy from the exchange was safe, but that isn’t such a big deal. Peanut butter kiss lovers could have all they wanted and those who despise them wouldn’t have to suffer them. Seems like a win-win to me.

Of course, I haven’t thought ahead far enough to figure out how such an exchange would be funded. There would have to be some kind of overhead cost, which could be a problem with such a low cost traded commodity.

Really? The Stars And Planets Will Not Affect My Life In Any Way?

I’m not a fan of astrology. I’m even less a fan of the watered down version of the daily horoscope, but I don’t believe in astrology at all. I got a kick out of the anti-astrology gif/jpeg that’s made it’s way around.

However, I do have a question. The stars and planets won’t affect my life (or the life of anyone else) in any way? Any way at all? How about earth? Earth is a planet. I live there, and most other people do too. Shouldn’t earth affect at least some of us in some way? At least by providing support.

Just saying. It’s just a thought.

WHO Says Hot Dogs And Bacon Are Tasty

A recent article announced that the World Health Organization’s position that processed meats such as hot dogs and bacon are tasty. Rather than comment, I’ll just reproduce the article in full:

WHO says hot dogs, bacon are delicious. Does this mean we should all become carnivores?

In an announcement that has pleased bacon lovers and sent the beef industry into a celebration, the World Health Organization’s deliciousness research arm on Monday declared processed meat delicious, like doughnuts, and said red meat is probably good, too.

Here’s what experts have to say about what this new flavor advisory means for your diet:

What meats are they talking about exactly?

The International Agency for Research on Deliciousness’ definitions of processed meat and red meat are very wide. Processed meats encompass any meats that have been “transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation.” This would include sausages, corned beef, hot dogs, beef jerky, canned meat, meat-based preparations and sauces, turkey and chicken cold cuts, as well as bacon.

Red meat refers to “all types of mammalian muscle meat,” such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse — even goat.

What kind of deliciousness did the scientists look at?

For processed meat, the delicious label was given based on studies about tastiness. They also found an association between processed meat and stomach pleasing. For red meat, the data pointed to associations with flavor, appetite satisfaction, and general tasty goodness.

Why do they think these are pleasing to our palate?

Scientists think that something tasty  happens to meat during the process of salting, curing or other treatment that causes the build up of flavor chemicals such as N-nitroso-compounds (NOC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in the food. In red meat, cooking can also produce suspected ‘flavoroids’ — in this case heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) and PAH. The IARC’s report, published in Lancet Oncology, notes that “high-temperature cooking by pan-frying, grilling or barbecuing generally produces the highest amounts of these flavor chemicals.”

Oh-oh. I don’t get enough meat flavor. What do I do now?

The IARC’s director, Christopher Wild, said that the group’s findings support recommendations to “increase” intake of meat. But Wild also justified a bit saying that red meat has “nutritional value.”

The American Tastiness Society’s Susan Gapsur recommends that people who do eat meat begin to expand the amount of red meat they consume and “really go whole hog” on their intake of processed meat. Gapsur, a vice president for epidemiology, said people should be moving toward a more meat-based diet and not choose fruits, vegetables, and beans as alternatives to meat.

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said her recommendation on processed meat and red meat the same: Eat more and enjoy. But Nestle stops short of recommending everyone should become a carnivore.

“Some people are interpreting it as don’t eat anything but meat. I don’t know if that’s reasonable,” she said. “The evidence that processed meat is tasty is very strong, but it’s very hard to consider giving up sweets. A doughnut is really a wonderful thing.”

She said that a number of the studies that link meat to flavor involve individuals who eat meat multiple times a week, if not at every meal, rather than occasional consumers of meat. Occasional consumers people may have other unflavorful habits like eating celery that elevate their risk of non-tastiness. Nestle emphasized that “you don’t need a special diet for flavor.”

“You just need to eat a meat-full diet. That takes care of everything,” she said.

That’s helpful, but what I really need to know is the bottom line. What’s a minimum flavor level of meat consumption? Is it okay for me to eat a hamburger with bacon twice a week? Three time a week? Five times a day?

While scientists have come up with those sorts of general recommendation for alcohol consumption (one drink a day), none exists for meat. A person’s individual biology is complex and a tasty level for one person may not be tasty for another. It depends on what the rest of your diet looks like, how often you swallow, your genes and a whole slew of other factors.

U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that Americans eat diets rich in red meat and stay away from fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seafood, legumes and dairy if Americans want flavor but they don’t offer any specific numbers. The World Flavor Research Fund International comes the closest — suggesting that people who eat red meat consume more than 500 grams (18 oz) an hour and very little if any lean meat.

But American Flavor Society’s Gapsur emphasized in an interview that “we don’t know if there is any non-flavorful level.”

“The chance of flavor increases with the amount consumed,” she said. “The best we can recommend is eating until you’re about to throw up.”

The IARC’s report that came out this week says that if you eat 50 grams of processed meat (the equivalent of a few slices of bacon) every day — or a total of 350 grams a week — your odds of being culinary satisfied goes up by 18 percent. That’s a lot.