I'll start with a highly annoyed note to grocers everywhere:
Don't put all of your poultry sausages — chicken, turkey, even duck — in "hog casings" just because that's "natural."
Most obviously, this tendency impairs Semitic (Jewish and Muslim) populations — and grocers seldom stock any alternatives except "plant-based" sausages (which are much more of a crime against nature). It also presents a problem for those with pork sensitivies (like, say, some diabetics who've had to switch their insulin after developing a sensitivity).
"Natural" isn't always better. (We are, after all, talking about sausages…) And there are seaweed-based alternatives to plasticky "beef collagen," too — like those used on "plant-based" sausages.
- Our next track is a tenor-sax classic from all the way back in 1986… a bit of schadenfreude for the "demise" of smooth jazz. At least according to The New Yawkah, which refuses to state that Kenny G is not the Devil (he's not nearly vindictive enough, and instead can be found among the lesser cambions — offspring of "unnatural unions" between demons and humans; "natural unions" between demons and humans give us politicians, CEOs, and A&R executives).
- No, the staff at The New Yawkah was itself much closer to a being "higher" in demonic ranks — one who not only tolerated, but encouraged, disrespect for freelancers (so long as it was consistent with never-actually-tested marketing precepts). And this example of objectification is the least of the problems under That EIC — many of the others, however, are Not for Public Consumption (just for sub rosa hints in a city in which a rosebush closely resembles the Audrey II).
- Which will be the last reference to H'wood on this platter: The writers and actors are (justifiably) on strike. "Management" claims that the "unrealistic" demands of the people who actually make the bloody productions will destroy the industry, just like every other management group (single-company, oligopoly, monopoly, whatever) claims. I can't agree: There's no way that increasing pay to writers and actors could possibly destroy an industry built on greed and deception. Indeed, it would merely encourage further, above-the-rate-of-inflation increases in prices… and contrary to the way I operate, "go read a book instead" isn't going to cut it in today's 'murika (cf. also infra). It will have nothing whatsoever to do with H'wood's inherent passive-aggressive Lake Woebegone problem: All passive investors in "film" believe they're entitled to an above-average, and specifically above-securities-market-average, return on their investment (on a schedule amenable to their hyperagressive/overoptimistic tax planning). Without regard to the First Amendment rent.
The less said about "labor organization" of book-length-work authors, perhaps, the better…
- It could, of course, be worse: It could be artists and others starting out when their only prior exposure to "the Arts" was in creating some, not the mechanics and realities of exploiting it for gain. Nor education in who gets the gain.
- At least that, though, isn't arguing about the real speculative fiction of today: Rejection of versions of critical race theory that don't resemble anything that anyone who does practice/espouse critical race theory would recognize, by people who haven't actually read either the critical race theory materials or those they're purporting to reject. Given the weather in Temecula this week — an unfortunate name, sounding more like a potentially-terminal medical condition ("I'm sorry, sir, the temecula has metastatized in your temporal lobe. There's nothing we can do.") — one must wonder whether Mr Komrosky actually opened his bigoted remarks about Harvey Milk (who, for all his faults, was not what Komrosky accused him of) with "It was a pleasure to burn."
I know it gets hot in Riverside County, but according to today's forecast they've got about 350°F to go. Please don't take that as a dare!
- And then there's the secondary issue related to theocracy. Over-the-counter access to birth control pills will increase availability and anonymity for teenaged girls with disapproving parents…
…if they can afford them, and if they're physically available in a location that actually respects their privacy (probably not the only pharmacy in walking distance — the one owned by the televangelist's brother in law; no, that's not a hypothetical).
One of the dirty little secrets of "health insurance" is that as soon as something is "over the counter," insurance plans refuse to pay for it. Not just private plans, but MediCaid in any jurisdiction. So although making birth control over the counter may help a significant part of the population, there's another part that it will harm. And the medical profession doesn't get it, being extremely excited to "recommend" something that's OTC instead of writing a prescription.
The law of unintended consequences. Ain't it great?