Back to the lecture at hand
I’ve not been feeling very communicative over the last few days. I blame the weather. Everything is moist and sticky and gray and it sucks. Walking takes a huge amount of effort.
Yesterday, I read about toxins and carcinogens in personal care products, plastics, and toys on at least three or four different and unrelated sites. Obviously, recently published reports certainly had an impact on that frequency, but it got my wheels turning.
See, here’s where I’ll admit something to whoever happens to read this: I do nearly all of my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. This is not something that I’m happy about and I don’t enjoy supporting them since they violate pretty much every principle of mine. But for the time being I am the breadwinner for our family and I have a BA in English, so you can imagine that money is pretty tight.
When we first started out on our own, we were shopping at the regular local grocery store and even with coupons, we couldn’t afford more than two weeks’ worth of food there. Bottom line: we need to eat all four weeks out of the month. It is pretty shameful how difficult it is to buy food and other products that are good for you or at the very least not potentially harmful. Just buying fresh produce eats up a large portion of our grocery budget. Buying organic and/or locally-grown food on a regular basis is something that we might be able to afford to do in a few years’ time, but it is simply not an option right now. So I can avoid the chemicals and starve or fill my belly with something and count the days until I feel that first lump. Awesome.
Such is life. If you’re not wealthy, you can’t afford to buy food that doesn’t owe much of its existence to laboratories and mad scientists. That in turn causes health problems, which your shitty insurance won’t cover. But your health problems have to be addressed, so you go on medications that half of the time are later discovered to be more harmful than whatever you had in the first place. Awesome. But it does really bother me that the U.S. government is seemingly just not bothered by this kind of thing at all. The stuff in our environment is so bad for us, but imposing any kind of inspections or regulations would hurt business and be un-American and god forbid human lives win out over businesses and bunk American mythology.
As an aside, have you seen the commercials for the new medication for Restless Leg Syndrome?
It can cause compulsive gambling. I can’t wait until we get to the medications that cause compulsive punching-pharmaceutical-CEOs-in-the-face.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Is it me or do the side effects of some, if not all, of these medications seem WORSE than the conditions they’re supposed to treat?
“Side effects include crossed eyes, spontaneous baldness, homicidal rage and compulsive public masturbation. Don’t take Medicinex while operating heavy machinery, handling firearms or reading celebrity magazines.”
August 7th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I love that commercial! Sex addicts and gambling addicts all who just wanted a moment’s peace from their restless legs.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Sorry, forgot to add, “Medicinex. Your NEW cure for dry skin.”
August 7th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
re: watching that video: i think some part of my brain just ‘sploded.
re: walmart: sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do to survive (i think that’s a line from a Bon Jovi song from the 90s).
re: obeying my will: have you purchased the corrections yet? cuz if not i’m gonna pop mine in the mail to you.
August 7th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
ps: if you need me, i’ll be ‘batin’.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
re:walmart — so I’m a college student, working my way toward a BA in English, and I’m a waitress. I would love nothing more than to prepare those lovely 30 Minute Meals Rachel Ray carries on about, but I need a shorter ingredient list! I mean, i’m doing good to buy the meat and potatoes, and I keep a somewhat decent supply of spice mixes to make up for my lack of real herbs and spices, but I have to say that government has allowed big business to make it CHEAPER to be Unhealthy……absurd.
re: restless leg compulsive gambling syndrome — have you ever heard the song “Underwear Goes Inside the Pants” by Lazyboy? I’m not saying I agree with the WHOLE song, but there are some pretty good points in there… but really? compulsive gambling? incredible..
August 8th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Arnie, one of the other side effects mentioned is falling asleep while driving. After you crash your car, you get to go on the company’s fancy line of addictive pain medications!
August 8th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Kizz, when we first saw it we were speechless for a good two minutes. Compulsive gambling and sex?!?! I guess as far as side effects go, those at least sound fun.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Trace, I have not purchased Corrections yet. Conneaut had no books anywhere, except for billions of copies of Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly books at Wal-Mart (of course). If you can spare a copy, I’d be squishily happy.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:03 am
I feel your pain. Trying to negotiate between grocery bills and a basic desire to – you know – not poison your body is a tough one. I do a good chunk of my shopping at Trader Joes, which I have found is cheaper than a regular grocery with food that’s much better for you. Also, I get produce from a local produce mart. It sucks to have to go to two stores, but the place I go (god bless you Stanley’s) has INSANE deals sometimes. Portobello mushrooms – 99 cents/pound? Hell yes. White nectarines – 42 cents/pound? HELLZ yes. 3 quarts of organic strawberries for $1?? &*$%%^#$% YES!! Also, dumpster diving. Sometimes you just gotta suck up your modesty and dive right in there. If you can consort with someone and find out what night a grocery store does their stocking, those are the best nights to go. I’ve found TONS of edible food in the dumpster (all wrapped in plastic bags and non-vermin infested). I will never buy a loaf of bread again as Trader Joes NIGHTLY chucks bags full of their daily breads. Cut those bad boys up, stick em in the freezer, and your good to go for weeks.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
1. Are you looking for a copy of the book, The Corrections? If so, you can read mine if you wanna,
2. I just screwed Wal-Mart – bought a $400 GPS for my trip and returned it when I got back. It had gone on sale in the interim and it was basically destroyed when I returned it (from the PREVIOUS owner – it was destroyed when I opened the box) so they had to eat the cost of the whole thing.
3. If and when dumpster diving, PLEASE be NEAT. Because of the mess left behind by what I will assume are poor-little-rich-kids doing it, instead of being nice and putting stuff out in clean, accessible places, the employees are bleaching the garbage so they don’t have giant garbage messes to clean up when the get to work in the morning.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
WD, my buddy Tracey sent me a copy, so I’m good. Thanks! Fuck Wal-Mart. Dumpster diving etiquette tip duly noted.