I’ve never really noticed until now that a whole lot of kids like to hang out with their bmx bikes at gas stations asking if they can spare $1.  Last week, a random kid came up to me on their bike and asked for a dollar to get back home.  Before that, another kid came up to the mister out of the blue to ask if he can give money to him in the middle of a mall.  I’m even remembering being asked a decade ago from kids on bikes asking for spare change to get back home.  Don’t these kids have parents they can beg money from? Don’t they even have a JOB?

Obviously, these kids are pocketing the food allowance they get from parents and using it for some other purpose. At least that is the sort of thing I used to do when I was a kid.  I would save half of what my parents gave me and only eat chips and soda for lunch.  Yes that was bad but I didn’t do that all the time.  Eventually, I got myself a summer job like other hard working kids to pay for the things I wanted.

Instead of asking their parents for more money, these kids take it a step further by asking complete strangers.  I’m not falling for this.  They can go get a job.  After the incident that happened in the mall to the mister…we schemed up a few responses if this ever happened to us again.

• What?  You need a dollar to get back home?  Why don’t you pedal back home on the bike your sitting on right now?
• Sure…but you’ve got to work for it.  Run around the building as fast as you can and I’ll meet you right back here. (Then leave as the kid starts running.)
• Is this how you pay for your $100 sneakers?
• Get a job!
• There’s a shelter for the homeless not too far from here.
• I donate my money to those who really need it.
• There is a someone named Manual Labor over at McDonald’s that can help you out.

If anyone can think of more responses, please send them my way.

Have you heard the news?  Use of Zicam apparently may make you lose your sense of smell (anosmia).  So the FDA told the makers of Zicam to yank the products off the shelves.  Unbelievable.  I absolutely love Zicam and have never had any difficulties with my sense of smell.  In fact, I have a hyperacute sense of smell.  I pick up scents quickly that go undetected by others.  I am able to tell if the mister has been in the garage or outside just by smelling him.  So I don’t know what those consumers that lost their sense of smell have been doing with Zicam nasal gel spray or cotton swabs.  Are they abusing the product every single day even if they aren’t sick?  Are they jamming it up their nose and damaging olfactory nerves?  What gives?

Apparently there was a bad batch of Zicam products that caused anosmia.  I’m hoping the company quickly takes care of this issue so the nasal gel sprays can be back on the shelves soon.  When the cold or flu starts to come in, Zicam nasal gel spray and Airborne are the only 2 homeopathic products I use.    Occasionally I will use Coldeeze cough drops if it is absolutely necessary.  But I refuse to take antibiotics for a simple cold or flu.  I want to ensure my body can build an immunity against any malady.  But Zicam works as advertised…to shorten the length of the cold.

Interestingly, there was a debate of whether Zicam was really homeopathic or not since it contains the active ingredient Zinc Gluconate.  I found an old blog post that talks about how zicam and other similar products using zinc (Coldeeze) are supposed to mimic the cold symptoms to facilitate your body’s healing process.  No wonder each time I take Coldeeze (with zinc) cough drops just for the heck of it, I end up getting a minor cold afterward.  The blog also shows the “consumer services” response about how Zicam’s active ingredient was able to used as a homeopathic remedy.  Also noted in the blog was that Zicam and Coldeeze were facing lawsuits at the time for causing harm.  Interesting stuff my friends…interesting stuff.

I read a blog post from noblepig begging the question about why so many people hate Rachel Ray.  My thoughts were exactly the same.  If you haven’t heard of Rachel Ray by now, you must have been living on Mars because her name is EVERYWHERE.  I didn’t even realize people hated her until a girl I just met was talking to me about how much she loathed Rachel Ray.  This person obviously didn’t realize I was a Rachel Ray fan.  I’m really a fan of all cooks.  I love Giada, Ina, The Neely’s, Oliver, Bobby, Mario, Cat, Paula…the list goes on.  She made it sound like Rachel was the ditzy wannabe chef in the cooking world.

I’ve cooked many of her recipes that, based on the ingredients, sounded good.  They were a hit with me, the mister, and a few others I have made dinner for.  I am not a homemaker and not rich, therefore I cannot afford expensive fancy cooking gadgets and do not have time to grow my own vegetable garden, raise chickens or goats, dry my own tomatoes, or crank out homemade pasta noodles.  (Although, I want to start an herb garden because store bought herbs are just too damn expensive.)  Even if I was a homemaker and doing all the foodie activities above, I would still try RR’s recipes.  I do not judge a recipe by the cook.  I am not a food snob.  Merely, a patron of gastronomy.  Anyhow, Rachel has made cooking a lot more appealing, time-saving, and sometimes, affordable to me.

You can view noblepig’s thoughts here or just read it below.

So all of you RR Haters can SUCK IT!!

It’s so interesting to me why so many people deeply revile Rachael Ray?  What is it?

Are her recipes not elaborate enough for you?  Is it because she uses premade items to cut corners in her recipes? No specialty ingredients?  Her quirky laughter?  Her silly-named recipes, “You Won’t-Be-Single-For-Long Vodka Cream Pasta”?  She’s the anti-Martha?

As far as I’m concerned she deserves some respect.  She is by far one of the queen’s of successful multimedia.  Her efforts, magazine and TV shows put her in the league of the successful, she just has her own unique style.

The reason for her success?  I’m sure it has something to do with her relate-ability to people and because she cooks like most of America does; the easy way.  Most folks do not bake from scratch or have the time or money to cook fancy meals.  People want quick versions of old classics.  Rachael offers this.

So what is the problem?  You don’t like her infectious smile?  Approve of her simpleton ideas?  Does using something from a can bother you?  Is it food snobbery (on your part)?

I want to know.

But especially, why must you knock her?  If you saw a recipe you thought looked good but found out it originated from her, would you really not make it?

She really didn’t become as successful as she has because she is misunderstood or people hate her.  She is creative, presents adaptability, thinks on the fly…all skills important to any trained chef.  She’s even entertaining.

What is it?  I want to know.

Many, but not all, schooled in the finer points of creating ”haute cuisine” feel the need to put her down and it’s usually pretty ugly.  I don’t understand this.  Is it jealousy for her good fortune of becoming a force in the food world without any formal training?  I see this a lot with women in many fields and areas of life.  They feel the need to derail the efforts of someone who has made a successful attempt to do something they love.  Instead of raising that person up, supporting and applauding their obvious success, they put them down in an attempt to make themselves feel or look better.  It’s ugly.  Once I witness behavior like that, I far remove myself from the situation.  Those people will never change.  I’m not saying that is necessarily happening with her, but it might be.

Overall, it’s sad.  And unnecessary.  Is it jealousy?  Or is it the hatred of easily cooked food that annoys you while you slave away making homemade pasta every night?

I’m sure she is inspiring for many novice cooks.  I bet many people have ended up in the kitchen because she made something they felt they could recreate for themselves, family or friends.  Once people feel confident in the kitchen they move on to more difficult recipes with success.  If she can inspire that behavior, well, I think it’s a beautiful thing.

Let’s remember, this woman is not doing something evil, she’s cooking dinner for gawd’s sake.  Why must she be bashed?

Splain it to me…

Do you love her or hate her?  I’m fascinated by this.