Killer at Large:Sometimes the enemy is within

We just watched this on instant view Netflix. Very good information, although I could’ve done without the mullah, rabbi and the evangelical viewpoints - they added nothing, but managed to muddy the discussion. I recommend watching if for no other reason than to get a kick out of Chef Ann Cooper - the renegade lunch lady. She rocks.

This film gives another needed clarion call to fix a political system that is failing us - having been given over to corporate interests.

Friday Fish Wrap: May 7, 2010

What a way to wrap up a Friday: Reno Police with guns drawn at lunchtime, and then went to see the new documentary ‘Babies’. How’s that for a stretch?

Just as Mr. Maven and I walked out the door of Truckee Bar and Grill on Lakeside at Moana, we heard sirens. I looked up toward the car which was next to the street, and just across the street, there stood Reno’s finest - guns drawn, in ‘the stance’.  They were circling two woman and one man, who had their hands up. There were no less than six black and white units on scene.

I didn’t want to get too close on the off chance that bullets might start flying.

In the photo above - from my iPhone - you can see the three suspects laying on the pavement, just prior to being cuffed.

Yikes. This is generally a quiet, upper middle class section of town, too.

‘Babies’ was a far better experience.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

If you’re not sure how much of a difference the environment a baby is brought into makes - consider that somebody has voiced concern that filming the San Francisco baby Hattie, may have broken child labor laws. Hattie, in fact, showed a very early sense of ‘get real’ when she pluckily tried to escape from the goofy Bay Area ‘we’re all babies yoga’ experience that her parents took her too.

Being forced into a great motion picture was preferrable to psycho-babble Bay Area style.

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Michael Pollan: a different way to fix the health care crisis

Pollan has some new and intriguing ideas about how to make our country healthier, needing less expensive health care - and at the same time helping the planet and the’ Mom and Pop’ economy in his new book, ‘Food Rules: An eaters manual’. This is the most welcome followup to ‘In Defense of Food: An eaters’ manifesto’.

I believe that 2010 could be a pivotal year in which we can all become activists - food activists. Despite our other differences, we all need healthful, sustainable food to nourish both our bodies, minds and communities.

This could be the map you - and your family -  use to begin. Get your entire family enlisted as food activists.

Today.

From the Huffington Post

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Food Inc. message still resonates

My pre-ordered copy of the DVD ‘Food Inc’ - Eric Shlosser and Michael Pollan’s powerful indictment of the factory farmed, laboratory concocted horror generally regarded as ‘food’ in America came today. Natacha hadn’t seen it and is still sitting out there watching in disgust.

Like so much else in America, our food has been hijacked by mega corporations and the cost in health, human dignity, animal health, and our environment is horrifying.

I urge your to order your copy and invite your neighbors, relatives and co-workers to watch. It’s a tough films to watch, but it just might change enough minds to change the way we eat, farm, and treat our workers, our animals, our health and our environment.

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Food Inc. is showing in Reno, Nevada

It’s playing at the Century Riverside. See it now, and let’s start the local discussion.

Food, Inc.
‎1hr33min‎‎ - RatedPG‎‎ - Documentary‎ - Trailer - IMDb
11:25am 1:50 4:15 6:35 8:55pm

I've eaten my last Mexican food

I’d been avoiding Mexican - as in American style Mexican - food for a few years now due to a gallbladder that is only marginally functional. The grease and lard in refritos is enough to send me into doubled over paroxyisms of pain. It ain’t worth it. But the other day, I thought let’s try the Mexican place that finally moved into the long empty Mahogany Grill.

I had a ceviche tostada … really small and light,

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Bill Maher Interviews Michael Pollan about film, Food Inc.

Michael Pollan is one of today’s sharpest commentators answering the questions we should all be asking about where our food comes from, and the real price we’re paying for it in terms of our health and the health of the planet. I’m really looking forward to Food, Inc., in which Eric Schlosser ( Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) both star.

A more serious discussion with Michael Pollan appeared last year on Bill Moyers Journal.

Update on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 11:13 by mavenandmeddler

HBO is kindly blocking all these videos …. hmmmm. So please go searching and let me know if you can find one that hasn’t been blocked.

Thanks, Early … but that one has been blocked, too.

Good eats translate family and understanding across the globe

I was more than a bit apprehensive about what I was going to feed Mr. Agbenou when he got here from Benin, since Natacha told me that he was equally apprehensive about American food with too many additives and that might not be ‘fresh’. He also prefers fish for breakfast, which is one of my favorite meals and a no-brainer at home, but not commonly available in restaurants.

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Your help is needed for the needy: Evelyn Mount food drive in trouble

Known for her kindness and giving during the holiday seasons for the past 30 years, Mount issued a plea for food donors to come together after announcing that her food drive may not be able to feed all the needy families this Christmas season.

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