Please don’t die from this advice.

First: Yes, best before dates are sometimes arbitrary depending on the product and where you live. However, basically anything with a package sold commercially has been tested for taste/feel/look over time to determine when quality degrades. If you make cookies you don’t want people only buying up 1+ yr old boxes and thinking your cookies are just supposed to taste like solidified disks of keyboard powder. Having a best before date tells people when your product tastes as intended and when it’s only worth buying from the discount bin.

It’s fair to say sometimes marketing bullshit influences that date.

Second: Expiry dates are a real thing, at least where I’m from. Fridge/freezer temperatures are meant to be within specific ranges and there are food safety regulations around how long certains items can be outside of those ranges - like for transport or during prep.

Expiry dates are based on testing the development of bacteria colonies/degradation of the ingredients in an average of settings one would expect those products to go through.

Just because something says it’s expired doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe, though. Except: in a commercial kitchen it is illegal to sell expired ingredients because of the testing that goes into determining that date.

I’ve worked as a chef, have taken multiple food safety courses, had good relationships with food inspectors. And I’ve worked in a production kitchen where the products were sent to testing facilities for determining the dates we put on the labels.

I have hope for the average person.

Disagree. My favourite paring knife came from a discount bin at a dollar store in a pack of five. You can find decent knives at a dump if to you look hard enough, depending on your definition of cheap.

Former chef: Knives. My most expensive knife is $80 with a lifetime warrantee. Most are $10-$20. Instead, learn how to use and take care of a knife.

I did a summer contract in forestry, up north, in the mountains, middle of nowhere. We had to get into an area that was beyond a pipeline blockade - meaning a group of indigenous leaders were blocking a pipeline from being built on their land.

The higher ups negotiated with them while we spent days off gaining bad reputations in town.

When we were allowed through, they welcomed us individually and explained their reasons for being cautious. They told us that people dressed as (or actually were) cops tried to convince them they were on public land and force them to leave, they had people pretending to be blockade protesters who came in and tried to burn down their buildings, they had people blow up their signs, they had helicopters drop off equipment and workers beyond the blockade in the night. Taking all this with a heavy pinch of salt, we got through to work.

Not an hour after we started, black goddamn helicopters showed up. About ten of them. They hung out all the first day, there were fewer the second and only one for the next two. And they were low, I could feel the wind from the rotors at times.

I don’t know why. We discussed it over plenty of drinks without coming to any good conclusions. I don’t know if they thought we were with the blockade and wanted to intimidate us, or why the pipeline people didn’t talk to the forestry people to figure out we were just labourers. As it turns out that kind of thing does happen in real life.

A bunch of us took big shits in the open where they could watch.

I’ve gone back and forth on my opinion of pride and prejudice over the years, even held this opinion at one point. Like why the hell should I care about rich women who want to marry rich men?

Except taken in context, the book has a different meaning. Before Pride and Prejudice, there weren’t many stories about women in that time period. Since women in that class couldn’t really own property or run businesses, their lives depended on their family and ability to find a husband. Maybe what they experienced was banal by our standards, but it was life and death for some people, or the difference between a pleasant life and one of suffering. The stakes were high for something we treat as optional these days. It’s less or a morals story and more of an insight into social politics for women of the time, something that wasn’t widely written about until the book came out.

Is it good? That’s up to the reader. It’s unique and insightful literature, though.

Macron did the Notre Dame Fire to draw attention away from the Yellow Vest Protests.

Chopped, frozen strawberries in milk. Sometimes with maple syrup. Cream if I’m feeling rich.

Instructions Unclear: I forgave my landlord for reno-victing me, forgave the supermarket chains that price-fixed groceries which put me in debt. I was careful not to buy products which contribute to wars and inequality, even though it was harder and more expensive. Now I’m living the simple life by meditating under a bridge, but it’s cold down here and the politicians are arguing over whether they should be able to kick me out and throw away my things. The only shelter with room available requires me to worship their god.

Is the R word Rectalingus?

What about that fish that lives in the anus of sea cucumbers. It basically lives in a fart lair.

I fucking hate Kaizen. I had to go through it as part of a job placement program and was convinced it was a cult. Like no, I am not going to call “Leaving a reminder for myself” a Gemba. I’m calling it a note because the japanese didn’t fucking invent the idea of writing things down for later.

He was called to testify as to whether Kevin Spacey was at a particular event that he and his husband hosted - I don’t think they had much of a choice. Theirs was just part of a bunch of evidence that Spacey wasn’t there.