kitchenmage

About That Tricksy THC-laced Halloween Candy...

 

Advertisement distributed by the United States Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1935

It seems like every year the run-up to Halloween is the same: Outrage about slutty costumes for women followed by fear about what is going to be slipped into your kid's Halloween bag. The only thing different this year is that the slutty costume is something related to ebola and the fear-mongering is about marijuana.

I live in Washington, where medical cannabis has been legal seemingly forever and recreational is more recently legal, so I possess a specialized knowledge set that includes such technical things as what that tricksy pot-infused candy everyone is suddenly scared of looks like. It looks like candy.

This is about the only thing most of the articles get right.

While I support your right to be concerned about the candy that strangers are giving your children, this particular fear is completely misplaced. It points to a basic misunderstanding about legal cannabis and the people who use it while portraying those people as vaguely threatening.

Michael Simon vs KFC: Let's Make This Happen!

Stipulated: I spend too much time on twitter. Blame it on illness and related short-attention span but 140 characters often suits me these days. Besides, stuff happens there. Stuff like this.

As regular readers know, I have little no tolerance for badly done PR stunts. And by "little no tolerance" I mean, they amuse me and provide me with snark fodder. It's one of those love/hate/laugh things. But I digress...

This challenge that @KFC's social media team tossed out to Michael Symon. That's not a badly done PR stunt. It could be, but it doesn't have to be.

It could, in fact, be an extremely well-done PR stunt. One done as a benefit for No Kid Hungry. Kids like KFC. KFC likes kids. Michael Symon likes kids. Kids probably like Michael Symon, he seems pretty kid-friendly.It could be entertaining, educational, and profitable on several fronts.

It's a match made in madMenHeaven!

Michael Symon/KFC Fried Chicken Challenge to Feed Hungry Kids

aka: The Cluck-off

I'd back that.

Greg (@nomnerd) would back that.

Would you back that?

What do you say, KFC, would you back that? Or are you...chicken?

In Which Ina Garten Doesn't Make a Wish

There are other, more thoughtful posts floating around on my computer half-written but I am annoyed in a more than 140 character kind of way about today's twitter outrage. In a nutshell, Ina Garten declined to cook with a terminally ill child who requested it through Make a Wish foundation.

We will now pause for the two-minute hate.

Done? Good. Moving on...

Cooks Source Statement: Slightly Corrected

To Unknown Cooks Source Source,

After waiting days for you to emerge and say something, I read your statement. I am really disappointed in you. In addition to some glaring errors, it has quite a few problems with style and substance. I have taken it upon myself to make some edits, gratis. Corrections are inline below, deletions are strikethrough and additions are red. Notes to consider when rewriting are red and parenthetical. (In case you haven't read it, the black text is the actual original.)

STATEMENT HUMBLE APOLOGY

We are sorry. So sorry.

We do not know how the hell that happened. I mean, we thought we hired a professional editor and we got...well, you know what we got.

We have cancelled lost control of our Facebook page on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 6:00PM. It has since been since been hacked by unknown parties and now someone else (I think this is a known unknown, not an unknown unknown.) unknown to us has control of it. Their inclusion of Cooks Source issues and photos is used without our knowledge or consent. (Really? You're going with they used your content without your consent? Really? Might I suggest you STFU instead.) Please know that none of the statements made by attributed to either Cooks Source or Judith Griggs were made by either our staff or her. On the other hand, that arrogant and ignorant email she sent to Monica Gaudio? All Griggs. Yeah, I know. We don't get it either. What do we get? That we are sorry. Very sorry.

Cooks Source: Now For Something Completely Different

Update: Cooks Source issued a statement. It needed a little cleaning up, so I did: Cooks Source Statement: Slightly Corrected (10.9.10)

If you care about food, writing, law, scandal, chicanery, hypocrisy and/or Internet drama — which may define my readers, by the way — you have no doubt heard about Cooks Source, but just in case you are none of the above, welcome and a summation:

The tl;dr version of this post: My 2005 Ice Dragon entry, called "A Tale of Two Tarts" was apparently printed without my knowledge or permission in a magazine and I am apparently the victim of copyright infringement.
             from Illadore's House o Crack - Copyright Infringement and Me

There is, of course, more.

It is the kind of 'more' from which grand Internet dramas are made: Clueless editor, arrogant responses, google reveals the magazine seems to be built on lifted content, class action suits are suggested (after someone finds Martha Stewart, NPR, and Disney amongst the victims; it's corporate money they want to use for lawyers)...and the pile-on begins.

We are now at less than 20 hours and there are dozens of posts, a Facebook pileon, thousands of tweets, fake twitter and Facebook accounts, the Cooks Source site has been up and down and there's just a whole lot of poo being flung around by the flying monkeys. It's only going to get messier - there's apparently a Travel Source magazine which seems to also be full of infringing material (check for your stuff here).

Illadore's article has the full story, which has now been rehashed all over the Internet, it is well worth the read it if you are interested in what is going on.

I want to talk about what is not...

Good news for small farms: No NAIS! (updated)

According to the New York Times, NAIS is dead. Well, this version at least.

Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak.

In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry.

Read the full article here: U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock

I love that they dropped it because of "stiff resistance" - that means we did it! Since they are already talking about a new version, however, this is no time to let it slide. NoNAIS.org is my go-to site for information so stop by there for updates as they get going on NAIS v.2.

Update

We knew that was too good to last, didn't we? Son of NAIS has been announced. Major differences from the original NAIS are:

• Only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce;
• Be administered by the States and Tribal Nations to provide more flexibility;
• Encourage the use of lower-cost technology; and
• Be implemented transparently through federal regulations and the full rulemaking process.

First steps include a forum with states and tribes so if you want a voice, talk to your officials at that level. Don't know who they are? Go to Project Vote Smart and type your zip code in the search box on the top of the left sidebar to get all the relevant information.

Press release: USDA Announces new Framework for Animal Disease Traceability (h/t to podchef for update)