(no subject)

Soy cheese... is a pale imitation of real cheese. It lacks in texture, flavor and any semblance of soul, and I have yet to find a soy cheese that can truly make a case for itself.
I appreciate that some people are casein-intolerant or are vegan; I just can't stand the stuff myself.

No, I am not putting soy cheese on my French onion soup. For me, if I could actually find a soy cheese that was worthwhile I would make a beef broth for said soup. Unless food science progresses a great deal I just don't see that happening. Again, if you have dietary restrictions that require soy cheese then I hope it will be kind to you in this application; otherwise I suggest you cut the cheese.

I forgot to mention I used a very small pinch of sugar in the broth I made. Sorry about that.

Getting Down with my Anarchist Self

Hi, my name's Teddywolf, and I'm an anarchist.
OK, I'm not a passionate anarchist. I don't go out to protest the subjects of my ire with bombs or even signs and bullhorns. I just snark a lot and hope people notice and think I'm at least minorly clever about it.
I'm not an anarchist about all things. I am semi-anarchist about religion and only slightly anarchist about several forms of democracy. however, my biggest snark is reserved for corporations.
Even there I'm not against all corporations just because they're corporations. Some of them have souls, even art, and treat people with respect. I'm personally partial to Costco, Trader Joes and Google for precisely these reasons. Even a small business can be witheringly nasty to people, but as a rule your typical small company just doesn't have the clout of a large corporation.

However, I am increasingly tired of being governed by corporations.

I am increasingly tired of corporations trying to squeeze my news, as well as give me incredibly inaccurate stuff. I'm tired of the he-said-she-said stuff with no fact-checking that passes for news. I want the facts and the record, dammit.

I am tired of corporate shopping. Costco is generally fine, as is Trader Joes. Target and Whole (wallet) Foods area toss-up for me and I'm not too happy about Home De(s)pot. I refuse to step foot in a WalMart or Sam's Club except in case of dire emergency; not even poverty will impel me to shop there. I am happy visiting my local butcher and fish shop, getting my fish share, going to the local small Asian market and so on. I will shop in my local megamart but mostly to get loss-leaders from them.

I'm increasingly tired of corporate food. I doubt my household will get completely away from all corporate food, especially given our Costco shopping. I have found myself looking for, at the least, corporate food that has at least a small chance of nourishing my soul. I love King Arthur flour and good premade jarred pasta sauce and De Cecco pasta and Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail, to name a few. They do well and I appreciate it.
In the same vein I am increasingly tired of corporate restaurants. Bertucci's is some of the only corporate pizza I am willing to eat, and I can find better in the genre. Panera makes some of the best bread I can find in what is a mass-market setting. This said I am blessed with hard-won cooking skills and can do a better job at most dishes than most corporate restaurants. No McDonalds unless I'm starving, thanks; no Dunkin Donuts when I can find better at the hole-in-the-wall donut shop in town. A local store with a great product is worth a few cents more. Heck, even a distant store.

I am increasingly tired of standard corporate entertainment. The same bland music, the same bland sitcom jokes, the same bland books, the same bland magazines, the same bland plot-twists in the same bland dramas. OK, I'm in the minority who doesn't want to watch CSI; I never said I was in the majority. But I am increasingly annoyed at how good entertainment, even stuff optioned by corporations, gets shot down to make space for more bland crap that will either get renewed for a decade or be cancelled after half a season. Most things for smart people are usually restrained to documentaries, PBS and some basic cable. Bring back Middleman, ABC Family!

I am amazingly tired of corporate logos. I avoid logos on my shirts and shoes, though I'll accept hard-to-read or unobtrusive ones. I was a bit annoyed initially about Mickey and Minnie Mouse on size 5 diapers in my house, but then I realized: Disney has decided, for whatever reason, that they want their longest-standing mascot to literally be defecated upon and thrown away. I decided I appreciate this.

To be fair to Disney they do a bang-up job of treating people well, but they have twisted and mutated old stories beyond most recognition and have remarkably little soul for their recycled art. Sometimes they do OK. Ofttimes they don't.

I doubt I will ever have a corporate free life. I like my cable (but I love it with TiVo), I drive a car, I don't have a local dairy near me. I don't even consider all corporations bad, or think most are bad in all ways with only a few exceptions. But. I would like them having less power over what I take in.

I am Teddywolf, and I am a (mild anti-corporate) anarchist.

I don't expect Starbucks to fear my approaching footsteps any time soon. But. This is me, and right now this is where I stand.