Rescue Toast Emergency!
I was listening to CBC this morning. Usually, when I don't have to wake up early, I like to wake up to The Current (8:37 am, weekdays). I just love "the Voice" they use to start the show. So sexy. Anyways: for the summer they have shortened the programme by 30 minutes (grr). Instead of running until the start of Sounds Like Canada at 10, it ends at 9:30. The extra time is being filled by a (new?) show called The Thing.
A week or so ago The Thing did a great piece on Gays who are opposed to Marriage. Which is grand, as that's a point of view we don't often hear. Don't get me wrong, I will defend equal access to all public services until I am blue in the face, but really - do we want in on an institution that has been used to opress and marginalize women for centuries? In my opinion (radical though it may be), 'there will be no more marriages / those that are married already...shall live' (thanks Hamlet). Let's do away with this ambiguous thing - religious? Secular? In Canadian law it is a legal contract, and any relgious trapping are at the discretion of the spiritual organization in question. So there's really no debate over same-sex marriage, as 'marriage' is only a name for what has become, in essence, a secular affair.
But I digress. In short, why not just make a new agreement, for everyone, that's adaptable to our modern civic views on relationships, and let the Christians have marriage back? Really, if they want it so bad, they can have it! Sheesh.
So anyways this week The Thing did a programme on Toast. Seriously. As in the bread dish served with butter at breakfast time. The host talked to an historian, a chef, a chemist, and a toaster designer in his quest to, um, demystify this...thing. Riiiiiiight.
WTF?
The historian was interesting though - she talked about the temperature of toast, and that in the 18th century cold toast was a sign of upper class. You see, the servants having made your toast downstairs, they then have to cart it upstairs, by which time it was cold. Everyone (or so this historian claimed) knows re-heated toast is mushy, so the rich suffer through cold, albeit crunchy, toast, to bask in the knowledge their food was prepared by someone else and then deliverd to them.
On the other hand, the servants could eat as much fresh, hot, delicious toast as they wanted. No waiting.
The chemist was commenting on the aparent complexities of the toasting process (!!!) Dude, WTF. Doesn't it just, um, cook? And burn a little, and dry out, hence becoming crispy? As a lay-person, I cannot say for sure, but it seems to me toast is...certanly not something to write a dissertation about!
The toaster desginer talked about his, uh, revoltionary toaster. As in he's a scientist at Princeton, and he makes frigging toasters. Go figure. He was talking about the importance of the colour of the selection knob, and that the lever be squishy to the touch.
*slooooooowly backs away from toast-crazy mad scientist!*
Of course then The Thing went on to talk about toasts, as in speeches, at weddings and such, and Toastmasters, the club.
Overall, this show seems to be a mixed bag, though there certainly are some... new... topics. Ones you won't hear anywhere else but on good ol' National Radio, CBC.
Oh, it's 7:30. I have to go on deck (I'm at work, and it's my turn to watch the pool). Stay tuned for the "rescue" and "emergency" portions promised in the subject line in a subsequent update.
M.
A week or so ago The Thing did a great piece on Gays who are opposed to Marriage. Which is grand, as that's a point of view we don't often hear. Don't get me wrong, I will defend equal access to all public services until I am blue in the face, but really - do we want in on an institution that has been used to opress and marginalize women for centuries? In my opinion (radical though it may be), 'there will be no more marriages / those that are married already...shall live' (thanks Hamlet). Let's do away with this ambiguous thing - religious? Secular? In Canadian law it is a legal contract, and any relgious trapping are at the discretion of the spiritual organization in question. So there's really no debate over same-sex marriage, as 'marriage' is only a name for what has become, in essence, a secular affair.
But I digress. In short, why not just make a new agreement, for everyone, that's adaptable to our modern civic views on relationships, and let the Christians have marriage back? Really, if they want it so bad, they can have it! Sheesh.
So anyways this week The Thing did a programme on Toast. Seriously. As in the bread dish served with butter at breakfast time. The host talked to an historian, a chef, a chemist, and a toaster designer in his quest to, um, demystify this...thing. Riiiiiiight.
WTF?
The historian was interesting though - she talked about the temperature of toast, and that in the 18th century cold toast was a sign of upper class. You see, the servants having made your toast downstairs, they then have to cart it upstairs, by which time it was cold. Everyone (or so this historian claimed) knows re-heated toast is mushy, so the rich suffer through cold, albeit crunchy, toast, to bask in the knowledge their food was prepared by someone else and then deliverd to them.
On the other hand, the servants could eat as much fresh, hot, delicious toast as they wanted. No waiting.
The chemist was commenting on the aparent complexities of the toasting process (!!!) Dude, WTF. Doesn't it just, um, cook? And burn a little, and dry out, hence becoming crispy? As a lay-person, I cannot say for sure, but it seems to me toast is...certanly not something to write a dissertation about!
The toaster desginer talked about his, uh, revoltionary toaster. As in he's a scientist at Princeton, and he makes frigging toasters. Go figure. He was talking about the importance of the colour of the selection knob, and that the lever be squishy to the touch.
*slooooooowly backs away from toast-crazy mad scientist!*
Of course then The Thing went on to talk about toasts, as in speeches, at weddings and such, and Toastmasters, the club.
Overall, this show seems to be a mixed bag, though there certainly are some... new... topics. Ones you won't hear anywhere else but on good ol' National Radio, CBC.
Oh, it's 7:30. I have to go on deck (I'm at work, and it's my turn to watch the pool). Stay tuned for the "rescue" and "emergency" portions promised in the subject line in a subsequent update.
M.