Popcorn
Last week there was talk that the Center for Science in the Public Interest was pressing to have movie theaters post the calorie count for the tasty buttered kernels on the menu board. I had plenty of things to say, like how I'm tired of agencies thinking that they need to hold our hands throughout life, that someone dares to tell a private business how to run the company, that I'm tired of finger wagging and moralism from those same agencies, and so on.
Since I said all that and if you're a regular reader it won't be anything new, I'll relate a personal story. I don't go to movies anymore because it costs an arm and a leg, what with the cost of the ticket and the wagon-full of snacks you're out twenty dollars or more. Now that I have a Netflix account, I really don't have much need to go out and stand in the line, wade through the coming attractions, all the fellow viewers, and irritants when I can wait a few weeks or months and watch the same film in the privacy and comfort of my own home. i save the money and don't have to interact with people, so everyone wins.
Years ago, Mumsy would take my sister and me out to a film, because it would get us out of the house and doing something. Invariably in her purse would be a gallon-sized Ziploc bag full of crudites as well as a popped bag of microwave popcorn. And not the really good movie theater buttered kind--no that would at least be fiscally prudent if misguided. No, this was the light stuff, with butter and salt that you could barely detect. I could understand not wanting to pay $5.75 for a large popcorn, but you don't bring carrots and celery and broccoli to a movie theater; if you're going to eat healthy, you do it beforehand. The idea that other moms did this sort of thing didn't even cross my mind. I thought that we were in an episode of The Twilight Zone brought to you by Whole Foods. But that was the reality I knew so I dutifully went along with it.
The thing that bugs me about this whole idea is that I rarely see things like this as in the "public interest," because if I really cared bout the calorie content of the popcorn, I could find out what it was, within a range I was comfortable with. And if I wasn't comfortable, I could pick to not have popcorn; there are certainly plenty of other options to pick from. I accept the responsibility of knowing that a bucket of popcorn weighs in at somewhere between one and three Big Macs in terms of healthyness. And I'm OK with being able to make that choice. Or letting parents make that choice. I think that parents would be OK with that choice too. Anyone who has a computer with internet access should be able to find out the contents of popcorn if they weren't satisfied just by looking at it. If you see corn kernels drizzled in oil and butter and ground spices, there's not much to be done to help you if you can't put two and two together. I object to having a busybody "center for science" forcing their own views on those of businesses, not the information itself.
(For those who notice such things, the avatar for this particular piece is a callout to when the folks at Sesame Street decided that Cookie Monster should only indulge sometimes, instead of going ape-poopy for cookies all the time. If parents are letting kids get their messages from television without actually talking to their kids completely deserve what they get.)
Since I said all that and if you're a regular reader it won't be anything new, I'll relate a personal story. I don't go to movies anymore because it costs an arm and a leg, what with the cost of the ticket and the wagon-full of snacks you're out twenty dollars or more. Now that I have a Netflix account, I really don't have much need to go out and stand in the line, wade through the coming attractions, all the fellow viewers, and irritants when I can wait a few weeks or months and watch the same film in the privacy and comfort of my own home. i save the money and don't have to interact with people, so everyone wins.
Years ago, Mumsy would take my sister and me out to a film, because it would get us out of the house and doing something. Invariably in her purse would be a gallon-sized Ziploc bag full of crudites as well as a popped bag of microwave popcorn. And not the really good movie theater buttered kind--no that would at least be fiscally prudent if misguided. No, this was the light stuff, with butter and salt that you could barely detect. I could understand not wanting to pay $5.75 for a large popcorn, but you don't bring carrots and celery and broccoli to a movie theater; if you're going to eat healthy, you do it beforehand. The idea that other moms did this sort of thing didn't even cross my mind. I thought that we were in an episode of The Twilight Zone brought to you by Whole Foods. But that was the reality I knew so I dutifully went along with it.
The thing that bugs me about this whole idea is that I rarely see things like this as in the "public interest," because if I really cared bout the calorie content of the popcorn, I could find out what it was, within a range I was comfortable with. And if I wasn't comfortable, I could pick to not have popcorn; there are certainly plenty of other options to pick from. I accept the responsibility of knowing that a bucket of popcorn weighs in at somewhere between one and three Big Macs in terms of healthyness. And I'm OK with being able to make that choice. Or letting parents make that choice. I think that parents would be OK with that choice too. Anyone who has a computer with internet access should be able to find out the contents of popcorn if they weren't satisfied just by looking at it. If you see corn kernels drizzled in oil and butter and ground spices, there's not much to be done to help you if you can't put two and two together. I object to having a busybody "center for science" forcing their own views on those of businesses, not the information itself.
(For those who notice such things, the avatar for this particular piece is a callout to when the folks at Sesame Street decided that Cookie Monster should only indulge sometimes, instead of going ape-poopy for cookies all the time. If parents are letting kids get their messages from television without actually talking to their kids completely deserve what they get.)