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Too many monkeys running the show, not enough organ grinders.
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WAAAAAAY too many organ grinders IMO. NHS nurses rushed off their feet and one manager for every 2 of them. Nearly 300 Civil Servants are paid more than the Prime Minister. We have an Admiral for every floating thing in the RN, an Air Officer for every Sqn in the RAF, and lot of Army seniors looking after not a lot of brigades, division or regiments. As for the upper echelons of the Civil Service!!!!!!!
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>> WAAAAAAY too many organ grinders IMO.
>> NHS nurses rushed off their feet and one manager for every 2 of them.
I don't think nurses are monkeys.
Perhaps my analogy wasn't the best.. but I suspect you got the idea.
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Well if you are going divide the working population into two groups the nurses are not organ grinders, although some of them were when I was young ISTR.
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When I was young nurses were objects of desire!
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>> Well if you are going divide the working population into two groups the nurses are
>> not organ grinders, although some of them were when I was young ISTR.
>>
BRILLIANT.
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It's already come to it. Not a country with an abnormal number of people too stupid not to recognise that 'monkey nuts' are nuts. A country with a thin sprinkling of greedy shameless chancers who might seize an opportunity to wangle some 'compensation'. My guess is that's what Tesco fears having no doubt suffered from such clever-dick citizens with nothing better to do thousands of times.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 26 Apr 13 at 17:00
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All these health warnings need further warnings along the lines of "May contain large quantities of H&S bovine nitrogenous waste products"
Last edited by: Meldrew on Fri 26 Apr 13 at 17:15
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People - not many but some - suffer from nut allergies that can even cause death when nuts are inadvertently eaten - in a curry sauce for example where they may not be readily identifiable. So these warnings are a regulatory or even legal requirement. So is it really H&S bull crap? Not the worst thing in the modern world by any means.
Just today's world Mellers innit? You 'just do not believe it'. Even I have trouble believing it sometimes.
Food allergies! Faugh! They didn't have those when I were a lad.... 'Eat up your nice gristle and cauliflower stalks or no pudding for you my lad.' Remember?
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 26 Apr 13 at 17:26
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"Eat up your nice gristle and cauliflower stalks or no pudding for you my lad.' Remember?"
The pudding would have been tapioca and a blob of apple and raspberry jam.
The problem with food allergies are that some are genuine like the severe allergy to nuts or coeliac disease where the sufferer cannot digest gluten but many are simply affectations which would be quickly abandoned in the event of a food shortage. I think some people like to appear somehow more sensitive and think an allergy is rather fashionable
I can honestly say that there is nothing I am unable to eat and few things I really dislike or won't eat.
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>> The pudding would have been tapioca and a blob of apple and raspberry jam.
Nothing there I would object to, although I hate sharp bits of apple core in apple jam, and back in the war they tended to use far too much of the apple...
There are certainly things I won't eat or have refused in the past - a tripe dish in Algeria once, another in Nigeria - but on the whole I eat things, although less and less of them. If I ate like I used to I would probably get very fat.
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The Co-op use to sell it in two pound jars and I remember the stuff only too well. South African apricot jam in large tins was the nectar of the jam world.
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I used to save up my pocket money when at school. (That included nicking the 6d I received for Sunday church collection and substituting with a 1d. No-one could see what you put in the collection as they used bags, not plates).
When I had enough, it was off to town, having procured an exeat, and then invested it in a 2lb tin of KOO brand S.A. apricot jam.
Really helped with the breakfast rolls on non-cooked-breakfast days!
Mind you in those days I used to get seconds of a lot of things the other lads were too fussy to scoff!
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>> invested it in a 2lb tin of KOO brand S.A. apricot jam.
*checks in fridge*
Sorry, Roger, we only have the supermarket house brand.
I don't eat the stuff, preferring strawberry jam or Rose's Lime marmalade, but the kids devour it all the time.
And even after many years here, I still can't get over the fact that local jam doughnuts contain apricot jam. absolutely outrageous.
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Good for you, CGN. But there's no need to belittle others not so fortunate. I have several intolerances to food. I can assure you there's no way I'm affecting the hour after hour of sickness and diarrhoea induced by consuming something containing shellfish. In fact I challenge anyone to try to fake that. You have to turn a nasty greyish green colour whilst your're at it. At first, I thought it must have been bad luck and a bit of food poisoning, but after my third attempt at scallops and mussels, whilst nobody else eating the same food suffered, I realised maybe it was just me. Seeing someone fake an eczema outbreak would be quite impressive too, which is my fate if I consume certain fruits.
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Whilst I don't doubt these allergies, or not everyone's anyway, are they new?
I don't remember people having these issues when I was young, but equally I don't remember people walking around with weird, unexplained rashes and the like either.
Was I just oblivious or have they become more prevalent in the modern world?
They don't seem to be particularly aware of them here.
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I don't think I was belittling anyone with a genuine problem, please re-read my post. My grand- daughter has coeliac disease so I know what its like catering for someone who cannot tolerate gluten.
There are however undoubtedly many people who like to have an "allergy" when all they have is a dislike of certain foods or have read the latest item in the Mail.
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We once had a US exchange student, and were informed that she had a milk/dairy allergy. Before she arrived, we were asked if we would take another, as he also had the same allergy and somebody thought it would be a good idea to billet them in the same place.
We duly bought in soya 'milk' and I can't remember what else. After two days they had decided they didn't like the soya milk and were having cow juice on their cereals.
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>> We duly bought in soya 'milk' and I can't remember what else. After two days
>> they had decided they didn't like the soya milk and were having cow juice on
>> their cereals.
American cows are pumped so full of hormones that women don't need patches during the "change" just wear a pair of shoes made from the cows hides.
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many are simply affectations which would be quickly abandoned in the event of a food shortage. I think some
>> people like to appear somehow more sensitive and think an allergy is rather fashionable
>>
Never a truer word. One of the biggest potential problems faced by Western civilisation is that we have forgotten what a food shortage is; to many people nowadays the phrase means that there is no organic broccoli on the shelves at Waitrose.
For "restricted diet" read "spoilt as a kid" for a lot of people. Maybe I was lucky but the choice of menu in my home as a kid was eat it or go without. I'm not completely omnivorous; I don't eat broad beans because I don't like them and they don't like me, I detest celery and dislike peanuts, though as far as I'm aware I'm not allergic to the latter. In fact my most restricted intake as far as variety is concerned has to be alcohol; I prefer real ale and quite often won't bother at all if it's not available.
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>> Never a truer word. One of the biggest potential problems faced by Western civilisation is
>> that we have forgotten what a food shortage is; to many people nowadays the phrase
>> means that there is no organic broccoli on the shelves at Waitrose.
>>
It still amazes me how much food gets dumped every year, if the reports are true.
and also how it seems more trendy to buy 'pre-prepared' stuff, as opposed to buying basic stuff, and doing the prep yourself.
For example, a whole chicken costs X per kg - deboned chicken breast fillets cost 2 or 3X per kilo. Likewise veggies - a bunch of carrots costs Y; pre-peeled and sliced and diced costs much much more.
I suppose folk like the convenience factor, or are absolutely gormless in the kitchen and can only follow celeb-chef recipes.
today's big question... I have a lovely bit of corned beef which I'll boil up in Guinness later, with some carrots, garlic and onion. Roast, baked or mashed potatoes?
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>> today's big question... I have a lovely bit of corned beef which I'll boil up
>> in Guinness later, with some carrots, garlic and onion. Roast, baked or mashed potatoes?
Home made dumplings or cobblers.
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cobblers sounds like a good option.
tnx
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>> Roast, baked or mashed potatoes?
Mashed of course, I dunno, what's it coming to when that isn't obvious!!
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>> >>
>> It still amazes me how much food gets dumped every year, if the reports are
>> true.
>> and also how it seems more trendy to buy 'pre-prepared' stuff, as opposed to buying
>> basic stuff, and doing the prep yourself.
Me too. Back in the day of course nothing was wasted; what didn't go into people went into the dog and cat, or if you lived in the countryside, the pig.
Nowadays it seems to me that pets enjoy a better and more varied diet than their owners, and it's actually illegal to feed cooked leftovers, even vegetables, to livestock.
As for the pre-packed stuff; well let's face it a lot of it is pure idleness under the excuse of "convenience". Haveing said that; Mrs HM is a faddy beggar when it comes to veg and won't eat greens, so I have to confess to buying frozen cauliflower cheese rather than making me own. I do go to that trouble if given a cauli by one of me farming customers though but I begrudge paying over a quid for one at the supermarket.
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>> 'Eat up your nice gristle and cauliflower stalks or no pudding for you my lad.' Remember?<<
Don't have to remember. In this house we call it 'soup'.
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>> Food allergies! Faugh! They didn't have those when I were a lad...
Actually herself, who eats little and often, does gardening and is enviably fit, is lactose intolerant or whatever they call it. She can take a little milk in soup and likes cheese but anything containing butter or cream or ghee gives her the Bombay trots, poor darling.
It's a bit annoying sometimes as garlic cooks best in butter, slightly burned, yum yum. Margarine or that olive oil-based equivalent isn't the same at all.
She doesn't like palm oil either, although come to think of it not many Europeans do. Once you've acquired the taste it's all right with meat, especially with lots of pepper.
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If we banned warnings about peanuts, surely all the people with nut allergies would die or become immune, and we would remove the "nut problem" from the gene pool?
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>> remove the "nut problem" from the gene pool?
Hmmm... purifying the 'gene pool' by removing unwanted elements from it... a brilliant idea, perhaps not entirely original. But where will it end, one wonders? Best not to risk it.
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I'm really really glad that a good chunk of the prime of my life was spent in the late 20th century. The early 21st is a basket case ! We really will disappear up our own fundaments shortly. Soon there won't be any room left for any more signs informing us of restrictions, rules banning most things or warning labels informing us to beware of everything.
Still, I suppose we could all sue whoever we can for eye strain or something. It could become the new whiplash.
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I can't be the only one who had no idea a monkey nut was also a peanut. So although it should have been glaringly obvious it was some form of nut, exactly which one might be more open to debate.
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>>I can't be the only one who had no idea a monkey nut was also a peanut
Erm, you might be.
:-)
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"So although it should have been glaringly obvious it was some form of nut, exactly which one might be more open to debate."
Actually you would have been totally wrong.
Peanuts (or monkey nuts) aren't actually nuts. They are legumes and the underground seed pods are analogous to those found in peas or beans.
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Aka groundnuts. As in the great groundnut scheme for East Africa....
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>> Aka groundnuts. As in the great groundnut scheme for East Africa....
An epic FAIL !
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>> An epic FAIL !
Had to be Rastaman, a Labour scheme...
It was pretty half-witted though. They grow like anything in West Africa. There was no need for more of them at all.
Much better to leave that commodity stuff to the existing networks which at least have some idea what they are doing (looting and exploiting). That's what it's like though with commodities - tea, coffee, maize, oil palm, coconuts, anything. The farmer may think he's doing all right (although being a farmer he may find it hard to admit even when it's the case) but he isn't doing at all well compared to those further up the chain.
After Nigerian independence the various 'marketing boards' for cocoa, cotton and all the rest were taaken over by the new federal government and run in very much the same way. Things change slowly in these areas. The markets change slowly after all, and they are king, innit?
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>> Peanuts (or monkey nuts) aren't actually nuts. They are legumes and the underground seed pods are analogous to those found in peas or beans.
Damn, how annoying although true. But ground nuts have a lot in common with some other nuts and some individuals do apparently have this violent allergy to them.
They are pretty tasteless and boring in that monkey nut form anyway, and make a lot of debris. They have to be roasted and salted like any decent nuts. A lot of urban Nigerians virtually live on those from street vendors, along with roasted maize cobs. They are pretty good nutrition if you can't afford much meat or fish.
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If you glue small flat headed nails by their heads to the underside of half peanut shells to act as keels and match sticks perpendiculal to them on the floor of the "boats" and attach square pieces of paper in the form of Viking sails to the matchsticks you can do Norse invasion re-enactments in the bath. Blowing them into bubble clumps represents fog. Top tip though is not to try the Viking funeral scene if you're still in the bath...
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Fri 26 Apr 13 at 19:45
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>> Top tip though is not to try the Viking funeral scene if you're still in the bath...
especially if you are still doing it in adolescence or are an early developer... 'Ow! Yaroo! The burning bush!'
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The PlayStation generation have missed out on so much.
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Even better was the jape of leaving a bit of Andrews Liver Salts in the tin, adding water, whacking the lid on tightly and looking innocent when the big bang happened.
Calcium Carbide worked well, too.
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My son has peanut allergy.
I remember when he was 4 or 5, we nipped into Safeway as it was then for some bread and milk. It was around Hallowe'en time.
By the time we had walked down the produce aisle, which was full of open sacks of monkey nuts, his face was starting to swell up and his throat close over. I had to rush out to the car and give him some piriton.
The nut allergy labelling thing has caused more problems than it has solved, well the "may contain" labels have. Total cop out from manufacturers.
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>> Total cop out from manufacturers.
They have to cover themselves in case they don't really know what is in their products. 'And another 100 tons of No. 3 protein meal please.' Better to eat identifiable food if you can find any.
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What do you do with palm oil? I see it on the shelves in the shops around where I live, and it looks simultaneously exotic, tempting and intimidating...
Too many people with allergies are making it up. There is no doubt that severe peanut allergies impact on peoples lives; not a matter of the gene pool as they're not hereditary, but they're possibly supposed to come from peanut-oil skin creams fashionably used on babies some years ago?
OTOH, 'gluten intolerance' is used by fat girls as an excuse not to have to eat wheat-filled pudding or bread and be given a nice fruit salad. Quite different from coeliac disease, of course.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Mon 29 Apr 13 at 10:21
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Palm oil? You can make soap from it plus some NaOH.
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>> What do you do with palm oil?
You can't use it for frying, it burns at low temperatures. West Africans use it as food. It has a strange rancid taste that most Europeans need to acquire. It is added to the water when boiling meat or fish to give substance, flavour, colour and nutrition, and is best with a lot of pepper in my opinion.
I wouldn't get any unless you have recipes that require it. You probably won't like it and it will go to waste.
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High in saturated fats too. Used extensively in processed food and cosmetics and bio diesel, its production is big big money. A lot of tropical forest is cleared for its production. A bit of a bete noir in green circles
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>> Too many people with allergies are making it up. There is no doubt that severe
>> peanut allergies impact on peoples lives; not a matter of the gene pool as they're
>> not hereditary, but they're possibly supposed to come from peanut-oil skin creams fashionably used on
>> babies some years ago?
>>
>>
>> OTOH, 'gluten intolerance' is used by fat girls as an excuse not to have to
>> eat wheat-filled pudding or bread and be given a nice fruit salad. Quite different from
>> coeliac disease, of course.
Apaprt from a vanishingly small set of attention seekers why would people make up reactions/allergies to food.
The OTOH suggestion, particularly the reference to fat girls, is frankly offensive. There are plenty of cases of people suffering varying reactions to gluten short of full blown Coeliac disease.
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>>why would people make up reactions/allergies to food.
Goodness knows. I suspect that its because "a vanishingly small set of attention seekers" is actually neither vanishing nor small.
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It occurs to me that frequent posters on internet forums are hardly in a position to berate others for perceived attention seeking.
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We're all attemtion seekers.
But you misunderstand; I wasn't berating people for being attention seekers, I was berating attention seekers for making up food allergies.
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>> is frankly offensive.
You're a fat girl with an assumed gluten intolerance? ;)
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>
>> The OTOH suggestion, particularly the reference to fat girls, is frankly offensive.
You cant be offended, you are not a fat girl. You cant be offended on behalf of someone else.
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Is "frankly offensive" worse than evasively offensive?
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Yes, its much less hidden. You can offend someone by proxy.
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I don't know how I used to manage before I had you to explain things to me.
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>> I don't know how I used to manage before I had you to explain things
>> to me.
If you continue to make such good progress we may even let you back in the country.
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>> >> I don't know how I used to manage before I had you to explain
>> things
>> >> to me.
>>
>> If you continue to make such good progress we may even let you back in
>> the country.
Aha, Zero IS advocating controlled immigration :-)
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"You cant be offended, you are not a fat girl."
Which reminds me, why has Iffy gone?
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What is this country coming to? - AnotherJohnH
