beetiger

My son just leveled up last night, I swear. In the last 24 hours he has

-decided to help clean up the kitchen and pick up his own toys without being asked
-stayed dry all night (which is very rare to date)
-dressed himself entirely, including putting on his own shoes
-politely asked for the various parts of his bedtime routine
-spontaneously said "thank you for the cookies" upon bidding me goodnight.

I'm a bit boggled.

My son is apparently reading well enough to follow and sing the words to a song he doesn't really know at karaoke speeds.

And to apparently reap the rewards of singing (ice cream) bar karaoke known to more grownup performers, as he not only got wild applause, but a six-year old girl flirted with him afterward.

*boggle*

(lediva requested that I address this issue. Here you are, love.)

There's been a furor going around the Internet lately about a petition sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, proposing a change in the standard of identity of chocolate to allow products made with other fats than cocoa butter to still meet the definition of "chocolate". And one of the high-end chocolatiers, Guittard, has launched an attempt to get consumers up in arms about it, writing to the FDA, etc. "Don't mess with our chocolate."

The point of standards of identity for ingredients and products is simple -- to give people the products they expect, not diluted or adulterated. The fat content and fat source in products is often one of the key points in it. The FDA also has a second big concern these days -- that consumers not be confused by the plethora of formulated products out there.

The last major change to regulations that I remember concerning labeling of this sort was back in 1998, when the FDA revoked the standard of identity for many milk products, allowing labeling of reduced fat milk products to be more understandable and appealing to consumers. Low fat ice cream instead of ice milk, light cheese instead of cheese food product, fat-free sour cream instead of imitation sour cream, fat-free milk instead of skimmed milk. It was meant to be a move to help American health, by legitimizing these products, and making them sound good. This was in my opinion a very good thing.

The FDA recently (in government terms, I believe the rule went into effect in 2004) established a standard of identity for white chocolate, which has being made with cocoa butter as a core component of it. Having this as a precedent showing that consumers think cocoa butter = chocolate is certainly a point of evidence against the proposal realistically being one step away from Hershey being allowed to make chocolate with 100% corn oil or something. And although the Chocolate Manufacturers of America are supporting the petition, they at least officially are phrasing it as an opportunity over all to look at our definition of what your average American junk food eater wants to understand about his junk food.

Understand that higher end producers are still going to be able to put explicit ingredient lines and information on their products, letting you know exactly what's in them, down to the name of the region of the country that they got the beans from and the exact percentage of cocoa solids. The market for chocolate stuff from the big suppliers of things that are primarily chocolate continues to look primarily toward the high end, as makers as low-end as Hershey come out with products like Cacao Reserve.

The big problem is that chocolate isn't just a product, it's an ingredient. And if the standard of identity for it changes, things like store-brand products with long complicated ingredient lines including six kinds of pretzels, caramel, ice cream, and chocolate chips in low-fat ice cream are going to be able to cheap out on the chips without telling you quite as explicitly in their three paragraph ingredient line. But if you're eating that kind of rework anyway, do you really care that much? Do you really expect it to be made well?

On the other hand, I don't think we've got a situation like we did with milk product labeling. People aren't ruining their health by avoiding products with "chocolate flavored coating" on them. This is pretty much an industry driven request, and I hope the FDA looks at it that way, because frankly, much as it might sometimes be really inconvenient from the point of view of a product formulator, the FDA is really there to try to protect the American public's health.

Give me some fine artisan chocolate truffles, hand made with some nice Callebaut dark chocolate and some fancy spices and essential oils or liqueurs or something, and I'll be happy.

Here are some folks who are thinking about it harder than I am. I'll be following what they find out.

Here, and here are the current standards of identity for chocolate products, if you are curious.

The "Grown Up" Survey
(Meant to be completed by those out of high school)

Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids?
'Have you ever kissed someone?'
'Missed someone?'
'Told someone you loved them?'
'Drank alcohol?'
Here are 50 questions for the people who are a little more "mature"...
( quizzyquizzy )

I was speaking to my mother today, and she was telling me about the cruise that she and her long-term boyfriend are planning to take next month. She was talking about how it's always fun to meet new people together with him, how they always like to hear his old biker stories.

"He lies, and I swear up and down to everything he says."

This probably says a lot about my whole damned life, really.

I keep forgetting things lately.

Appointments I've made, even regular ones that happen every week, until I'm almost up against them and maybe have scheduled something else over them or maybe slept through them. People's names, or people's kids names, or people's partner's names, or the context in which I know someone when I run into them in the park. Random facts that I really ought to know, who sang some song or other, some bit of math or food science or herbalism. It's making me feel lost and disconnected, and sort of stupid, and I think maybe it's making people think I don't care or I'm not paying attention, although actually I do, and I am, or I'm trying, anyway. I've never been particularly good at this stuff, but lately I'm feeling particularly bad at it. It certainly isn't making it any easier to make new connections with people, something I'm really trying to do right now. I don't think I'm too underslept, and I don't actually feel distracted or anything, and I don't know if the version of depression I'm working with right now would cause this, or if it's just the way I seem to be interacting with the world around me right now in a more general way.

In any case, call this a meme or just a favor or what have you, but if you're reading this, go ahead and comment and remind me of something? Anything at all would do, though if you think I've been losing track of something in particular that has to do with you, do mention that.

I ran the Passover Seder at the UU Fellowship tonight. I used to do it every year for about 7 years or so, but had not the last two years due to some politics and rude people who were bored with what I do there. (It's a ritual tradition, it's *supposed* to be similar year to year, pfeh.) This year, said people have left, so I got asked kind of last minute to do it again. I agreed to do the ritual leading (Just call me Bubbeh Vicki) and ritual food prep, and to make soup, but I was not the person in charge of logistics and setup. This meant that there were fewer people and less food than usual, and the tableware was not as coordinated as it usually is, and there were definitely both milk and meat dishes there, but it was way easier on me, and I actually had a pretty good time. projectmothra was very excited to help, and very good throughout the evening, and I was tickled to hear him read his part of the Four Questions (and proud, I guess -- he did a good job reading and people were impressed).

I've got leftover soup and a good portion of Passover Chocolate Mousse cake in the refrigerator, and finally, halfway through the holiday, I feel like there's a point. I don't think I'm going to go another year skipping doing ritual on the first two nights, even if no one invites me and I feel silly doing it pretty much for myself, since neither Rhys or Bard care much. I'll have to either wrangle myself an invite somewhere or just invite some other folks myself. The first half of this week has just been depressing, but now I feel a lot more like it's a holiday.

On the odd side, on the way down to the event, projectmothra told me that before he was a baby, when he didn't have any blood or water inside him, he was a violin. He was pretty adamant about it.

The only problem with staying up until four in the morning playing drinking games with charming near-strangers is that you end up very tired the next day. The only problem with remedying this with caffeine when you need to drive for three and a half hours is that when you finally get home and are able to get some more rest, you can't sleep.

Overall, the Boston trip was just what I needed. I'm in a really good headspace right now, better than I've been in a while. We'll see if it sticks.

Hey there fellow addicts! I slept in this morning, but On waking up to email asking me if I was going to do a decant circle this round, I was so pleased to be asked that I decided to. ;) This is my first pick-and-choose circle, but I still think I can turn it around pretty fast. I'm going to start with one bottle of each, full decants.

I think Rhys and I are going to go to the Bronx Zoo tomorrow after speech in the morning. Anybody want to join us? I can get one guest in on our family pass, two if one of you is willing to masquerade as my husband. Let me know!