With all the fun going on the House of Representatives yesterday
11Reminded me of an interesting memory of mine that might be of interest (or maybe not) to others.
When in 6th grade, our class had a field trip scheduled to go to the House of Representatives. It was arranged by the mother of a student in our class who was the Secretary for then Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn who some of you old farts might remember.
Anyway when we got there we were ushered into his office where he spoke to our class. We were then taken past a sign that said “no visitors allowed beyond this point” and onto the floor of the House of Representatives which obviously wasn’t in session.
We were told to take a seat and was told about the history of the House. I looked up periodically and saw people going in and out of the gallery-probably on tours and wondering what a group of students were doing on the floor of the House and how do they find such a tour.
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Claude Pepper used to do the same for groups from Florida. I never got to go on one of those trips. Our school didn’t have the money for them.
@werehatrack Our kids school doesn’t have funds for any trips either. They make the parents pay.
@OnionSoup Our neighborhood’s parents could not have coughed up the money, so the school never tried to organize that. Anything farther away than a Dade County school bus could go on half a tank of fuel was not going to happen, unless it was football. Coral Gables would organize and coordinate whatever the parents supported, which meant things like the state capitol in Tallahassee with a side trip to U of F. My school took third grade kids to a local dairy farm.
@OnionSoup @werehatrack Well growing up in Chevy Chase Maryland, we were just a stone’s throw from the DC line and a 45 minute bus ride to the Capitol.
@OnionSoup @werehatrack Joke’s on them. The local dairy farm was more educational anyway.
That is a really cool memory!
I’d rather tour a sausage factory and watch sausage made. The samples would be more palatable.
Tours I remember from school days included an IBM facility (before they were famous for computers of any kind, just the tabulating equipment) and a Texas Instruments plant just about the time they were getting going good with those newfangled things called transistors. Also an Evinrude regional sales facility (um, pretty boats).
@phendrick Now that I think upon it some more, I think the Evinrude place also fabricated the hulls there. Ah, the smells of toxic chemicals from the fiberglass manufacuring. Perfect for children.
Still probably better than the stench from Congress. (Funny how “congress” can be another term for copulation.)
@phendrick
“There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the entire government working for you."
Will Rogers
@macromeh Lol. But too true.
@phendrick With Matt Gaetz there, that is closer to the truth than ever.
@Felton10 @phendrick
One of my favorite TV shows is the Science Channel’s “How It’s Made.” The other day they showed a hotdog factory. It didn’t actually put me off eating them, but the paste that goes into them doesn’t really look like food - more like Silly Putty.
It’s an addicting program though!
@Felton10 @Kyeh @phendrick Part of the reason I prefer Hebrew National is that the contents are just a trifle less uniform than with most others. But for a dog that is clearly made of meat bits, there are sausage makers scattered around in small towns all over Central Texas, most of them making a rather better grade of product.
@Felton10 @Kyeh @phendrick @werehatrack regarding store bought hot dogs. And other meat “goo”. Meh. If I could get ever last bit when I cook a chicken I would.
Granted I pick it pretty good and if I’m roasting a whole bird the carcass goes in for stock then I pull any bits off that for the soup.
I don’t really get the whole “my nuggets must be breast meat” thing. Hot dogs are just a much finer grind kinda bland sausage. As long as they aren’t adding garbage to it.
Yes corporations trying to get every penny they can… can be iffy. But. If you consider what they do on the whole. That is probably one of the least egregious things.
@Felton10 @phendrick @unksol @werehatrack
When it comes to chicken, I prefer dark meat, so it frustrates me that most products are made with dry white “breast” meat. I don’t often buy nuggets or other processed things, but I do like hotdogs occasionally.
I found a good chicken nugget though - it combines the chicken with cauliflower! You don’t taste the cauliflower but it makes them more tender, plus you get some veggies too.
@Felton10 @Kyeh @phendrick @unksol @werehatrack Sausage was originally developed in ancient times as a means of preserving meat without refrigeration. Salt was added to increase ionic strength and encourage water loss by osmosis. Fermentation was used to produce lactic acid which lowered the pH along with drying to reduce moisture. Smoking (cold or hot) added phenolics and lord knows what all else to the meat or meat mixture which helped to inhibit or reduce pathogens.
Hot dogs were originally just certain sausages served as a sandwich. But as things go, the modern hot dog was developed incrementally over the decades.
If you have ever worked in a manufacturing facility, you know that there is a never ending push to reduce waste and to improve yield and efficiency. Waste costs money and yield and efficiency produce profits.
So it isn’t surprising that MSM (mechanically separated meat), which includes various unmentionable bits of an animal in addition to muscle tissue was developed. The end result is called by some in the trade “white slime” or “pink slime” depending on the source of the raw materials. In any case, the product is a paste made from animal parts with limits as to how much bone and fat can be present. The pasty appearance is owing to the very fine particle size distribution and the development of myosins in the separation process.
Today a hot dog by law can only have 20% MSM [U.S. Department of Agriculture-FSIS 60 FR 55962, 60 FR 55982–3].
Hot dogs or “tube steaks” as they were called sometimes in my graduate school days are edible, safe, nutritious, and can be quite tasty and appealing. Just don’t ask too many questions about from where and how they came about.
But then that is probably true of 99.99% of the products offered here on Meh.
@Felton10 @Jackinga @Kyeh @phendrick @werehatrack was aware of the gist/have seen the making of the “goo”/msm. Just doesn’t bother me. Some people call it “filler” and get all weird.
My point was more. If someone wanted to have an opinion on what those companies do, there are way worse things higher up the chain to concern themselves with. Once it’s dead they best be getting everything they can out of it.
@Jackinga
@Felton10 @Kyeh @unksol @werehatrack
Yum, sounds delicious!
Somehow, I’m not that big a hot dog fan. I do occasionally buy a package of the better quality “all beef” (of whatever form), but usually use those one at a time cut up into a pot of beans for a quick meal.
OTOH, my son, now grown up, lived on hot dogs and chicken mystery meat (Mc “nuggets”) when he was young. And supplemented with fries and copious ketchup on all comprised his predominant “vegetables”.
@Felton10 @Jackinga @Kyeh @phendrick @werehatrack not saying it’s delicious. Or I regularly eat hotdogs or nuggets. I just find the whole fastfood “our nuggets are only made with real breast meat” or “hot dogs are gross” arguments both meh.
Probably not that good for you either for other reasons but it’s still just meat
Girlfriend has a kid like that. Not sure why other than grandma. Tried to work on her palate… when I was a kid you ate what Mom made or you didn’t eat…
Ketchup was a major one though. Don’t say it or shell want some.
Ketchup is… fine
@unksol
/giphy catsup & ketchup on everything
@unksol Not what I had in mind, but seems appropriate.
@unksol
/giphy catsup & ketchup on everything
I resemble that remark about eating what was offered. My sister and I grew up in reduced circumstances (at least by today’s standards, but maybe not so much then).
We didn’t have to eat what was put on the table, but there wasn’t anything else.
We didn’t starve. We canned, dried and preserved a lot of food during and particularly at the end of summer. There was enough to afford groceries, but not much extra. There were no snacks in the cupboard, fridge, or anywhere else.
No one in my family was a picky eater, that is, until the granddaughters came along. And that was only because the DIL indulged them. Used to make me mad. Fortunately, they have grown out of that, mostly.