Re: Guest Post - farm fresh

1

Do they know you can get eggs without the 'EB' stamp?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 5:10 AM
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After a field has been commercially harvested, people called "gleaners" offer a farmer a flat fee to scoop up the scraps.

It's unbiblical to charge for that.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:01 AM
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It was around 2012 that Tampa Bay menus sprouted the sentence "we source locally" near the admonition about consuming raw or undercooked meats. Fiction started to seem like the daily special.

Does that mean I can eat raw chicken?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:20 AM
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Come to Switzerland! Everything is exorbitantly expensive, because wages are high, but organic food is very popular and often not that much more expensive than the non-organic version. Labor is the biggest cost.

Eggs all have a stamp, too, that tells you when & where they were laid, and which you can look up in online databases.

It all seems a bit insane from a North American perspective, but the food is really good, and I have started to enjoy not feeling particularly guilty about eating meat or eggs or milk... Turns out the solution is to just accept that food costs a fortune (salaries in line with these costs do help with the accepting of it all).


Posted by: parodie | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:25 AM
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Eggs all have a stamp, too, that tells you when & where they were laid, and which you can look up in online databases.

The EU has the same system. In the UK and some other countries, it also confirms how the chickens are housed.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:35 AM
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and which you can look up in online databases

Thank eFarmery.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:50 AM
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I find the OP the least surprising thing ever. People are lazy and greedy, you say?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:50 AM
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Plus Florida. Hot, humid weather and transplanted old people trying to avoid taxes and snow don't bring out the best in a society.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:52 AM
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7: So young, so cynical! Damn the internet!


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:59 AM
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My farmer's market claims on their website to have an audit program for all participants, but who knows how comprehensive that is.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:00 AM
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I thought places like Chipotle and Jeni's actually believe the natural=good nonsense, and that's why they sell improperly cleaned food that makes people sick.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:05 AM
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4: Yeah, the whole issue is that in the US, we are unwilling to address economic inequality so that many people can afford expensive food and so that they feel (because of a social safety net) that they are able to spend that type of money rather than saving it....but people still want organics and sustainable stuff. So what makes sense is to lie.

I mean, I can't afford to shop at the co-op except for a few things I can't get at Cub. Every once in a while, I tell myself that I'll be super frugal and just buy cheap things from the co-op....and then I realize that this means that I will not be able to make the recommended daily minimum for fruits and vegetables, because buying the cheap stuff at the co-op pretty much means eating beans, lentils and rice with vegetables as a dressing. Just buying sufficient vegetables at the Cub is pretty expensive, and god knows they're just the standard picked-over inner city grocery vegetables.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:06 AM
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Are we sure that Heebie doesn't outsource her posts to interns?


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:09 AM
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Does anybody eat recommended daily minimum for fruits and vegetables? I don't even come close to the "Five a day" standard if you don't count potatoes.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:11 AM
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From what little I know about the restaurant industry 7 could probably have been "People want to not go out of business". The margins restaurants operate at - even the very successful ones - are usually razor thin. And most people who find the organic/farm-to-table/whatever stuff appealing probably don't actually care about it specifically so much as just love the fashionable sophistication that's supposed to come along with looking for restaurants that claim it. (The part about restaurants avoiding actual grass fed beef not just because it's more expensive but because the people who want it don't actually like it when you give it to them seemed pretty accurate to me, anyway.)

I really love the Minneapolis farmers' market, but when you go there you can tell within seconds which (four or so, excepting a lot of the greens) vegetables are actually in season that month. It's great for home cooking, but running a restaurant on produce you bought solely from there would be nearly impossible if you wanted any kind of consistency when it comes to dishes.


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:17 AM
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I just looked it up. I'm supposed to have three cups of vegetables but nearly all the vegetables I actually eat only count as one cup if you eat two cups (e.g. lettuce). That's not even possible.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:17 AM
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That much lettuce is on top of two cups of fruit and three and a half ounces of whole grains. You'd never get out of the bathroom.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:22 AM
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Some weeks I eat the recommended minimum! But that's usually because I do something like "my entire dinner is cauliflower rice with curry paste and fried cashews" and then I have a cup of baby carrots and an apple. I'm usually cooking for myself only, so I can eat large plates of relatively eccentric preparations rather than a real meal:

Cauliflower rice (about 1/2 large head); or
Sauteed zucchini with soy and sesame oil (probably about 3 medium); or
Baked tomatoes (five medium tomatoes);
Grated sauteed cabbage with butter (half a medium-small head);or
Lots of baby carrots plus lots of cherry tomatoes with sliced cheese and an apple; or
Sauteed bell peppers with tomato (probably three peppers).

Other weeks, like this week, it's nothing but mushroom quesadillas and leftover palak paneer.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:22 AM
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Sort of on topic: Last night I managed to both have my son eat zucchini and me not eat zucchini. It wasn't easy.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:24 AM
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The other thing is, I tend to think like MFK Fisher and try to balance the week rather than the day. If I eat a giant amount of fruit today and only vegetables tomorrow, that's fine.

Honestly, I just don't like fruit that much, though, so I tend to assume that if I eat technically-fruits-but-emotionally-vegetables like tomatoes or just eat more vegetables it works out the same.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:28 AM
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I consider it a good week if I eat at McDonald's less than three times.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:29 AM
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I eat a lot of fruit, and some days it does seem like I've spent a substantial amount of my time in the bathroom.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:30 AM
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So, the articles in the OP were sort of cheering for me. If I didn't make an effort, I like being told that having made an effort wouldn't have mattered.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:31 AM
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14: Yeah, pretty easily. I eat a few fruit while sitting at work, usually include a large side of veg if it isn't the majority of a dish (like a stir fry would be). I also have a protein shake most days which has banana/mango + another fruit (pomegranate, blueberries, pinapple) and a serving of spinach (adds some green color but can't really taste it). I don't eat many salads or loose veggies (eg carrot sticks)


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:35 AM
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I am reliably informed that this year the in-laws will be planting a big garden and I will be expected to eat my part of this harvest. Not sure what they are growing, except that there will be too much zucchini and no avocados.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:36 AM
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How do you know what is in your protein shake? It seems like they could make much more money but putting in just a dab of real fruit and making the rest out of corn syrup or whatever.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:38 AM
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Is there some special pride of place "five a day" holds out of all the other official guidelines? Is it more evidence-based than the rest? I merely try to keep fruits and vegetables regular substantial parts of my diet without targeting a particular number, Pollanically.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:59 AM
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I have no idea, but I've seen lots of arguing about fat vs. carbs or how much dairy you can have, but I have heard nobody ever saying that people need to eat fewer vegetables.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:03 AM
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27: Dueling studies!

There's a limit to how much fruit and vegetables are good for you

Overall, the more fruits and vegetables people consumed, the less likely they were to have died during the study period. For every additional serving eaten, up to four a day, the chance of dying for any reason fell by 5 percent, and the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease dropped by 4 percent. Those who ate four servings a day were 24 percent less likely to have died than those who ate none at all. However, eating five or more daily servings conferred no added benefit.

In Knifecrimea, however: Healthy diet means 10 portions of fruit and vegetables per day, not five

They found that seven helpings a day of fruit or vegetables could reduce a person's overall risk of premature death by 42 per cent when compared with people who ate just one whole portion.
People who ate between five and seven portions a day had a 36 per cent reduced risk of death, those who ate three to five portions had a 29 per cent decreased risk and those who ate one to three helpings had a 14 per cent reduced risk.
Those with the highest intakes were also 25 per cent less likely to die from cancer and 31 per cent less likely to die from heart disease.

(From the last, good news for Frowner: "The research, which involved a 12-year study, also found that vegetables were four times healthier than fruit.")


Posted by: Mooseking | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:12 AM
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The second article had a good aside that mentioned that only 30% of people meet the current 5-a-day advice. I'm a little surprised that 30% manage... despite being surrounded by abundant fruit and veggies here, they're rarely at the center of the plate.


Posted by: Mooseking | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:18 AM
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I assume lots of self-report bias is involved.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:24 AM
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regarding OP, I pay $7/lb for Amish pork chops (that is, pork chops raised by Amish farmers). Amazingly delicious, sooo much better than grocery story meat.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:30 AM
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I guess if you can't tell the difference between two food items, and you're eating the more expensive one just to be cool (or be ethical), don't bother because there is no requirement that they tell the truth.

This is why I don't go to fish restaurants. I can't tell one fucking fish from another. Except salmon, swordfish, tuna, and maybe mackerel. Grouper? Orange roughy? Trout? Why bother going out and getting all these weird fish? Frankly I'm happy they turn out to be tilapia, it means less devastation of the wild.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:34 AM
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32: In the spirit of the OP, youneed to verify. Check the seller for zippers.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:37 AM
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The cafeteria at the Cathedral o' Learning sells salmon sushi made with trout.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:39 AM
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Ha. When I lived with the Little Princeling, I was explaining Farmers Markets to him, and he was like, "but, how do you know people don't just buy vegetables at the supermarket and sell them for way more?" I chalked it up to OTT Chinese cynicism, but looks like he was right.


Posted by: Buttercup | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:51 AM
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My dad loves the story about the time he stopped at a farmers stand near the strawberry farms in Ventura County. He asked if the seller was himself a strawberry farmer. The seller said no, and eventually admitted that he bought his strawberries at the big wholesale produce market in downtown Los Angeles, because the strawberries were so much cheaper there.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 8:54 AM
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38

OT: NMM to Prince.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 9:58 AM
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This news underwhelms me. People really believe all that stuff is local? Do they also believe that the "homemade apple pie" sold in many restaurants is made in someone's home? Our local university cafeteria has been serving "homemade cheesecake" for many years. (Buy one, get a free bridge!)


Posted by: tsts | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 9:58 AM
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Buying produce wholesale and reselling at the market is called "peddling" here and policed to varying degrees at different markets, most stringently at the most expensive markets. Allemany and Civic Center markets have the most pedlars and are the cheapest; ferry building relentlessly policed and very expensive.


Posted by: dairy queen | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:02 AM
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I do believe the stuff I get is local, but then, I live in the midst of ag land.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:03 AM
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38: Why is everybody in this hotel lobby looking at me?


Posted by: Darling Nikki | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:04 AM
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Also, what DQ says. The city-run markets are very rigorously policed by market manager Dan.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:05 AM
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Florida is ag land too! With big ag predominating both places, I imagine. But they are more laissez-faire there of course.

When I think about the cheaper farmer's market near my work it makes sense they would have more peddling there.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:06 AM
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The same farmer's market website says that the county ag commissioner issues "grower's certificates" specifying what crops the farmer grows, and these certificates have to be visibly displayed.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:10 AM
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OT: NMM to Prince.

I got it on with _____ listening to [insert song by Prince.]


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:33 AM
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47

Fuck. Now Prince.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:48 AM
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48

Stop. I started a thread.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:51 AM
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OT: NMM to Prince.

Shocked and saddened to hear that. Very surprising. He was young and, more than that, if some people seem too famous to die, Prince seemed too evasive. It's strange to think that there will be no more changes in direction from him.

As a tribute, I was reminded of this post about a concert he did in Baltimore last year, after the death of Freddie Gray.

"We're here for you. We are your servants," he said at the beginning of the show and in the fourth and final encore. He and his band, 3rdEyeGirl, as well as special guests Doug E. Fresh, Miguel and Estelle, had proved that. Between a laundry list of hits such as "Kiss," "When Doves Cry," "The Beautiful Ones," "1999" and "Purple Rain," Prince also urged us to keep chanting our city's name. There's power in that kind of incantation, uttered among people who've just lived through the same communal crisis and who, for all intents and purposes, may be bracing for a second wave, if the six officers charged in Freddie Gray's death are granted their request for a case dismissal.

Prince will turn 57 next month, and as he closed out his show with a few of the only overtly political remarks he made all evening, it was clear that he has entered the elder-statesman phase of his career. After telling us that the system is broken, he reassured, "It's gonna be all right. We gon' figure it out this time. It's gonna take the young people to fix it. We need new ideas. We need new life. And most importantly, we need new 'piece.' " He was careful to spell out "piece," lest we'd mistake it for "peace," and stressed the importance of community members increasing their stake in their city of residence. "The next time I come to Baltimore, I want to stay in a hotel that's owned by one of you." He repeated this ownership theme, citing that he also wanted to be able to hire car service and concert promotion companies owned and operated by young Baltimoreans.

Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:55 AM
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My brother runs a mill in Wisconsin. It started out being organic, but that ended up being too much of a pain in the ass, so I think he's settled for "sustainably grown," whatever that is. but his big thing is pushing the local angle. He prints the name of the farmer that grew the grain that made the flour on the back of his pancake mix.

Me, I like the idea of not having food grown by ConAgra, but I really don't actually give a shit if its "local" or not. I mean, its all local to someplace, right?


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 1:17 PM
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Is it better or worse of me to live in a situation where I often buy stuff from farmer's markets or a store with "organic" in the name (despite the fact that some of its products are conventionally farmed), just because it's the most convenient option?


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 2:04 PM
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This news underwhelms me. People really believe all that stuff is local?

Maybe not that it's local, but that it's being sold by the people who made it, not some shyster who bought it three hours earlier at the wholesaler.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 3:22 PM
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Is the legal market still that bad?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 3:44 PM
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I asked my PCP once about th 5-7 servings of vegetables, and i described a "half" of a large sweet potato sandwich with avocado and sprouts and peppers, and she said that it was about 2.5 servings of vegetables. A large serving of spinach is probably more like 1.5 or 2 servings rather than 1.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 6:52 PM
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I asked my PCP once about something and it told me to smash through a window because I can fucking fly.


Posted by: R Tigre | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:07 PM
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56

I ate the celery that came with the wings.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:07 PM
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I asked my LSD that once and like wow, look at the colors in that cloud anxa asf mana af ddddddffff :)


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 7:33 PM
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17- You get used to it after a while. I've been eating a pound of salad every day for lunch along with 4 pieces of fruit for breakfast for months. I don't really spend more time in the bathroom but my output is pretty substantial.


Posted by: roger the cabin boy | Link to this comment | 04-21-16 10:00 PM
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29. Can this be resolved by assuming different definitions of "portion"? The working definition in Kifecrimea is surprisingly small.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 3:29 AM
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59 is interesting. And good news!


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 3:38 AM
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I am the produce buyer for a small locally focused grocery chain in Maine. We work with about 40 farmers. Each farmer has a house style in how they prepare their vegetables for market, and I can recognize when farmer's are selling each other's produce, which they're always honest about. I've never seen farmers passing off out of state vegetables as their own. There are a couple of crops that are a surprise to see grown in Maine, like ginger, but I've seen it in their fields. The farmers also keep an eye on each other, and the restaurants. Word would get out quick. I think the article is really about Florida being a low-trust culture.


Posted by: Light Rail Tycoon | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 4:14 AM
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Comments like 61 is one (of many) reasons I love this place. Second only to the cock jokes.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 4:19 AM
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63

In my head, LRT now sounds like the guy from the Pepperidge Farm commercial.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 5:10 AM
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The downside of meet ups is that you have to replace the little voice in your head you use for a commenter with that commenters actual voice. Not that those people I've met have funny voices.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 5:49 AM
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65

But did we have funny voices before you met us?


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 5:51 AM
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66

I certainly didn't use Miss Bianca from The Rescuers as voiced by Eva Gabor for anybody, that's for sure.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 5:54 AM
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64: I'm using Monty Python characters for the male commenters and Golden Girls for the ladies. The problem is that I have an excess of Dorothys and Roses, very few Blanches and almost no Sophias, so I may have to undergo a sort of reshuffling/rebalancing exercise at some point soon. The men are more evenly divided between John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, a few Gumbies, and the naked organist played by Terry Jones.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 6:11 AM
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My ex runs the biggest farmer's market in this area. She spends a lot of time on farm visits and making sure the farmers are selling stuff they grew.

OTOH, most of the other "farmer's markets" in this area do not have those controls, and the vendors are clearly selling things that they bought from the grocery store and marked up.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 6:21 AM
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I have very few voices in my head apart from LB, who sounds very precise and clipped, and CharleyCarp, who for some reason sounds like John Wayne (I'm sure he doesn't IRL).


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 6:32 AM
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I use Alistair Cooke for you.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 6:49 AM
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And gswift.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 6:55 AM
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One day in the not-so-distant future, we will be able to customize screen reader software such that having your browser read Unfogged comments to you in the voices of Dorthy and Blanch can actually be a thing.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 6:57 AM
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67 But the Cockney copper voice for me.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 7:00 AM
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You get Long Islander. Sorry.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 7:01 AM
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75

Johnny Vegases all round.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 8:25 AM
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75: Yes, he is.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 11:03 AM
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In honor of this thread, today when I had lunch, I ate all of it even though some of it was raw peppers and tomato.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-22-16 11:04 AM
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