respublica

The future of pop bottles?

I confess I am a Coke drinker, not just any Coke, but the Mexican Coke in the 12 ounce glass bottles. This Coke tastes like the original made with real sugar and which is not true of the modern Coke with it's bitingly harsh corn syrup taste and takes up most of the store shelf space.

But, the company is either messing with a good thing, or on the cutting edge or soda drinking. The company has some test lab in Brussels of all places and have been attempting to lower their environmental footprint. They have created a first of its kind bottle made of paper.

" Coca-Cola's prototype consists of a firm paper shell with some plastic components. Specifically, the bottle has a recyclable plastic interior to contain liquid and a plastic cap." The goal is to make a bottle totally out of paper and totally recyclable.

I'm not sure this bottle is a selling point right now, it looks to me like a baby bottle. However, it could also be the future of many soft drinks and maybe even beer.

Better TV watching

I have to say, I am enjoying having a Roku set up on two of our TV's. One in the bedroom and the other in Dale's basement book area. I was reminded of just how much I like the Roku this morning while reading a story on Ina Garten recipe. Ina at one time had a long running show on the Food Network, one of many interesting chefs and average cooks. Now this Network is mainly competitions with people crazily scrabbling together a meal and then being judged against others.

But with Roku, I can get all the old favorites on the past shows. I love being able to see actual chefs cooking and explaining as they go along, often with great humor. These are shows we watched back in the 90's and early 2000's and they are still viable today.

The same holds true for HGTV, such a relief from the incessant renovation shows on these days. Way too much Property Brothers and Love it or List It.

Now for something new and different

I never expected this.

Costco Pulling Products Allegedly Made with Forced Monkey Labor

Yes, you read that right. Monkeys in Thailand are being treated like coconut picking machines. An investigation found chained-up monkeys can pick around 400 coconuts a day and are then stuffed in cages until their next shift. And, the coconut picking monkeys are now something of a tourist attraction and Costco wants no part of it.

The main product Costco, Walgreens, Food Lion, Giant Food and Stop & Shop, have pulled is coconut milk.

I can kind of see why the company feels this way.

Forget about the family Thanksgiving

Dr. Fauci is worried about Thanksgiving because he is seeing a big Covid-19 outbreak among people who were part of small gatherings. Small indoor gatherings of families and friends are driving coronavirus outbreaks across the country — and that has worrying implications for Thanksgiving, "You don't want to be the Grinch that stole the holidays, he said, but, as families plan for the coming festivities, they need to consider the risks of a gathering."

"You get one person who's asymptomatic and infected, and then all of a sudden, four or five people in that gathering are infected," he said. "To me, that's the exact scenario that you're going to see on Thanksgiving."

I knew this was coming, there have been too many local outbreaks recently. It is almost as though this won't go away until we all get it.

But it seems very important to not relax and let down your guard right now. We're all tired of wiping everything down, constantly washing our hands, wearing masks etc. But we have to keep this up. Don't give up, never give up.

But Thanksgiving may be a family Zoom holiday this year in our family.

Here we go again

Leave it to cable news, in this case CNN, to encourage us to start hoarding again. And I use the term hoarding not so loosely because that is what it was and now will be again. Call it stocking up if you want.

"What you need to prepare for the Covid-19 surge this season."

The same story as last spring, we need adequate amounts of food and medical supplies stocked up. We all know what happened with that, by the time most of us heard this advice, the early adapters had bought it all up. It's mentally exhausting to contemplate this all over again.

Here are some of the things they recommend:

For regular hand hygiene and after receiving deliveries, checking your mail or shopping, you need soap and hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

You'll need extra toilet paper

You will need cough drops and syrup for coughing symptoms, decongestants for congestion, acetaminophen and ibuprofen for pain and fevers, and antidiarrheals. Keep adhesive bandages stocked for wounds.

Store a two week supply of water and non-perishable foods-canned and frozen foods, snack foods, coffee hard cheeses and breads.

Baking ingredients-Has yeast made any kind of come back on store shelves after last time?

Anyhow, there is more of this at the link and if it wasn't miserably raining I'd go out and get a few things I never was able to get last time.

Flexible drain snake update

Last week I posted on a slow draining bathroom sink and my decision to order a set of plastic drain snakes to try and loosen up whatever was blocking the water. A friend of mine called after she read the post and told me she had the same problem some time back, ordered the flexible drain snake from Amazon, and it worked great. My package came yesterday and I tried it out immediately. The plastic snake is very very thin, surprisingly thin.

BUT IT WORKED!

I was fairly shocked, having been sort of skeptical, but it took no time at all and that darn sink is draining great again. I love it when a small, ordinary, thing actually works.

About those expiration dates

In the months we've been dealing with the Coronavirus, my main obsession has been meal planning. I've never been one to stock up a pantry or freezer with tons of foods so this era of not wanting to be out among other people very often, has made me want to take fewer trips to the grocery store. Which means having more things in the freezer or cabinets. We even went out and bought a small-ish chest freezer just for this purpose.

So, seeing a story on expiration dates spoke to me, someone who is overly cautious about keeping food around too long. I'm one of those who gets up immediately after I put my fork down and begins putting meal leftovers in the refrigerator to avoid the room temperature food menace.

Anyhow, this is a pretty helpful article. Grocery stores will have on their packaging, "sell-by dates", "best used by dates".

Sell by dates are not specifically for consumers, but mainly for stores to know when a product is should no longer be selling it so that a consumer will still have some freshness after they buy it. Use by or best used by dates are for us to know when a food is past its peak.

I pay attention to sell by dates, the farther out the better especially in the meat and dairy department. I'm hesitant to buy any meat that has a sell by date on the label of today. I do see this a lot lately. I go for hamburger or chicken or something and the date on all the available packages is today's date.

I always have Triscuits in the house and have long paid attention to the "best used by" date on the box. Currently our box has a best used-by date of March 2021. On the other hand, a bag of cheddar Chex Mix is into July 2021 as their best used by date.

Checking these things serves two purposes, knowing how fresh things are and gives me something more to do on the only times I really go away from home.

The headline of the day

This story headline wasn't necessarily meant to be humorous, but knowing Illinois, it struck me funny.

Illinois' Governor Begs Citizens To Let Government Tax Them Even More

How many have already voted?

I've been curious about the number of people who've gone out and voted early. Today the New York Times has all the percentages for each state. We've debated when we will vote and have gone back and forth on whether to go early or on election day. I'm a traditionalist at heart and feel election day makes voting kind of satisfying. I was an election judge for 20 years in Madison County which is maybe why the actual day means more to me. And, looking at the percent of early voters for each state, especially Illinois, I'm thinking maybe the precinct won't be terribly crowded. If that many have already voted, it should ease things considerably. The early voters stood in long lines, some waited a couple of hours to vote, made worse because voters from all precincts were in one place, not in individual precincts like on election day.

I may be dreaming, but we shall see. The Times is using the total number of 2016 voters as comparison for each state, admittedly a different time, but all we have.

In any event, 32 percent of Illinois voters have already voted. 19 percent of those in Missouri.

48 percent of Californians have voted, New Mexico and Montana are at 70 percent.

You can look at the totals for all states here. Some states will have election judges with not as much to do next week as other state judges.

Cover your nose!

One of my pet peeves on being out in public among other people wearing masks is coming alongside someone with his nose uncovered. This may seem a silly thing to be bothered by, but if you've listened to any information given about masks, you've heard that the nose can put out more moisture particles and germs that the mouth. You can at least keep you mouth shut, the nose not so much.

Most of those who wear their masks with their nose uncovered are men, often older men. I see this all the time in Schnucks, Home Depot, Kruta Bakery, and Walmart, places I tend to go to if I go at all. Also male store stockers have their noses uncovered much too often. Why is this? I am guessing they feel they can't breath well covered or their glasses fog up.

I am always paying attention to other people and giving the bare nose people a wide berth. Doing it halfway is not good enough these days. Call me overly critical or paranoid, I can't help it. We have the information we need to follow it.