Why I Chose… Vanilla

I love the flavor and smell of vanilla.

When I was a kid (and even as an adult when I'm around my mother baking) I'd love when my mother poured Benjamin's vanilla extract into the batter. The sweet aroma of the thing, along with the buzz of the small amount of alcohol, were addicting.

Whenever we'd get vanilla ice cream, I'd eat helpings of it by the soup bowl. Whenever we'd get Neapolitan ice cream, I'd eat the vanilla part, my sister the chocolate, and my brother the strawberry. I'd eat the strawberry too, sometimes, but the vanilla was my thing. Chocolate, it just had too overpowering and bitter a flavor. That's something I still feel.

I think it's partly because vanilla soothes me why I love it so.

Humanity

We're such interesting, pesky creatures.

We have cultures that we call our own, fight over, and die for, mostly because it's just something to make ourselves feel better. We wish to define ourselves and sometimes put ourselves into corners just so we can say we have some sense of individuality (even though these corners might completely usurp that individuality).

We create foods and cook them, and then create entirely new things out of foods that have gone bad just to extend their consumability while not killing ourselves or making ourselves or others gravely or intensely ill. We have cheese, savory pies, alcohol... We've even made an art of the controlled spoiling of things to use for our own purposes: wine, certain cheeses, anti-microbials...

We have music of all sorts, and instruments of every possible type that make use of pretty much any part of the human body that can make music. Then the types of music might relate to our construction of culture, some cultures embracing certain types of music or being fiercely protective of the fact the specific culture "created" that type of music.

We carve up this planet and use it however we wish, with some of us giving a care how we use it while others say we'll make new things to take care of the problems we create (because business). We fight wars and blow up bits of the planet just to show one side the other has dominance. We create weapons to one-up each other, and sometimes hold onto these weapons fiercely in "what-if" mindsets.

We're... interesting.

Today's Yelp Review Doozies

Every day lately I've been going into Yelp and looking at reviews, sending messages, and just getting to know what Atlanta offers (seven years late).

So, yes, there are always those reviews that have pretty bad things to say about places, whether for dining or just a service generally.

Today, though, took the take. These four were in pretty decent succession of each other, and some of them left me just shocked.

David B - Kacey's Home Cooking

In this one, the manager flat-out and unprovokedly told them to get out. I mean, what? I understand, people have lives, and having someone come in relatively close to closing time might not be the most ideal thing. Having worked in various customer-facing and serving positions, I totally get it. But dude…

Jessica B - Shaking Crawfish

This one is probably the draw between laughing at how ridiculous the service was and just throwing one's hands up in frustration. I mean, the people laughed at the fact they were about stealing the customers' money. 🙄

Leah B - Burger King

This one is probably the tamest of the four because it was the most passive. Simultaneously, it's probably the saddest because the service person – basing this on the review – seemed to not care she'd spilt a drink all over the customer and her car. I mean, now she's got soda she has to clean out of her car somehow, and it's full of sugar, the soda!

Nina L - QuikTrip

Then this one, it is anger-producing, partly because it involves multiple people. There seems some racial profiling in it, as well as some misogyny, some assumptions about the writer, some sexual harassment… It's just a complete clusterfuck, and I don't blame her one bit for just walking out… I've messaged her she should bring it to corporate.

And I mean in Oklahoma!

Edible

Edible

A "weird stuff to eat" Internet shop based in London. This is seriously... interesting.