Investigation Shows Dollar Store Cheating

by Barry Yeoman and Jocelyn C Zuckerman The Guardian    On a cloudy winter day, a state government inspector named Ryan Coffield walked into a Family Dollar store in Windsor, North Carolina, carrying a scanner gun and a laptop.    Inside the store, which sits along a three-lane road in a county of peanut growers …

Examining The Desires, Behaviors Of Cats

by Kevin Burton     “How well do you really know your cat?” asks writer Alesandra Dubin in a Good Housekeeping piece, under the headline “20 Surprising Cat facts You’ve Never Heard.”    Good question.    Everyone knows cats are mysterious, hard to define or explain.  I could go all Joni Mitchell on you and say “I’ve looked …

Mixed Up In The Mayhem Of Miscellany

by Kevin Burton    You have a drawer like this, admit it.    It’s that drawer where you keep things, small things. They will be useful, you swear, and you don’t dare throw them away. Twist ties, bolts, rubber bands.    That drawer is a physical category for the uncategorizable.    You may even have …

Every Night Is Trash Night For God’s Children

by Kevin Burton     The trash company changed our trash night a couple of weeks ago. That put some unwelcomed wrinkles into our routine.    Trash night used to be Sunday night/Monday morning.  Now it is Monday night/Tuesday morning.    There is just enough time between the end of the 3:30 NFL game and the …

Get Rid Of Old, Damaged Plastic Utensils

by Ally Hirschlag and Martha Henriques BBC                         (Part 2 of 2)    Microplastics gush out of our taps and flake off cookware. They find their way into the yolks of eggs, and deep into meat and vegetables. But if we take certain steps, we can eat less of them. Kitchen utensils     The starting …

Without Knowing It, You Eat A Lot Of Plastic

by Ally Hirschlag and Martha Henriques BBC                         (Part 1 of 2)    You can’t see them, but they are there, hundreds of miniscule particles of plastic lurking in your steak. As it cooks in a hot pan, these unwelcome guests liquify, oozing into the meat before solidifying again as it cools down on your …

Debunking Twelve Silly Myths About Cats

by Dictionary Scoop    Cats may be mysterious, but let’s not give them credit for magic tricks they don’t actually perform. Over the years, these curious creatures have picked up numerous myths—some harmless, others simply misleading. Today, we’re debunking 12 common cat myths and setting the record straight. 1-Black cats bring bad luck    Poor black cats! …

Turns Out My Wife Was Right All Along

by Kevin Burton    In yesterday’s food-safety post we learned that poultry that is green or has secretions should be thrown away immediately.    This is the sort of cutting-edge consumer lightning bolt that makes me proud and happy that I started a blog some years ago.    And today we’re still on the job …

Are Your Leftovers Making You Sick

by Kevin Burton    I hate wasting food, and I’ve been known to stretch the plausible life of leftovers into a danger zone.     I famously told my then girlfriend Jeannette that there was middle-aged food in my fridge that I would eat, but not serve to her.    That was the place where chivalry …

Good News For The Very Old And Very Young

by Kevin Burton    Today’s smiles from the Good News Network take us from Japan to Iowa, from senior years to the cradle, from life to give to life to live.    First, a story by Andy Corbley about older Japanese women, making a joyful contribution to society as a whole and to real people …