Random food-related nonthoughts
KSHS is getting back up to speed again. Their latest item is a medallion given to Prohibition cultists after they took the Pledge.

This Temperance Pledge pendant was recovered from an archeological site in Morris County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 2020. The obverse side states: "How Sweet From The Green Mossy Brim to Receive It. As Poised On The Cure. It Inclined To My Lips." These are lines from a Victorian era poem "The Bucket" by S. Woodworth. The reverse side of the token states "Temperance Leads To Health Wealth Happiness And Long Lives. Pledged To Use No Intoxicating Drink As A Beverage.

HOW SWEET FROM THE GREEN MOSSY BRIM? JESUS! GGGGGAAAARRGGHH!

In the last few years I've concluded that the 'influencers' of Populism in that era were fakers. They diagnosed the NYC crime correctly, but prescribed more power for NYC, not less. Jennings Bryan was a Trump-class faker. After he gained power, he served Madman Wilson as Sec of State, writing parts of Versailles and designing the League of Nations. Perfect diametric betrayal of nationalism and Populism.

This horrible medallion makes me wonder if Prohibition was also intended to be a fake movement.

Simple fact: Alcohol is BAD. Alcohol kills you much faster than tobacco or marijuana, and alcohol ruins your brain long before it kills you, while tobacco makes you more sane and more able to tolerate adversity. Prohibition did not decrease overall alcohol consumption meaningfully. It stopped some people who had used alcohol occasionally, who were NOT being harmed by drinking. Prohibition didn't stop heavy drinkers. It only moved the liquor business into "illegal" channels and increased the consumption of deadly methanol and other substitutes. Some of those "illegal" channels were really the favored "legal" producers who were able to keep running through Canada or through "medicinal" licenses. Deepstate won.

If you want to encourage more people to slow down and ideally stop using alcohol, you need to offer ATTRACTIVE alternatives. Green mossy glop, full of slugs and bacteria, is NOT an attractive alternative. Fizzy drinks like Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper were originally meant as attractive alternatives, and they did the job.

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Speaking of medallions, here's a pointless food-related question, belonging to the same era. Nouvelle Cuisine is NOT an attractive alternative to actual food. Nouvelle Cuisine looks like the remnants of a plate of food after most of it was eaten. Apparently this is meant to be stylish, but for most people it's just yucky and pointless.



If food is going to follow fashions, why didn't food follow Streamline Moderne in the '30s? Moderne shapes were intrinsically foody. Rounded edges with lots of fibers and layers showing, like a cake or a steak. A cake-decorating device with multiple nozzles could have added speedlines of sauce.

Labels: Asked and worth asking again

  ¶ 11:50 AM