Short stuff

[magid]

As so many have noted, Lloyd Alexander died yesterday. He will be missed.

Four Congresscritters are trying a week of living on the dollar equivalent of food stamps, $21/week. Representative McGovern and his wife are blogging their experience. Yes, a PR stunt, but a worthwhile one.
($21/week!? This country needs a serious overhaul.)

There is something very satisfying about the idea of Fred Phelps protesting at Jerry Falwell's funeral.

The Cambridge eruv is down this week: an electrical pole that was used as a lechi (or had a lechi on it; I'm not sure which) has gone missing, and they couldn't figure out a workaround that could be done before Shabbat. I hope something can be done by next Shabbat. And I'm glad it's not an issue on Shavuot.

Comments

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Do you know if that $21 per week is per family (of some size) or per person? I skimmed back through the blog (very interesting) but didn't find that info.

It wouldn't be super-easy to buy groceries for one on $21 a week, but I think I could manage it (though I know there would be moments of frustration). For a whole family, though? Eeps!

[magid.livejournal.com]

$21/week/adult, so the two of them spent under $42 (and they're not having their kids do the experiment).

The comments have been interesting. Some people have been getting by on a lot less than that/month.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

How does an electrical pole go missing?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew.

Perhaps it was only playing the role of an electrical pole until its friends were sprung from the slammer, and it could make its escape.

Or at midnight, when poles go walking, it went on a bender, and realized it couldn't come back at that kind of angle.

Or it was blessed by the pole angel and ascended to its heavenly reward, involving many other poles to talk to and a distinct lack of dogs.

Or the surreptitious absurdist terrorist struck, and their work is finally being discovered.

Or...

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

*chortle* And... your work here is done. *g* *double g*
(including the distinct possibility you won't read this before sundown)

She's here all week, folks!

[magid.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

(And sundown is pretty late these days, after 7:30; I'm too much of an addict to go offline that early :-)

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

I know, huh? Even later, I think- almost til 8:30 there's still light.

My next shot: "Ooh, look, she made a funny! And I made a funny! We gotta stop this..."

fyi

[magid.livejournal.com]

Sunset and dark aren't the same for Jewish time purposes...

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Well, then, that's really not so bad. They've just got to educate themselves. I read one entry citing tunafish for lunch, chicken leg for supper, can't afford fresh veggies, and I'm thinking, hey, if you'd picked up some dried beans of some sort you could've added some vegetables (and one can almost always find *some* affordable vegetables.

And one entry stating about not affording 1.29 for six eggs (where's that? I pay that for a dozen), and I'm thinking, dude, if you eat 2 eggs as most of a meal that's not so bad.

Sure $21/week isn't easy, especially week after week after week and no splurging allowed, but if food stamps are supposed to supplement your groceries and not out and out replace them, it's not an entirely ridiculous amount.

[fj.livejournal.com]

The most interesting tidbit I saw from one report was that the representative a) was not achieving his calorie needs b) gained two pounds. Now that is interesting.

[zahzeh.livejournal.com]

That is interesting, b/c I've heard about studies that say that when you don't have much money to spend on food, you have to eat bad food, and that's why most of the nation's poor are overweight.

[zahzeh.livejournal.com]

I pay $3.30 for a dozen eggs. Granted, they're organic, but it's still $3.30. I think $1.29 is about right for six un-organic eggs in my city.

Also, in my area, vegetables are expensive. Even the frozen stuff is expensive. I'd have to trek out to farm areas (about an hour or an hour and a half drive) to get some cheaper stuff.

[magid.livejournal.com]

And trekking out to farm areas costs gas money, if one has a car at all.

[magid.livejournal.com]

My impression is that the Congresscritter didn't necessarily do any homework before heading to the usual (not the cheapest) supermarket, and trying to pare down from the usual shopping list, rather than rethinking entirely. Hence the lack of beans and such.

They're in DC; not sure what the prices are like there.

And the $21 was supposed to be for all food; for some, food stamps are to supplement, but for others, it's all they have.