Starry Wisdom

Our new washer and dryer were delivered today. They’re pretty cool. They have big windows so you can see your clothes during the process. It is like having our own personal laundromat at home! Picture of the stuff “in action” behind the cut.

I saw the Mountain Goats last night at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. What an incredibly enjoyable show. For those of you who don’t know, the Mountain Goats is basically one guy who used to record himself singing and playing his guitar via an old boombox. I describe the music as “angsty folk”. Anyway, he was accompanied at the show by his touring band, which is a bass player.

I’ve been aware of the Mountain Goats for maybe 5 or 6 months now, but there was a large number of die hard fans there. After every song there were factions of them screaming out for him/them to play some favorite song or another. Occasionally he listened to the crowd, and occasionally he explained how he couldn’t at that time because the set list was carefully constructed. He did a whole lot of interacting with the audience, and some good story telling, on top of what was really quite a strong performance, all things considered. If in the future you have the opportunity to see a Mountain Goats show, I think you should go for it!

We saw Mean Girls tonight. It made me want Walker Brothers’ really bad. Also, despite what the movie would have you believe, Old Orchard is an outdoor mall. All in all, it was a pretty good movie though. Actually an astounding movie coming out of the SNL family and being produced by Lorne Michaels. Tina Fey did a really good job in both the writing and as the dorky math teacher.

Driving in to work today I heard a story on NPR about how Monsanto is canceling their latest genetically modified wheat product. This modification to this wheat allows it to be “Roundup Ready” much like their current GM products of soybeans, corn and cotton, so you can spray spray spray the weedkiller and not worry about your crop. The reason they are canceling the product is not because farmers in the US don’t want it, but because millers and such don’t want it. They feel that because bread has such a strong place in our culture that it would be hard for consumers to accept it made from GM wheat flour. Of course, the opinions of farmers and consumers in other countries, where they don’t have enough food aren’t being considered because the farmers there probably don’t have enough cash to buy the Roundup, let alone the Roundup Ready Wheat.

Anyway, at the end of the story the reporter suggested that consumers might be more willing to eat bread made with GM wheat flour if the GM provided direct benefits to the consumer. Examples given where modifications to allow people with gluten intolerance to eat bread made with the flour (although how this would be possible eludes me, as bread without gluten cannot exist!) or, and this was the kicker, modifications to produce low-carb wheat. And that, my friends, is what prompted the title to this post.