Today's song is from Whitney Houston: The Greatest Love of All.
I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way...
Anyone else been watching the Twitter happenings with Alex Tate and Greta Thunberg? I just love what she did. I love that her response to Tate's initial taunt is climbing in the single digits of the most liked Tweets of all time.
Now for many of you who, like me, didn't have a clue who Tate is, it turns out he's a self-proclaimed misogynist and former kick boxer. He was thrown off Twitter ages ago for his hateful comments. Musk allowed him back on the platform last month. Tate sent a tweet trying to get under Greta's skin, and she saw it and trolled him back on the 28th. Having the internet laugh at him didn't apparently sit well with him. He tried and failed spectacularly to knock her down a peg. In his twitter response, he can be seen with a pizza box in front of him. He and his brother have been under investigation for some time by the Romanian authorities for possible crimes, but they couldn't be found. In his haste to put Greta down in front of the world, he gave the authorities proof he was indeed in Romania via the local pizza box. He was arrested along with his brother yesterday for alleged human trafficking and organized crime offenses.
Greta's twitter response today? Classic:
@cindy Thank you, Cindy, for making me smile. Thunberg is amazing in how she brings down the high and mighty. I recall her response to Trump, the king of put-downs, when, jealous that she, not he, got Time Magazine's person of the year, he tweeted that she must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend. Chill, Greta, chill!" She clapped back, changing her Twitter bio to read: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”
Below are her Eight Most Brutal Comebacks
https://www.indy100.com/celebrities/greta-thunberg-best-comebacks-twitter
David Byrne just sent out this annual list of the best things that happened that year, from his blog Reasons to be Cheerful (RTBC) which is free in your inbox all year.
"It’s here! One of the most popular things we publish each year has arrived once again to give your heart a flutter, your brain a massage and your dopamine receptors a little bounce: it’s The Year in Cheer, an absurdly comprehensive list of ways the world improved in 2022. We’ve come up with 183 of them this year, all pulled from the pages of RTBC. So kick back, relax and be amazed at all that can go right in a single year. See you in 2023!"
I like chocolate. I am allergic to it but I still consume it. ( I sneeze.)
So news that came out today regarding chocolate is well, surprising.
Many major brands are having a heavy metal/ lead issue in their chocolate.
How is that even a thing? Is any chocolate safe? I mean dark chocolate is supposed to be the healthiest right? Wrong. The darker the chocolate, the more lead and cadmium. Apparently Lindt, Hershey’s , Ghirardelli and Lily are all having heavy metal issues right now. Who knows, maybe for some time.
(I wonder if it is a soil issue or a processing issue? )
I feel like a Pandora’s Box of chocolate has just been opened up. Do we want to end the year on this note?
Actually, we aren’t ending the chocolate problem in 2022 because chocolate is certainly a New Year’s thing?
So is Valentines Day and Easter. Then there are gold coin chocolates for St. Patrick’s Day.
Oh dear, Mother’s Day. And between June and Halloween there are all the chocolate summer things to eat. Brownies, chocolate cakes and almost every flavor of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Who doesn’t think of s’mores during summer? (Or winter?) And chocolate pie.
There would be only Tricking without Halloween chocolate . You know it’s true. What kid gets excited about eating Smarties and what parent steals a Now and Later from their child’s candy bucket?
The November chocolate turkeys on the Thanksgiving table??? I know you have done that at least once right?
Let’s face it, those overflowing Christmas stockings aren't happening from oranges either!
One last thought. If chocolate chip cookies are made from semi- sweet chocolate chips, does that mean they are only semi heavy metal contaminated? Inquiring minds.
I just realized how much a monopoly the chocolate industry has over how we celebrate holidays, seasons, weddings, birthdays annd just because days. Even how our dollars are spent on vacation buying chocolate souvenirs.
If someone finds a heavy- metal free chocolate, please let us know.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/30/1146254933/hersheys-lawsuit-dark-chocolate-heavy-metals-lead
@lovendures Sigh, I just read about this. Dark chocolate is my favorite, so what's a gal to do...endure milk chocolate? There is always something else coming down the pike in the way of yikes, don't eat that! By the way, I had to smile as I read your post, so witty.🙂
Well we are in the New Year here already, so far so good, 25 minutes in. Best wishes everyone.
Regards to all
I share your pain! According to the Consumer Reports article, cadmium comes from soil which might contain cadmium naturally or be contaminated from mining processes or atmospheric deposition from fossil fuel power plants. The lead comes from lead-filled dust and dirt that contaminate beans after harvesting.
There are ways the industry could reduce these heavy metals in chocolate but sadly, my chocolate-loving granddaughter will get no more from me until they do. There is no safe level of lead for children.
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
@lovendures Your post reminded me I got a big bar of fancy dark chocolate for Christmas. I immediately went and ate some of it.
Let’s dive deeper shall we? Just what does giving chocolate to a person mean now? Yesterday ( before reading about the issue with chocolate) I sent a hot chocolate gift basket to my nephew. Perhaps he will think I am trying to kill him! Or that I am really out of touch with the world. Am I no longer the “cool” aunt. ( Assuming I ever was the cool aunt in the first place).
And “Death by chocolate”, that phrase means something different now right ?
It is difficult enough getting a reading about how someone feels about you but Valentines Day 2023 is going to be sooooo confusing. If you are given chocolate what does it actually mean?
Milk chocolate- I like you enough to not want to harm you, too much.
Semi Sweet- I don’t know how I feel, should I stay or should I go? It’s complicated.
Dark-we aren’t meant to be together. It’s fake news right ? “I don’t care, do you?” Let’s live on the edge. ( So many confusing possibilities)
White chocolate- safe but boring.
Chocolate covered creams (you know, the lemon, vanilla, orange disappointing ones and the gross artificial maple with the toxic food dyes and artificial flavors? )- I don’t know why this was even a thing pre- toxic chocolate. If you are a recipient of those… just runaway!
Truly at this point, the only chocolate giving should be from a company that is certified fair trade, heavy metal free and Eco- friendly. But that will cost more than a pre-midterm election tank of gas.
You know, I actually grew up eating a lot of carob flavored desserts. Carob is definitely not chocolate. That might be a good thing, finally.
Turning this around, my daughter makes the best fresh blueberry - lemon cake. Also the best fresh raspberry cake. They are fantastic and don’t make me sneeze which is a bonus. I will focus on that! Hahaha.
I wonder if it makes a difference where the beans are grown. I have started looking into ours and Cadbury Australia gets their beans from Ghana. We also grow cocoa in the Northern Territory, QLD and WA.
The main destination of Chocolate exports from Australia are: New Zealand ($111M), Japan ($32.1M), Malaysia ($17.3M), South Korea ($11.7M), and Hong Kong ($11M).
https://nt.gov.au/environment/home-gardens/growing-vegetables-at-home/cocoa.
Lindt & Sprüngli uses fine flavor cocoa beans (Criollo and Trinitario) from Ecuador, Madagascar, Dominican Republic and Papua New Guinea.
Hershey
During the past few years, we have been investing in improving the traceability of our cocoa supply chain and have committed to 100 percent visibility by 2025 into the farmer groups participating in our Cocoa For Good program representing all of the cocoa volume we source from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.
With the lead falling as dust on the drying beans is there some sort of manufacturing or smelter in the region to cause that. If there is that much lead in the normal air around the world you would think it would be in everything we eat. Most vegetables etc usually grown outdoors and all the food animals eat grass.
On a lighter note an Australian article.
There is a glimmer of hope – of the 28 chocolate bars featured in the study (of which all 28 contained lead and cadmium), many were brands sold in the US, not here. This might actually mean nothing at all, but at least it gives you the opportunity to continue living in chocolatey ignorance until there’s a similar Australian study done.
Regards to all
@jeanne-mayell, you are welcome for the smile! It was just too good not to share.
@lovendures, Say no to chocolate? Can that really be done? Inquiring minds want to know.
Happy new year to all!
Happy and healthy New Year to all! 🥂
If you could send Kevin McCarthy a music gram today, what song would you choose? There are so many good ones to choose from aren't there?
Mr. McCarthy, because "You're never gonna get it!", I'll send you My Lov'in, by En Vogue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIuYQ_4TcXg
Does Pfizer make anything for Electile Dysfunction? Asking for Kevin McCarthy.