So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

If this is about the buttergate, we pay a lot for dairy, as it is supply managed in Canada. As one critic is saying (he coined the term "buttergate"), Canadians have been paying big for crappy butter for years, now it is worse!

I still can't get over the milk in big plastic bags. We have strict dairy laws in Maine, and for good and legitimate reason, but nothing like that.

 

[MisterCairo]

I still can't get over the milk in big plastic bags. We have strict dairy laws in Maine, and for good and legitimate reason, but nothing like that.

Often called a "Canadian" thing, it is in fact limited mainly to eastern Canada. The west prefers jugs and cartons.

 

[MisterCairo]

This one ( we have two jugs, one for 1% and one for skim) even came with a handy bag slicer. Sadly, it is not sharp enough, so scissors or a paring knife it is...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Quebec too. I used to be afraid to open the dairy coolers in Montreal because I thought I might accidentally pop one.

 

[Harp]

If this is about the buttergate, we pay a lot for dairy, as it is supply managed in Canada. As one critic is saying (he coined the term "buttergate"), Canadians have been paying big for crappy butter for years, now it is worse!

Listened to National Public Radio today and its coverage of Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland's
Senate confirmation hearing. Buttergate aptly sums his appearance. A more poorly prepared lawyer never
has so failed, utterly failed to make his own case. Udder failure.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Now here's a scary thought: evidently I'm eligible for membership in the American Legion. Two weeks of officer candidate school, and an honorable discharge because of a medical (high BP) issue (and a Form DD214 out there somewhere documenting same) apparently more than covers it. Are they THAT hard up for members?

Look: I don't consider myself a veteran at all. Never have. The "one day of active duty service" that the Legion requires doesn't really set the bar at all, IMHO.

I also confess a somewhat negative view of the Legion in light of their history. During the 1920's and 1930's they were often hired as goons against organized labor. And that Red baiting "more American than thou" rhetoric has never set well with me.

While I certainly appreciate them and respect them for their advocacy on behalf of educational, health care, and other needs for combat vets, I don't see myself sitting in a Legion Post bar listening to war stories at my age.

 

[Hercule]

Now here's a scary thought: evidently I'm eligible for membership in the American Legion. Two weeks of officer candidate school, and an honorable discharge because of a medical (high BP) issue (and a Form DD214 out there somewhere documenting same) apparently more than covers it. Are they THAT hard up for members?

Look: I don't consider myself a veteran at all. Never have. The "one day of active duty service" that the Legion requires doesn't really set the bar at all, IMHO.

I also confess a somewhat negative view of the Legion in light of their history. During the 1920's and 1930's they were often hired as goons against organized labor. And that Red baiting "more American than thou" rhetoric has never set well with me.

While I certainly appreciate them and respect them for their advocacy on behalf of educational, health care, and other needs for combat vets, I don't see myself sitting in a Legion Post bar listening to war stories at my age.

Just think of the parades you're going to miss! You would have cut quite a dashing figure in the yellow ascot and white web-belt I'm sure.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Just think of the parades you're going to miss! You would have cut quite a dashing figure in the yellow ascot and white web-belt I'm sure.

If I became a Shriner at least I'd have a tiny powered car for those parades.

 

[Hercule]

If I became a Shriner at least I'd have a tiny powered car for those parades.

oooh! Don't forget the Fez! I bet you could convince them to give you a scimitar.

 

[ChiTownScion]

oooh! Don't forget the Fez! I bet you could convince them to give you a scimitar.

I actually was a member (Medinah, Chicago) for a few years in the 80's and 90's. I like the work that they do for kids in their orthopedic and burn treatment hospitals. The rest... not really for me. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Hercule]

I actually was a member (Medinah, Chicago) for a few years in the 80's and 90's. I like the work that they do for kids in their orthopedic and burn treatment hospitals. The rest... not really for me. I'll leave it at that.

All kidding about the little cars and funny hats aside, yes indeed, the work they do is truly laudable.

 

[tonyb]

I’ll always remember the Honda Dream motorcycles the local Shriners MC drill team used. Couldn’t give those bikes away when they were 10 years old. Not so these days, now that old farts like me are looking to recapture their youth by acquiring artifacts from those times.

I dig fezes, by the way, but I fear that if I wore one out in public I’d be mistaken for a Shriner. I mean, I’m old enough, and square-enough looking. But a couple of my least-favorite people were Shriners. Really wouldn’t wish to be associated with them. (Maybe if I wore the fez only with raggedy blue jeans and Chuck Taylors? I have several old straw boaters, and I’ve yet to be confused for a barbershop quartet singer. So there’s that.)

I caught a little heat when covering a controversy surrounding an aerial insecticide spraying program to address a threatened Asian Gypsy moth infestation. The presence of the moths was verified by the appearance of males in pheromone traps, which, as I wrote, attract the moths “like Shriners to a Nevada cathouse.”

It was worth it.

 

[Turnip]

Often called a "Canadian" thing, it is in fact limited mainly to Ontario and I think Nova Scotia.

View attachment 312589

I remember we had this milk in bags at this end of the pond too when I was a kid. Haven’t seen them for decades but am sure they are still available here at some discounters.

 

[Harp]

Now here's a scary thought: evidently I'm eligible for membership in the American Legion. Two weeks of officer candidate school, and an honorable discharge because of a medical (high BP)...
While I certainly appreciate them and respect them for their advocacy on behalf of educational, health care, and other needs for combat vets...

The American Legion paid a price for its attitude towards the Vietnam veteran; eventually came to realize
this and made belated amends however too little too late. Veterans as a collective voting entity still are
recognized as viable constituency but most issues arising germane have been dealt with mainly outside the
Legion/Veterans of Foreign Wars involve. The younger kids are a more receptive generation and ready
to avail any and all assistance, but also more sophisticated. I've counseled some of these kids and they
are most impressive. Where I have intuited the continued organizational presence is in wound/medical
care issues. Most of the Purple Heart recipients I have met that were severely wounded would not have
made it off the battlefield during Vietnam. Animals, dogs especially are now serving somatic and trauma
patients to a remarkable degree with seeming great effectiveness.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

If this is about the buttergate, we pay a lot for dairy, as it is supply managed in Canada. As one critic is saying (he coined the term "buttergate"), Canadians have been paying big for crappy butter for years, now it is worse!

"supply managed", what exactly is that?

 

[MisterCairo]

I remember we had this milk in bags at this end of the pond too when I was a kid. Haven’t seen them for decades but am sure they are still available here at some discounters.

Bags are apparently used in Israel as well. Who knew?!

 

[MisterCairo]

"supply managed", what exactly is that?

This is for informational purposes only, not to open up a debate, so here goes:

In Canada, some products like milk, chicken, and turkey are managed in terms of supply by regulating how much is produced and by extension, who can produce.

A provincially mandated private board issues "quota", the total number of product units that can be produced (milk, eggs) or raised (birds). That total is sold in the market to farmers having the means to buy it and produce.

Initial quota allocations were reasonably priced. However, ironically if you will, the supply of quota is far less than the demand for it, so now we have paper millionaires who are free to sell on, or pass down to the next generation.

The quid pro quo for limiting supply is to guarantee price at the market stall. So by some (not all) standards Canadians pay more for milk, eggs, etc. I say some standards, because this system avoids the massive government subsidies of these products, a hidden cost found in other jurisdictions.

This is an issue in internal Canadian politics and before international trade panels. I have no personal dog in the fight, though my inlaws raise broiler chickens and my wife's aunt and uncle are dairy farmers, I think the prices are reasonable given the farmers are not competing each other into bankruptcy, but I do wish the butter was more easily spread!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I also confess a somewhat negative view of the Legion in light of their history. During the 1920's and 1930's they were often hired as goons against organized labor. And that Red baiting "more American than thou" rhetoric has never set well with me.

In the Era, the Legion was known in labor circles as "The American Fascisti," and for good reason -- Legion commander Alvin Owsley, in 1923, frankly declared it to be such. Left-leaning WWI veterans, of which there were many, were purged during the 20s and 30s, ensuring that what remained were the kind of people who would threaten to lynch anyone who declined to salute the flag.

 

[Hercule]

...
I dig fezes, by the way, but I fear that if I wore one out in public I’d be mistaken for a Shriner. I mean, I’m old enough, and square-enough looking. ...

...

No, I see you more as a Dervish. Do you whirl?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always enjoyed seeing the Shrine "Arab Patrol" in local parades as a kid, with the Punjab pants and the brocade vests and the swords, but I can certainly understand why you don't tend to see that much anymore. They were doing what used to be called in vaudeville a "Zouave Act," but by the 21st Century it didn't exactly read that way.

Our local parades also used to prominently feature the members of the local Improved Order of Red Men lodge -- a group of girthful Caucasians dressed in Native American regalia of a sort entirely alien to members of our actual local tribes, doing a Hollywood notion of an "Indian war dance" while waving tomahawks and doing that thing where one whoops while clapping their hand rapidly over their mouth. "Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime."