Pizza Is A Vegetable?

     Recently around the internet I've been seeing a lot of jokes and comment about Congress making pizza count as a vegetable. At first I dismissed it because I didn't think it could possibly be true. However as the joke came up again on Saturday Night Live I decided to check it out. It turns out there is some legitimacy to the joke. You can read about it in the article attached HERE.

      Basically, Congress wants to keep pizza and french fries on school lunch menus in order to help schools regulate costs. The Obama administration is trying to take "unhealthy" foods out of schools and by doing so they would need to place more restrictions on the types of foods allowed in schools. Some people argue that the government shouldn't be able to tell them what foods they can't serve and that since money in schools is so tight, demanding schools to pay more for "healthier" foods is unreasonable. The idea is that if pizza and french fries count as vegetables, schools can cut costs for foods.

     According to the article Pizza As A Vegetable? Congress Proposes New School Lunch Bill (as attached above), "School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables, and USDA's proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business." Food companies have lobbied congress to not allow these restrictions to pass.

      I understand that the government is trying to find a balance between schools budgets and healthy food choices for kids, but I don't think that that is necessarily their job. I think that this is a responsibility for each state to figure out a solution for within their own boundaries. Every state has a different economical and health situation, so I think it is impossible to find regulations on food in schools that will benefit every situation.

How much power do you think the government should have over food in schools? Should pizza and french fries be counted as vegetables? Should the of the students health be sacrificed because of lack of money?


     
     

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

     This blog post was inspired by the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that I watched a few weekends ago. I would highly recommend the movie. It is beautifully filmed and stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as Joel and Clementine, a couple in love. However the main idea of the movie and what I want to focus on in this post is the importance of memories. The movie has two quotes in it that address this topic and that I wanted to figure what they meant exactly. 

The first was a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche:

"Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders."

The second was a quote from Alexander Pope:

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot

The world forgetting by the world forgot

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."

     The quotes both express the idea that "ignorance is bliss." In the first quote, forgetful people are lucky because they don't remember the bad things they've done. They only remember the good parts even of their "blunders", or mistakes.
     The second quote is longer and a bit more complicated to understand. In the first line, a "vestal" means a chaste or pure woman and "blameless" means innocent since the woman hasn't done anything. She is happy in her innocence and purity. The second line refers to the fact that the woman does not have wordly concerns. She doesn't worry about the world and it doesn't worry about her because they have forgotten about each other. The third line is probably my favorite because I think it is just beautifully worded and it is the title of the movie. It basicaly says that the mind that is clear of bad memories, "spotless", is the happiest since it is in "eternal sunshine." The last line is saying that the woman's prayers for forgetting her problems have been answered and now she has no more wishes. She is completely happy now since she has forgotten her sins.
     Although both quotes seem to express that forgetting the bad in your life makes you happy, the movie overall disagreed with this message. The characters seek to forget certain bad relationships in their past and are able to undergo a procedure that completely wipes away their memory of that relationship. In the end, they fall in love with the same people again and slowly uncover that this is the second time that they've been in a relationship. Some characters find that they didn't want to forget their past completely because then they would lose their good memories as well. Others learned that they didn't want to forget their past because they hated the fact that they made the same mistake twice.
     From this movie I have come to believe that though ignorance may be bliss, we are better in the end if we remember our mistakes and learn from them. 
Do you think that ignorance is bliss? How do you interpret the above quotes? Would people be better if we could forget the bad in our lives?

Make Love, Not War

     This week during dance we were given an assignment to bring in a picture that inspired us. The goal was to look at all the pictures as a class and ultimately chose one to create a dance about. Below is one of the pictures that a girl brought in.

     To be honest, at first, I didn't really like this picture. All I saw was a couple making out on the ground and a man nearly blocking the view of them. However, as we discussed the picture further and I learned about the context the picture was taken in, I slowly started to love the photo more and more.

     This is a picture taken during the riots that broke out after the Vancouver Canucks hockey team was defeated by the Boston Bruins in a championship game. The women in the photo got trampled by the crowds and broke her ankle. Her boyfriend decided to kiss her and comfort her. 

     The first reason that I like this picture is because it is a candid shot. It was obviously not posed and the actions depicted in it were spur-of-the-moment and full of truthful passion. I also like all the contrast in the photo. There are contrasts in the colors-the police officers wearing black, and the couple in lighter colors. There are contrasts in levels-the police are all standing vertical, while the couple is lying down horizontally. All of these visuals contrast highlight and reinforce the overall idea of love versus war. The couple is unknowingly making a very strong statement about how we should always try to find some love and kindness amidst all of the violence and hatred in the world today. In a way they are demonstrating that love is more powerful than hate because it prevailed throughout the chaos of this event.

What do you think about this picture? What ideas does it inspire in you? What else do you notice in the picture?

The First Loser

     My dad jokingly said at dinner one night that I always had to remember that, "Second place is the first loser." At the time, I just thought it was really funny because technically it was true. Everyone that finishes after the winner has lost the race, whatever the race may be.

      However  last week in one of my classes, American Studies, we started talking about America and its need to be the best at everything and the idea popped into my head again. Second place is the first loser. I started thinking about how often the idea of "winning" or being "the best" at something came up in our lives. At nearly everything people try to be better than their competitors. Whether its at work, at school, or even when your with friends, everyone wants to be the best. We constantly try to one-up each other or even go as far as to downplay someone else's achievements to make ourselves feel better. No one wants to be mediocre.

      Although this constant competition in our lives can get ugly, as jealousy and bad-sportsmanship often come with it, I'm not sure if it is necessarily a bad thing. Where would our society be if everyone just strived to be mediocre? If people didn't have a competitive drive, we wouldn't have nearly as many advancements and creations that we do today. Of course one could say that without competition people could learn to self motivate-do the best they can because they want to. I don't think this would work very well because many people simply can't self motivate. Overall, I think the need to be number one is a good trait in people.

Is competition among peers a good or bad thing? Where would our society be without the constant fight to be the best?