"Eat grease!" sez Barbara Ehrenreich

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...in this article here, possibly one of the most ridiculously annoying things I've read this year. As I can sense it, it boils down to this:

1. You stupid stock-owning fuXors can't afford your ciabatta any more, ha fucking ha!

2. Genetically I am not prone to gaining weight, therefore everyone should go ahead and eat random shit!

3. If you eat things that are not high in fat and all, you are a repressed Puritan who probably votes Republican anyway.

Though arguably it's the most entertaining rebuttal to Fast Food Nation yet.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I should read the piece, but Ned's summation makes it seem like the most entertaining read ever.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 20:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Not quite that -- still, I love the insanity of this quote:

I wouldn't go so far as to blame the financial shenanigans of the last few years on [New York Times health columnist] Jane Brody, but clearly there is a connection.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 21:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Ehrenreich is generally annoying and tends to mangle her attempts at historical research/writing.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 22 August 2002 01:40 (twenty-three years ago)

What I read of Nickle and Dimed seemed passionately okay enough, but I'm wondering if this is turning her into the modern equivalent of Upton Sinclair -- extreme personal axes to grind disguised as crusading.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 August 2002 02:01 (twenty-three years ago)

you will only get fat if you want to. its true. to loose weight, admire your neighboor's belly and bite it at times. too chicken!!? then be fat instead!

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Thursday, 22 August 2002 06:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't like columnists.

― toraneko (toraneko), Thursday, 22 August 2002 06:43 (twenty-three years ago)

BE got right the class aspects of fat versus nonfat (and the schadenfreude of watching the stock options set lose their paper gains), but where are people still carboloading? Every piece of recent writing about posh NYC refers to everyone being on low-carb diets, and regarding starch and fat as poisons.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 22 August 2002 12:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I am still carboloading! Probably 80% of what i eat every day is carbohydrates. I live on cereal, bagels, sandwiches, and most of all pasta. So HA.

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 23 August 2002 00:54 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah if anything it seems that, today, high-carb foods are more available to lower class markets. meat, which is a source of both protein and fat, is expensive; it's difficult to get good produce in lower-income areas because there aren't as many supermarkets around (and most bodegas have little if any produce -- i remember in my old neighborhood in philadelphia, which was pretty close to an area with housing projects, noticing the really stark block-to-block differences in shops' offerings. the one closest to the gentrified area sold produce and skim milk, and this was not on the shelves at all anywhere else); so much of the fat food she extols is also really heavily battered. and look at how much sugar is added to processed food, like canned vegetables -- which tend to replace fresh produce.

i generally like ehrenreich but i thought this article was really really weird and off-base. maybe it's just indicative of how her class status has developed over time?

― maura (maura), Friday, 23 August 2002 12:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with you, Maura, on thinking this was a bit of a blindside. If it had been pitched as a semi-"Modest Proposal" type satire, it would have made more sense.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 August 2002 12:33 (twenty-three years ago)

twenty years pass...

Rest in power

https://www.twitter.com/BenEhrenreich/status/1565753750752575493

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Friday, 2 September 2022 21:25 (three years ago)

Dammit:

Sad news. Barbara Ehrenreich, my one and only mother, died on September 1, a few days after her 81st birthday. She was, she made clear, ready to go. She was never much for thoughts and prayers, but you can honor her memory by loving one another, and by fighting like hell.
— Ben Ehrenreich (@BenEhrenreich) September 2, 2022

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Friday, 2 September 2022 21:26 (three years ago)

did she die from eating too much grease

― akm, Friday, 2 September 2022 21:30 (three years ago)

RIP

― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 2 September 2022 23:00 (three years ago)

rip barb

― flopson, Saturday, 3 September 2022 06:52 (three years ago)

Barbara Ehrenreich is gone. I'd say "May her memory be a blessing" to those who were with her; may it be a scourge to those who were against her, as it was during her life. May she rest in power, may her words keep working pic.twitter.com/VDfk24r9pW
— Rebecca Solnit (@RebeccaSolnit) September 2, 2022

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 3 September 2022 07:12 (three years ago)

she did a reading at the bookstore where i worked 20 years ago. i'm not sure which book she was theoretically promoting (besides not being 'nickel and dimed')

most of the people there however, among whom were several obvious cancer patients, wanted to talk to her about the essay she'd published in harpers. it wasn't what she was there for and she was put into a position that i can't even imagine handling, but she was wonderful

just a super decent person

― mookieproof, Sunday, 4 September 2022 05:01 (three years ago)

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