VEGEMITE: CHILD ABUSE DOWN UNDER

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

I'm very surprised by the claim about Wikipedia. Peanuts, peanut sauces and peanut butter are used throughout Asian cuisines. I suspect that peanuts are grown just about everywhere it can thrive, too, since the plant is a nitrogen-fixer, as are most legumes.

Yes. That's a good example of the source being wrong.

It likely wasn't the highly sweetened and salted US engendered product earlier...but that seems endemic now.

0 Replies

@dadpad,

dadpad wrote:

Oh God.
That picture reminds me of this photo-shopped image of a woman that supposedly got her breast infected with grubs or worms, from wearing a new bra without washing it first.

What they did was photo shop a lotus pod over her breast area, resulting in a shocking image.
It's not bad when you know what it is, but when I first saw it, I literally thought about it in the middle of the night, and felt sick.

Here's a link to the picture, warning: graphic

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/i/infestedbreast.htm

0 Replies

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

Hell, any of us would happily send you some!

You guys would do anything for converts wouldn't you? Let me see if they have it here first, or if I am going to be somewhere that does (e.g. the US, or even Australia, as I've been interested in moving to Australia for a while) anytime soon because I don't receive any snail mail in Costa Rica due to that whole not having proper addresses thing.

3 Replies

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

Peanut butter is universal.

No, it really isn't. I've lived many places where I could not find any peanut butter.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

I don't receive any snail mail in Costa Rica due to that whole not having proper addresses thing.

I remember listening to an interview (don't know if it was Costa Rica specifically) about this address thing.

Addresses on mail will literally read:

3 houses down from where the yellow house is, across from the water fountain where the old man with an eye patch sits and knits fingerless gloves.

That's currently the address, even though the yellow house was torn down 8 years ago and replaced with a shoemakers shop, and the old man's grandchilden have grown up and moved to Canada, to be closer to their grandkids.

1 Reply

@chai2,

Yeah, stuff like "200 meters from where the old tree used to be" makes their directions (they don't actually call them addresses thankfully) require a bit of community history.

And it must have been about Costa Rica, because I don't think there are many places on earth like that (only other is Nicaragua that I know of around here).

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

. . . require a bit of community history.

Population density matters, too, though. A friend and i were once kicking around an old, abandoned frame house, and upstairs, we found an envelope. The direction on the envelope was "John Doe, Williamsburg, Virginia." I don't recall the date stamp on the letter now, just that it was the beginning of the 20th century. The name, of course, wasn't John Doe--i suspect that the addressee's name and Williamsburg were sufficient for the postman.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Yup, the postmen here are community historians. How else are they going to deliver a letter to "the house with the black gate" when it's long been painted another color? It's crazy! But the population density really doesn't support this anymore.

Here is a cool article about it in Costa Rica:

Quote:

For some, the quirky system is a reassuring link to their country's agrarian past, a colorful affirmation of what it means to be "Tico," or Costa Rican. Almost everyone beams when they talk about the "old fig tree" and the "old Coca-Cola plant." Both of those San Jose-area landmarks have been lost to history, but locals still cite them when giving directions as if they still existed. For a disoriented visitor, it's proof that magical realism is alive and well in Latin America.

"It's part of the idiosyncrasy of Costa Ricans," said historian Francisco Maroto Mejia, director of the postal museum for Correos de Costa Rica, the nation's postal service.

The trouble is that these rustic addresses aren't keeping pace with Costa Rica's development. A nation of more than 4 million, Costa Rica boasts the highest standard of living in Central America and has a vibrant technology sector. But until recently it took an average of nine days to deliver a letter -- if it got there at all. Postal authorities say that 1 in 5 pieces of mail is undeliverable because they can't figure out where the addressee lives. The problem is worse in new subdivisions, where neighbors don't know one another and can't advise carriers.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/05/business/fi-crmail5

0 Replies

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

dlowan wrote:
Hell, any of us would happily send you some!

You guys would do anything for converts wouldn't you? Let me see if they have it here first, or if I am going to be somewhere that does (e.g. the US, or even Australia, as I've been interested in moving to Australia for a while) anytime soon because I don't receive any snail mail in Costa Rica due to that whole not having proper addresses thing.

Oh, I am not a missionary for vegemite....I don't eat it...I was just being (schniff...I have been misunderestimated again) kind.

^This whole damn conversation DID make me gpo and get Promite the other day, though!

Yes, I figured the no address thing.

But people in CR HAVE to get mail SOMETIMES, no?

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

dlowan wrote:
Peanut butter is universal.

No, it really isn't. I've lived many places where I could not find any peanut butter.

Peanut butter is ALMOST universal.

2 Replies

@dlowan,

You sure we are talking about the same peanut butter? As in PBJ?

I guess if by "almost universal" you mean the few western countries that actually eat it with any regularity (the article was talking about where it was "popular"). But I call that the overwhelming minority. In pretty much all of Asia and Latin America peanut butter is a rarity.

0 Replies

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

Oh, I am not a missionary for vegemite....I don't eat it...I was just being (schniff...I have been misunderestimated again) kind.

I know, I know. I'm holding The Borrowers right now actually, thanks for that one, it's next on my reading list (a bit late).

Quote:

But people in CR HAVE to get mail SOMETIMES, no?

Sure, but I didn't like mail even when the addresses work well. I use a service now that scans all my mail and lets me read it on the internet. So I don't really use physical addresses except as pickup spots for packages (e.g. I just used Nick's spot to order stuff) so the only stuff I get here is usually couriered and would be a very expensive way to send me anything (I think they would charge $100 to get me a letter from you, much less an object).

2 Replies

@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

I know, I know. I'm holding The Borrowers right now actually, thanks for that one, it's next on my reading list (a bit late).

Oh! I love it when I get others to read that.

I'll be fascinated to see if you like it. A lot of it is so very English that you may not. I hope you do, with your little people thing and all.

0 Replies

@Robert Gentel,

Quote:

o the only stuff I get here is usually couriered and would be a very expensive way to send me anything (I think they would charge $100 to get me a letter from you, much less an object).

You know what?

I would find the cost worth it, IF you were prepared to have someone video you and some friends having your first tasting experience and post it here!

Hell, I'd enclose Little k's left underwire and a bavk.

0 Replies

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

even Australia, as I've been interested in moving to Australia for a while

Much easier to get Vegemite if you moved here! And such charming people, as well!

1 Reply

@margo,

Yeah, but I don't think the immigration situation is as sweet as it is here in CR (I can basically stay as long as I want as a tourist, as long as I leave for 48 hours every 90 days). I could get away with that for about 180 days in Oz right? Then that's it for the year on tourist visa?

Mebbe I'll do 6 months in Oz as a tourist after I sell my condo (one day... one day...). More than that and I think I wear out my welcome.

0 Replies

@dlowan,

Is PB big in Australia and New Zealand?

I've never heard of it being popular anywhere but Canada and the U.S. I know there are lots of peanuts and peanut sauces in Thai and similar cooking types, but PB seemed to be pretty specific to Cda/U.S. to me. I used to always end up with mad cravings when visiting Germany as I couldn't get PB there.

3 Replies

@ehBeth,

Sure is ehBeth. http://www.peanutbutter.com.au/

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

Is PB big in Australia and New Zealand?

I've never heard of it being popular anywhere but Canada and the U.S. I know there are lots of peanuts and peanut sauces in Thai and similar cooking types, but PB seemed to be pretty specific to Cda/U.S. to me. I used to always end up with mad cravings when visiting Germany as I couldn't get PB there.

Yes, I think it is big amongst kids and such.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

PB much very popular western breakfast all time.

Most mornings i have two toast 1 peanut butter (crunchy) 1 vegemite 1 white (instant ) coffee 2 sugars please.

0 Replies

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