Thursday Thoughts # 80
from The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett:
"The tutor had arrived with a huge crate of his own books, only too aware that some great houses barely had a single book in them, unless the books were about battles of the past in which a member of the family had been spectacularly and stupidly heroic."
"There's a kind of magic in the cavernous spaces under railway arches and a mystery known only to those who work there. There are always puddles, even if it hasn't rained for weeks, and the puddles are glossy and slimy, the air above filled with the taint of oil and working man's armpit."
from 6 Ways to Kill by R Mac Wheeler:
"I could have been looking at those blots the shrinks use. What does this make you think of? Uh, a spilled bottle of ink."
Today's Thoughts:
Hugh Hefner's mansion is up for sale. We all remember Hugh Hefner? Of course we do!
Well the old boy is still kicking around on this planet, but his mansion is up for sale.
It's described in our Saturday newspaper as having tacky decor, bad taste artworks, dodgy bronze statues, run-down toilets, urine-soaked carpets and bedsheets that haven't been changed since the 1970s.
(I'm assuming that just means he never bought new ones, not that the same sheets have been on those beds this whole time....urk!)
And for all this "glory" they're asking $285 million.
The bonus? After you buy it, Hugh Hefner himself is allowed to continue living there until his death.
Any bids? Anyone?
Also from Saturday's newspaper; an article by Petra Starke (who used to have a blog, and probably still does), about sugary drinks and obesity.
(if Petra objects to me reprinting parts of her article she can let me know and I'll take it down. If I know how.)
The italics are Petra's words, the bolding is my idea.
Quote: " While killing time before a doctor's appointment the other day, I went to a cafe and ordered a bottle of water with 11 teaspoons of sugar in it.
Well, actually I ordered a bottle of 'Bundaberg Passionfruit Sparkling Drink', but after reading the nutrition label, ( the word 'nutrition' being used very generously), I realised I may as well have.
According to the label, the 375ml bottle of orange-coloured fizzy drink contained 43.2 g of sugar, the equivalent of 10.8 teaspoons.
That's just a little bit under a quarter of a cup of sugar."
Petra goes on to tell us how much sugar is in various other popular soft drinks then says:
"perhaps most shockingly, a 250ml apple-flavoured Fruit Box has seven teaspoons. Seven!
If you're not terrible at maths, you'll notice that makes one of the country's most popular children's lunch box fillers 6.5 percent more sugary by volume than Coca Cola."
(Wow. I used to drink those Fruit Boxes* and buy them for my kids.
* well-known brand name.)
"If someone asked you for a cup of tea with seven teaspoons of sugar in it, you'd think they were mental. And yet this is exactly what we're giving kids every time we hand them an apple Fruit Box."
Here's more: "......a survey by government-funded LiveLighter found some smoothie drinks being sold at Boost Juice, Gloria Jean's and MacDonald's contained more kilojoules than a Big Mac and more sugar than a bottle of soft drink."
(There's a website listed where you can read all about it, but I haven't checked it myself, so won't put it here, I'll take their word for it.)
"...these juice blends are more insidious than soft drink, with healthy sounding names like "Protein Supreme" and "Brekky to Go-Go", and carrying claims of being packed full of nutrition.
What they are apparently packed full of is sugar: Gloria Jean's 'Mango Fruzie' contains an absolutely massive 31 teaspoons, or about a half a cup. The height of irony is Gloria Jean's marketing this abomination as '98 percent fat free' ; what does fat matter when the smoothie you're drinking contains the same amount of sugar as a 1.25 litre bottle of coke?"
"....wouldn't it be helpful if the sugar content had to be advertised as boldly as those other nutrition claims? "Mango Fruzie - 98 percent fat free and 31 teaspoons of sugar."
Makes you think a bit doesn't it?
I had a Boost Juice smoothie myself just last week. A Banana Buzz with extra banana. It was yummy and filling, but not something I buy on a regular basis. Mostly because they're not cheap. I bought a "regular" size and it was $7, which I hadn't known before I ordered it.
I used to buy a blended fruit mix from one of those juice stalls in the middle of Rundle Mall, but they're gone. I'd watch them put slices of pineapple, watermelon and apple in a juicer and switch it on and the blended juice would come out of the spout into a cup which they then capped and I'd add a straw. Yummy.
"The tutor had arrived with a huge crate of his own books, only too aware that some great houses barely had a single book in them, unless the books were about battles of the past in which a member of the family had been spectacularly and stupidly heroic."
"There's a kind of magic in the cavernous spaces under railway arches and a mystery known only to those who work there. There are always puddles, even if it hasn't rained for weeks, and the puddles are glossy and slimy, the air above filled with the taint of oil and working man's armpit."
from 6 Ways to Kill by R Mac Wheeler:
"I could have been looking at those blots the shrinks use. What does this make you think of? Uh, a spilled bottle of ink."
Today's Thoughts:
Hugh Hefner's mansion is up for sale. We all remember Hugh Hefner? Of course we do!
Well the old boy is still kicking around on this planet, but his mansion is up for sale.
It's described in our Saturday newspaper as having tacky decor, bad taste artworks, dodgy bronze statues, run-down toilets, urine-soaked carpets and bedsheets that haven't been changed since the 1970s.
(I'm assuming that just means he never bought new ones, not that the same sheets have been on those beds this whole time....urk!)
And for all this "glory" they're asking $285 million.
The bonus? After you buy it, Hugh Hefner himself is allowed to continue living there until his death.
Any bids? Anyone?
Also from Saturday's newspaper; an article by Petra Starke (who used to have a blog, and probably still does), about sugary drinks and obesity.
(if Petra objects to me reprinting parts of her article she can let me know and I'll take it down. If I know how.)
The italics are Petra's words, the bolding is my idea.
Quote: " While killing time before a doctor's appointment the other day, I went to a cafe and ordered a bottle of water with 11 teaspoons of sugar in it.
Well, actually I ordered a bottle of 'Bundaberg Passionfruit Sparkling Drink', but after reading the nutrition label, ( the word 'nutrition' being used very generously), I realised I may as well have.
According to the label, the 375ml bottle of orange-coloured fizzy drink contained 43.2 g of sugar, the equivalent of 10.8 teaspoons.
That's just a little bit under a quarter of a cup of sugar."
Petra goes on to tell us how much sugar is in various other popular soft drinks then says:
"perhaps most shockingly, a 250ml apple-flavoured Fruit Box has seven teaspoons. Seven!
If you're not terrible at maths, you'll notice that makes one of the country's most popular children's lunch box fillers 6.5 percent more sugary by volume than Coca Cola."
(Wow. I used to drink those Fruit Boxes* and buy them for my kids.
* well-known brand name.)
"If someone asked you for a cup of tea with seven teaspoons of sugar in it, you'd think they were mental. And yet this is exactly what we're giving kids every time we hand them an apple Fruit Box."
Here's more: "......a survey by government-funded LiveLighter found some smoothie drinks being sold at Boost Juice, Gloria Jean's and MacDonald's contained more kilojoules than a Big Mac and more sugar than a bottle of soft drink."
(There's a website listed where you can read all about it, but I haven't checked it myself, so won't put it here, I'll take their word for it.)
"...these juice blends are more insidious than soft drink, with healthy sounding names like "Protein Supreme" and "Brekky to Go-Go", and carrying claims of being packed full of nutrition.
What they are apparently packed full of is sugar: Gloria Jean's 'Mango Fruzie' contains an absolutely massive 31 teaspoons, or about a half a cup. The height of irony is Gloria Jean's marketing this abomination as '98 percent fat free' ; what does fat matter when the smoothie you're drinking contains the same amount of sugar as a 1.25 litre bottle of coke?"
"....wouldn't it be helpful if the sugar content had to be advertised as boldly as those other nutrition claims? "Mango Fruzie - 98 percent fat free and 31 teaspoons of sugar."
Makes you think a bit doesn't it?
I had a Boost Juice smoothie myself just last week. A Banana Buzz with extra banana. It was yummy and filling, but not something I buy on a regular basis. Mostly because they're not cheap. I bought a "regular" size and it was $7, which I hadn't known before I ordered it.
I used to buy a blended fruit mix from one of those juice stalls in the middle of Rundle Mall, but they're gone. I'd watch them put slices of pineapple, watermelon and apple in a juicer and switch it on and the blended juice would come out of the spout into a cup which they then capped and I'd add a straw. Yummy.
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I've heard of people advertising ranches around here and the ad asks that the new buyer keep a certain outdoor animal for their lifetime. But Hugh Heffner????? I'd keep someones goat and chickens before I'd want Heff around.
ReplyDeleteBut I must say, Playboy magazine was an investment way back in it's early days. I wish I had an attic full of the old ones. LOL
Sugar, sugar, sugar..... it sure is ONE evil addiction.
I'm very strident about junk food, and sugar in particular. Well, salt, too. I'll tell mothers to look at the grams of sugar and divide by 4. That's how many teaspoons of a modern drug are going down your kid's throat. It is addictive. It is the gateway to worse drugs. We once had to work for sugar. Tap sugar maple trees, distill the sap. Grow, cut, press the sugar cane and distill the sap. It was a treat. It was a treat when I was a child, in the '40's. My sister, ten years younger, had open access and made herself obese. I kept no "artificial" food in the house when my children grew up, for the unscientific reason that it all tasted like petroleum distillates. My oldest daughter grew up to run a whole food restaurant. The youngest set out to prove she had a deprived childhood, and in five short years on her own became an obese woman. Sad.
ReplyDeleteEnd of soap box.
That is one heck of a lot of sugar.
ReplyDeleteI'll offer $1.37--let Hefner counter!!
ReplyDeleteManzanita; I'd agree to keeping an animal that knows no other home, but there's no way I'd have Hugh Hefner hanging around in my home.
ReplyDeleteSugar is everywhere, even in places you wouldn't think of. Probably plain water is the only drink that doesn't have any.
Joanne; we didn't have junk food around when I was little, simply because it wasn't available then. There was ice cream, but that was a summer treat that we got on paydays if there was enough money left over. With my own kids, I rarely bought things like sweets or biscuits and made my own cakes for birthdays so I knew what was in them. None of us was overweight. I am now, because I eat too much, especially ice cream, but I'm cutting back, haven't had any chocolate since that one small box the neighbour gave me at Christmas and not a single doughnut since last winter.
Another hazard is artificial sweeteners used in diet foods and drinks. People think they're okay because they don't contain sugar, but the chemical substitute packs on the weight just as much as sugar and fats do.
Delores; and people don't think about it because grams doesn't seem as much as teaspoons when reading labels. I'm glad my main drink is water.
fishducky; even for $1.37, I bet he still would want to stay there. Too awful to contemplate. There's better things to spend your money on.
Juice people can afford the Hefner play house. All they after to do is torch the place.
ReplyDeleteEven if I had $238 million I wouldn't be spending it on a huge mansion, that I know for certain. And this I've mention before from memory. I don't need nor do I want a huge mansion. I don't even want a huge house. I couldn't think of anything worse...for me.
ReplyDeleteThese days I rent a small cabin. I wish I did own my own home; have done so a few times, but no longer. But I sure don't need or desire a big house. A small, two-bedrooms, at the maximum cottage/cabin, would suit me just fine.
And when I win $200m in the Lotto, that is what I will buy for myself...somewhere very quiet with no neighbours close by, but the ocean and a view of it near by. :)
A good thing about here where I live I don't have neighbours nearby..none "just over the fence". I can't see any houses when I look out my windows...and that suits me just fine. :)
My main drink is water, too; and I drink lots of it. I have one cup of coffee a day; sometimes, rarely, I might have two, but I don't add sugar to coffee (nor to tea the rare times I drink tea...and particularly not in green tea when I have it). I make my own fruit juices and smoothies and have never added sugar as such to them. I sometimes add honey to smoothies.
But to hell with all the the preachers I say. They all go on a bit too much for my liking; and they change their minds on what is supposedly good or bad for us from one day to the other; if not one hour to the other!
If I want to have a sweet biscuit, a piece of cake, some dark chocolate, some licorice or a dastardly-wicked Cherry Ripe once in a while, I will. I'll be dead a long time!
Now I'll cease my own preaching and hop down off my soapbox!! :)
We are in furious agreement about sugar being a huge problem. I think I am right in saying that sugar converts to fat. Our local market makes fresh orange juice from fresh oranges and nothing else. There is already plenty of sugar in an orange.
ReplyDeleteHefner's mansion sounds quite squalid.
That Hefner house sounds dreadful, and him wanting to live there is sold! My goodness, imagine the mess it would still be in if he did live there...yuk!
ReplyDeleteSugar, I might have a drink of Diet Pepsi Max or what ever it's called once in awhile. Have only one cup of tea a day with a sweetener, then I drink water prn.
Never do I drink soft drinks, don't care for them.
I think some people get obsessed with sugar if not a diabetic.
Susan Kane; torching it might be the best idea now that we know what the interior is like.
ReplyDeleteLee; I wouldn't spend that much on a house either, something a little bigger than what I have now, with loads more storage space, and right on the ocean front; the rest of the money could go towards family, general living costs, charities and trips all over the world.
I'm a sugar fiend, raised with everything sweetened and it's hard to stop. I use less than the recommended amount in recipes and don't bake very often anymore, mostly at Christmas, but I do add sugar to my coffee, a lot of sugar which is why I now limit my coffees to one or two a day. I use honey in tea.
Andrew; sugar does convert to fat, especially if a person doesn't work out like an athlete every day, and who does that if they don't have to? I consumed a lot more sugar when I was working in the shoe factory and kept my weight at around 58kg, because the work was all go-go-go from start to finish. When I stood at a checkout for ten+ years, that's when the weight started piling on, so I cut back the sugar and sweet treats, but still the weight kept piling on simply because I was standing still and then being too tired and bored to do anything but nap when I got home.
Susan Kane above us has a great idea for Hugh Hefner's mansion.
Margaret-whiteangel; I can't see anyone, anywhere, allowing a former owner to live in the house they'd just bought. I don't care what the house history might be, or how famous it was, if I buy it it's mine and "you" can go live somewhere else.
I'll drink Pepsi in the summer, but not often, if I want fizz I'll drink mineral water or soda water, mostly just plain water. I don't like the chemical taste of diet drinks or those sweeteners. Diet Pepsi Max is a soft drink, all those colas and other fizzy flavours are.
I don't drink soft drinks nor fruit juice and have fortunately never liked Coke (either Pepsi or Coca Cola). I do enjoy ginger beer and although I believe it's not good for one, I do buy the diet variety and that perhaps twice a year.
ReplyDeleteIt is better to eat fruit whole as if you want a glass of say orange juice it can take up to 7 oranges so imagine the calories in that. 7 oranges or apples would be far too much in one day.
I guess if you are stick thin you could drink those things but would they in turn actually be good for you thin or fat?
I went back and read the bit about Heffner's home being for sale. Perhaps Donald Trump may buy it as it sounds to me just the type of place he deserves. I am sure the sheets are changed but are just old....hopefully.
Iwwww, spending mega fortunes on some house just to have Hefner host some porno parties onsite is not my idea of a good time. bleh
ReplyDeleteMimsie; I agree, just eat the piece of fruit, you get all the fibre that way too and the chewing action helps to satisfy your stomach. Follow it with a glass of water and that's all you need.
ReplyDeleteHappy Elf Christine; there's no way on earth I could let Hugh Hefner stay if I bought that house. Or anybody else, if I bought their house.