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'Not Anti-Fluff'
On the subject of marshmallow spread, it turns out, Massachusetts state Sen. Jarrett Barrios is as squishy as the target of his ire. You may recall that Barrios initially wanted to prohibit public school cafeterias throughout the state from serving Fluffernutter sandwiches; then he retreated to a once-a-week position. Now he says he really has no problem with Fluff:
Barrios' amendment seemed anything but silly to Democratic state Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, D-Revere, whose district is near Lynn, home of Durkee-Mower Inc., the local company that has produced the marshmallow concoction for more than 80 years.
The day after Barrios announced his amendment, Reinstein fired off an e-mail announcing her own legislation designating the Fluffernutter the "official sandwich of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."
"I believe we need to preserve the legacy of this local delicacy," Reinstein wrote in the letter to fellow lawmakers. She noted Fluff is free of artificial preservatives or colorings.
In an interview, Reinstein said she felt the need to defend the honor of Fluff, protect the rights of parents, and protect a local company.
"I'm going to fight to the death for Fluff," Reinstein said. "It's out of control. It's ridiculous that with all the things going on in the state and in the world, we're having this conversation. It's insane."
On Tuesday, an aide to Barrios said the senator is not anti-Fluff. He said Barrios plans to sign on as a co-sponsor to Reinstein's bill, although he still believes schools should ration Fluffernutters to one per week.
"He loves Fluff as much as the next legislator," said Barrios aide Colin Durrant.
[Thanks to Paul Strigler for the update.]
|6.21.06 @ 1:51PM|#
All this talk of Fluff is making me curious. I've never had it,
so I think I'll have to buy some and try a Fluffernutter
sandwich.
Of course, the HFCS in Fluff could instantly give me diabetes, but
that's a risk I'll take.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 1:52PM|#
Hope he didn't wrap the cash in foil and put it in a freezer. that would be just plain wrong.
|6.21.06 @ 1:55PM|#
Whatever one might think about the bigger issues, the thought that a sandwich spread can elicit so much debate in the legislature is surely amusing.
|6.21.06 @ 2:00PM|#
A fluffernutter sandwich just sounds too sticky-sweet to me... but I guess there wouldn't be any connection between my lack of an overactive sweet tooth, and my lack of diabetes, either.
|6.21.06 @ 2:02PM|#
Remember this story if anyone suggests that your home state needs a full time, year round legislature.
Jennifer|6.21.06 @ 2:07PM|#
Yeah, whenever I drive through Massachusetts and have to deal with too much traffic and street patterns that look like someone dropped a handful of cooked spaghetti on the floor, I always think "the Legislature needs to get off its ass and nominate an official sandwich."
|6.21.06 @ 2:09PM|#
Hey, I like Guinness. That doesn't mean I think it's a good idea
to put it on the lunch menu at schools.
Now, from the Silver Lining Department, "She noted Fluff is free of
artificial preservatives or colorings," which is a completely
accurate description of a product that is 100% HFCS.
Timothy|6.21.06 @ 3:24PM|#
There is, in fact, no HFCS in Durkee-Mower's fluff.
The
Fluff FAQ lists the ingredients as corn syrup (the same kind
that's been around for over a century and a half and used in the
fluff since the start), sugar syrup, vanilla flavor, egg
white.
Thusly, this is the same fluff it has always been.
Warren|6.21.06 @ 3:26PM|#
Hey, I like an elected legislature. That doesn't mean I think it's a good idea to put it in charge of every facet of everyone's life.
Timothy|6.21.06 @ 3:28PM|#
Hey, I like Guinness. That doesn't mean I think it's a good
idea to put it on the lunch menu at schools.
And, contra joe, I think that the BEST idea.
|6.21.06 @ 3:31PM|#
Thusly, this is the same fluff it has always
been.
I stand corrected. I look forward to a Fluffernutter sandwich
without the risk of instantaneous diabetes.
|6.21.06 @ 4:05PM|#
"So, it's safe to assume that the Massachusetts legislature is
full of Fluffers?"
And Nutters.
|6.21.06 @ 4:14PM|#
At least the Ann-O-Lantern is gone from the ads, otherwise someone might have to make a truly disgusting comment about her as a fluffer. (Her status as a nutter is already well-known...)
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 4:32PM|#
used in the fluff since the start
. . .
Thusly, this is the same fluff it has always been.
http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/history1.html
Wrong Timothy. This kind of
understandable mistake is exactly why I am not happy with the
private sector food industry and the private sector medical
research scientists.
The ingredients changed. People conditioned to one set of
ingredients start ingesting a different set of ingredients. Is this
why diabetes went up? I am not sure, but it seems reasonably
likely. People should have been told that there was a new
ingredient, especially if the new ingredient causes diabetes at a
greater rate than the old ingredient. This is what I meant by
f**king with the spedometer.
Yes, I know corn syrup existed for a long time. That is not the
point here. When I was growing up, we had the same jar of corn
syrup from at least 1975 (when I first got the gumption to check
the cupboards) thru 1985 (when I left for university). We just
didn't use the stuff very fast at all, it was only a lightly and
seldom used ingredient for home baking, until, unbeknowenst to us .
. . I imagine most families were the same way.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 4:37PM|#
Correction:
one time we had it on pancakes because we ran out of syrup. Because
we were kids, we were fascinated that you could do this. That is
why I remember that Saturday morning to this day.
We put a dent in the olde Karosupply that morning, I tell u
what!
|6.21.06 @ 4:44PM|#
At least the Ann-O-Lantern is gone from the ads.
Now if we could only get rid of carpet-humping guy.
|6.21.06 @ 4:53PM|#
At the risk of starting an earworm....
Oh you need Fluff, Fluff, Fluff to make a Fluffernutter,
Marshmallow Fluff and lots of peanut butter.
First you spread, spread, spread your bread with peanut
butter,
Add marshmallow Fluff and have a Fluffernutter.
When you enjoy, joy, joy your Fluff and peanut butter,
You're glad you have enough for another Fluffernutter.
Here we find Big Mallow marketing to the children, encouraging them
to overeat! Tort! Tort!
http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/kids_page.html
Kevin
(Mom always said "no" when we asked for Fluff®)
|6.21.06 @ 5:02PM|#
(Mom always said "no" when we asked for Fluff�)
Exactly!
How fricking hard is it for parents to just keep saying "no"? Just
don't buy the junk food. My mother didn't.
And until a couple days ago I had never even heard of
Fluffernutter. Can you believe it?
In fact, because of the way I was raised, I can't even stand sugary
cereals. I know that "regular" cereals are still sweetened
somewhat, but I'll always take corn flakes over frosted flakes, or
Cheerios over honey nut Cheerios. I just never developed a taste
for it. When I try to eat the sugary cereals they always taste
gross.
If you don't let your kids eat a ton of sweets they'll develop
better self control. It's not rocket science.
Timothy|6.21.06 @ 5:06PM|#
Dave: The only switch was from granulated sugar to liquid sugar.
In 1950. At least, that's the only one listed in the actual history
rather than in your mind.
Also, the non-HFCS version of regular old corn syrup has been
commonly used in candies since its creation in order to keep the
sugar from crystalizing too early in the candy-making process.
Timothy|6.21.06 @ 5:13PM|#
Oh, and you know what you're going to fucking make if you don't put corn syrup into that fluff? With the eggwhites and whipping you're going to make a fucking meringue, Dave, a goddamn motherfucking meringue.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 5:14PM|#
If you don't let your kids eat a ton of sweets they'll
develop better self control. It's not rocket science.
The problem occurs when the new sweetner changes the very
definition of what a moderate amount is.
Less than a ton of sweets was a good rule for the old
sweetner.
What is the appropriate rule for the new sweetner?
less than half a ton?
Less than a pound?
Less than an ounce?
U r not even curious. that is why you keep having Ghosts come to
you in your sleep and telling you disturbing things about your
profession. they want you to learn, T. To learn.
|6.21.06 @ 5:16PM|#
Timothy, you need to find a way to install Firefox at
work.
Or at least learn to accept that there are some problems that only
MainstreamMan can solve.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 5:21PM|#
The only switch was from granulated sugar to liquid sugar.
In 1950. At least, that's the only one listed in the actual history
rather than in your mind.
Since the ingredients today say corn syrup instead of liquid sugar
we can say with great confidence that there was a later
switch.
My problem here is that that switch was not publicized. When you go
from using a small amount of an ingredient for its
anti-crystalization properties, as my Mom did with our Karojar
(circa '75 - '85(? later)), to using it as a main ingredient --
that is a big switch that consumers should be informed about. that
is a change that should not be swept under the rug. I think the
private sector should have handled publicity for that switch
better. since they have proven themselves unreliable, I think
similar publicity should be imposed on the food industry in the
future by the government. that has been my these is here on the
corn syrup.
Question for those less mistake prone than Timothy: Does anyone
know whether a mfgr has to label HFCS as HFCS, or do they have the
discretion to simply say "cornsyrup?"
Timothy|6.21.06 @ 5:24PM|#
Dave: The ingredients list BOTH corn syrup AND sugar syrup. Jesus, can't you even read?
|6.21.06 @ 5:26PM|#
A friend of mine, and the nice young lady who was his personal
fluffer, used to go through a lot of marshmallow fluff. They did
not, however, put it on bread. I have no more detailed information
to offer than that.
Thought you'd like to know.
|6.21.06 @ 5:30PM|#
Warren, they're the PUBLIC SCHOOLS - the ones chartered, funded,
constructed, and credentialed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I'm afraid you're going to have to - shudder - argue the merits.
"...every facet of everyone's life." You know this about what
public schools serve students in their cafeterias, and has nothing
to do with people's private lives, right?Let's not get all
hysterical.
thoreau, "How fricking hard is it for parents to just keep saying
"no"? Just don't buy the junk food. My mother didn't." You know
that this debate is about what public schools serve students in
their cafeterias, right?
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 5:32PM|#
The ingredients list BOTH corn syrup AND sugar
syrup.
what a great idea for an additional regulation: we
make food mfgrs say how much of each ingredient is in there. then
choosy consumers can inform themselves with greater accuracy and
great ease about what is really in the food and how much instead of
having to make guesses.
I was complaining about "HFCS and/or cane sugar" thing that is
increasingly common on labels these days and you charge in and
suggest the solution so clearly it is unmissable!
Your WuTangStyle is amazing, Tmothy. A naturalbornregulator, I do
declare!
|6.21.06 @ 5:39PM|#
You know that this debate is about what public schools serve
students in their cafeterias, right?
Point taken. I was remarking on a rather ancillary point.
I personally favor removing Fluffernutter from public school
cafeterias. For a few reasons:
1) Doesn't seem like the healthiest thing to serve.
2) When I was their age, I had to find my own amusing things to
giggle over. The school wouldn't just come out and offer up such
delectable words as "Fluffernutter" for me to laugh at.
3) Even leaving aside the issue of health, there's the issue of
attention span: Proteins and complex carbs provide a steadier
stream of calories than simpler carbs like sugar. With sugar
there's a high and then a crash. Not so good for studying in the
afternoon.
Mind you, if kids want to bring their own attention-sapping sweets
that their parents' problem. But there's really no need for the
public schools to exacerbate the problem.
Timothy|6.21.06 @ 5:41PM|#
thoreau: Ahh, the tech people approve of the use...filtered life is grand.
|6.21.06 @ 5:44PM|#
Timothy-
I'm not surprised that they'd approve of Firefox. It's supposed to
be safer. Certainly adblock is nice.
|6.21.06 @ 5:51PM|#
Firefox rules. I'm soaking in it right now.
There's probably more than one of these, but one of my favorite
extensions for Hit & Run purposes is a spellchecker for forms:
Spellbound. I'm
using a development version, which I had to turn to when I last
updated Firefox. It works just peachy, anyway. As I type,
"spellchecker" and "Firefox" have little red underlines, telling me
that I have erred. Wrong, but still nice. Oh, you have to install a
dictionary, too--that's all explained on the Spellbound site.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 5:53PM|#
For a few reasons:
You left out:
(4) The connection between Fluff level usage of cornsyrup and
diabetes has not been sufficiently determined by custom or
scientific study yet.
|6.21.06 @ 6:17PM|#
Fuck, will you go try to sell crazy somewhere else, Dave? We're all full up here.
|6.21.06 @ 7:25PM|#
one time we had it on pancakes because we ran out of syrup.
Because we were kids, we were fascinated that you could do this.
That is why I remember that Saturday morning to this
day.
Are you sure that's way you remember? What else happened that
Saturday morning, Dave?
I think we're getting close to a breakthrough here, wrt Dave W.'s
obsession with HFCS.
|6.21.06 @ 7:26PM|#
Fuck, will you go try to sell crazy somewhere else, Dave?
We're all full up here.
Hear Hear!!
I don't even like the fact that HFCS is in most products, but Dave
W's comments are enough to make me want to change my personal
preferences.
Fuck, Dave -- that horse is fucking dead! Please stop beating
it...
we get it...you think that it's a world altering issue that a
company changed to a lower cost alternative sweetener that may or
may not be worse than regular sugar....
we fucking get it
|6.21.06 @ 7:42PM|#
Hey, when I was a kid we always used Karo syrup on our pancakes.
It was only recently that I picked up a bottle in the grocery store
and realized that the stuff is corn syrup.
Maybe I should expose my parents for their abuse?
Wild Pegasus|6.21.06 @ 7:55PM|#
Every day for lunch, the kids get liver with onions, a large
green salad, and filtered water.
Hey, I like Guinness. That doesn't mean I think it's a good
idea to put it on the lunch menu at schools.
Indeed, it would cut into the supply in the faculty lounge.
- Josh
Science|6.21.06 @ 8:08PM|#
we fucking get it
You get that I think it is a world altering issue. What you don't
get yet is that it is.
Science|6.21.06 @ 8:08PM|#
we fucking get it
You get that I think it is a world altering issue. What you don't
get yet is that it is.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 8:16PM|#
Maybe I should expose my parents for their abuse?
No, but you may want to stock on insulin b4 they raise the price.
As demand goes up, prices should be expected to increase.
Thomas Paine's Goiter|6.21.06 @ 10:01PM|#
Yeah, whenever I drive through Massachusetts and have to
deal with too much traffic and street patterns that look like
someone dropped a handful of cooked spaghetti on the
floor,
Blame joe.
Thomas Paine's Goiter|6.21.06 @ 10:10PM|#
Fuck, will you go try to sell crazy somewhere else, Dave?
We're all full up here.
He's crazy, but not in the way you think. It goes back to his
obesity. He was obese. He doesn't want to blame himself. He lost a
TON of weight and is still fat.
Thomas Paine's Goiter|6.21.06 @ 10:13PM|#
I ate the following as a child:
Take two peices bread, one jar peanut butter, one jar fluff, one
bottle chocolate syrup, one banana, one can whipped cream, one
full-sized graham cracker.
Spread peanut butter on bread, top with fluff, top with banana,
place graham cracker on top, top with chocolate syrup, top with
whipped cream. Spread peanut butter and chocolate syrup on other
piece of bread. cover.
Guess what dave?! I'm not a tub o lard! 6'0" 170. 32 waist.
Dave W.|6.21.06 @ 10:21PM|#
Bully 4 u Tom Paine's Goiter. I would be jealous except for the weakness you gots in yer brains.
|6.21.06 @ 11:40PM|#
Hell, TPG, deep fry that bad boy and it's,
"Hey, Elvis! Dinner's served!"
Kevin
Jennifer|6.22.06 @ 10:53AM|#
Bully 4 u Tom Paine's Goiter. I would be jealous except for
the weakness you gots in yer brains.
Y'know, Dave, from a trying-to-persuade-people-to-agree-with-you
standpoint, I actually think that "Die Phil hate you Phil hope an
Arab rapes your wife and chops off your head Phil" was more
effective than talking about "the weakness you gots in yer
brains."
Dave W.|6.22.06 @ 11:08AM|#
I think people bringing my weight gratuitously and repeatedly
into the discussion is pretty obnoxious, and I think my response to
the Goiter highlights that.
I have been patient, honest and forthcoming about the history of my
weight because some ppl seem to think its relevant (I don't).
I did not do that as some kind of invitation for ppl like Goiter to
harp on it. He wants to discuss my physical defects he is going to
hear about his own. Turnabout is fair play and sauce for the goose
and all that.
That is why I let you get away with so many ad hominem (sp?)
attacks on me, because I attacked you unfairly. Nobody else has
that defense, most especially not Phil. What Goiter is doing is
more mild. therefore he desreves and enjoys a milder rebuke.
Dave W.|6.22.06 @ 11:10AM|#
I think people bringing my weight gratuitously and repeatedly
into the discussion is pretty obnoxious, and I think my response to
the Goiter highlights that.
I have been patient, honest and forthcoming about the history of my
weight because some ppl seem to think its relevant (I don't).
I did not do that as some kind of invitation for ppl like Goiter to
harp on it. He wants to discuss my physical defects he is going to
hear about his own. Turnabout is fair play and sauce for the goose
and all that.
That is why I let you get away with so many ad hominem (sp?)
attacks on me, because I attacked you unfairly. Nobody else has
that defense, most especially not Phil. What Goiter is doing is
more mild. therefore he deserves and enjoys a milder rebuke.
|6.22.06 @ 1:15PM|#
Hey, it just occurred to me that I also used to eat big
fingerfuls of Crisco shortening when I was a kid. I think it was
mostly about the texture, not the taste. I doubt my parents
realized I did that.
Crisco is nuthin but PHVO.
>>No, but you may want to stock on insulin b4 they raise the
price.
Seriously??
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