Reason Writers Around Town: Katherine Mangu-Ward on Bloggingheads Talking About Supermarket Subsidies and What's for Dinner

In the latest Bloggingheads.tv Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward talks with Kate MacKenzie of City Harvest about a variety pack of food issues, including supermarket subsidies, school lunches, hipsters on food stamps, and the obesity/hunger paradox. The discussion includes some head-to-head food match-ups: Twinkies v. rice and beans, pizza vs. leftovers, and (in the final minute) soup v. blueberry pie.

Comments

[Suki]

Good morning reason!

What kind of cold medicine is Katherine using in that video?

[ola]

what's a mangu?

[Mainer]

Does it mean smart And cute ?
(oops, did i say that out loud ?)

[SIV]

Pernod?

[SugarFree]

Could you guys have made a worst screen cap? You couldn't catch one of them picking their nose or spitting while they talked?

[Kate MacKenzie]

DURRRRRR!

[ClubMedSux]

They must have learned their screen-capping skills from watching the Soup.

[sage]

hipsters on food stamps

Hipsters are a plague that needs to be eradicated. If I see one more douchecanoe with thick framed glasses, skinny jeans, and random artwork on their upper arms walking around the ferry I'm gonna throw them over the side.

[sage]

Stupid tag leakage. Garcon! Coffee!

[BakedPenguin]

You're just jealous of my screenplay. Now calm down before you knock over my venti Iced Americano.

[SugarFree]

That's a West Coast hipster, East Coast is all "Oh, no. You made me drop my guava bubble tea! I need it to stay awake for the burlesque show at the poetry jam after-party."

[ClubMedSux]

Please, please, please... While there are plenty of things to knock hipsters for, let's leave burlesque out of it. It's the one thing the hipsters got right!

[SugarFree]

Not "ironic" burlesque, filled with fat hairy dykes "reclaiming" their "sexuality."

The first time I took my brother-in-law to NYC, one of my friends that lives up there said he was going to a burlesque show. BIL leans over and asks "What's a burlesque show." I promptly reply "Fat strippers." He nods and the rest of the table yells at me.

[ClubMedSux]

Good to know... I just assumed that hipster burlesque was like Suicide Girls. I would have been deeply disappointed.

[SugarFree]

Hipster burlesque is essentially a drag show with biological women.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Hipster burlesque is essentially a drag show with biological women.

You, sir, need a show on Comedy Central.

[BakedPenguin]

You, sir, need a show on Comedy Central.

Ouch. I thought he was funnier than that.

[zoltan]

Burlesque showgirls in Austin look far more like suicide girls except for the deathly and disgusting pale skin. I think it's an East Coast thing. I think to a lot of Texans, the East Coast is populated by pale, whiny weaklings be they skeletally skinny or blubbery.

[alan]

some years back, a transcript from memory.

visiting acquaintance: hey what's there to do in this town? I hear there is a transvestite burlesque show at that down town theater.

Me: I would rather die.

visiting acquaintance: then, what do you have in mind?

me: I know this strip joint where there is one skinny chick who'll let you finger bang her for some coke.

him: ewwww!

me: are you gay?

[-]

Why do they concern you so?

[sage]

It's not so much concern as I just wanted to vent for a second. I'm good.

[CoyoteBlue]

For me: Envy.

If I was twenty or twenty five years younger, I would be totally down with that lifestyle. Work half-time retail jobs, do bullshit artsy-fartsy stuff, screw the relatively attractive other hipster boys and girls and complain about how the productive portion of society (peasents/rednecks/morlocks) aren't providing me with enough subsidies.

It appeals to my asshole side.

[Virginia]

In the book, the morlocks eat the hipsters.

[sage]

No homo.

[SIV]

sounds pretty fucking homo to me

(nttawwt)

[Virginia]

Hipsters qualify for SNAP?!

The Federal Poverty Level is $18,310 (lower 48), that's a ~$9/hour job. Does anyone else feel like they're being robbed?

[Virginia]

Sorry, FPL is $18,310 for a family of 3... so it's an even lower income threshold to qualify for assistance if you're an unmarried, childless hipster.

[ClubMedSux]

Can't speak for Brooklyn, but here in Chicago most hipsters are bankrolled by their well-to-do parents out in the suburbs (or Michigan, Ohio, etc.). It's actually kind of fascinating to watch as real starving artist types are forced to move from old hipster neighborhoods (such as Wicker Park) to up-and-coming-hipster neighborhoods (like East Pilsen or Logan Square) because the influx of trust fund hipsters led the landlords in Wicker Park to convert their apartments to condos.

[Russ 2000]

25 years ago Wicker Park was what East Pilsen was 5 years ago. 40 years ago the area around Cubs Park was mostly Cuban. The only Cuban around there now is Starlin Castro.

I actually sort of prefer that trust fund kids blow their money like this instead of living in compounds like the Kennedys. But regardless of neighborhood, trust fund kids will always be smug; some things will never change.

[SIV]

If the hipster lands a no-show Americorp gig there is no disqualifying income level for SNAP. Americorp gig at 23k +5k education bonus + trust fund = fully qualified for SNAP.

[Mainer]

SNAP ?

[Virginia]

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

They're not called 'food stamps' anymore.

[Ghost of George Carlin]

similiar to:
Shell Shock
Battle Fatigue
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

the more syllables the better

[hmm]

Derp and Duckface strike again!

[?]

These videos would be a lot more interesting if they did them as chinfaces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMT3rdN-IRY

[Madbiker]

Mackenzie seemed to dodge the heart of every question. If I heard the words "having a conversation" one more time I might have prayed to be deaf. At least she said "conversation" instead of "opening up a dialogue."

[DJF]

Cold left over pizza in the morning is the food of the gods

Don't lie, we all have wolfed it down in the morning and been pissed when we find that someone else in the house got to it first.

[Jo Lerner]

OK this makes a lot of sense dude.

http://www.anonymity.th.tc

[Lemon Jones]

Oh wow, never thought about it that way before. Makes sense.

anon-tools.au.tc

[Bustman Jones]

OK never thought about it that way before, makes sense.

anon-tools.au.tc

[ola]

if all these obese poor hungry people don't know where their next meal is coming from, then why are they consuming what is quick and easy (ie expensive fast food) which is unhealthy for them? maybe they should be called obese poor hungry and frickin stupid public school educated people. btw i've never seen fat poor hungry people from third world countries.

[BakedPenguin]

Do any convenience stores regularly stock greens? At best, I've seen apples and bananas.

Also, I remember that a group called Second Harvest used to take near-spoilage foods from the grocery store where I used to work 20 years ago. I wonder if they morphed into City Harvest.

[D-FENS]

I'm happy to see someone keeping food out of the trash, but that was five minutes's worth of debate crammed into 40.

[Virginia]

Sounds like the freegans lost this battle. Rebel dumpster-diving scum.