Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Watering Hole: August 31 — The Scream

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The Scream

Expressionist painter, Edvard Munch, created The Scream, which was actually one of a series of paintings, in 1893–1910.

In a page in his diary headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image thus:

I was walking along a path with two friends — the sun was setting — suddenly the sky turned blood red — I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence — there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city — my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety — and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

Wow, that’s amazingly vivid.  *shudder*

On this day in history, August 31, one of the versions of The Scream, along with another Munch painting entitled Madonna, were recovered by Norwegian police after having been stolen in 2004.  Both of the paintings suffered damage, but they were restored and returned to display in 2008.

This is our daily open thread — got something to scream about?

Watering Hole: August 30, 2010 – Eggs, How I Love Those Eggs

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Eggs are one of my favorite foods.  Fortunately, I am able to buy local eggs.  I even get to meet the chickens.  When these chickens were just newborns, they came from a small, local breeder.   Sometimes, the egg farmers end up with one or more roosters.  There are no guarantees in this local breeding industry.  Often times, the roosters are raised by the egg farmer and if they become too much of a nuisance, they end up in the soup pot.  These would be fully grown birds.

In order to produce enough meat and chicken to meet the demands of the fast food chains such as McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken, factory farming of animals was expanded and became a big industry.  The supermarket chains also played a part in the creation of factory farms.

The purpose of the above video is to call our attention to the treatment of factory farm animals.  After seeing how these chickens are mistreated, it becomes easier to understand how salmonella can occur in the food industry.  More about salmonella and caged chickens here.   You can learn more about factory farms here.

Join the Slow Food Movement and whenever possible, buy local.

This is what a chicken farm should look like.

Those were some fine looking fat hens and roosters.  With this many varieties of chickens, the egg basket is probably filled with naturally colored Easter eggs.

This is our Open Thread.  Feel free to Speak Up!