Hi, friends!
It’s Wednesday, we’re halfway to the weekend. Thankfully.
Anyways I digress.
Is there anything you saw recently that you’re making sure your friends know about?
Last night, butcherbakertoiletrymaker told about the comet. That’s fucking cool!
My sharing is caring moment is not cool, but is important. There’s a huge chicken product recall happening in the US, please make sure you’re not impacted. Listeria is no joke and it’s only a matter of time before someone is sick from this.
For reference –
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/chicken-meat-recall-brucepac-listeria-rcna173683
10 million lbs of ready to eat chicken products – so like when you’re in a hurry and grab a premade wrap or salad, trying to be healthier. Kroger, 7Eleven, Wegman’s, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Costco, Target, Giant Eagle, HEB – basically all over the grocery chains. Also many popular frozen meals like Michelina’s, Rao’s, Adkins, etc could be involved.
FDA product list – in between checking at work and checking 6 hours later, they added over a hundred pages so this is a massive potential impact.
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/food_label_pdf/2024-10/Recall-028-2024-Labels.pdf
Some key details about listeria: heating foods to 165 F/74 C will kill the bacteria. Symptoms usually last a few days and include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, flu-like symptoms, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and potentially seizures. Of critical importance – please be hyper aware and make sure anyone you know who is pregnant knows to check for any of these foods. There’s a really high chance of miscarriage or severe damage to the fetus.
Here’s the CDC rundown on Listeria:
https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/signs-symptoms/index.html
They note that it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to develop, which is a good reminder that food poisoning is usually delayed a lot longer than people think. The stereotype is people puke their guts out and blame the deviled egg they ate an hour or two ago, but it’s usually something quite a bit longer ago that’s to blame, sometimes a week or more.
My late friend was a food health inspector used to tell me all the gory details about the horror restaurants he would inspect also all the horrible diseases one could get. He preferred the chain restaurants because they were generally clean and avoided most hole in the wall/family restaurants because they were the places he had to shut down and knew what lurked in the kitchen.
The incubation period on certain food borne illness is pretty long. Rough guide is it is usually 8-24 hours for most to hit you.
And that’s just the beginning. You don’t usually feel really bad until even later.
The other thing is is a ton of it is from people with dirty hands or people coughing into food instead of the food itself. Those signs about employees must wash hands in bathrooms aren’t just busybody regulators.
That is usually the grosser parts. Especially staff refusing to wash hands after finishing in the bathroom. They’re touching everyone’s food!!!
/shudders/
I’ve seen it before… at Nortel I remember using said bathroom and some guy in a $2000 suit leaves a stall and then just walks out without washing his hands. I mumbled something about diseased assholes as I washed my hands. Once I dried my hands I walked out of the bathroom to the sight of “Shit hands” shaking hands with all the sales guys. I wanted to point at him and go “ewww” and also laugh because I am a terrible person.
I think Norovirus in particular is bad as far as spreading by contact.
Because of the dogs in our house I’ve gotten in the habit of pretty regular handwashing. They’re constantly licking me, and I can see where their tongues go.
I rarely buy pre cooked chicken products except as cold cuts. Not exactly for this reason, but chicken is something easy to cook so why spend the extra for precooked stuff and get the bonus of food poisoning or nitrates/salt?
It’s most common for me when I’m travelling and it’s like oh the airport grab and go.
This is my Friday. So happy because this week’s already fucked up at work.
It’s been pretty bad that my supervisor is already snarling and it’s only the 2nd day but I don’t care because I’m heading off to K-town tomorrow with my university friends.
Went to visit dad and mom today before I leave. I got to push mom around in her wheelchair, but she’s not very responsive anymore. Dad was happy to see me so that helped. We chatted for a bit and I told him I’m going to Kingston (not that he’d remember.) I was a bit sad on the way back home because of all the bad blood that happened between us over the years, but not as sad as it could have been as we at least reconciled before dad’s mind went south.
Daylight Savings Time ends throughout the US (except in Arizona, Hawaii and other territories where they’ve already gotten rid of it anyway) on November 3.
That’s rather important to me personally, as I’ll be catching a plane back home from Portland a few hours after there time changes, and if I have an extra hour to sleep or shower, or even a glimmer of sunlight by the time I get to the airport at least, then I’ll sure as hell take that shit.
I think we should go back to the days before railroads when every town made up their own rules about time.
No, I don’t.
I’d rather we stop this bullshit of daylight savings and stop blaming the farmers (like Luigi) for it and put the blame on rich industrialists.
Well, hell, if the social fabric’s already ripping these days over the goddamn weather. . . .
Extra sleep is always good. Just not too often.
Fucking daylight savings time.
I love that month in winter when it’s dark when I leave for work and dark when I come home from work. It’s the best for my mental health and wellness.
By the way, this is the recommended month for flu shots.
I got mine plus the Covid booster. My side effects were minimal, and a fullblown case of the flu is like getting pushed down the stairs into a big vat of old curdled ballpark nacho cheese.
I got my flu shot this week, too!
Every time I get the flu when I didn’t get the annual vaccine, I end up coughing so hard that I puke. So you know, that’s a strong motivation to keep up with the vaccination.