Although many of the stories in the collection fall under the “Stories of Alternate History” rubric which appears on the cover, not all of the stories are alternate history. “The R Strain” is a tale of the consequences of genetic engineering, specifically it asks whether a pig genetically engineered to chew its cud, thereby making it kosher according to the biblical definition. In the introduction to the story, written when the book was first published in 1993, comments that a relative to the pig, babirusa, does chew its cud. Unfortunately, this introduction has not been updated to reflect the fact that the babirusa does not, in fact, chew its cud.
Kinda hard on the re-engineered pig if it doesn’t have a cud to chew on, not having the necessary intestinal structure of a bovine.
Turkey bacon is a thing. No reason that can’t be Kosher.
Remember a few years ago when Bob Evans introduced plant-based sausage, and the MAGA crowd flipped out that they were getting rid of real sausage?
I think their mindset is really incapable of handling the idea of free choice. The existence of an option that they’re not interested in makes no sense to them - it MUST be that they’re going to be forced to have the new option and like it.
I’m guessing a lot of them grew up with parents who were lousy cooks and forced their kids to finish everything on the plate whether it was any good or not.
I remember seeing a comedian interviewing someone and the topic of pro-life/pro-choice came up. When he asked her about her stance on the subject she did one of those “Well, I would never…” and he “finished” her sentence by saying “but you’re okay with other people doing it”, or something along those lines. In any case, I always loved the way he then said “you know being pro choice doesn’t mean you’re required to get an abortion, just that you have the option to do it”.
I may have mangled that a bit, but I think he made a good point (even if he was going for a joke).
But this whole mindset of “only things that I ['m told to] like are okay, everything else is wrong” seems to cover a lot of their views on a lot of subjects.
Quick, anyone who was alive in 2001 or its immediate aftermath, has ever lived in New York, or has ever seen a prime-time drama or action movie set in New York; what is the acronym for the city’s fire department?
If you answered “NYFD”, you must be Donald Trump.
We had to read it Junior High. I don’t remember much it except the bit about god holding you like a loathesome spider over the pit of hell.
And he’s a freaking New Yorker! I got it right, and I’m on the opposite coast.
Kind of like the freakout over the new, female-centered Ghostbusters reboot a few years back. People acted as if the original movies were going to be banned or something.
(I realize that wasn’t a political thing, but I’d imagine the political affiliation of the out-freakers was overwhelmingly GOP.)
Very nicely put.
(Also from the post quoted here: I was never all that big a fan of Kaitlan Collins, but she really did do a stellar job of exposing Professional Tool J. D. Vance.)
NH state legislator and future registered sex offender opposes a bill to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 because it will discourage “ripe, fertile” teenagers from making babies.
Apparently it’s not just “every accusation is a confession,” but also “every debate remark is a confession.”
In a sane world or even a sane state, that sort of argument would ensure passage of the bill.
But this is the state that has given us professional concern troll Susan Collins, so…
Collins is from Maine.
Remember when teen pregnancy was a moral failing of our society? Sure you do!
But do you remember that it was the ‘out of wedlock’ births to non-White teens who were getting pregnant so they could get all that welfare money and ‘’‘’‘free’‘’‘’ Section 8 housing that was a moral failing of our society?
No, it’s because someone, somewhere might be having fun, and since they aren’t permitted to, no one should be. Jealousy, pure and simple.
But that’s just the point! Raising the marriage age to 18 won’t stop teenagers from having sex and getting pregnant – it’ll just stop them from getting married first!
(Holy shit, that actually does make sense. Must be Friday.)
Sure, just not a nice thing.
As is macon etc, all of the alternatives.
Most of my Jewish friends eat pork, even the observant ones, though they hide that from their mothers.
ETA, their mothers probably do too, and hide it from their kids.
Even my observant Jewish friends families are not particularly strict. I made a bread for Shabbat, and I was totally willing to wash all the cooking equipment in sea water, sterilize and separate milk and meat and make my kitchen (briefly) kosher, and my friends mum said, really, not necessary.
I did have to wear that little hat (yarmulke) and pretend to pray.
It was cool, the food was amazing, and I got re-invited a number of times.
Worst Mad Libs prompt ever;
Wearing that bowtie all those years clearly cut off the circulation to TV Dinner Boy’s brain.
It’s been awhile (obviously) but (counts on fingers and toes) two brood emergences ago I remember a limited number of restaurants offering deep fried cicadas in the area where I lived. We’ll probably see some folks chowing down on them. Supposedly they taste decent to pretty good, with descriptions like “potato chips” and “nutty” but I never tried them, not feeling that adventurous.
Either he was wearing his new Trump brand adult diapers or he was plaing “pocket pool” during the debate.
Many years ago, I read a book which had as a major plot point an extremist religious group whose leader preached that the only delights in Heaven were things which were prohibited in this life on Earth and thus everything in life was prohibited. I can’t remember the name of the book now, but, yeah, that’s these idiots’ mindset no doubt. I’m undecided now, though, if it’s jealousy or envy or both.