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A Love Affair with Food

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I hope to one day find someone who loves me the way Ike loves cooking. Food enthusiast Ike Spry shares with us his never-ending love story with cooking and how he hopes to spread that love in the future…” — Editor Jesse Denyer

By Ike Spry, Food Dude

We live in the age of industrialized food. You could go to the supermarket and get a rotisserie chicken for literally the same price as a whole uncooked chicken. Certainly, if you really despise cooking, you have plenty of options to avoid it. Plenty of people I know live off frozen food and Doordash, but the ability to do so is only a product of the industrial revolution. Going back to our hunter-and gatherer life, we relied on food for our nourishment because there was no butcher who would cut the meat for us, package our food in cans, and put it in microwave-safe plastic. We found and cooked food for the sake of feeding ourselves. 

It’s changed now. I cook, for example, out of love. I love to feed people; I love to bring back memories, and it makes me feel good to master a technique and see my family and friends gobble up something I’ve spent years nailing down. Certainly, some people don’t have a choice about cooking at home because cooking at home is usually more economically beneficial than eating out every night; and while eating off the one dollar menu at McDonalds may be cheaper, it certainly isn’t healthy. It doesn’t feed our family what they need to live long and nourishing lives. The thing is, there aren’t a lot of concrete reasons to cook at home anymore. It’s not always cheaper to cook at home–especially if you’re buying expensive steak or random spices that you’ll put in the back of the cabinet after making the recipe and never use again. Also, eating out supports local businesses, it can be beneficial to the environment, and really is just less of a hassle for many people. 

The English roasted potato so beloved by Ike

But, I like the hassle. I love learning what makes my hollandaise sauce split, or my French macaron rise perfectly, but it’s not fun for everyone. A lot of people hate cooking. My mom would rather clean the kitchen and the tornado of dishes I leave behind than cook enchiladas another time. The reason I love cooking is the feeling I get from it. Cooking brings me joy, seeing people stop talking and just eat the dinner I prepared for them makes me happy. But, more than anything else, it’s about tradition. My English ancestors who overcooked everything, and hated garlic, were not in the same situation that I am. I stand in my kitchen working over a hot stove because it’s what my parents did. The techniques and recipes my father taught me are tangible evidence of his love. I’ll teach my kids the same recipes and techniques, and hopefully they will teach theirs. It gives me comfort knowing that the humble, roast potato, that seemingly only the English know how to make best, is in my cooking arsenal. The pecan pie, with extra pecans, that reminds me of my grandmother, is still something I know how to make. It’s what I remember her by. Memories are why I cook. The scene from Ratatouille where the fastidious food critic eats a well plated, peasant dish of stewed vegetables reminds him of his childhood and brings a tear to his eye–we can all relate to that. When I feel alone, I remember the food my family cooked, and I make the food they made. It gives me comfort knowing that when I slave over the shrine of my hot stove, the fractured remnants of my lineage live on when I cook the food my family made me even when I was too young to appreciate it.

The Storm

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By Roman Rickwood, Sports Enthusiast

Who needs a crystal ball when you have Roman to predict the future! If you planned on putting money on any of these games last week, next time wait for Roman to put out his most spot-on predictions and who knows, you might win some cash (maybe). — Editor Jessica Denyer

We always talk about the calm before the storm, but today we are going to talk about the storm. This past weekend in college football the storm arrived with a slate of many rivalry games and ranked matchups. First game up was the famed rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State. This year was a little bit different however as both teams were coming into this game undefeated and playing many of the same teams. To me this was the closest and most evenly matched game. I predicted a low-scoring defensive slug fest, and I was wrong. The betting line for this game had Michigan favored at -4.5 points, meaning that in order for this to cash, Michigan would have to win the game by 5 or more points. Michigan lost by 6 points. This year the game was played in East Lansing, which made it a Spartan home game. MSU had an incredible season this year under their new coach Mel Tucker. He brought new excitement and energy to the program. This was a signature win for him. Michigan was the best team MSU played all year. I liked Michigan State money line! I believed that MSU would play their game and have the benefit of a loud and excited home crowd to cheer them on. It worked. They actually came BACK and won: 37-33.

Michigan vs. Michigan State Odds, Promos: Bet $10, Win $200 if Either Team Covers +50, and More!
Michigan State vs. University of Michigan

Next game up was the famed Georgia-Florida game played annually in Jacksonville at TIAA Bank Stadium. While this game normally decides the SEC east, this year it was a little bit different. With Florida sitting at 4-3 and Georgia sitting at 7-0, this game did not have as many connotations as it has had in years past. However, this was still a rivalry game at a neutral site between two teams that absolutely hate each other. Georgia was favored by 15 points at -14.5. I personally thought this number was low, which is why I took Georgia with the points. I also took the over 50.5 points as I believed that Georgia would have something to prove to the Gators this year, and I believed they would be out for blood after the loss they suffered last year at the hands of the Gators. In the end, Georgia won by way over 15, and the two teams did not combine for over 50 points. Final Score: 34-7.

OSU vs. Penn State: Justin Fields throws for four touchdowns in Buckeyes' 38-25 win.
Ohio State vs. Penn State

Finally, to close out last Saturday’s big games and rivalries, we had Penn State at Ohio State. This game, much like the Georgia-Florida game, may not have had the same connotations as it has had in the past, but once again this was a rivalry game on Halloweekend. Penn State came into this game with two losses, essentially eliminating themselves from National Title contention. Ohio State came into this game with one loss and desperately trying to play their way into National Title contention. Vegas had the Ohio State Buckeyes favored at -18.5, and Vegas got it wrong. The game was relatively high scoring with an Ohio State offense pretty fiery and a Penn State Offense that had something to prove after only scoring 18 points in last week’s loss to Illinois. The Final Score: 33-24, Ohio State.

Last Saturday was the best weekend of college football that has been played so far this year, with so many marquee matchups. Regardless of if your team was playing in a big game last weekend, it was exciting college football to watch. Kudos to the networks for putting these games back to back to back.

TV, commentators set for the Georgia-Florida game
University of Georgia vs. University of Florida

Who Ya Gonna Call?

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Our Very Own Ghostbuster, Jessica Denyer

We’ve made it through Halloween. In this post Jesse tells us a paranormal story that may just convince you to believe in the healing properties of sage, cedar, and palo santo. So, if you’re scared of spooky spirits catching up to you, you should consider reading this article. — Editor Ike Spry

Welcome back!

So, we’ve talked about crystals; we’ve talked about astrology; heck we’ve even talked about chakras. What more useless knowledge could my brain possibly hold? As I pondered this question all of last week, I was finding myself sucked dry of all ideas for my next blog–that is until I fell into a conversation with members of the flag football team, who by force read my blogs and find them “interesting.” I told them a story about a crazy old woman that would come into my old work, yes, at the crystal store. She would ask if she could smoke various items claiming she could gain their powers if she did. (Disclaimer: I called this woman crazy for a reason.) One of the things she asked to smoke was a bundle of sage. That’s it! This brings me to my post about sage! Thank you, Ben and Desmond, for reminding me. This is also relevant because it was just Halloween when I was writing this, and everyone knows one of sage’s best uses is to cleanse places of bad ju-ju. So, let’s learn about saging….

Sage

As someone who has had many experiences with the paranormal, I would often wonder about the bundles of “cleansing” sage, palo santo, and cedar for sale at the crystal store. What do these really do? I wondered if burning them actually has effect. I thought, I’ll have to learn about that, one day. That day came one Friday evening when I received a random call from my cousin who would never call me at work. When I went on break, I called her back, and she was freaking out. She said that she kept hearing voices all night, that her kids were waking up with nightmares, and then she sent me her home camera footage of her doors opening and closing by themselves while she wasn’t home. As I’m sitting outside of a Starbucks listening and seeing all of this, I am trying to rationalize it in my head. Maybe it was the AC blowing the door. People have nightmares sometimes. Maybe you’re just being paranoid. But she pleaded for my help. So I told her that when I returned from my break I would finally read our little pamphlet about sage, palo santo, and cedar, and how to cleanse a house of spirits with them. I figured it was worth a shot, and if it didn’t work, at least the house would smell nice. From the pamphlet this is what I recall:

Burning sage is a ritual that Native Americans and other indigenous peoples have used to cleanse people and spaces of negative energies and mostly spirits. To burn sage properly, you light one end of the sage and let it float into the air. To sage an entire home you can walk around and use a feather or I guess anything to waft it around in every room to make sure you are covering everything. 

Burning palo santo is done similarly but is focused more on personal energies and eliminating negativity in general in both people and places. 

Palo Santo

Cedar burning is done in the same way, except that it is a great follow-through after saging your home. It promotes positive energy and protects your home from negativity. 

Now, I was ready to go ghost hunting. I bought a bunch of sage, palo santo, and cedar. I even bought the feather and this fancy shell bowl you’re supposed to sit the sage in while you burn and waft. The shell is abalone. I went to my cousin’s house after work, and when I walked in the door, what is usually a very warm, welcoming, upbeat place was very cold and dark. Like I said before, I’ve had many paranormal experiences, and this for sure felt like one. I immediately got busy saging the house. By the time I was done burning the sage, the palo santo, and the cedar, the house felt back to its normal order again. My cousin has had no issues since. She now regularly sages, palo santos, and cedars her home in hope of repelling any negative spirits from returning. To all the non-believers out there, I say, when you have a ghost experience for yourself one day, this story will have new meaning and relevance. 

Cedar

So that’s the story of how I cured a haunting by burning various different leaves and sticks. Come back next week for a new segment called Crystal of the Month, where each month I will pick a crystal of my choice to write in depth about (since people liked my blog about moldavite so much). 

Thanks for reading!

Jesse your Astrology and Crystal Guru

It’s a Raw Deal

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I’m Sorry. The raw diet doesn’t make sense.

By Ike Spry, Cooking Guy/Food Dude

Obesity is rampant in the United States: 73.6 percent of adults 20 years or older are overweight or obese (CDC.gov). Children are becoming overweight as well. Obesity numbers are climbing, and they don’t seem like they’re going to stop anytime soon. But, maybe there’s a solution, and I’m not saying solving obesity is easy. We need to consider socioeconomic conditions, physiology, and food deserts. Also the mass processing of food products is a relatively new phenomenon. Obviously companies are incentivized to use as little money as possible, and it doesn’t help when we subsidize food like corn just to make snack food companies, like Nabisco, use cheap and unhealthy ingredients like corn in multiple manifestations.

Look, pretty much everyone wants to lose a little bit of weight. We follow the fad diet, and hate high-fat foods for a couple decades, only to find out carbohydrates are the enemy, only to find out you need to go vegan, and on and on . . . . I don’t want to convince you which diet is the best, as I’m not very knowledgeable about these things, and food scientists and nutritionists are not my peers. I just want to give you the facts. The raw food movement, traced back to the 1800s when a doctor named Maximilian Bircher-Benne, proposed eating raw apples was a cure for jaundice (health.usnews.com). Since then there have been numerous studies stating whether or not eating raw foods is a plausible option for losing weight, and I want to address the elephant in the room. Yes, you can lose weight by eating raw foods, or keto, or paleo or really any other calorie-restrictive diet. Even if it isn’t necessarily a diet based on calorie suppression, at the end of the day that’s what controls weight loss. Calorie suppression controls weight loss. Even if it was by accident, eating 300 calories less a day will make you lose weight. We could argue about an energy balance in terms of weight loss, and you could talk about the carbohydrate-insulin model, and we could both be arguing about it all day.

I’m not denying genetics play a factor. I just want to tell you about the contradictions of fad diets like the raw diet. First of all, cooking food is vitally important for our human evolution. Our brain becoming larger is most importantly a metabolically expensive process. It is much harder to absorb nutrients and calories from a raw and hard potato than a cooked and starch-filled potato; just like eating raw steak, or raw eggs for example, has less protein than their cooked counterparts. Recent scientific studies have proven the homo erectus’ brain became larger as our teeth became smaller, meaning most likely, absorbing the nutrients from food made us less reliant on constant grazing, and more inclined to absorb more nutrients, and more protein (theworld.org). While some people suggest that fire, obviously the most important part in cooking food, was only used some 500,000 years ago; other scientists suggest cooking food has been traced back over 1.8 million years, which is long enough to support this evolutionary hypothesis (pnas.org). 

thegreatcoursesdaily.com

At the end of the day, what works for you, works for you. I’m sure following a strict raw diet can be beneficial in weight loss, just like anything that involves a caloric deficit. All I want to say is be wary of being caught up in the next fad diet, especially if their fundamental foundation is not necessarily backed by science.

Foreigner

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By Sophomore Guest Poet Remy Haring

I drift through this unfamiliar land

Gripping tightly a picture of those of a bygone era

Draped in a cloak and veil

The blowing sand flays my skin like razor blades

And I can’t see my hand if I put it out in front of me

I am not from here

I am not welcome here

The folk here view me as a vagabond

They knew each other since they were naught but children

And they are ruthless to outsiders

Backstabbing and treachery are a daily act

When I wander into town I am met with glares or apathy

I find it best to keep my mouth shut around them

In order to survive I must look over my shoulder

And keep moving

I write this as I make camp for the night in the dunes

It’s getting late

I should get in my sleeping bag

Lulled by the lullaby of the storm

Zombies Make Bad Friends

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In the spirit of Halloween, we dive into zombies and Hu Tao. We learn about the zombie that she befriends and their journey together. Get ready for a ride! — Editor Roman Rickwood

By Izumi, Middle-School Gaming Enthusiast

Hello! Welcome to this week’s blog post! To go with Halloween being this weekend, and already writing about Hu Tao, I decided to write about the zombie she found. Meet Qiqi, the zombie.

Qiqi is a child who died over 100 years ago, and stayed in the world of Teyvat as a zombie. Qiqi is quiet and easily forgets things. Her memory is extremely bad, at the point where she has forgotten most of her life. Qiqi does remember Hu Tao and despises her. Qiqi makes the point that Hu Tao has a “punchable” face. Qiqi doesn’t want anything to do with Hu Tao; she says she wants to seal her in a fridge, or just somewhere that hides her from the world so Qiqi can never see her again, even though Hu Tao is always pampering her. There is no clear reason why Qiqi hates Hu Tao. Is it because she took Qiqi into Liyue? Qiqi also loves coconut milk. An example of her often confused thinking, Qiqi thinks coconut milk is from the “cocogoat.”

In life, Qiqi was a regular herb-picking child, until one day she lost her way and trespassed into the realm of the Adepti. She injured her right leg in a fall and quickly hid in a cavern to recover. It seems in this cavern, Qiqi was caught between life and death, between the mortal and immortal planes of existence. (Genshin-Impact.fandom.com). With that stumble into the cavern, Qiqi became a zombie.

Qiqi the Zombie from Liyue

The Shelling at Neyland Stadium

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College football can be a passionate game, full of striking triumphs and contentious errors. Roman muses on what occurred at Neyland Stadium a few Saturdays ago between the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee. Throw in their fans, coaches, and referees, and you have more than a ball game.

By Roman Rickwood, Sports Enthusiast

What we witnessed two Saturday nights ago was passion, anger, and the result of poor officiating. “It just means more”: this is the catchphrase for the SEC, the conference in which both the University of Tennessee and the University of Mississippi are conference members. Everything “means more” in this conference . . . except the officiating. While these teams are not necessarily the cream of the crop when it comes to the conference, they are generally well respected nationally as very competitive teams. When these two teams faced off on a cool Saturday night in Knoxville, there was a lot on the line. It was set to be a statement game for both teams, with Tennessee looking to turn it around with the help of their new coach Josh Huepel. The opposing University of Mississippi Head Coach, Lane Kiffin, was stepping back back on familiar turf. He coached Tennessee for many years. 

The energy was crazy with over 100,000 screaming fans fired up to cheer on their team against the villain of college football, Lane Kiffin. Scandal follows him. When the game began on Saturday the 16th, it was a tight contest with an emphasis on defense, with both teams having trouble scoring. In my opinion, the fuse was lit when the refs muffed a call that would have given Tennessee a touchdown. While refs are human and make mistakes just like all of us, the bad calls are getting out of hand–especially in a day and age when replay is as prevalent as it is. This crowd of over 100,000 soon turned into an angry mob in the second half as their team went down a score. 

Tennessee fans littered the field in protest of the refs’ calls.

Towards the end of the 4th quarter, Tennessee had the ball, was down 7, and needed a score. It was 4th down, and the Volunteers needed 15 yards to get a first down and continue their campaign for a touchdown. Quarterback Hendon Hooker connected with his tight end, and to many eyes (especially of those in the stadium) it appeared that the ball had gotten to the first-down line. However, even after going to replay, the refs still ruled him short of the line to gain. While this call could be argued back and forth between rules analysts and experts, the bottom line is if you miss enough blatant calls in a row, eventually paying customers want answers, and with this call the crowd–feeling as if their intelligence had been insulted–began throwing objects onto the field. Play was suspended for almost 25 minutes while referees, coaches, and security staff decided how to proceed. Eventually it appeared that the crowd had run out of objects to throw because the shelling ceased. The game resulted with Ole Miss making a statement and winning 31-26 in an absolute war of a football game. And yet again, the villain of college football–Lane Kiffin–had the last laugh, as he jeeringly caught a water bottle aimed for his face while he exited the field of play. 

Days after the game the only thing that was discussed was the behavior of 1% of fans rather than the athleticism and performance put on display by both teams. There were many infamous moments–such as the golf ball thrown on the field that would go on to be collected by Head Coach Kiffin and later posted on social media with the final score of the game written large in Sharpie on the side of the ball. Regardless of all of this, this is college football, and more specifically this is the SEC, and officiating cannot continue to be this dismal. To the people crying in the Tennessee home crowd, I ask if college football is really for you? 

University of Mississippi Head Coach Lane Kiffin made a trophy of a golf ball thrown at him during the Mississippi/Tennessee game.

chiaroscuro

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The days grow shorter. Darkness comes sooner. Ike, in the following poem, looks to those spots of light in the dark.

By Ike Spry 

When the sun decides to leave us

And the moon looks abnormally large

The moonlight pricks up my arm hairs

And the streetlights shine bright, but are dull

The moths are led to the brightness

But I don’t think that was their free will

Maybe it was a shining beacon 

Or a gateway to the afterlife

The light will bring us together

And give us shelter in the abyss

But when the sky begins to brighten

And the sun creeps through the clouds

There’s nothing left to distract us

And our dullness is left to shine

If you see a petite ninja coming at you in Tanuki garb, it’s Sayu

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Meet Sayu. Izumi introduces Genshin Impact character, Sayu. You’ll recognize her as the small ninja who dreams of growing taller. — Editor Ike Spry

By Izumi, Middle-School Gaming Correspondent

Hello, and welcome to this week’s blog post! This week we meet another character from Genshin Impact named Sayu, a very lazy ninja from Inazuma, who can’t seem to grow taller.

Tanuki

Sayu, a very short and petite ninja, attached to the Shuumatsuban. She is always very sleepy and almost never has motivation to do her work. Sayu has a goal and one goal only, to grow taller. Sayu is very self conscious about her height. She desperately wants to be as tall as the other ninjas she works with. She is 16-18 years old; she’s 4’6, and she has a high pitched voice–everyone (even me) would think she is 9 or 10 years old. Don’t underestimate her. Sayu appears to be wearing Mujina attire (Japanese definition: Badger attire), but her clothes are actually based on a Tanuki, a Japanese Raccoon Dog which has badger-like qualities.

Sayu takes a training called ninjutsu, a martial arts strategy of “unconventional warfare.” Lazy, distracted, Sayu finds it hard for her to follow through with all her training sessions. Her caretaker is always having to search all over Inazuma looking for Sayu, making sure she does her training. But, Sayu, taking selective advantage of her new ninjutsu skills, hides from her work. Sayu does this because she wants to sleep. She thinks sleeping will make her grow taller, as tall as the ninjas she does training with. However, sleeping does not help Sayu grow. She’s small, and stays small. Without her awarded anemo vision, she wouldn’t be able to even carry her sword in battle. A claymore sword is very large and heavy.

See my graphic below to meet Sayu.

Artwork by Izumi