Hipster Poll? Thanks PPP!

PPP decided for some reason to poll on Hipsters. 

A while back I wrote about how calling someone a “F***ing Hipster” is pretty similar to calling someone a “Dirty Hippie.”

Reading the poll data brought my article to mind. In the poll, 50% of voters under 30 considered themselves to be hipsters- and everyone in that age group was certain whether or not they were one. In the other age groups, there seemed to be much more confusion with a great deal of “not sure”s and less than 5% in each group identifying as hipsters. I suspect that many years ago when hippie was as young of a term as hipster currently is that one would have seen a similar pattern for it with mostly young people identifying as hippies and at the time older people having some confusion surrounding the term.

Better yet, ppp polled on whether one would be more or less likely to vote for someone based on their hipsterness. Independents were the most likely to vote for a hipster- 27% of them would be more likely to vote for a hipster and 73% less likely. The number drops further with Democrats – 12% more likely and 88% less likely. When one gets to Republicans, the distaste for hipster politicians hits a high- only 2% would be more likely to vote for a hipster and 98% less likely.  Imagine asking a Republican in 1970 about their likeliness to vote for a hippie. I suspect it would look a lot like that 2-98 result.

I am pretty excited that PPP did a poll that lent some data to my thought experiment.

My Warren 2016 Theory- How New PPP Data Relates To ItI

I have been telling people since the night Elizabeth Warren won her Senate race that I had a hunch.

Basically, if I could bet on 2016 right now, I would put my money on Elizabeth Warren. Not just for the Democratic primary. For the presidency. I fully expect the GOP to run someone completely un-electable.

Why do I think Warren is likely?

Geography is Your Friend

According to ppp, of the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest scandal in American history (seriously people?!?! biggest in history???)- 39% of them can not tell you what country it is located in. 

The amazing part is all but 4% of them guessed.

10% for Egypt and 9% for Iran came in at the top levels.

Then came something really bizarre. 6% guessed Cuba. I am not sure how they would even come up with that. Do they think Cuba is a hot bed of fundamentalist Islamist extremists??

5% guessed Syria and 4% Iraq- neither of those surprise me as a guess.

And then there come the 1% guesses – North Korea and Liberia. Wow. Just wow. What did poor Liberia do to that guy?

Now to be fair, the people who don’t think Benghazi is the biggest scandal in the history of ever did not really do any better at identifying where it is. However, if you want to focus so much attention on an event, you could at least learn where it took place.

Tommy’s Fish House: No Shame in Being a Close Second to a Legend

If you live in Baton Rouge, you probably already know that the best boiled crawfish in town is at Sammy’s. If you didn’t know,  kindly pretend you still don’t.  The crowds there don’t need to get worse.  There is really only a short window most days there that you can eat crawfish without a considerable wait.  (And I am certainly not telling you what time that is.) If I am eating crawfish any other time, I head to Tommy’s Fish House.

Dream Berrie Cafe- Pho is the Best Comfort Food

Dream Berrie Cafe is an unusual looking place. Part frozen yogurt shop and part Vietnamese food restaurant, it straddles an unusual set of food. The very cold yogurt  is served up -or rather self served, build your own cup style- across the room from the very hot soup.

I can’t comment on the yogurt because I haven’t tried theirs yet. I over frozen-yogurted myself in an attempt to try all the places in town at one point and haven’t been able to get back into it since.

I come here strictly for the Vietnamese food side of things. I have gotten food from here many times, always to go, and never having bothered to call ahead and it is always fast enough that I don’t regret not calling and waiting in the store.

They have dumpling appetizers that I have enjoyed very much, but the real star of this place is the pho.

Mr Taco- Oh, Goodness, Now I Must Learn to Make Pupusa

I have visited the Mr Taco on Airline Highway twice now. It is quickly creeping it’s way into my regular food choice options and would be moving up my list faster if it was open slightly later. (They close at 8 pm most days and I commonly eat dinner between 8 and 9)

Flour is a Wonderful Thing

Recently I have been baking bread more often and I made some flour tortillas from scratch. 

Flour certainly isn’t the only key to either of these. Without the yeast, the bread wouldn’t be very bread like at all and without the lard the tortillas wouldn’t exist either. But the two, along with countless other foods, are brought together with the common ingredient of flour.

It’s a pretty amazing ingredient that is easy to take for granted. When you look at a tomato, there is a link to the plant it came from. When you look at the white powder in your mixing bowl before you bake, there is not a strong relationship with a wheat plant in your mind. 

I think since flour is such a big part of how we eat perhaps schools and community projects that grow gardens to help children connect to food should introduce some wheat. It would not necessarily be feasible to grow a useful amount of wheat in the small spaces available but a little grouping of plants could provide a valuable way for young people to connect the cookies they eat to the dirt they came out of. 

Prescription Drugs- When Prices Have Little to No Relation to Reality

I have seen far more news about Plan B emergency contraceptive availability in the past few days than in the month before.

There seem to be a lot of people from the evangelical right freaking out badly about the idea of a 15 year old being able to buy Plan B over the counter. As if somehow it would be better that a 15 year old be pregnant.

In reality, there are still some significant burdens on teens seeking emergency contraceptive. Not all pharmacies carry it. Some pharmacists will undoubtedly refuse to sell it to teens despite the FDA guidelines. A photo ID is required and not all teens have that.

And then the biggest burden. (particularly for low income teens) It costs around $50. Heck, this is a burden to low income women and not just teens. And it is a burden that doesn’t really make sense.

It isn’t that the pill is loaded down with gold dust or truffle juice. It’s that they can get away with the price because individuals buying medication don’t have the bargaining power of an insurance company. Or for that matter of the National Health Service.

I looked into what the National Health Services pays for emergency contraceptive. Less than $8. (Look into NHS drug prices here and here)

Curious Question

I am wondering if anyone following my blog knows where I can find out how much the UK’s National Health Services pays for various drugs.

Cooking Past Midnight

Around 6 pm I put some pork, seasoning, apple juice, garlic,  worcestershire, pickle juice, and ketchup in the slow cooker before I went out to an open mic night.

*note to white libertarian suburban boys trying to rap- you don’t sound cooler when you say misogynistic shit*

Around 1 am I pulled the pork out of the slow cooker, and used the liquid to start my sauce.

“Pretty Privilege”

If you asked the average person, they would say that being “pretty” – conventionally attractive – was a big advantage for a woman to have. And indeed in many ways, prettiness can be a source of benefits. It also can be as significant of a source of problems. Despite this, most women would certainly chose to be conventionally attractive if possible. Our society places such an emphasis on the physical appearance that the privilege of being “pretty”‘s complications are often overlooked. This emphasis reduces women, both those with the “pretty privilege” and those without, down to a sum of their looks. And it makes a lot of people a lot of money.

Re-Styling A Thrift Shop Dress

I bought a dress at a thrift shop today because I liked the color and the neckline. And because it was under $5.  Of course, everything else about the dress was problematic. Long poofy sleeves. A weird mid calf length. About a size too big for me. What’s a girl to do??

Well first of all a girl takes a before picture. (but not before removing one of the sleeves, I got ahead of myself) 

An Exercise in Very Bad Poetry

Sometimes when I am not writing about politics, crafts, or food- I write really bad poems. Recently I did an exercise in structuring the stanzas of said really bad poetry.

What follows is 6 stanzas, 18 lines, and 81 syllables of said bad poetry.

Voodoo Barbecue Review

It’s a bit of a challenge to talk about a restaurant I have eaten at so many times. It isn’t like reviewing a place you have eaten at once. There is more to talk about and more dishes to cover.

That said – Voodoo is my favorite choice for bbq in Baton Rouge and they could use more reviews on Urbanspoon, so here goes.

Lacking Words

I don’t know how to even find the words to express the tragedy of this week. 

Monday a senseless act of violence left 3 people dead and many people maimed in Boston. The images of the wounded are so painful to see that I have stopped looking at articles that are image heavy. 

And then, roughly 8 hours ago, a fertilizer plant in West Texas blew up. There was a fire leading up to the explosion but the event is ongoing so the origin of the fire is still and (given the amount of damage) may always be a mystery. I hope it was an accident and not an intentional act of violence, but there is yet no way of knowing. The damage is still unclear. There are deaths, but reports are not yet out as to how many. Given the size of the blast and the density of the area around it I suspect the number will be horrifying. 

There is a video of the blast taken from a truck with a little girl yelling that she can’t hear. It is so terrifying that I am afraid I may have nightmares. 

Tragedies such as these shake us to our collective cores. They show us both that terrible things happen and that people respond with courage and resolve- rushing towards disaster to help others.  

I can only hope that we are done with nation shaking level tragic events for a little while.

If we aren’t, I can only hope that people continue to show bravery and compassion. That people continue to show that we are a society that supports each other in the wake of unspeakable events and great suffering and need – no man an island.