Grocery Orgy

We needed stuff.  I had run out of dental plackers, one of my beneficial start the day new habits that I was able to introduce.  We had no seltzer, that fizzy substitute for the evil soda. Ice cream had run out.  Our freezer still had some room for more, as many of the past week's meals began with defrosting.  To make a leisurely though mostly purposeful stroll through Shop-Rite even more attractive, the weekly ad that comes in the mail every Thursday announced discounts on things that add versatility to meal planning or brighten my time in the kitchen.  Apples and sour cream on sale at the same time generates Fish Market Apple Walnut Pie.  Some things I avoided, those potato chips on sale though corn chips pass.  As much as I wanted Vienna Fingers for $1.88 a package, it remains on the Don't Get Obese limitations.  In exchange, there is pasta and frozen phony meat facsimiles that make meal preparation simple and filling.  I always need coffee when it goes on sale, even when I don't.  Can never have too much Lavazza at $3.99 a package.  Half price, always good, lasts indefinitely, though ground too fine for my Mr. Coffee K-cup machine's plastic strainer insert.  House brand K-cups, coffee ordinaire, but staples.  Two boxes when significantly discounted.   Some things you need to buy a lot of to get the computerized cash register to deduct the savings.  Don't know where I would store ten large cans of tomatoes.  I can use three jars of pasta sauce eventually.  One for lasagna.  Cottage cheese and frozen spinach not discounted this week but the pasta sauce will keep until they are.  Halfway healthy snacks:  whole grain fruit bars certified Kosher, pretzels which are maybe a tad better than potato chips, yogurts that had been victim to supply chain limitations on availability, the cereal that I like munchable from the box.

While the basket and reusable grocery bags looked rather stuffed by the time I scanned them through the self-cashier, some things I did not get.  Salad greens advertised were not available on the shelves.  Better to get these at Trader Joe's, which is also my source for bread and cheese.  Kosher meat has gotten prohibitively expensive.  Usually a few packages have clearance discounts, though more common later in the week.  I needed mini-challot, again none on shelves early in the week.  I don't even look at the Kosher deli or bakery anymore as prices exceed what I am willing to pay, even discounted.  They had no whipping cream, the perfect addition to the blueberries I got on sale and perhaps to the Apple Walnut Pie.  Self-care items from deodorant to home remedies have inflated in price.  Don't need a lot of these, but their manufacturers and retailers know that they are price inelastic for people at the time of need.

This past week I watched a six part summary of  the food industry on Curiosity Stream.  Consumers want, suppliers both create want and satisfy want.  And a vast maze of supply chains have made the things we want global and for the most part affordable.  At my shopper perspective, I still have ample choice, have given up very little on account of price, and what falls through the supply chain snafus, as yogurt did recently, eventually gets its turn with shipping containers, railroads, and trucks.  I bought enough to eat well this week and beyond.  The preparation options bring me some joy as I combine ingredients to make items where great taste comes forth.  And for all practical purposes, if I go out for coffee, it is for the social or escape elements, not for the beverage. 

Renewing Subscriptions

Two semi-annual cycles ago, or one year in personal planning time, our pandemic isolation had become firmly established and indefinite.  At the time I committed myself to subscribing to two publications, one Jewish, one intellectual, selecting The Forward and The Atlantic, respectively.  Then Curiosity Stream offered a bargain annual fee for the first year so I got that too.  And my New England Journal of Medicine has been a staple for decades, keeping me in the loop of medical retirement and providing simple but valuable CME for biennial license renewal.  They all come up for renewal shortly, with only the NEJM being notably expensive.  I expect to extend all four, though none are no longer within my twelve semi-annual initiatives.

So as to get value for my purchase, and a boost to my mental engagement, I set usage goals for each.  NEJM two articles a week, which I have maintained, maybe a little more on occasion.  Atlantic one a day.  This has been more difficult to sustain as many articles are rather involved, taking more than a day to just read and move ahead.  But I do scan the titles daily except shabbos and more often than not select one to read, mostly reading it by the next day.  The Forward has been a little more problematic.  I like having Jewish news well written.  They had a readers comments option, recently suspended largely for abuse by the readers which posed a monitoring burden for the newspaper.  I assigned myself two articles and one comment a day, usually one from the News category and the other from Opinion.  Not all days included something I wanted to read but most did, and as a newspaper, the articles rarely took more than a few minutes to read any one of them.  I did not detect an editorial bias, either politically, Israel focused, or of subsects within Judaism, unlike the NEJM and Atlantic which made their publication's place obvious as sources for the university educated merit elites that America has generated, myself embedded well within them.  The price for being diverse and neutral seems to be a willingness to take a hit from everyone since everyone will object to one or more items that appear there.  That may be why direct reader comments are no more and letters are more likely to comment on specific subjects written by amateurs or agency honchos than responses to particular articles that have appeared.  For all its vagaries, it remains my best connection  with Judaism on a national scale.

Curiosity Stream has offered me the most pleasure.  My goal has been about a half hour a day of documentary, many outstanding, though often not new.  And many come from sources outside America which distinguishes the offerings from Netflix which also has a wide selection of documentary options.  While I like shows about nature and science and maybe history, all in decent supply though not always with new options introduced regularly, I think the popular culture offerings could be expanded.  Of the different platforms, this cost the least, nominal at their promotional rate, not far above nominal without the discount.  It's one of those can't go wrong purchases.

As we open back up to gathering and personal interchange, these forums purchased in part to deal with forced solitude all survive their initial intent.  All engage my mind, which remains the same whether I keep what I think to myself or engage in dialog.  All will be renewed for another year.