I don't intend to do much today except, perhaps, finishing the fall wreath I am rebuilding. Maybe I will decide, on the spur of the moment, to do something else. We did laundry yesterday and will wash the bedspreads today. Each of the two will be a load by itself. The bread came out nicely yesterday and tasted wonderful. The smell of baking bread is one of the most pleasurable smells in existence.

I found this article earlier. It is intriguing though it doesn't directly affect us since we have no dietary restrictions, religious or otherwise. I am sure Unilever never thought about the source of its gelatin nor much about its market, especially the religious dietary restrictions. They relied on the USDA's judgement which indicated that since the product was so refined it was no longer considered a "meat" product. It reinforced in my mind the fact that with global supply lines companies often (usually??) can't guarantee what is actually in the products they sell. Think of the stories over the last couple of years of fake honey, fake olive oil, cadmium contaminated children's jewelry, etc. And I am not assuming that our manufacturers are more honest or trustworthy that foreign ones. I know otherwise. Nor am I all that trusting of government agencies which have become increasingly captured by business interests. By the way, I wonder what Unilever's Muslim customers in India and elsewhere think. After all, the article says they can't guarantee that neither beef nor pork are the ultimate source of the gelatin.

Just a thought without links--#45 made a second trip to Houston and this time made sure the photo ops showed him being the "Consoler-in-Chief." That was nearly as unconvincing as the first trip. But--when did we decide that the President had to play that role? Obama visited several disaster sites and was a great "Consoler-in-Chief" though he faced a legislator that was less than consoling. George W. did the same but came off as somewhat stiff and uncomfortable except at 9/11 ground zero where he could combine the consoling role with Commander-in-Chief. But as Commander-in-Chief he was somewhat of a flop. He tried to make us believe "Brownie" did a terrific job as FEMA basically failed in its response. I saw a list of Clinton's visits but I really can't remember them. Question--did they ever do any good and were we ever "consoled?"