STOCK UP FOR THE APOCALYPSE NOW!

[babylonsister]

Edited to add correct link:
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=331

Eating Liberally Food For Thought
STOCK UP FOR THE APOCALYPSE NOW!
By Kerry Trueman

One thing Hurricane Katrina taught us is that a cabinet stocked with cronies is a recipe for disaster in a disaster. That's why Eating Liberally encourages everyone to keep a well-stocked pantry. In case of calamity-manmade, natural, or a doubly catastrophic combination of the two (i.e., Katrina)--we're saddled with an ungallant government that's more likely to gallop off into the sunset at the first sign of trouble than race to the rescue. Just call them the First Absconders.

The Department of Homeland Security does, however, offer a website with advice about what to have on hand for an emergency. It's chock full o' half-helpful hints, such as "Choose foods your family will eat," and "Avoid salty foods, as they will make you thirsty," followed by a shopping list of sodium-saturated stuff like canned foods and crackers.

You'll do better to consult a couple of cookbooks that specialize in calamity cuisine: Apocalypse Chow! by Jon and Robin Robertson and The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times by Albert Bates. Both books offer plenty of practical tips on preparing for all kinds of emergencies, but they also have recipes that sound so appealing you might be tempted to try them out before the next power outage.

And if you find yourself cooped up `cause of a bird flu quarantine, wouldn't it be comforting to break out a bag of pretzels and dunk them in Sterno-softened chocolate fondue? What if a dirty bomb renders your region radioactive and you can't get take-out? Apocalypse Now tells you how to make "High-Road Lo Mein" using a couple of canned ingredients you can keep on hand (well, OK, and maybe some fresh ginger and a carrot if you've got `em.)

Both of these books tackle a serious subject with a dash of humor while providing tons of useful information about the best ways to weather these worst-case scenarios.

But maybe you have trouble imagining the kind of apocalyptic events that call for cookbooks like these. Is The End of the World As We Know It just a jaunty REM jingle to you? If so, we have another book to recommend - Alan Weisman's The World Without Us. Weisman speculates on what would become of the world if mankind disappeared entirely. Apparently North America would become a haven for herbivores, one gigantic deer habitat--not to be confused with Deer Park, the Nestlé-owned behemoth of bottled water. "As forests would become re-established larger herbivores would evolve to take advantage of all the nutrients locked up in woody species," according to Weisman.

The world-famous jungle of Manhattan would reportedly revert to a forest. And there wouldn't be any humans to clear-cut it to make chopsticks and grow GMO crops for livestock. Sounds like the face of the earth would finally clear up, if we cleared off of it. But I'm not rooting for the Rapture, unless you mean the one Debbie Harry delivered on Blondie's AutoAmerican a couple of decades back. Now there's a timeless soundtrack; it's got "The Tide is High," too! What an awesome mix Bush counselor Dan Bartlett could have made for W.'s iPod, as a companion to that groovy highlight dvd of Hurricane Katrina he put together five days after it struck, so the president could be almost as up to speed as CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Anderson Cooper. Songs like Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane," or Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927". Something to drown out the sound of people drowning.

[Joanne98]

1. The link doesn't work.

[babylonsister]

2. Just changed it-thanks-but that's the whole article. nt

[OnyxCollie]

3. Tuna fish, dry milk, duct tape & plastic sheeting.

That's all I need. And this chair. I need that. And this paddle toy. That's all I need. This tuna fish, dry milk, duct tape, plastic sheeting, chair and paddle toy are all I need. And this blender. But that's it. That's all I need. Oh, and this slide whistle. That's it. That's all I need...