It’s a semi-known fact that yours truly tutors the SAT for a major test prep company to supplement his income. I’ve got nothing negative to say about the experience, but lately I’ve developed this strange problem. I can’t write more than three complete sentences without reverting to a multiple choice format. I can’t contr…
1) At a certain restaurant 1/3 of the diners paid for their meals in cash, 1/2 paid with a credit card, and the remaining 16 washed dishes in exchange for their food. If the person to your right is eating red meat, you think to yourself:
A) How unhealthy; I’m a vegetarian!
B) How deplorable; I’m a vegan!
C) How delicious; Can I have some?
D) How compelling; Is that beef grass-fed?
E) 96
2) This website as a whole suggests that the management of Franktuary believes raw milk to be:
A) A dangerous substance that should be banned in Pennsylvania
B) Essential to the underground Amish economy
C) Vital for healthy digestive flora
D) Ideal for cheese making
E) Far less scary, yet far less subsidized than HFCS
Seriously, if you know a high schooler in need of help with his test prep, you should talk to me. It just so happens that in addition to my post as a tutor I’m also the Community Relationship Developer for Kaplan’s pre-college programs in western Pennsylvania. Shoot an email to tim.tobitsch@kaplan.com.
You may have noticed that Franktuary makes an effort not to carry beverages containing high fructose corn syrup. Instead, all our soft drinks use pure cane sugar.
Is that because we think cane sugar is just that much healthier than HFCS? Not necessarily. Our beef with HFCS is that it’s everywhere and it’s subsidized. At best, HFCS has the same benefits (sweet taste) and detriments (hazardous to health if consumed in excess) that cane sugar does. It seems ridiculous to support a product subsidized by the government when, ultimately, that subsidy enables us all to obtain more of it than we should with the greatest of ease. Heck, I’m willing to bet that half the time Americans consume HFCS they have no idea they’re doing it!
So, how much sugar is too much sugar? Opinions vary, but it seems clear to me that as a culture we’ve passed a tipping point. Here’s a great article from a recent edition of the New York Times. It supports my thinking on the subject and certainly the author, Gary Taubes, has an informed perspective worth reading.
http://nyti.ms/fCraCP
Earlier today the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rolled out a nice piece on the very best fountains in Pittsburgh. Notably, Franktuary did not make the list. And that’s exactly how it should be.
Since 2007, Franktuary has been without a soda fountain. Those of you who go far enough back may remember the one that used to call our counter home. What I’m sure none of you remember is the time its water line exploded overnight causing the entire kitchen to flood. We used a giant squeegee to move water to our drain which, brilliantly, was installed at the high point of our floor. But that has nothing to do with why we gave our fountain the axe.
It had to go because all of the soda options it offered came with a healthy dose of high fructose corn syrup. Today we’re proud to say that not a single beverage in the store –soft drink or otherwise– contains HFCS.
Of course, we like fountains of the kind the Post-Gazette references every bit as much as the next frankfurter emporium in the back of a historic gothic cathedral. Don’t for a moment think that Franktuary doesn’t appreciate a good public display of artistically flowing recirculated water. In fact, we know the perfect place for Pittsburgh’s next great fountain. Right across the street from us, where that half-demolished dusty, debris-filled malodorous eyesore of an abandoned building currently sits. Yes, that would be a welcome change.
