lookin

No, not the tasty tease above, but the mouthwatering honest-to-goodness tomato developed in 1934 at Rutgers University for the Campbell's Soup Company. In those days, taste was paramount and growing fields were not far from the plant where the soup was made from fresh tomatoes. Over the years, flavor took a back seat to high yield, pest-resistance, and ship-ability. Production was moved from New Jersey to California and tomatoes were processed into a standardized paste from which the soup was eventually made. The idea to resurrect the Jersey tomato was actually sparked by a woman from Campbell’s, Dot Hall, who had headed up the company’s soup product development. She was at a tomato tasting sponsored by food scientists at Rutgers about five years ago when she made the suggestion. As it turns out, Campbell’s had retained seeds from the two varieties used to create the Rutgers tomato. They were the Marglobe and the JTD, named for Dr John T Dorrance, a chemist who served as Campbell’s first president and invented canned condensed soup. . . . Campbell’s had kept the seeds in an archive because its research group would periodically plant different seed varieties to see if it could improve the yield and health of the company’s tomatoes, which are now grown in California. The company was also concerned about taste. “You’d hear people say, ‘The tomato soup doesn’t taste as good as it used to taste,’ so we’d go back and plant plots in California to see if we could improve the taste,” Hall said. “But our goal was to get tomatoes that were higher yield. Flavor wasn’t necessarily an attribute we were trying to improve.” Hall also believes Campbell’s soup doesn’t taste like it used to, but she says it’s partly because they no longer use fresh tomatoes that have been recently harvested. They now use a tomato paste made from tomatoes that have been preserved in sterile packaging. After Hall’s conversation with Rutgers, scientists began planting Marglobe and JTD seeds from Campbell’s archive. The two varieties were then cross pollinated again, as they were in 1934. Simply put, pollen from a male flower of one variety was used to pollinate a female flower from the other variety. When the cross-pollinated plants bore fruit, the seeds were taken out and used to create about 250 new plants. . . . Scientists narrowed the 250 plants down to about 20, then 10, then five, and now three. They’ve been holding taste tests across the state, asking residents to rate the tomatoes based on their sweetness, flavor, acidity and texture. The final taste test will be in a week or two, as scientists sort through the data. They hope to have a winner next month, in time for Rutgers’ 250th anniversary next year. The seeds of the winner will be available for sale in January. Personally, I'm a big fan of recapturing the taste of food as it used to be before profits began to trump nutrition and flavor. I doubt Campbell's will change its sourcing and production protocols in the interest of better flavor and nutrition, but the presence in the marketplace of one more heritage product is welcome news.

Perhaps the Groom of the Stool let something drop.

I learned that, just when things are starting to bubble, Oz will swing by and give them a stir.

Ah! Thanks for the def. I'll say courgettes then. I'm pretty sure I know what marrows are, but will not google them until I post my answer. After which, I reserve the right to sneak back and change my answer beyond all recognition. (I'll take the long way too.)

In search of a chuckle, Oz descends into Post Purgatory. The sweet scent of nitre signals he is getting close.

He worked incredibly hard. He had personal integrity. He had unbending moral purpose. He didn’t lie. I don't need it any better than that.

The key would be a place for everything, and everything in its place. No room for messy, that's for sure. Perhaps he could use some light housekeeping.

Well, not everybody.

A World Rowing executive has now called for testing of viruses, in addition to bacteria. My guess is they couldn't solve the problem in time anyway, even when they identify it. According to article linked just above, (ISAF chief executive Peter) Sowrey said a "backup plan" included sailing all the events outside Guanabara Bay in the open Atlantic. The ISAF has three courses there, and three inside the bay, but Sowrey said it would be "heartbreaking" to sail outside the bay and lose the picture postcard backdrop of Sugarloaf Mountain that will be a focus of television coverage. At least there's a Plan B. I'd hate for anything to happen to the rower narrating AdamSmith's Guardian film.

Not so hot for Russia either.

The Ultimate Farting Machine (Don't try the last one at home. )

Be sure and ask about his eye-for-an-i plan.

It's no trick! The Oscar was mine until that old queen turned up with the fruit.

In my day we called them circle jerks.

Fluid's in, he's still smiling, and now I'm getting a pulse

I try to keep my head down.

For anyone who's feeling overinformed and underarmed, here's a look at places where gun dealers outnumber museums and libraries. The rest of us are stuck in the states at the top of the list.

Well, OK, but just this once and then we must promise never to speak of it again. In fact, I probably shouldn't be saying anything at all, as my information has come third-hand and from a very unreliable source but, as you have observed many times, no one else has come forward with any acceptable explanation at all. So maybe what I have gleaned will shed a glimmer of light on what has been heretofore a mystery for the ages. About a week ago, I received a very strange email. When I say 'strange', I am not exaggerating in the slightest. I did not recognize the sender's name and was about to toss it in the trash when I noticed the subject line was all in caps and said simply TERCES POT. I had never heard of such a thing and thought perhaps an old choom buddy had cultivated a new strain and was looking for some guidance. Even so, I was reluctant to open it and wouldn't have, had it not been for a sudden gust of wind from a nearby privy that caused my eyes to cross temporarily. It was then that I realized that the subject line said TOP SECRET, backwards. After I had closed the kitchen window, topped up my bowl, and settled my nerves, I decided to throw caution to the winds and find out what this email was all about. It proved to contain an attachment with a strange blue script against a paler blue background. It was like no writing I had seen before but, on a hunch, I dangled a hand mirror next to my computer screen and realized that the script had been painstakingly written backwards in a modest effort to conceal it from prying eyes. I was intrigued at this point and decided to see if I could use one of my photo editing apps to print it out right-way-round. It turns out I couldn't, but the five-year-old in the next trailer could, and soon I was looking at the message in the form it was meant to be seen. A fat lot of good it did me, as it was in Portuguese and the only reason I know this is from reading a few of my fellow-posters' negotiation techniques and recognizing the word leche. At that point I knew it would not be a question of whether, but when I would be able to translate this most mysterious email. It took several days and a visit to the local community college to find Thiago who assured me that he was not only fluent in Portuguese but also extremely discreet. He had a twinkle in his eye when he purred the word 'bilingual' that makes me think he would be good with double entendres. But I digress. The clever freshman was able to translate the email with little trouble and what it contained was a surprise to me and a revelation to Thiago himself. It turns out you have been correct all along about the scarcity of the really good looking guys in the Brazilian saunas and you have also been correct in noticing that it has been happening over a number of years. These twin observations are not coincidences either. From what I was able to tease out, with Thiago's help, from the email is that it was intended for a select group of about fifty garotos, although they do not refer to themselves as such. They call their group melhor do melhor and they all got together owing to a feeling that they were not being properly appreciated in any of the Brazilian saunas and some of them had even been asked to negotiate their rates. Bastante! they cried all at once and have been staying away from the saunas ever since, now going on about five years, give or take. Some of them have been working as models, some have taken jobs as waiters, and some have gone back to living with their girlfriends' parents. They figure as long as they're not going to be idolized in the saunas, they might as well just stay away. But recently, and this was the reason for the email I got, they decided to give their clients one last chance, for one week only, in November. I expect that my email address was hacked from somebody on the secret distribution list. Either that, or they somehow picked it up from this site, which they apparently have been reading and know that they're being discussed. Or, possibly, they really do want everybody to know that all the good looking guys that have disappeared from all the saunas in Brazil for the last few years will be returning, for one week only, in November. They'll take the temperature then and, if they feel they're being worshipped enough and paid what they're worth, they'll take it from there. They'll all have blue pins on their towels, matching the blue on the email I received, and they're doing it in a show of solidarity. They'll go from one sauna to the next, standing around aloof and trying to look as disdainful as possible in a pair of flip flops. If anyone talks to them, they'll turn and roll their eyes at one another. And if they see anybody lying worshipfully prostrate on the floor, they plan to gather around and piss on him. I'm sure they'd all welcome a beer if anybody has extra. I hope this helps answer your ongoing questions and gives some ideas as to what the future may hold. The one snag is that the email message got cut off before it mentioned the actual week in November that they'll all be back in the saunas and Thiago wasn't exactly sure whether it would be this year or next. But at least now we know where they've all been.

I'm glad he's checking in from time to time. Can't find the post but wasn't there something about recuperating or being in the hospital? Perhaps he is having a procedure done.

A little Fokker, no doubt.

I think they've concluded there's only one missing 777, and that's Malaysian MH370. It looks like the number they've pulled is a maintenance number rather than a serial number but, as AdamSmith says, it should be unique to MH370. We'll know soon enough. If the piece they found is from MH370, it will confirm that they've been looking in the right place. Still plenty of ocean to search but, if they can tease any info at all from the flaperon and its location, along with ocean currents and any barnacles snagged en route, the search area may get narrowed a little bit. I've been impressed by how well they've used their snippets of data so far, and am hopeful they'll mine this one thoroughly as well.

I'll still give it close to a 10, though it's taken a lot longer than I thought. A possible serial number match from a flaperon that washed up yesterday on Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean, should boost the effort to find more of the wreckage. Although the black box will have stopped pinging by now, my guess is that it will still have recoverable data when, and if, it is found. Does anyone know for sure?

Out of 'likes' for the nonce but I'll whiz by tomorrow.

It'll need a title. Piddle Patter? Urine Trouble? Perhaps OZ could give a prize for the best name. As long as it doesn't turn into another pissing contest.