Tag Archives: Sctv

Bob and Doug from France: Mouse in a Coke

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Aurelie Sipos of Le Parisien writes there was a mouse running through the supermarket shelves , tucked away in a baguette and now … floating in the Coca-Cola can. On March 7, Damien, 34, would have preferred not to make this new discovery. While returning home and after drinking his entire soda, this computerist is sure to have come face to face with a rodent, stuck in the can.

After an order in his usual restaurant near his work, Damien receives with his pizza a can of Coke. “I do not drink it during the meal, but on my return home,” says the young man. It detects nothing abnormal, no suspicious taste or disturbing texture. “The can finished, I empty it to prevent the bottom sinks in the trash. And there, I realize that it is not empty, “said the resident of Varenne-sur-Seine (Seine-et-Marne).

According to his story, he observes with horror that the weight of his can is due to a dead rodent. “I immediately called Coca-Cola and they spent a good quarter of an hour” (that’s French for 15 minutes). After this contact, he then receives a letter, explaining that the security of the company’s production line is total, and that it can not come from home. Damien also goes to the police station, which does not take his complaint. “They told me to find solutions on the Internet,” he says, bitter.

 

Stop kissing chicks, stop stroking that hedgehog and stop touching yourself: 11 sick with Salmonella linked to hedgehogs

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Every time someone introduces a new pet at the kid’s school, I see a Salmonella factory (summer holidays are over, grade 5 started today for Sorenne).

This isn’t the first time the prickly pest or pet, depending on perspective, like possums, has been linked to Salmonella Typhimurium: From December 2011 to April 2013, 26 people were infected with Salmonella typhimurium. One person died and eight people were hospitalized in that outbreak, the C.D.C. reported.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 11 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from eight states.

One person has been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.

Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicate that contact with pet hedgehogs is the likely source of this outbreak.

In interviews, 10 (91%) of 11 ill people reported contact with a hedgehog.

Illnesses started on dates from October 22, 2018 to December 25, 2018. Ill people range in age from 2 to 28 years, with a median age of 12. Forty-five percent are female.

The outbreak strain making people sick was identified in samples collected from three hedgehogs in two ill patients’ homes in Minnesota.

Hedgehogs can carry Salmonella germs in their droppings while appearing healthy and clean.

These germs can easily spread to their bodies, habitats, toys, bedding, and anything in the area where they live. People become sick after they touch hedgehogs or anything in their habitats.

Wash your hands

Always wash hands thoroughly with soap and water right after touching, feeding, or caring for a hedgehog or cleaning its habitat. Adults should supervise handwashing for young children.

Play safely

Don’t kiss or snuggle hedgehogs, because this can spread Salmonella germs to your face and mouth and make you sick.

Don’t let hedgehogs roam freely in areas where food is prepared or stored, such as kitchens.

Clean habitats, toys, and supplies outside the house when possible. Avoid cleaning these items in the kitchen or any other location where food is prepared, served, or stored.

Body to be exhumed for paternity test: Elementary Drawing with Salvador Dali

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I tried not to post this, but it brought back so many happy memories of watching SCTV in Canada as a teenager, and the awesome manscaping of Salvador Dali.

The food safety hook would be the Salmonella cross-contamination with the eggs.

AP reports a  Spanish judge has ordered the remains of artist Salvador Dali be exhumed to settle a paternity suit, despite opposition from the state-run foundation that manages the artist’s estate.

Dali, considered one of the ­fathers of surrealist art, died in 1989 and is buried in his museum in the northeast town of ­Figueres.

Pilar Abel, a tarot-card reader from the nearby city of Girona who was born in 1956, says she is the offspring of an affair between Dali and her mother, Antonia.

At the time of the alleged ­affair, Dali was married to his muse, Gala, who died seven years before the painter. Gala had a daughter from an earlier marriage but the couple had no children of their own. Upon his death, at age 84, Dali bestowed his estate to the Spanish state.

On Monday, a Madrid court statement said that tests with DNA from Dali’s embalmed body were necessary because there were no other existing biological remains with which to make a genetic comparison.

Trump’s expected pick for USDA’s top scientist is not a scientist

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Catherine Woteki, served as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for research, education and economics in the Obama administration.

She recently told Pro Publica “This position is the chief scientist of the Department of Agriculture. It should be a person who evaluates the scientific body of evidence and moves appropriately from there.”

Trump expects to appoint Sam Clovis — who, according to sources with knowledge of the appointment and members of the agriculture trade press, is President Trump’s pick to oversee the section — appears to have no such credentials.

Clovis has never taken a graduate course in science and is openly skeptical of climate change. While he has a doctorate in public administration and was a tenured professor of business and public policy at Morningside College for 10 years, he has published almost no academic work.

Morningside College sounds like painting with Dali (below) on SCTV’s Sunrise Semester.

Clovis advised Trump on agricultural issues during his presidential campaign and is currently the senior White House advisor within the USDA, a position described by The Washington Post as “Trump’s eyes and ears” at the agency.

Clovis was also responsible for recruiting Carter Page, whose ties to Russia have become the subject of intense speculation and scrutiny, as a Trump foreign policy advisor.

Neither Clovis, nor the USDA, nor the White House responded to questions about Clovis’ nomination to be the USDA’s undersecretary for research, education and economics.

Clovis has a B.S. in political science from the U.S. Air Force Academy, an MBA from Golden State University and a doctorate in public administration from the University of Alabama. The University of Alabama canceled the program the year after Clovis graduated, but an old course catalogue provided by the university does not indicate the program required any science courses.

Clovis’ published works do not appear to include any scientific papers. His 2006 dissertation concerned federalism and homeland security preparation, and a search for academic research published by Clovis turned up a handful of journal articles, all related to national security and terrorism.

I can’t make this shit up.

Fancy food ain’t safe food: Salvatore’s Ristorante

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A Merseyside, UK, restaurant owner has been fined hundreds of pounds after dead flies were found in pans of bolognese left out overnight.

Health inspectors who visited Salvatore’s Ristorante on Lord Street, Southport, which is rated #24 of 266 restaurants in Southport also found bird faeces in the extractor fan and out-of-date lasagne.

They also discovered utensils and fridge door seals encrusted in food debris and a large dead insect in a trifle.

Owner Salvatore Trecarichi, 66, of was today fined £750 by magistrates after pleading guilty to a string of food hygiene breaches.

South Sefton magistrates court was told council officers had visited the restaurant in June 2016 and found numerous hygiene issues. There was also no type of disinfectant product anywhere on the premises.

Trecarichi was given a 0 star hygiene rating and told to make improvements, but when inspectors returned a week later the bare minimum had been done.

Officers found areas were still unclean and greasy, with considerable damage to shelving and tiles.

On December 15, 2016 a further reinspection gave Salvatores a 3 star hygiene rating but when officers visited again on March 30 this year they were informed the business had changed its name.

Is that 51 live turtles stuffed in your pants or you just happy to see me?

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A man has been charged with federal smuggling crimes after he was allegedly found trying to cross from Detroit into Canada with 51 live turtles in his pants, it was reported Thursday.

turtle.kissAccording to the Detroit Free Press, a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit said Kai Xu, a Canadian citizen, was trying to return to Windsor, Ontario, with the live reptiles tucked in baggies around his legs.

The newspaper reported that Gavin Shire of  the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the case against Xu and said there is a large demand for turtles in Asia — and not necessarily for pets.

There’s “a lot of both illegal and unregulated turtle consumption,” Shire told the paper.

Xu was stopped and arrested Aug. 5, but the criminal complaint was filed in court  Tuesday.

Calgary Wendy’s shut down over health violations

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Brisbane is like Calgary, 20 years ago – a cow-town flush with resource money and trying to act sophisticated but still overrun with bogans (fubar).

The Wendy’s on Macleod Trail and 70 Ave. in Calgary was visited by inspectors last Wednesday, who uncovered16 safety violations.

The issues included an employee who didn’t wash their hands while handling raw meat, raw hamburger in a cooler that was too fubarfeat__spanwarm, black mold and water damage in the staff room and grease and oil on the floor.

“The reason that the restaurant has been closed is not because someone has been made ill, it is because we have an older building that requires repairs,” says Lisa Deletroz, spokesperson for Wendy’s Canada. “Part of those repairs involves making it a safer working environment.”

Employees at the affected location have been reassigned and will undergo additional training, and the restaurant will have to be visited by health inspectors again before it can reopen.

Sweet Julia Child O’ Mine; mash-up honors America’s first top chef; SCTV, SNL did it better

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Guns ‘N Roses was a terrible band.

Misogynistic lyrics, riffs from a corporate boardroom, and really, really boring.

But PBS somehow thinks GNR is appropriate way to honor the matron of French cooking in the U.S., Julia Child, who would have turned 100-years-old on August 15.

Getting sick from raw milk sucks – and it’s a significant issue that can be easily prevented

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Long before anyone heard of them, Second City TV had a Canadian show on a lousy network. Saturday Night Live was getting rave reviews with a bunch of Second City alumni in the U.S., so many of the Toronto cast-offs got together to form a weekly skit television series that certainly warped the mind of this-then 14-year-old beginning in 1976. Every week, the show began with the tagline,

“Don’t touch that dial! Don’t touch that one either! And stop touching yourself! SCTV is on the air!”

(I also used to bike home from school at lunch and watch Roger Ramjet, a cartoon that was almost certainly written by stoned college kids.)

A spokesthingy for the Weston A. Price Foundation, promoters of raw milk, and founded by a dentist, said the other day that if people get sick from drinking raw or unpasteurized milk,

"We just don’t see that as an issue.”

Lots of foods make people sick. Some of these illnesses are easily preventable.

Below is a table of some of the outbreaks linked to raw milk that an advocacy group just doesn’t care about (aboot).

http://www.bites.ksu.edu/rawmilk

Also below is the incredibly talented Harold Ramis, who was only on the first year of SCTV before he went on to co-write Animal House, Ghostbusters, direct Groundhog Day, and now shows up as the stoner dad in any decent movie – Orange County, Knocked Up – with his take on do-it-yourself dentistry. Sorta like do-it-yourself food safety.

Bye-bye BITES-l

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That’s host Sammy Maudlin (right), as Dave Thomas’ drink-loving Captain Kangaroo answers the phone during the 1978 Second City TV (SCTV) satire of TV telethons.

Once a year, I ask for money to support the 2-3 X daily distribution of food safety news to tens of thousands, with consecutive posts dating back to 1994.

The funding is no longer there.

So it’s time to do something else.

We will continue to blog about food safety developments, and be relevant rather than repetitive. Tonight will be the last bites-l listserv posting. I may revisit things in a couple of months, but for now, it’s time to do something else.