Big Gulps

Drinking coffee at the Duluth co-op again this morning. Going back home tomorrow.
Lake report: It hurts my eyes to look at the bright horizon--the water is playing light ping-pong with the clouds.

Today Marz and I are making chicken potato soup for her upcoming week––with black potatoes from the farmer's market (below). The potatoes are purple inside.

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I complimented a woman at the farmer's market on her T-shirt--a cute elf--she showed it to me on her phone case too:

Her father invented this folding saw (to take camping), the Sven-Saw, in 1961. This is her mother using it:

How cool is that?
So cool it's in the running for Coolest Thing Made in Minnesota. It's up against Faribault Mill and their famous blankets, so I doubt it'll win, but I voted for it.

It's like that here, the Outdoors People, the Acoustic Music scene, classes on making syrup from birch trees...

There are also the Big Gulpers.

Marz pointed out that many of the people signing for money or nodding out in vacant lots near her apartment are carrying Big Gulps. You know those? They're 32-ounce plastic cups of pop or slurpees or whatever-sugar liquid. You buy them at quick-mart gas stations.

The Big Gulp is a famous cultural turning point from 1976 (the Bicentennial Year):gulpmportant

"Until 1955, a bottle of Coca-Cola was a mere 6.5 ounces. The Big Gulp represents a point where something changed in a radical way—how much soda we were serving. American drink sizes have been so huge for so long that nearly nobody can recall a time when restraint was the rule."
--Adweek

A song came across my Instagram feed recently--a slim, young, white man singing, "It's your own fault you're fat." (Thank you, Instagram?)

Though it seems he intended it as an insult (I didn't listen to much of it), that could be encouraging: YOU HAVE AGENCY! It's your body!
But either way, it's pure ignorance to proclaim that what and how we eat is purely a private matter.

I doubt this young man is subject to the cravings or hardships of, for instance, people living on the street with addictions.

"There is an underlying connection between addictive behaviors and sugar intake. Sugar can affect the brain in similar ways as alcohol or drugs, giving the user temporary and superficial relief and can be chemically addictive itself."
--"Why Do Addicts Crave Sugar?"

 I first learned about this from where I learn so much: the movies.
Taxi Driver, for instance (1976, another thing from the Bicentennial Year.) Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes the young street hooker Iris (Jody Foster) to a diner, and she pours sugar on her toast and jelly.

I'm pretty sure there's a similar scene in Mona Lisa (1986), with another teenage hooker-junkie girl and a would-be rescuer.
I haven't seen that since it comes out. I see now it's a Criterion movie. I should rewatch it. It's research! "Where did I learn about the connection between drugs and sugar?"

Also research--I'm going to stop in the Speedway gas station between here and Marz's and check on Big Gulps. How much do they cost? (Not much, I think.)

Then, time to make chicken soup.
Have a lovely Sunday, all!