Comments on: UPDATED: Scottish town council shuts down 9-y-o girl's wildly popular school lunch blog

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 16:44:00 +0000

The image chosen here is by far the worst-looking meal from the first few pages of the blog. A lot of this stuff actually looks pretty decent, and miles ahead of what I ate in school in New York. Seems overpriced at £2 but the quality looks a lot better than what I got for $1.25 (though she gets smaller portions, which is probably a good thing really).

Of course, the reader images sent in from around the world all look way better (except for one sent in from Atlanta which looks like what I had in my day). Obviously there’s a lot of room for improvement in Scotland and the UK in general, and definitely in the US.

edit: her very first post with a picture, from May 8th, is way worse than the hot dog pictured here but most of everything else looked “not that bad”

By: elix

elix — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:40:00 +0000

A sudden outbreak of common sense is still common sense! (This, however, seems more motivated by bad PR, but the end result is the same.)

By: Charlie B

Charlie B — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 03:35:00 +0000

Nah, Aunty Noose is more frustrated with Disqus than you are, D.

Edit: Er, that’s a reply to your comment aboot mods nooking.

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:22:00 +0000

If food has been so brutally processed that ground peanuts and preserved fruit on bread (which I, at least, make using flour, yeast, water, and salt) end up being nutritionally equivalent to the lips, anuses, and various other less-identifiable parts of dead animals ground up, salted until crunchy, and stuffed into said animal’s own intestines, you’re doing something WRONG.

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:16:00 +0000

Absolutely! It is SO refreshing to see a public official say, “Well. THAT was f’ing stupid. What the hell were we thinking? Carry on!” once in a while. That is a _much_ better way to get my vote than wasting more time and adding insult to injury by pretending you can somehow justify a clearly monumentally BAD decision. I mean:

“However, this escalation means we had to act to protect staff from the distress and harm it was causing.”

Really? Because if I ever need to be protected from distress caused by the whimsical comments of a 9-year-old girl, I hope I still have enough strength left to throw myself in front of a bus…

By: GrueHunter

GrueHunter — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:07:00 +0000

We got it. You were making a joke.

About a 9-year-old girl trying to make the world a better place.

Speaking of looking things up, go Google ‘pilkunnussija’.

By: Rindan

Rindan — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:55:00 +0000

It is a case of bad governance when they even have the capacity to make such arbitrary decisions. That isn’t an argument for privatization as a magical solution, it is an argument for the reduction of the power of governments to have any right to limit such activities in the first place.

There isn’t some polar scale with sprawling monopolistic corporations on one side and sprawling worthless government bureaucracy on the other. You can… you know… pick neither.

It is great and all that the council reversed their decision, but if they have that sort of arbitrary power, who else has been steamrolled who wasn’t able to muster the publicity to defend themselves?

Hell, I look at my own town and see much of this. The hoops you have to jump through to open up a simple, local, non-franchised business are epic because a bunch of local governing bodies have, at every turn, gobbled up the power to have the right to have their say. It only takes on asshole to shut you down.

Governments seek power for powers sake, and there is almost no force at work against that. Even supposed “conservative” parties who mouth words about smaller governments have not seen a governing power that they can say no to.

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Hmm. The italics look rather gorgeous on my equipment’s rendering of 10pt Times Roman. I’ve been assuming fellow readers have been given a visual feast – rather contrary to the reason you suggest. But your objection to my assumption is noted. I shall cease and desist forthwith.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:58:00 +0000

Take it to Michigan.
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/15/woman-legislator-in-michigan-b.html

By: miasm

miasm — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:32:00 +0000

the council:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsvLjAzozE

By: Kristin Reed

Kristin Reed — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:00:00 +0000

I have been reading her blog and I am very saddened how terrible and overpriced the US lunches. Embarrassing.

By: JeanHuguesRobert

JeanHuguesRobert — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Censure is intolerable when it targets a 9 years old girl. That’s good.

Why is it tolerated for adults? Are they supposed to be strong enough to fight back alone?

By: flickerKuu

flickerKuu — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 21:46:00 +0000

Hey I know, how about you start feeding the kids nutritional food instead of the slop she’s blogging about? This reminds me of how the Dairy Council and Meat Industry in America totally lied to parents and kids and developed a “Nutritional Pyramid” of food groups that was totally unhealthy and 100% incorrect. Who cares about children when you are running a business. Money trumps all! Idiots.

By: Faith Bray

Faith Bray — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:47:00 +0000

This is also the same council of the infamous “Spy-gate” farce

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16991417

This is my old school, and I grew up in this town. All I can say is that they were better when I was there.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Lemoutan,

Is there some reason that you keep putting your blockquotes in italics? Do you hate your fellow readers and want their eyes to bleed?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:31:00 +0000

That special relationship is with Westminster, not Edinburgh.

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:27:00 +0000

In case you think you’re joking,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/03/the-inexplicable-war-on-lemonade-stands/

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:20:00 +0000

In calories and so on, yes. But perhaps Finnagin meant that one is more clearly made of food. (shrugs)

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Yeah, we *really* need to remind politicians and voters that changing your minds in that face of (well, ideally, evidence, but I’ll take poublic outcry for now) is a good thing.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:56:00 +0000

But that stuff isn’t food, removing it is more akin to preventing children from smoking or jumping off bridges.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Eurgh, that’s not food, that’s abuse.

By: Wreckrob8

Wreckrob8 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:51:00 +0000

Heil! Comma-ndantQuestions!

By: Petzl

Petzl — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:36:00 +0000

BEHOLD MY POWER, YE MIGHTY!
Signed,
The Streisand Effect

By: Wreckrob8

Wreckrob8 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:36:00 +0000

Given the generally poor level of nutrition in Scotland I would have thought she should have been given as much encouragement as possible and not banned. Could save the NHS a few quid, after all.

By: dolo54

dolo54 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:05:00 +0000

When I read about the ban this morning I knew it would be reversed after the council got wind of the outrage. I didn’t think it would happen that quickly though!

By: show me

show me — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:04:00 +0000

And peppers! Don’t forget the peppers!

By: Vincent Maldia

Vincent Maldia — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:03:00 +0000

censorship = bad

By: RedShirt77

RedShirt77 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:48:00 +0000

There is also a place for lies aparently.

By: RedShirt77

RedShirt77 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:46:00 +0000

The freedom to question authority is a frightening prospect for some folk.

By: RedShirt77

RedShirt77 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:45:00 +0000

I love to see people geting introduced to the internet.

School officials, Internet. Internet, School officials. School officials, the internet will now teach you how not to think like dictators.