Chew On This III

Having finally finished Chew On This, I will never eat at a McDonald's again. As I approached the end of the book, I learned about the horrid practices theough which chicken and beef are slaughtered and processed. Chickens were shackled, electrified, had their throats slit, and then were boiled. Sometimes, a chiken managed to survive the other steps of the procedure and wa boiled alive! Cattle were processed by mainly hand, and I frowned at all the accidents workers suffer, mostly cuts. Also, I learned about the fact that people urinate and defecate right next to meat that people would soon be eating!

The next chapter was about obesity and how one person managed to cure himself of it. This chapter was the story of a boy named Sam Fabrikant. Sam weighed 300 pounds and was only sixteen years old. He decided to take a risk and cure himself by undergoing a gastric bypass surgery. In this surgery, surgeons reduce the size of a person's stomach, from the size of a deflated football to the same size of a golf ball. The book talks about Sam's experiences and about other things that fast food can do to your body.

The last chapter was a grand finale. It was about all the things that were happening now and what we could do to keep ourselves healthy. I was suprised to learn that fast-food chains were so desperate to make money that they would open Burger Kings, McDonald's, and KFCs in war-torn Baghdad, Iraq! Schlosser also talked about one Alice Waters. She was a restaurant owner who turned a nearby rundown school into a beautiful building, where a there was a garden where kids could grow their own food, learn to cook it, then eat it. I admire Alice Waters for her vision of a world where food isn't just a meal that is soon forgotten and is usually made with corporately produced vegetables. She thinks that meals should be atime where everyone gets together and eats fresh, wholesome food. Overall, I loved this book and am thinking about reading his other book, Fast Food Nation. Chew On This is a book to be reckoned with. Its shocking detail has the ability to start a much needed revolution. Everyone needs to read this book.

Chew On This II

I am still learning many disgusting things on my journey through the fast-food world. I have just read through a section concerning French fries and I learned that these fries actually travel hundreds of miles, frozen, to restaurants where they get refried and then sold at twenty times what it cost to make the French fries! Schlosser also discussed the fact that artificial beef flavoring is used to make fries taste better. Then, he talked about all the chemicals that we put in our food to make it taste and look better. I was flabbergasted at the number of different chemicals that go into "artificial strawberry flavor." Cinnamyl isobutyrate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, 4-methylacetophenone, I couldn't pronouce one quarter of them!

Food coloring was another topic. I know everyone has seen crazy yoghurt that is strawberry flavoured, but is blue instead of the normal pink. I came within inches of vomiting when I found that the pink and red coloring of many of my yoghurts and candies was also called carmine, or carminic acid, and is made from the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus costa). Imagine! A bug in your food!

However, one thing I was glad to find was the story of a Jain man, meaning he couldn't eat meat, sued McDonald's for using beef flavoring in its fries. This case caused a newspaper article, which later led to riots in India, including one where angered protesters smeared cow poop on a statue of Ronald McDonald. I loved the fact that the man won the case and McDonald's had to donate $10 million to vegetarian and Hindu groups. Finally, McDonald's gives us money!

Chew On This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson

Chew On This is written very well. It continuously attacks McDonald's and other fast food restaurant chains for their practices. I think this book is a triumph for finally telling the public what's goes into their food. The book starts out retelling the humble history of the world-famous hamburger. Then the book discusses how McDonald's got its start. This is where the book starts to get interesting. It talks about how companies advertise and feed off kids. I was disgusted to find that companies are actually using brain research to sell their products to kids!

Another topic Schlosser talks about is the way fast food chains hire teenagers to run the restaurants. I was appalled too see that some teens in fast food work an average of thirty hours a week, and get paid minimum wage (only $5.15 an hour in 2006)! Even managers, who earn only $25,000 a year, work sixty to seventy hours a week.

The way McDonald's treats its workers is ghastly. There is the story of Sadi Lambert, who worked from eight in the morning until half past three the next morning when she was only sixteen! Her manager decided to give her a thank- you gift for working nineteen hours straight. The gift was but a bag of candy. I found these practices to be absolutely moronic. I think that all people should read Chew On This and find out what the real price is of the hamburger you're about to eat.

Now You See It... by Vivian Vande Velde

So far, Now You See It... by Vivian Vande Velde has been an enticing read and is impossible to put down. Vande Velde's descriptive vocabulary and casual tone tell the story of a fifteen-year-old girl very well. Her use of sly humor and snappy dialogue give the story a whole new level of reality, making the fanastical story seem like realistic fiction. In this story, Wendy, the girl, finds a set of sunglasses that match her prescription exactly. However, when she wears them, she sees things that aren't there. For instance, the most popular girl in school is transformed into a "hundred-year-old crone" and a boy has been turned into a pointy-eared elf in her glasses. She later discovers a kingdom where elves rule and eventually exits it. However, she ends up in the 1950s, around the time her grandmother was her age. The book is full of twists and turns so it is always impossible to tell what will happen next. The anticipation is impossible! I must finish the book!

Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Theme)

This book has turned out to be a fascinating read. I have always been fond of adventure books, and this is now high on the list of my favorites. The fast-paced plot and well developed characters give the book a sense of realism and entice you to read more. The themes of this story are about friendship, courage and perserverance. Friendship comes into play very early in the book, where Crispin consults his priest, Father Quinnel, for advice on what to do after he finds out that his life in danger. Later on, after Crispin runs away from his village, he befriends (although unwillingly) Bear, who returns his friendship by protecting and entertaining Crispin. Because of this treatment, Crispin begins to see Bear as his father. Second, courage is something that Crispin learns about in many parts of the story. Firstly, he flees from the only place he ever knew and into the unknown without much fear. Another major occurence of Crispin's courage is when Crispin goes to the building where Bear was being held in order to save him, even when there was a possibility of losing his own life. Finally, perserverance is a major theme of the book. Crispin decides to keep going instead of dying early on in the book, as he wants to earn his liberties as Father Quinnel instructed him. Later, when he joins Bear, Crispin feels like abandoning Bear, for he believes that Bear was a madman. However Crispin feels he was bound by the sacred vow he made and keeps on trooping. After warming up to him, Crispin always tries his hardest in order to save Bear after he gets captured. He knows the risks, and has a few difficulties along the way, but Crispin never gives up.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Plot)

The saga of Crispin starts out when Crispin's mother, Asta, passes away. Out of fear, he runs away. Crispin later overhears two people trying to find him and figures out that he has been convicted of a crime he did not commit. Frightened out of his wits, Crispin goes to the village priest, Father Quinnel for advice on what to do. In addition to telling Crispin to run away as far as he could, Father Quinnel tells him many secrets about his mother. The next day, Crispin goes on his way, only to find that Father Quinnel had been murdered. He goes through a forest and eventually finds a desolate village, no doubt destroyed by the Black Death. There, in the church, he finds a gigantic man called Bear. Bear makes Crispin swear to be his servant and teaches him how to play the recorder in order to help Bear gain money. Later, the troupe reaches a village where they entertain the villagers and the priest. Through this they get some money. Some time later, they reach Great Wexly, where the story gets juicy. They get a room and Crispin does some snooping around the city, against Bear's orders. He is attacked by his enemies. After a happy reunion with Bear, the two go back to their room. Later, after being found in a Resistance meeting, Bear is captured and taken prisoner. Out of love and fear, Crispin bravely goes to where Bear is being held and frees Bear after finding out he (Crispin) is a nobleman. He frees Bear only after swearing that e would never stake a claim on the lord's throne.

The plot is extremely absorbing. It is fast-paced and fills you with impatience to read the next chapter. This is probably because of the writers wonderful writing style and the vivid descriptions of life in Medieval England.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Character)

Crispin is an interesting character. He is a thirteen-year-old boy who ends up joining a gigantic man called Bear. He thinks he has made countless sins. He is unaware, at first, at the world outside the small village he lives in. He is very curious, which is how he got into a giant mess, in which he is considered a wolf's head (anyone can kill him when they see him) for a crime he didn't commit. In this mess, he meets Bear, a man who makes Crispin swear to be his servant. Crispin is very timid, so he readily accepts. He is also slow to trust someone, as he thinks about running away from the "madman", Bear. Crispin is also very weak, therefore he does whatever Bear tells him to do. He got in to this mess because his mother died. Crispin later turns out to be noble blood because his mother and his lord had secretly begotten him. Crispin is also extremely religious. He is a Christian and continuously prays to his saint, Saint Giles.