Last week, I saw the Lights and Laughs Production of The Little Shop of Horrors at the Brewery, and let me tell you - - - it was awesome! Though the Brewery is small, the play was carefully orchestrated in such a small place, and kudos to the Brewery for going out on a limb and providing space for such a well-done play.

The reason I'm so crazed over this is not only because I truly enjoyed the show, but because it was quite possibly the most fun thing I could've done in the downtown area. It is just too bad that the rest of the State College bar scene is too paranoid of new talent - God Forbid the bars allow any band aside from the ones playing Journey  cover songs to entertain people, who are drinking themselves into oblivion just to be able to "enjoy" the music.

So, if you see flyers for a Lights and Laughs Production, (I think that's their name, or the other way around, Laughs and Lights), definately consider going to one of their plays.

But you know what would be even cooler than that? A Voices writer sitting in on their next show, and interviewing them about their work and about entertainment in this town (I know, Voices has done something to that extent, but I just loved these people.) The players are all skilled and creative young artists looking to bring different entertainment around here. And, I would be more than happy to be that writer doing a piece on them!

According to a televised CNN report, aired today, the government has set new standards for selling even used products (think children's toys) containing lead, the new standard to go in effect this week, February 10th - no more than 600 parts per million, regardless of when the product was made. Anyway, the federal government can fine a business up to $100,000 for selling such a product.

Here's the beef: there are people out there who can only find clothing and toys for their children at thrift stores, and in these troubling times, more and more people are apt to find themselves shopping for used clothes and such. According to the CNN report, a leader of a thrift store organization said today that thrift store owners across the country are talking about closing their doors as opposed to getting smacked with a huge fine. Well, we have a considerable amount of thrift stores around here in State College and Bellefonte, of course Goodwill, Centre Peace, the Rag & Bone, among others, but my favorite, by far, is Plaza Centre Antique Gallery in downtown Bellefonte.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and had some wonderful food. Over the holiday, my family and i were talking about food, well, because, we sure were eating a whole lot of it, and we got to talking about the HFCS ads that the Corn Refiners Ass. started running back in September, (which I believe stopped in Nov or early Dec, I haven't seen one recently).

I'm sure some of you have seen the ads; they're real misleading. They feature domestic type settings with people sitting around talking about how HFCS is "natural", "made from corn", has the "same calories as sugar", and is "fine in moderation", which made me think it was all fine 'n dandy.

Well, it isn't, because HFCS is what companies do to save money in shipping and processing because it is liquid and once we consume it, our bodies can't process it like normal sugary carbs, so it gets stored as fat.

I'm just learning all this now, and thinking, why in the world aren't focus groups out there getting the word out that HFCS isn't "natural" (you don't see syrup oozing out of ears of corn, do ya?), and in my opinion, it isn't even fine in moderation.

Here is an article a friend of mine sent me, asking for a response on this. I thought I'd reproduce the article and my own comments for you all - and I would really like for others to respond and comment.
---
Wednesday October 29th, 2008.
Calvin Woodward writes for the Associated Press: Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities.

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

I read a blurb on msnbc.com a couple days ago that opened with a line from a Vietman vet:"McCain will remember us."

I'm assuming that this veteran hasn't yet actually looked at McCain's voting record. His record boasts a completely different sentiment - one of money (that is, saving it). I'm betting yall already know most of this, but what I didn't know myself is that, while McCain claims that several veterans' associations have awarded him their "highest awards", in what I like to call Reality, he has been awarded failing 'grades', if you will. For example, the IAVA, an association for our veterans coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, gave him a D; the IAVA gave Obama a B+. [For a full list of the 2006 IAVA report, here's the link: http://www.iava.org/full-ratings-list; at least one person got a worse grade than McCain --- our own Rick Santorum, he received a D-, and Ron Paul received an F, yikes]. Most of the time, about 80%, Obama votes in favor of veterans' issues, and unfortunately, the same can not be said for McCain.

Well, it is possible, and some people have done it, though relatively few - although, the conversions we usually hear about are those crazy Amish girls at the age of fifteen who decide dancing in clubs and living with cars and phones is better (of course those would be the deciding factors).

Anyway, I was thinking about this topic this morning because I had finished reading the story that made the cover on the July/August issue of Voices: 'The battle for homebirth: midwives and the Amish take on the medical establishment'. [The story is really not particularly about an 'Amish issue', but it got me thinking.]

And I started organizing in my head all the Crap I have to do this week, aside from going to work: call my doctor for a prescription refill, get the top hose replaced on my car (transmission fluid needs changing too), go to the ACCESS office in town at some point for healthcare balogna, and figure out how I'm going to buy a new phone and sign a new contract with Verizon. I don't want to do any of that Crap, including Work. I started thinking, 'If I was Amish, I wouldn't have ANY of that to deal with....EVER.'

Alright, last month I called my insurance company because I needed to see a doctor and asked them with whom do they participate in my area - the rep gave me the name of a doctor and apracitce, and when i asked if I was COMPLETELY covered, meaning I wouldn't receive any billing, the rep said, "Yes, you are completely covered."

I went there, and here, a month later,, today in fact, I've received a bill - for $250 of a $391 bill: insurance only covered me for $140. So, with that preface, this is why I'm blogging about this particular topic on this particular afternoon - this issue of our healthcare system is hitting home for me, and I'm outraged.

Anyway, when an insurance rep says, "Yes, you're covered 100%", apparently, that doesn't mean, "Yes, you're covered 100%." What it means is something like, "Yes, go ahead, go to that doctor, feel good about it, and we'll slap you in the face later with little, if any coverage."

Is there? Well, yes. Here's an example. I live in an apartment with four other very progressive people - none of whom have ever bothered to pick up a Voices issue. One day I brought home a couple copies and left them on the dining room table; and don't you know - those people left every single copy untouched, for weeks.

I wasn't too surprised. So, I decided to talk to them, and get some feedback. It seems that one reason people my age (early twenties) don't pick up the paper is that the stories the paper chooses to print are so specific to the extent that, if you don't know the political climate of this area, and the history of the issue, then you won't understand what the story is about. (So, kids who are just going to college here won't bother, for the most part).

Alright, I feel I had to comment. (This happens waaay too much and I'm dog tired of it.)

Eighty percent of Americans surveyed say that they are "Christian". I believe that those people truly think and believe they're Christians, but the percentage of people who really are 'true Christians' (and what I mean by that, I'll get to in a minute), who really understand the Center Thesis of their religion (most people in ANY religion do not), who really understand what is meant by the Atonement, the percentage of those people is probably less than half of one percent of the "Christian" population.

My Black Christianity class took a survey a couple days ago, and the question was as follows:

"In your understanding of Christian thought, how does the death of Jesus make human beings right with God? If you don't know, guess."

Followed by two other questions,

"Are you a Christian?"; "In your answer, are you guessing?"