Transpacific pears

Last night at work I had a prepacked cup of pears for dessert. It was delicious, but as I ate it I noticed printed on the side the words "PEARS F/ARGENTINA PACKED IN THAILAND." I thought that was odd. There's something fundamentally flawed with the global economy if it's really cost effective to grow pears in Argentina, ship them across the Pacific Ocean to be packed in Thailand, then ship them back across the Pacific to the United States for consumption. I mean, it probably makes sense to grow in Argentina, at least during certain parts of the year. I get that. But really, it's cheaper to ship it halfway across the world so little kids can pack it instead of packing it either (1) where it's grown or (2) where it's sold? Staggering. Think about how bad that is for the Earth. Think about how oppressive that is to the people of Thailand and, for that matter, Argentina. It makes me angry. It makes me not want to buy fruit from Dole. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

So, sorry I haven't posted for some time. I have no excuse, other than being a full-time student who works 32 hours a week and has a family to take care of. I got through "hell week" fairly well, scoring an A on two exams and a... passing grade... on the third. Also, I passed the verbal telephone exam (it was pass/fail). I think the rest of the semester is going to be a continuous gauntlet of tests, assignments and activities. I'll trade to drop updates as I go, but I'm having a baby at the end of November, so don't be too upset if I don't have a ton of time for you, my readers.

I also want to go on the record (so I can brag about it later) on the baseball playoffs. Since TBS started airing playoff games, the team that plays its League Championship Series on FOX (and therefore starts their series one day later) has won the World Series every year. That means the winner of Phillies/Giants, whoever that is, is in line to win the title this year. Let's see if that happens.