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Good Morning, Portland! Good morning, from the cold, majestic, and unforgiving OCEAN. CRASH! CAW! PLORP. GURBLE. The sea cares not for the pathetic problems of insignificant humansâthough she would appreciate it if we stopped getting plastic everywhere. NOW, ONTO pathetic tiny human NEWS.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
⢠Post-Thanksgiving shows feel a little mythical, but so necessary, if you can find a good one. Mercury music columnist Jenni Moore noted an irreverent, unmissable country show at Turn! Turn! Turn! in her round-up this week, and our calendar editor Audrey Vann highlighted an annual revue drag show and dance party, Bjork Friday.
⢠This holiday's big story was undoubtably the News Seasons worker strike on Wednesday. On a spectrum of "do the workers seem to hate it here?" New Seasons still offers a better shopping experience than most grocery stores in town, so I was a little surprised to read that the union has been trying to establish a first contract with managementâGood Food Holdings, which is ultimately owned by South Koreaâs Emart, which is ultimately owned by a South Korean chaebolâfor nearly TWO YEARS. WAT. Labor-fearing folks dropped plans Tuesday to get their shopping done early, and good on'm.
⢠GROCERY RANT: Personally, New Seasons has become too basic bitch for my tastes, and haven't been to one for anything other than a fresh apple in quite some time. Their grab-and-go section? STAID. Their seasonal offerings? SAME SHIT AS LAST YEAR. The big shiny grocery shops do have first dibs on grade-a wholesale produce, so they do have the high-quality apples, quite frequently, but when it comes to the chocolate orange of my dreams, bulk spices and oats, and some new thing I haven't heard about, I turn to Portland's two remaining co-ops, the enduring oasis of World Foods, and my BFF with a robust meat counter Sheridan Fruit Company (established in 1918).
⢠BEANS RANT: While New Seasons' staff has asked supporters to show solidarity by staying away from the stores for the rest of the holiday weekend, I am also partial to the compromises made to just get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour, so I won't be judging anyone at the hot bar today. We're all just doing our best here. But if you feel moved to start cooking at home more, Max Read shared a delightful bean tutorial this week, and this deep-cut Bon AppÊtit bean video. As a person whose diet was largely beans until our workplace unionized, and whose diet is still full of beans due to my personal preferences, I had already reached many of these conclusions on my own. But this is the good bean news, and could "up your bean game" in noticeable ways.
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