Author Archive
With fuel prices rocketing, you have probably pondered (along with the rest of us) how best to prolong the time between trips to the pump. Stumped? Not us – Bully Dog is here to help and we have several ready solutions to your economy woes. Chief among them is our premium line of Heavy Duty Turbochargers.Not sure if you should buy Bully Dog? Let’s put those worries to rest. Bully Dog Turbochargers offers higher boost levels than your stock turbo, and they run more efficiently than other turbo on the market. Run more boost up those grades AND spend more time on the road and less filling up – nice! Bully Dog turbos also run cooler than stock turbos, resulting in lower exhaust gas temperatures and less risk of heat damage when your rig is really working hard.Bully Dog understands the need to protect your engine and eek a few more miles before you open your wallet again. That’s why we continue to roll out more products every year to help your rig achieve its full potential. For performance, power and economy, Bully Dog is your best friend – find out more on our website today.
An exciting summer recipe contest is being sponsored by Concord Foods. Consumers are invited to submit their best summer recipes that use CONCORD FOODS LEMON & LIME JUICE for great prizes. The grand prize winner will receive $500.00 cash. Several runner-up prizes are also available.
To support the recipe contest, attention-getting merchandising is available through August 2013. During the promotional period, all lemon and lime juice bottles will come with beautiful summer tags. Special floor displays will also feature the contest. All materials contain QR codes, which savvy consumers can use to easily enter the contest.
Concord Foods will use social media to promote the recipe contest to its customer base. “The 2012 contest was very successful for us with over 635 recipe submissions. We are looking forward to breaking that record in 2013! Our consumers enjoy interacting with us and sharing recipe ideas and tips. We will use the strength of our social media network to promote the recipe contest.” Said Samantha McCaul, Marketing Manager at Concord Foods.
Concord Foods CONCORD FOODS LEMON & LIME JUICE are available in 24 and 144pack floor shippers for the 4.5 oz size and 12 and 84 packs for the 8 oz size. Distribution channels include retail grocery stores, mass merchandisers and club stores in the U.S.
ABOUT CONCORD FOODS
Concord Foods Incorporated is a leading supplier of retail food products and custom ingredients to nationally recognized supermarkets, food service operators and leading food manufacturers. Concord Foods retail division offers a wide variety of produce friendly items from Candy Apple Kits to produce seasoning mixes. Consumers count on our quality products to glaze pies, create guacamole and batter onion rings. For more information, please visit www.concordfoods.com.
Source: Concord Foods Inc.
While the folks in New Jersey who are paid to promote Jersey agriculture, they are touting great crops of peaches, blueberries and vegetables this year. However, excessive rains the first half of June may have an impact on shipments. Just keep an eye on what you are loading in case quality has been adversely affected.
Full crops of peaches and blueberries are being forecast for this season. Blueberry loadings are just now starting in the southern part of New Jersey, while peach shipments should get underway in mid July and continue into mid August.
The asparagus harvest is underway and other vegetables are expected to follow soon.
New Jersey ranks second nationally in blueberry shipments.
However, most agricultural products are in the greenhouse and nursery products sector. Roses, chrysanthemums, geraniums, lilies, orchids and poinsettias are all grown for the urban markets. Nursery products include grass sod and ornamental shrubs (arborvitae, holly, juniper).
Concerning produce, New Jersey ships significant amounts of of asparagus, bell peppers, eggplant, endive, lettuce and spinach.
Cabbages, snap peas and corn are also raised. Additionally, the state has apples, peaches and strawberries, although the later is mainly involvedwith pick your own operations.
Two of the biggest markets for Jesery produce are New York City and Philadelphia, although shipments do occur in many other eastern markets.
Two major California summer produce items are expected to get underway the week of June 24th, with volume shipments really increasing entering July.
Meanwhile, $9,000 gross freight rates from Salinas to the East Coast are becoming relatively common.
Cantaloupe shipments from the West Side of California’s San Joaquin Valley are expected to get underway next week, as loadings will continue into October.
Overall acreage is down about 5 to 10 percent on cantaloupes from a year ago. Whether that translates to yields and an reduction in loads remains to be seen.
Cantaloupe shipments start each season from Huron in the southern part of the valley and gradually moves northward into the Firebaugh district, before coming out of the Los Banos area. The end of the season has cantouples originating from fields in the northern area of Crow’s Landing.
Besides cantaloupe, other melons will be available for hauls ranging from honeydews, to Cranshaws, Casabas, Persians, Canaries, Orange Flesh, Santa Claus, Galias and Hamis.
Shipments of these items should get underway by July 1st.
Record Grapes Shipments?
Southern San Joaquin Valley table grapes from the Arvin district near Bakersfield will start shipping a little early this year (last week of June). Combine this with Sonara Mexican grapes crossing the border at Nogales, AZ and Coachella Valley grapes in the California desert running a little late – and there could be a glut of fruit needing to be shipped just prior to the Fouth of July holidays.
A number of grape shippers will be going entering the shipping arena the week of June 24th.
The April preliminary estimate this year is 106.9 million 19-pound boxes of grapes . If this holds, it will top last year’s record volume of about 101 million boxes.
More than half of that volume will be harvested and shipped after Sept. 1.
If the estimate holds it would result in record California grape shipments for the second year in a row.
Coachella Valley grapes – grossing about $6700 to Atlanta.
Salinas Valley veggies, berries – grossing mostly around $8000, with some as high as $9500 to Boston; $6,000 to Chicago.
Very light shipments of Eastern Shore vegetables get underway this week, with loadings in full swing expected by early July. The Eastern Shore is an area including parts of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
Virginia farming operation usually produce about 3,000 to 4,000 acres of red, yellow and russet potatoes, although there has been an eight to 10 percent decrease this year.
The majority of Virginia spuds are shipped to the eastern half of the country. When northern areas are not producing, much of the crop is trucked to those regions. When the Southern states stopshipping, loads are redirected to the South.
There has been a significant acreage in tomatoes, potatoes and green beans, which are the big three items on the Eastern Shore. The largest green bean operation is at Cheriton, VA. There are two major tomato operations on the Eastern Shore, that ship round, roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, which will continue from late June through September.
Of the Eastern Shore potatoes that are shipped, about 60 percent go to tablestock and the remainder goes to chip processing. Potato loadings occur from late June through the first week of August. Harvest started last week.
The Eastern Shore region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is separated from the rest of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay.
I was in Chicago early Friday (June 14) when the first two loads of cherries arrived at the Chicago International Produce Market (CIPM) from Washington state. Cherry shipments have gotten off to a slow start, but should really be picking up in the days ahead.
The truckers were paid a gross freight of $4,500 for the run originating out of the Yakima Valley. The f.o.b. worth of the load of cherries was approximately $125,000!
There have been some concerns relating to weather factors causing cracks in Washington cherries this season. However, these loads of early variety Chelan cherries had decent quality. The more popular Bing variety of cherries should start shipments the week of June 24th.
If you haul produce and plan on loading Washington cherries, continue to check what’s being put into the truck. Just because this stone fruit had good quality, there’s not guarantee this cracking will not show up in future loads.
Volume on Washington cherries in increasing and should hit a peak around June 26 -28, just in time for Fourth of July deliveries.
Shipments should continue into August.
Washington also continues to ship late season apples and pears from both the Yakima and Wenachee valleys. Although not as attractive an item, the state’s Columbia Basin is still loading potatoes.
Columbia Basin potatoes – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.
Yakima valley apples and pears – about $6500 to New York City.
One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.
To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products — 52 percent of the department’s normal product mix.
Products removed included apples, onions, avocados, carrots, mangos, lemons, limes, honeydew, cantaloupe, zucchini, Summer squash, eggplant, cucumbers, celery, green onions, cauliflower, leeks, bok choy, kale, broccoli, broccoli rabe and mustard green.
To help support honeybee populations, for every pound of organic summer squash sold at Whole Foods Market stores June 12-25 the company will donate 10 cents to The Xerces Society for pollinator preservation.
“Pollinators are a critical link in our food system. More than 85 percent of earth’s plant species — many of which compose some of the most nutritional parts of our diet — require pollinators to exist. Yet we continue to see alarming declines in bee numbers,” Eric Mader, assistant pollinator conservation director at The Xerces Society, said in a press release. “Our organization works with farmers nationwide to help them create wildflower habitat and adopt less pesticide-intensive practices. These simple strategies can tip the balance back in favor of bees.”
Whole Foods Market offers more ways to “bee part of the solution” at www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sharethebuzz.
Fresh produce prices will increase 3.5% to 4.5% due to inflation this year, according to the latest USDA retail price forecast.
That compares to 2% price drop in 2012 for all fresh produce.
The Economic Research Service, a part of the USDA, report retail fresh fruit prices for 2013 are predicted to rise 3% to 4% in 2013, after 1% inflation in 2012 and 3.3% higher prices in 2011. With fresh fruit prices decreasing .5% in April, the USDA reported the fresh fruit index is up 1.4% from the same time a year ago.
The Department of Commerce in April reported the average retail price per pound of red delicious apples was $1.33 per pound, up seven cents per pound from April 2012. Retail navel orange prices were 98 cents per pound in April, up from 91 cents per pound the same time a year ago. Retail banana prices, at 60 cents per pound in April, were unchanged from a year ago.
Fresh vegetable retail prices are predicted to rise from 4% to 5% in 2013, after a 5.1% decline in retail prices in 2012 and a 5.6% gain in 2011.
The fresh vegetable index dropped 2.7% in April, but prices were still up 4.6% compared with the same time in 2012. The average retail price of tomatoes in April was $1.46 per pound, up from $1.39 per pound in April 2012.
The consumer price of all food consumed at home in 2013 is forecast to climb 2.5% to 3.5%, the same forecast range as food consumed away from home.
Cats are very controversial animals.
It’s amazing how cats can bring out the worst in some people. For some strange reason cats are not a “neutral” animal. Everyone seems to have a definite opinion of cats. They are either liked or intensely disliked. You could see a yak walking down the street and when someone said “Hey look there goes a yak” the response would be a shrug of the shoulders and a comment like “so what, yaks are yaks.”
However, you can see a cat cross the street and make the comment “Look a cat,” and someone will almost always respond with a death threat for the cat. There are many articles written about why people hate cats and almost all are written by cat lovers. They all seem to miss the point and many attribute the dislike of cats to some primal “fear of cats.”
Fear could not be further from the truth. Most cat haters derive their dislike of cats from experience with them. Cats are not very trainable. You never see a duck hunter going out with his retriever cat to bag some mallards. You never see a fetch cat get the morning newspaper, or see a sign that says “Beware Watch Cat.”
Cats have an attitude. They are demanding and tend to ignore any command you give them. Come to think of it, so do most wives.
On the other hand a friend of mine says they are just stupid and don’t have the capacity for learning commands and spoken words like dogs do.
Cats don’t like water and most humans do. This may have something to do with it. You can always take a dog out boating. Dogs love to swim and play in the water. Cats on the other hand, almost never bathe. They sit around and lick themselves. I’m sorry, licking yourself is no substitute for a good soaking bath. John S. Nichols said, “Cats aren’t clean, they’re just covered with cat spit.”
On top of that, they cough up large slimy hair balls. You would think that cats would learn that eating your own hair makes you barf, but no,they keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. Sort of like politicians.
Women seem to like cats more than men do. Maybe they have more in common with cats than with dogs. After all, I don’t know of any women who are good at fetching a downed bird.
Dogs are very grateful animals. They will wag their tail to show satisfaction and they will eat just about anything you give them. Cats are no where near as amiable.
Cats wag their tail to show you they are annoyed, and they quite often turn down the same food they just ate four hours ago. Cats are not reliable sniffers. This may be the reason you never see an officer walking around an airport with his drug sniffing cat. Cats get away with more.
If the cat took a dump on your wife’s favorite rug it would be no problem. You would hear comments like “poor thing, you must be feeling bad.”
But if you just happen to spill some barbeque sauce or beer on the same rug all hell would break loose. Just what is it about these worthless cats that deserves this special treatment? Cats are just not very smart. A cat will whine and want to go outside on a cold raw day only to whine and want back inside 10 minutes later. Then in an hour or less the stupid cat will forget how raw and cold it was and want back outside again.
In my opinion cats bring out the empathy in most right-brained people. Cats, being basically worthless, bring out an unconscious empathy for such a stupid creature. A lot of people are also like that. Not all cats are cast from the same mold. Some cats have an identity crisis and even think they are dogs.
There is no greater cat hater than a cat that thinks it’s a dog, sort of like reformed smokers. Now don’t get me wrong. Not all cats are worthless. Some cats are very good mousers and ratters. Outdoor cats are preferred by most ranchers and farmers for that very reason. I guess most of us guys can learn to tolerate
Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.
Overweight trucks legally transporting produce into the USA from Mexico might be possible, if the state of Texas eases some rules and regulations. The state and some others see a benefit of easing border congestion.
The Texas House of Representatives recently passed legislation to create an “overweight corridor” at the USA -Mexico border, and the Texas Senate is expected to vote on it soon.
The proposed corridor, from the Anzalduas Bridge to the Pharr/Reynosa Bridge, would be an area where Mexican trucks carrying fresh produce would be able to enter the U.S. even if they were overweight. Trucks would then offload their extra weight at a U.S. cold storage facility.
A Mexican truck, under current law, carrying produce that weighs too much, faces a stiff fine if it crosses into the USA.
Currently, trucks are weighed on the Mexican side of the border, and extra product is typically offloaded there if the truck is overweight. This procedure delays truck movement at the border and exposes perishable fruits and vegetables to the elements as it waits for another truck to pick it up.
Trucks that are overweight would be charged a fee, under the proposed law, which is much smaller than the current fine. The big rig would then be allowed to proceed to a cold storage facility in the overweight zone’s boundaries.
Arizona already has a similar law.
Funds from the overweight fees would be used to maintain the roads that will be carrying the heavier loads.
 With fuel prices rocketing, you have probably pondered (along with the rest of us) how best to prolong the time between trips to the pump. Stumped? Not us – Bully Dog is here to help and we have several ready solutions to your economy woes. Chief among them is our premium line of Heavy Duty Turbochargers.Not sure if you should buy Bully Dog? Let’s put those worries to rest. Bully Dog Turbochargers offers higher boost levels than your stock turbo, and they run more efficiently than other turbo on the market. Run more boost up those grades AND spend more time on the road and less filling up – nice! Bully Dog turbos also run cooler than stock turbos, resulting in lower exhaust gas temperatures and less risk of heat damage when your rig is really working hard.Bully Dog understands the need to protect your engine and eek a few more miles before you open your wallet again. That’s why we continue to roll out more products every year to help your rig achieve its full potential. For performance, power and economy, Bully Dog is your best friend – find out more on our website today. |
An exciting summer recipe contest is being sponsored by Concord Foods. Consumers are invited to submit their best summer recipes that use CONCORD FOODS LEMON & LIME JUICE for great prizes. The grand prize winner will receive $500.00 cash. Several runner-up prizes are also available.
To support the recipe contest, attention-getting merchandising is available through August 2013. During the promotional period, all lemon and lime juice bottles will come with beautiful summer tags. Special floor displays will also feature the contest. All materials contain QR codes, which savvy consumers can use to easily enter the contest.
Concord Foods will use social media to promote the recipe contest to its customer base. “The 2012 contest was very successful for us with over 635 recipe submissions. We are looking forward to breaking that record in 2013! Our consumers enjoy interacting with us and sharing recipe ideas and tips. We will use the strength of our social media network to promote the recipe contest.” Said Samantha McCaul, Marketing Manager at Concord Foods.
Concord Foods CONCORD FOODS LEMON & LIME JUICE are available in 24 and 144pack floor shippers for the 4.5 oz size and 12 and 84 packs for the 8 oz size. Distribution channels include retail grocery stores, mass merchandisers and club stores in the U.S.
ABOUT CONCORD FOODS
Concord Foods Incorporated is a leading supplier of retail food products and custom ingredients to nationally recognized supermarkets, food service operators and leading food manufacturers. Concord Foods retail division offers a wide variety of produce friendly items from Candy Apple Kits to produce seasoning mixes. Consumers count on our quality products to glaze pies, create guacamole and batter onion rings. For more information, please visit www.concordfoods.com.
Source: Concord Foods Inc.
While the folks in New Jersey who are paid to promote Jersey agriculture, they are touting great crops of peaches, blueberries and vegetables this year. However, excessive rains the first half of June may have an impact on shipments. Just keep an eye on what you are loading in case quality has been adversely affected.
Full crops of peaches and blueberries are being forecast for this season. Blueberry loadings are just now starting in the southern part of New Jersey, while peach shipments should get underway in mid July and continue into mid August.
The asparagus harvest is underway and other vegetables are expected to follow soon.
New Jersey ranks second nationally in blueberry shipments.
However, most agricultural products are in the greenhouse and nursery products sector. Roses, chrysanthemums, geraniums, lilies, orchids and poinsettias are all grown for the urban markets. Nursery products include grass sod and ornamental shrubs (arborvitae, holly, juniper).
Concerning produce, New Jersey ships significant amounts of of asparagus, bell peppers, eggplant, endive, lettuce and spinach.
Cabbages, snap peas and corn are also raised. Additionally, the state has apples, peaches and strawberries, although the later is mainly involvedwith pick your own operations.
Two of the biggest markets for Jesery produce are New York City and Philadelphia, although shipments do occur in many other eastern markets.
Two major California summer produce items are expected to get underway the week of June 24th, with volume shipments really increasing entering July.
Meanwhile, $9,000 gross freight rates from Salinas to the East Coast are becoming relatively common.
Cantaloupe shipments from the West Side of California’s San Joaquin Valley are expected to get underway next week, as loadings will continue into October.
Overall acreage is down about 5 to 10 percent on cantaloupes from a year ago. Whether that translates to yields and an reduction in loads remains to be seen.
Cantaloupe shipments start each season from Huron in the southern part of the valley and gradually moves northward into the Firebaugh district, before coming out of the Los Banos area. The end of the season has cantouples originating from fields in the northern area of Crow’s Landing.
Besides cantaloupe, other melons will be available for hauls ranging from honeydews, to Cranshaws, Casabas, Persians, Canaries, Orange Flesh, Santa Claus, Galias and Hamis.
Shipments of these items should get underway by July 1st.
Record Grapes Shipments?
Southern San Joaquin Valley table grapes from the Arvin district near Bakersfield will start shipping a little early this year (last week of June). Combine this with Sonara Mexican grapes crossing the border at Nogales, AZ and Coachella Valley grapes in the California desert running a little late – and there could be a glut of fruit needing to be shipped just prior to the Fouth of July holidays.
A number of grape shippers will be going entering the shipping arena the week of June 24th.
The April preliminary estimate this year is 106.9 million 19-pound boxes of grapes . If this holds, it will top last year’s record volume of about 101 million boxes.
More than half of that volume will be harvested and shipped after Sept. 1.
If the estimate holds it would result in record California grape shipments for the second year in a row.
Coachella Valley grapes – grossing about $6700 to Atlanta.
Salinas Valley veggies, berries – grossing mostly around $8000, with some as high as $9500 to Boston; $6,000 to Chicago.
Very light shipments of Eastern Shore vegetables get underway this week, with loadings in full swing expected by early July. The Eastern Shore is an area including parts of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
Virginia farming operation usually produce about 3,000 to 4,000 acres of red, yellow and russet potatoes, although there has been an eight to 10 percent decrease this year.
The majority of Virginia spuds are shipped to the eastern half of the country. When northern areas are not producing, much of the crop is trucked to those regions. When the Southern states stopshipping, loads are redirected to the South.
There has been a significant acreage in tomatoes, potatoes and green beans, which are the big three items on the Eastern Shore. The largest green bean operation is at Cheriton, VA. There are two major tomato operations on the Eastern Shore, that ship round, roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, which will continue from late June through September.
Of the Eastern Shore potatoes that are shipped, about 60 percent go to tablestock and the remainder goes to chip processing. Potato loadings occur from late June through the first week of August. Harvest started last week.
The Eastern Shore region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is separated from the rest of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay.
I was in Chicago early Friday (June 14) when the first two loads of cherries arrived at the Chicago International Produce Market (CIPM) from Washington state. Cherry shipments have gotten off to a slow start, but should really be picking up in the days ahead.
The truckers were paid a gross freight of $4,500 for the run originating out of the Yakima Valley. The f.o.b. worth of the load of cherries was approximately $125,000!
There have been some concerns relating to weather factors causing cracks in Washington cherries this season. However, these loads of early variety Chelan cherries had decent quality. The more popular Bing variety of cherries should start shipments the week of June 24th.
If you haul produce and plan on loading Washington cherries, continue to check what’s being put into the truck. Just because this stone fruit had good quality, there’s not guarantee this cracking will not show up in future loads.
Volume on Washington cherries in increasing and should hit a peak around June 26 -28, just in time for Fourth of July deliveries.
Shipments should continue into August.
Washington also continues to ship late season apples and pears from both the Yakima and Wenachee valleys. Although not as attractive an item, the state’s Columbia Basin is still loading potatoes.
Columbia Basin potatoes – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.
Yakima valley apples and pears – about $6500 to New York City.
One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.
To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products — 52 percent of the department’s normal product mix.
Products removed included apples, onions, avocados, carrots, mangos, lemons, limes, honeydew, cantaloupe, zucchini, Summer squash, eggplant, cucumbers, celery, green onions, cauliflower, leeks, bok choy, kale, broccoli, broccoli rabe and mustard green.
To help support honeybee populations, for every pound of organic summer squash sold at Whole Foods Market stores June 12-25 the company will donate 10 cents to The Xerces Society for pollinator preservation.
“Pollinators are a critical link in our food system. More than 85 percent of earth’s plant species — many of which compose some of the most nutritional parts of our diet — require pollinators to exist. Yet we continue to see alarming declines in bee numbers,” Eric Mader, assistant pollinator conservation director at The Xerces Society, said in a press release. “Our organization works with farmers nationwide to help them create wildflower habitat and adopt less pesticide-intensive practices. These simple strategies can tip the balance back in favor of bees.”
Whole Foods Market offers more ways to “bee part of the solution” at www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sharethebuzz.
Fresh produce prices will increase 3.5% to 4.5% due to inflation this year, according to the latest USDA retail price forecast.
That compares to 2% price drop in 2012 for all fresh produce.
The Economic Research Service, a part of the USDA, report retail fresh fruit prices for 2013 are predicted to rise 3% to 4% in 2013, after 1% inflation in 2012 and 3.3% higher prices in 2011. With fresh fruit prices decreasing .5% in April, the USDA reported the fresh fruit index is up 1.4% from the same time a year ago.
The Department of Commerce in April reported the average retail price per pound of red delicious apples was $1.33 per pound, up seven cents per pound from April 2012. Retail navel orange prices were 98 cents per pound in April, up from 91 cents per pound the same time a year ago. Retail banana prices, at 60 cents per pound in April, were unchanged from a year ago.
Fresh vegetable retail prices are predicted to rise from 4% to 5% in 2013, after a 5.1% decline in retail prices in 2012 and a 5.6% gain in 2011.
The fresh vegetable index dropped 2.7% in April, but prices were still up 4.6% compared with the same time in 2012. The average retail price of tomatoes in April was $1.46 per pound, up from $1.39 per pound in April 2012.
The consumer price of all food consumed at home in 2013 is forecast to climb 2.5% to 3.5%, the same forecast range as food consumed away from home.
Cats are very controversial animals.
It’s amazing how cats can bring out the worst in some people. For some strange reason cats are not a “neutral” animal. Everyone seems to have a definite opinion of cats. They are either liked or intensely disliked. You could see a yak walking down the street and when someone said “Hey look there goes a yak” the response would be a shrug of the shoulders and a comment like “so what, yaks are yaks.”
However, you can see a cat cross the street and make the comment “Look a cat,” and someone will almost always respond with a death threat for the cat. There are many articles written about why people hate cats and almost all are written by cat lovers. They all seem to miss the point and many attribute the dislike of cats to some primal “fear of cats.”
Fear could not be further from the truth. Most cat haters derive their dislike of cats from experience with them. Cats are not very trainable. You never see a duck hunter going out with his retriever cat to bag some mallards. You never see a fetch cat get the morning newspaper, or see a sign that says “Beware Watch Cat.”
Cats have an attitude. They are demanding and tend to ignore any command you give them. Come to think of it, so do most wives.
On the other hand a friend of mine says they are just stupid and don’t have the capacity for learning commands and spoken words like dogs do.
Cats don’t like water and most humans do. This may have something to do with it. You can always take a dog out boating. Dogs love to swim and play in the water. Cats on the other hand, almost never bathe. They sit around and lick themselves. I’m sorry, licking yourself is no substitute for a good soaking bath. John S. Nichols said, “Cats aren’t clean, they’re just covered with cat spit.”
On top of that, they cough up large slimy hair balls. You would think that cats would learn that eating your own hair makes you barf, but no,they keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. Sort of like politicians.
Women seem to like cats more than men do. Maybe they have more in common with cats than with dogs. After all, I don’t know of any women who are good at fetching a downed bird.
Dogs are very grateful animals. They will wag their tail to show satisfaction and they will eat just about anything you give them. Cats are no where near as amiable.
Cats wag their tail to show you they are annoyed, and they quite often turn down the same food they just ate four hours ago. Cats are not reliable sniffers. This may be the reason you never see an officer walking around an airport with his drug sniffing cat. Cats get away with more.
If the cat took a dump on your wife’s favorite rug it would be no problem. You would hear comments like “poor thing, you must be feeling bad.”
But if you just happen to spill some barbeque sauce or beer on the same rug all hell would break loose. Just what is it about these worthless cats that deserves this special treatment? Cats are just not very smart. A cat will whine and want to go outside on a cold raw day only to whine and want back inside 10 minutes later. Then in an hour or less the stupid cat will forget how raw and cold it was and want back outside again.
In my opinion cats bring out the empathy in most right-brained people. Cats, being basically worthless, bring out an unconscious empathy for such a stupid creature. A lot of people are also like that. Not all cats are cast from the same mold. Some cats have an identity crisis and even think they are dogs.
There is no greater cat hater than a cat that thinks it’s a dog, sort of like reformed smokers. Now don’t get me wrong. Not all cats are worthless. Some cats are very good mousers and ratters. Outdoor cats are preferred by most ranchers and farmers for that very reason. I guess most of us guys can learn to tolerate
Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.
Overweight trucks legally transporting produce into the USA from Mexico might be possible, if the state of Texas eases some rules and regulations. The state and some others see a benefit of easing border congestion.
The Texas House of Representatives recently passed legislation to create an “overweight corridor” at the USA -Mexico border, and the Texas Senate is expected to vote on it soon.
The proposed corridor, from the Anzalduas Bridge to the Pharr/Reynosa Bridge, would be an area where Mexican trucks carrying fresh produce would be able to enter the U.S. even if they were overweight. Trucks would then offload their extra weight at a U.S. cold storage facility.
A Mexican truck, under current law, carrying produce that weighs too much, faces a stiff fine if it crosses into the USA.
Currently, trucks are weighed on the Mexican side of the border, and extra product is typically offloaded there if the truck is overweight. This procedure delays truck movement at the border and exposes perishable fruits and vegetables to the elements as it waits for another truck to pick it up.
Trucks that are overweight would be charged a fee, under the proposed law, which is much smaller than the current fine. The big rig would then be allowed to proceed to a cold storage facility in the overweight zone’s boundaries.
Arizona already has a similar law.
Funds from the overweight fees would be used to maintain the roads that will be carrying the heavier loads.