Month: December 2007

Mince pie season has kicked off for me, starting with a six pack from KaiOrganic in nearby Hove.

These are billed as “filled with naturally fruity mincemeat laced with cognac”. This is incorrect. It should say “absolutely packed” not just simply “filled”. The filling is not only generous, but very tasty. Quite rich, as you would expect for a mince pie. Working outwards we encounter the pastry, which is sweet and soft, rating around 2 or 3 on the Crumb Drop Scale. A light dusting of icing sugar gives the impression of a home made quality product.

The packaging is a reassuringly flimsily cardboard box with a large cellophane window, sealed with a silver label along one edge. Inside the pies are further sealed in two rows, each of three pies each. In our tests 2/3rds of the pies suffered significant damaged in transit. So take care.

Our rating: Buy! Plus, being organic, and having a short shelf-life, you have a great excuse to munch your way through the lot.

Ingredients: Mincemeat (raisins, sultanas, currants, sunflower oil, sugar, apple juice, oranges (juice and zest), lemons (juice and zest), dried apples, mixed spice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, flakes almonds, cognac, cinnamon), Self raising flow (wheat flower, raising agent* (calcium phosphates, sodium carbonate), sugar, margarine (sunflower oil, palm oil, coconut oil, carrot, juice, emulsifier: lecithin*, lemon juice, natural flavouring*), Unsalted butter, water*, icing sugar (sugar, corn flower). All organic except when indicated by *.
Allergens: Gluten, nuts, sesame.
Suitable for: vegetarians.
Suitable for home freezing.

Availability: available throughout Sussex.

The Crumb Drop Scale:

• 5 – Pieces of pastry explode off the pie or pastry at high speed, making “ping” noises as they hits crockery. Someone comments: “you could’ve had an eye out with that”.
• 4 – You look down at your shirt, or lap, in horror at the amount of crumbs.
• 3 – Light flaking: may be difficult to contain in a strong breeze.
• 2 – Very little crumb drop. Slight risk of small flakes adhering to the lip.
• 1 – A solid pastry producing no crumbs at all. Consider returning the pie to the store.

Another serious issue! In this blog? Surely some mistake…. I’ll try to return to your regular programming of pictures of our friends drunk really soon. But first this…

In the UK active assisted suicide (a.k.a. assisted dying, a.k.a. euthanasia) is illegal.

“Since the 1961 Suicide Act, it is no longer a crime to commit suicide or attempt to do so. However, it remains unlawful, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, to ‘aid, abet, counsel or procure’ a suicide. And deliberately taking the life of another person constitutes murder, even if the person is dying and has asked to be killed. A patient’s refusal of treatment does not constitute suicide, which in law requires a ‘positive act’. Nor is it murder if, to relieve pain, a doctor administers a drug that as a side effect shortens the patient’s life—the ‘double-effect principle'” (The policeman’s dilemma, The Economist Oct 13, 2005).

I think some form of assisted suicide should be introduced. I realize the issues are tricky, but I suspect situations exist that trump the slippery-slope arguments. I don’t have any insights to add, I don’t have any experiences to draw on, but, as this is a blog, I do have a bunch of link for you 🙂

• The British Medical Association publish their views: “While the BMA opposes euthanasia primarily on the grounds that it is alien to the traditional ethos and moral focus of medicine, some of the most convincing arguments have been purely practical” (from Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide: do the moral arguments differ?.
• The Economist has run a number of articles, including The art of dying which lists the countries and states that permit euthanasia, and the conditions under which they permit it: Oregon, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland.
• The Wikipedia article on euthanasia (a horrible word) covers some interesting history.
• The last time a bill was introduced it was defeated in the Lords by 148 votes to 100 (2006). You can find an interesting write up from the National Council for Palliative Care, and the first report from the Lords is a good read.
• Dignity in Dying is the UK campaigning group.

So if you’re interested, there’s plenty to digest. If it’s an option you like to have (but hopefully never have to use), then you’ll probably want to start support it now: it’s going to take a long time to be introduced here.