Friday, September 18, 2009

Not the Isle of Wight ferry * ...

This is not a pretty story. In a way, it's shocking.

It is not for dining-table conversation, though it came up (to coin a term) inconveniently (to coin another) before Malcolm sat down to one of those spag bols that the Lady in his life thinks suited to a Friday evening (preferably with a couple of bottles of Cabernet).

Even so ... on with the motley

Malcolm noticed the highlighted quotation on today's New York Times feed:
"Sometimes it smells like a barn coming out of the faucet." - LISA BARNARD, on contaminated water at her rural Wisconsin home.
The full story is on-line here.

For those who simply must take a short cut, the essential story concerns the pollution of the water supply by agri-business dairies.

OK, OK: you're all ahead of the game, now.

Nearby Lisa Barnard's home in Morrison, Wisconsin:
There are 41,000 dairy cows ... and they produce more than 260 million gallons of manure each year, much of which is spread on nearby grain fields. Other farmers receive fees to cover their land with slaughterhouse waste and treated sewage.
For Malcolm, though, the real choker was the location of Morrison, Wisconsin.

It is in Brown County.
_____________________________________

* The headline is a typical Malcolmian esoteric reference. It might be beyond the frame of reference of those who did not win first prize in life's lottery (i.e born English, © Peter Ustinov).

The ferries between the Isle of Wight, the main port of which is Cowes, and the mainland were, in the good old days, owned and run by the Great Western Railway Company, whose livery was chocolate-and-cream. Hence this:
Q: What's brown, steaming and comes out of Cowes backwards?
A: The Isle of Wight ferry.
Boom! Boom!
Sphere: Related Content

2 comments:

yourcousin said...

Two comments in one day?!?! Will wodners never cease. On this topic I would refer to an excellent read entitled "The Omnivores Dilemma" which while not only an excellent and thought provoking read is probably the only time anyone will ever see Garden City, Kansas in print anywhere (aside from Scott county publications) which is where my dad is from.

Malcolm Redfellow said...

Malcolm writes:

I guess that's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

I have to admit I haven't seen it in the UK. However, I shall go looking.

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