I am led to believe the Australians invented Velcro gloves....New Zealand I think of men doing strange things with sheep..but that's quite disturbing so I push those thoughts away.
Some questions about America
Ah Chas...I thought you had missed it.
This question might be getting a little into boring territory so sorry if that's the case:
America is such a huge country with (I assume) a heap of manufacturing. Does the US import a lot of goods or rely more on indigenous industry and farming?
This question might be getting a little into boring territory so sorry if that's the case:
America is such a huge country with (I assume) a heap of manufacturing. Does the US import a lot of goods or rely more on indigenous industry and farming?
tovo wrote:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/trade-external/7
According to our (NZ) exporters they don't import enough! They are actually our major client for exportAh Chas...I thought you had missed it.
This question might be getting a little into boring territory so sorry if that's the case:
America is such a huge country with (I assume) a heap of manufacturing. Does the US import a lot of goods or rely more on indigenous industry and farming?
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/trade-external/7
Chasplaya wrote:
We live on one huge planet,,but in some(many)cases is the planet a litlle one,,we use rubber boots...tovo wrote:I am led to believe the Australians invented Velcro gloves....New Zealand I think of men doing strange things with sheep..but that's quite disturbing so I push those thoughts away.
Bear,
I'll agree with you on the turkey, and other meats. We do a stuffed Pork Loin, a "Beer up the Bum" chicken (literally placing an open can of Beer in the rear of the chicken, sewing the top shut so the steam from the beer circulates mainly inside the chicken) and we have the means to do "Deep Fried Turkey's" which are normally injected with several liquids and spices before dipping them, wholly, into Peanut Oil.
We actually 'own' three pits, comparable to the photos attached in the last response. One pit is actually two, 8 foot long 32 inch circumference, one on each side of a 32 foot long trailer. The trailer is fully equipped, generator, three compartment sink, fresh and grey water, water heater, lighting, canopies, fold out awnings which when folded down enclose the pits. We even have a surround sound system, CD player, and a 42 inch Plasma which, after setting up, we attach to one side at the end of the fold over serving line. We also have a portable dish we use to hook up to the Plasma.
The fire boxes are double plated, insulated. Even though they come stock with the piping and apparatus to hook up to a propane bottle (the rig also has two 500,000 btu burners) to light the firebox, we have never used them. And, there has never, ever been any charcoal or any oil-based products (like starter fluid) introduced to them. Instead we have a "Mesquite Burner" type 'flamethrower' we use to light the wood. We use in large Oak wood (for heat) and for smoking, dependent upon the meat, either Hickory or Pecan and every so often, on order, Mesquite.
I'll agree with you on the turkey, and other meats. We do a stuffed Pork Loin, a "Beer up the Bum" chicken (literally placing an open can of Beer in the rear of the chicken, sewing the top shut so the steam from the beer circulates mainly inside the chicken) and we have the means to do "Deep Fried Turkey's" which are normally injected with several liquids and spices before dipping them, wholly, into Peanut Oil.
We actually 'own' three pits, comparable to the photos attached in the last response. One pit is actually two, 8 foot long 32 inch circumference, one on each side of a 32 foot long trailer. The trailer is fully equipped, generator, three compartment sink, fresh and grey water, water heater, lighting, canopies, fold out awnings which when folded down enclose the pits. We even have a surround sound system, CD player, and a 42 inch Plasma which, after setting up, we attach to one side at the end of the fold over serving line. We also have a portable dish we use to hook up to the Plasma.
The fire boxes are double plated, insulated. Even though they come stock with the piping and apparatus to hook up to a propane bottle (the rig also has two 500,000 btu burners) to light the firebox, we have never used them. And, there has never, ever been any charcoal or any oil-based products (like starter fluid) introduced to them. Instead we have a "Mesquite Burner" type 'flamethrower' we use to light the wood. We use in large Oak wood (for heat) and for smoking, dependent upon the meat, either Hickory or Pecan and every so often, on order, Mesquite.
wiley wrote:
Man, I jealous! That sounds like a terrific setup! You guys are hard core! I love Beer Butt chicken but almost burned my house down trying to deep fry a turkey! LOL! I won't won't be doing that again anytime soon. Anyone need a once-used turkey fryer?
I actually did finally get a turkey fried but the whole family much preferred my injected and smoked bird and won't let me do anything else. I actually did 3ea 16 pounders this last year. Now friends call in their order. As long as I have room!
To me, there is absolutely nothing more American than pit BBQ. And a little single vat to keep the pitmaster happy while waiting for supper!
Here's to ya buddy!! And to the thin blue smoke!! :cheer:
Bear,
I'll agree with you on the turkey, and other meats. We do a stuffed Pork Loin, a "Beer up the Bum" chicken (literally placing an open can of Beer in the rear of the chicken, sewing the top shut so the steam from the beer circulates mainly inside the chicken) and we have the means to do "Deep Fried Turkey's" which are normally injected with several liquids and spices before dipping them, wholly, into Peanut Oil.
We actually 'own' three pits, comparable to the photos attached in the last response. One pit is actually two, 8 foot long 32 inch circumference, one on each side of a 32 foot long trailer. The trailer is fully equipped, generator, three compartment sink, fresh and grey water, water heater, lighting, canopies, fold out awnings which when folded down enclose the pits. We even have a surround sound system, CD player, and a 42 inch Plasma which, after setting up, we attach to one side at the end of the fold over serving line. We also have a portable dish we use to hook up to the Plasma.
The fire boxes are double plated, insulated. Even though they come stock with the piping and apparatus to hook up to a propane bottle (the rig also has two 500,000 btu burners) to light the firebox, we have never used them. And, there has never, ever been any charcoal or any oil-based products (like starter fluid) introduced to them. Instead we have a "Mesquite Burner" type 'flamethrower' we use to light the wood. We use in large Oak wood (for heat) and for smoking, dependent upon the meat, either Hickory or Pecan and every so often, on order, Mesquite.
Man, I jealous! That sounds like a terrific setup! You guys are hard core! I love Beer Butt chicken but almost burned my house down trying to deep fry a turkey! LOL! I won't won't be doing that again anytime soon. Anyone need a once-used turkey fryer?
I actually did finally get a turkey fried but the whole family much preferred my injected and smoked bird and won't let me do anything else. I actually did 3ea 16 pounders this last year. Now friends call in their order. As long as I have room!
To me, there is absolutely nothing more American than pit BBQ. And a little single vat to keep the pitmaster happy while waiting for supper!
Here's to ya buddy!! And to the thin blue smoke!! :cheer:
tovo wrote:
We used to be a country that manufactured its own goods and farmed/raised its own food. We've become more and more dependent on less expensive imported goods and it's driving some domestic companies out of business. Currently we purchase a phenomenal amount of goods from China thanks in particular to volume discount stores like Walmart and China's intransigence about permitting the value of the yuan to rise relative to the US dollar. It's actually become very difficult to purchase all the things a household needs if one limits themselves to American made products. For instance, a recent book documented the difficulty of living in the US for one year without purchasing goods manufactured in China:
That being said, we benefit enormously from many imported items. Tonight I purchased beautiful red bell peppers grown in the Netherlands and lamb raised in Australia at my local grocery store (yum).
Tom
Tony,Ah Chas...I thought you had missed it.
This question might be getting a little into boring territory so sorry if that's the case:
America is such a huge country with (I assume) a heap of manufacturing. Does the US import a lot of goods or rely more on indigenous industry and farming?
We used to be a country that manufactured its own goods and farmed/raised its own food. We've become more and more dependent on less expensive imported goods and it's driving some domestic companies out of business. Currently we purchase a phenomenal amount of goods from China thanks in particular to volume discount stores like Walmart and China's intransigence about permitting the value of the yuan to rise relative to the US dollar. It's actually become very difficult to purchase all the things a household needs if one limits themselves to American made products. For instance, a recent book documented the difficulty of living in the US for one year without purchasing goods manufactured in China:
That being said, we benefit enormously from many imported items. Tonight I purchased beautiful red bell peppers grown in the Netherlands and lamb raised in Australia at my local grocery store (yum).
Tom
For instance, a recent book documented the difficulty of living in the US for one year without purchasing goods manufactured in China:
Wow Tom I found this line very interesting so I went searching and although I am Canadian we are pretty much in the same boat so to speak so I think this would make for good reading and will consider picking it up.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
Now how one woman and her family dealt with Chinese imports. In January 2005, business writer Sara Bongiorni made an unusual New Years resolution. She and her family pledged to spend the year without buying anything from China. She's chronicled that experience in a new book, "A Year Without Made in China."
Ms. SARA BONGIORNI (Author): At the outset the rule was just avoiding things that had the label Made in China, or if we happened to know that there was a Chinese component in something, we would avoid that too. Of course oftentimes you can't know that, but we decided we would just set the bar there.
So in that sense we set the bar comparatively low and yet this experiment absolutely turns a daily life upside down. It was everything from, you know, mundane ordinary errands like running to the store for new tennis shoes for one of the kids or buying birthday candles became days or sometimes weeks-long sagas that didn't necessarily have a satisfactory resolution in the end.
WERTHEIMER: The tennis shoes was something that really struck me. I mean, you had a terrific struggle to try to find shoes for your child. Little sneakers seem to be something that's almost exclusively Chinese.
Ms. BONGIORNI: That's absolutely right. It took me two or three weeks of searching and eventually I located sneakers made in Italy in a catalog, and with shipping they cost almost $70. And that compares to maybe $15 for a pair of ordinary tennis shoes that are made in China at some place like Payless Shoes. So I could really appreciate the benefit of having access to low-cost goods from China.
WERTHEIMER: You actually made financial sacrifices to do this. I mean, this was not a financially feasible thing to do.
Ms. BONGIORNI: I think on balance, it was probably a wash financially. But the reason was, although we had to spend more money on some items, lots of times we simply couldn't find a non-Chinese alternative to many things. So we ended up just keeping our money in our wallets because we had no option. We had to cobble together some sort of solution on our own or just do without for the remainder of the year.
WERTHEIMER: Examples?
Ms. BONGIORNI: Well, our coffeemaker broke and all ordinary drip coffeemakers are made in China. So we ended up boiling water in a pan and just pouring it over filters into our coffee mugs. Our blender also broke about mid-year, and we couldn't repair it because the replacement blade was made in China, so that sat there gathering dust.
WERTHEIMER: You clearly demonstrated that the family Bongiorni have a relationship to the international economy. But what else do you think you proved to us or to yourself about giving up China?
Ms. BONGIORNI: What doing this really brought home to me was that we are so closely connected to the rest of the world for what we want and need. And as you know from reading the book, sometimes there's ambivalence about that, but there's also big part in me that likes that and wants to embrace our connections with the rest of the world. So I found it very satisfying, I guess, to find out how connected I am to this big, fuzzy concept to the global economy.
WERTHEIMER: Did you decide at the end of the year that you were still going to boycott China? Did you move on?
Ms. BONGIORNI: Well in the end we had to find a way to come to terms with the world as it is. We couldn't live like this forever. I mean it really did become an all-consuming project. So we found a middle ground at the end, and yes, we do buy things from China again.
WERTHEIMER: Sara Bongiorni, thank you very much for this.
Ms. BONGIORNI: Thank you so much.
WERTHEIMER: Sara Bongiorni is the author of "A Year Without Made in China."
Wow Tom I found this line very interesting so I went searching and although I am Canadian we are pretty much in the same boat so to speak so I think this would make for good reading and will consider picking it up.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
Now how one woman and her family dealt with Chinese imports. In January 2005, business writer Sara Bongiorni made an unusual New Years resolution. She and her family pledged to spend the year without buying anything from China. She's chronicled that experience in a new book, "A Year Without Made in China."
Ms. SARA BONGIORNI (Author): At the outset the rule was just avoiding things that had the label Made in China, or if we happened to know that there was a Chinese component in something, we would avoid that too. Of course oftentimes you can't know that, but we decided we would just set the bar there.
So in that sense we set the bar comparatively low and yet this experiment absolutely turns a daily life upside down. It was everything from, you know, mundane ordinary errands like running to the store for new tennis shoes for one of the kids or buying birthday candles became days or sometimes weeks-long sagas that didn't necessarily have a satisfactory resolution in the end.
WERTHEIMER: The tennis shoes was something that really struck me. I mean, you had a terrific struggle to try to find shoes for your child. Little sneakers seem to be something that's almost exclusively Chinese.
Ms. BONGIORNI: That's absolutely right. It took me two or three weeks of searching and eventually I located sneakers made in Italy in a catalog, and with shipping they cost almost $70. And that compares to maybe $15 for a pair of ordinary tennis shoes that are made in China at some place like Payless Shoes. So I could really appreciate the benefit of having access to low-cost goods from China.
WERTHEIMER: You actually made financial sacrifices to do this. I mean, this was not a financially feasible thing to do.
Ms. BONGIORNI: I think on balance, it was probably a wash financially. But the reason was, although we had to spend more money on some items, lots of times we simply couldn't find a non-Chinese alternative to many things. So we ended up just keeping our money in our wallets because we had no option. We had to cobble together some sort of solution on our own or just do without for the remainder of the year.
WERTHEIMER: Examples?
Ms. BONGIORNI: Well, our coffeemaker broke and all ordinary drip coffeemakers are made in China. So we ended up boiling water in a pan and just pouring it over filters into our coffee mugs. Our blender also broke about mid-year, and we couldn't repair it because the replacement blade was made in China, so that sat there gathering dust.
WERTHEIMER: You clearly demonstrated that the family Bongiorni have a relationship to the international economy. But what else do you think you proved to us or to yourself about giving up China?
Ms. BONGIORNI: What doing this really brought home to me was that we are so closely connected to the rest of the world for what we want and need. And as you know from reading the book, sometimes there's ambivalence about that, but there's also big part in me that likes that and wants to embrace our connections with the rest of the world. So I found it very satisfying, I guess, to find out how connected I am to this big, fuzzy concept to the global economy.
WERTHEIMER: Did you decide at the end of the year that you were still going to boycott China? Did you move on?
Ms. BONGIORNI: Well in the end we had to find a way to come to terms with the world as it is. We couldn't live like this forever. I mean it really did become an all-consuming project. So we found a middle ground at the end, and yes, we do buy things from China again.
WERTHEIMER: Sara Bongiorni, thank you very much for this.
Ms. BONGIORNI: Thank you so much.
WERTHEIMER: Sara Bongiorni is the author of "A Year Without Made in China."
That was an interesting read Tammy thanks.
Tom I was surprised that you like lamb to be honest. Almost without exception, every American I have met in my life didn't like lamb. I always assumed it was because of the very strong lean toward beef in the US. My American friends always say they don't like the smell of lamb. So Tom you are a welcome exception!
Tom I was surprised that you like lamb to be honest. Almost without exception, every American I have met in my life didn't like lamb. I always assumed it was because of the very strong lean toward beef in the US. My American friends always say they don't like the smell of lamb. So Tom you are a welcome exception!
Tammy,
The selection you quoted was the interview I heard on the radio between NPR correspondent Linda Wertheimer and the book's author Sara Bongiorni. I'm also intrigued by the book but I confess I've not yet read it. Lest I be misconstrued, I want to be clear that I support free trade with all of our trading partners--when it is free in both directions.* However I do find it very disappointing that so many American businesses have opted to outsource manufacturing jobs to keep the prices of their products artificially low. I was a researcher at a pharmaceutical company and the early retirement that I received was in part a result of that practice.
Tony,
I love lamb! But then I'm a bit of a Renaissance man. I even like vegetables which among the men in my circle of friends is a minor anomaly too.
Best to all,
Tom
*One more anecdote I heard recently about American manufacturing: If an American power utility were to commission the construction of a nuclear power reactor today, the steel pressure containment vessel would have to be manufactured in an overseas foundry because domestic mills no longer have that capability (source/reliability unknown). It's scary to think that in some cases we may no longer be able to build the stuff we invented.
The selection you quoted was the interview I heard on the radio between NPR correspondent Linda Wertheimer and the book's author Sara Bongiorni. I'm also intrigued by the book but I confess I've not yet read it. Lest I be misconstrued, I want to be clear that I support free trade with all of our trading partners--when it is free in both directions.* However I do find it very disappointing that so many American businesses have opted to outsource manufacturing jobs to keep the prices of their products artificially low. I was a researcher at a pharmaceutical company and the early retirement that I received was in part a result of that practice.
Tony,
I love lamb! But then I'm a bit of a Renaissance man. I even like vegetables which among the men in my circle of friends is a minor anomaly too.
Best to all,
Tom
*One more anecdote I heard recently about American manufacturing: If an American power utility were to commission the construction of a nuclear power reactor today, the steel pressure containment vessel would have to be manufactured in an overseas foundry because domestic mills no longer have that capability (source/reliability unknown). It's scary to think that in some cases we may no longer be able to build the stuff we invented.