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If expired food covered in freezer burn is good enough for Emily Rooney, it's good enough for your kids

Rooney interviews City Councilor John Connolly on expired food and inventory management in Boston Public Schools; she doesn't mind a little freezer burn on her meat and wonders why a city councilor would hold hearings on the issue:

Meanwhile, BPS has released a letter from a childhood-obesity group praising Boston schools for their work in getting kids healthier and praising BPS nutrition programs as a national model.

H/t to John Keith, who actually watches Greater Boston on a regular basis.

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Comments

...Emily, not John. She not only doesn't listen, but she has an Abe Simpson sensitivity.

We all eat expired food, is it really so bad for kids if it's two years past date, and why would you have a public hearing on this? Praise the Lord that she's just a commentator and not a decision maker.

At least John stayed calm and explained and re-explained to her.

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Emily Rooney : Skillful and enjoyable interview style ::
Andy Rooney : Well groomed eyebrows

Connolly is a decent guy but is it my imagination or does he look a little like Jimmy Kimmel?

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It didn't occur to my dumbass that they're related; I just looked it up when you mentioned them together.

(Does Andy Rooney make anyone else think of the Beavis and Butt-head episode? "Why is it that every time I pick my nose, it's full again in a few minutes?" "You know what I want to know? Why do they call it taking a dumb, rather than leaving a dump? After all, you're not really taking it anywhere!"

Or am I the only 12-year-old boy who reads this here interwebs forum?)

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I used to think Emily Rooney inherited her father's curmudgeonly personality. She's the first to offer a slightly annoyed yet purportedly age advise; that everyone is overreacting about the issue, no matter which issue.

Then I realized she's an anti-journalist who thinks its her job to see-no-evil rather than do her homework and justify her opinion with facts.

She's gotten a free ride for a long time.

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in the cafeteria
at Brighton High
with a lamb hock

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You sank my battle-axe...er ship.

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The problem isn't whether it is or isn't edible or safe. The problem IS that BPS is paying for food and getting expired food, or it is expiring due to poor handling/storage and bad ordering practices.

The problem is also that some of that expired food will not be usable, and that is waste.

But, hey, if Emily Rooney wants to buy a few bags at full price herself, she should offer to do so - because that's what us state and federal tax payers are doing already.

Of course, we can give her some credit, assume that she really isn't obtuse, and that she doesn't mind a little freezer burn taste because it covers the taste of what she's kissing here ...

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But she does give a shout-out to her home-girl Yvonne Abraham who actually went into a Boston Public School and ate some of that shit! Whoah!! Even Connolly won't do that! You gotta be outta your mind to do that!! ....or a student with no other choice.

Remind me again why this woman hosts a show about Boston? Why doesn't she just host Greater Chestnut Hill Mall? She seems to not care in the least about 90% of the City. Gaffin, get her outta there, go in there and sub. We need to put some points up on the board, so get off that bench!!

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I had to do a force-reload to get this article to show up. The man-in-the-hole story had zero comments on it until I force-reloaded, too.

I've run across a couple of instances where stories have appeared in Google Reader but aren't visible when I load the site directly.

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Been experimenting with caching stuff this morning; will try to undo everything I did (fortunately, not much) and set things back.

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...I reloaded (not a forced reload) of the main page, and I was suddenly logged out and the top story was the firefighter stuff.

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I saw the interview too. I think she was suggesting that the councilor might just possibly be grand-standing over this. Why is it so bad for her to question why they didn't just implement improved inventory control instead of having an Arroyo Senior style show-trial with accompanying hunger strike?

Whit

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Yeah, she brought up the motives of the workers who went to Connolly, but she prefaced it with a crack about everybody eating meat with freezer burn.

As for improved inventory control, that might be simple ignorance of the fact that Mike Ross and Chuck Turner (remember him?) brought up the same issue last year and BPS promised to do something. And then didn't. I think the Globe also reported that somebody even complained about the issue earlier than that. So you're a city councilor with an issue, and one that is seemingly being ignored. What do you do? Yep, hold a hearing.

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Because if it doesn't threaten the Mayor's carefully polished image nothing will happen. The only reason why anything is allowed to happen in Boston is if it serves the Mayor's PR concerns. So you if you want your problem fixed you have to make it His problem.

Calling out politicians on Grandstanding is sort of like complaining about stink on a monkey.

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Yeah, you got a point there. I forgot about Menino for a second.

Whit

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...that must have been a blissful second. I sorry. sigh...

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Make a list of all the things the City Council has not held hearings on. Arrange then in order of importance. Now put past date frozen food in its place on that list.

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The winner... and STILL champion (the crowd roars!) of the dirtiest post of the week... Adam Gaffin!

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I couldn't get past Emily Rooney's dismissive tone and her claim that, "We all eat food that's past it's expiration date, especially if it's frozen." What's this "we" nonsense? Does Emily have a mouse in her pocket? Did she really mean "especially" if it's frozen or ONLY if it's frozen? Even with frozen food, I'd only eat it if I knew it had been frozen prior to expiration and served immediately on thaw. Kids deserve the same consideration, yet Connolly says some of the food was even beyond the point it should be served even if frozen. So at best it's risky and at worst it's wasted.

Rooney's wacky claims that this might be a witch hunt are laughable. I'm no fan of the Boston City Council pontificating on foreign policy or other topics outside their purview, but this seems like good work by Connolly. Having seen Menino regularly whack softball questions out of the park on Rooney's show and laugh/joke with her constantly on each appearance, it seems to me that Connolly's investigation didn't fit their (Rooney-Menino) agenda.

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I think this is not only the first O-FISH-L post that I wholeheartedly agree with but also the first that made me bust out laughing. Thanks!

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@John-W. Thanks.

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I will not have you smear the good name of... oh, never mind.

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Didn't she say we all eat MEAT with freezer burn? Well, a lot of people don't ever eat any meat at all, so pttthhhbbt.

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Where has the Councillor been? School nutrition, the poor and the ingeniously improved, has been a hot topic for quite a while. This contrived chance discovery of past prime food and subsequent hoopla that cost somebody their job doesn't sit well with me. I would love to know how long he has known about it and how come he waited until the eve of his (pre-Mayoral) Council campaign to speak up about it and the BPS program in general?

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John Connolly was fill-in and recently made actual head of the Council's education committee. Doing this is now his job.

He has young kids he expects to go through the public schools. That has to be an additional factor.

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