Who’s Next? Sir Topham Hatt?

As you know, we’re regular attendees at the Southern California Ren Faire. We’ve been going to the Faire for years, starting in Agoura, and then after a long hiatus, in Devore and now at the Santa Fe Dam. So we’re on the mailing list for the Faire, and we’ve seen how the Faire has changed over the years. We’ve seen them become less and less historic, and more and more fantasy. This is often captured through their “special events”:  we have moved from only pirate weekends to now having steampunk and time travellers, and weekends for general fantasy. They’ve even got, heavens forfend, a “wenches weekend” — their version, I guess, of a “Ladies Night”.

However, an email I received from the Faire earlier this week has to be the topper. According to this email, on April 20:

Mike the Knight™ will be making a special trip from his kingdom of Glendragon to visit his fans at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The young knight- in-training will be at the faire to meet and greet, have Mike the Knight storytelling and giveaways, and more!

For those who don’t know Mike the Knight, we met him a few years ago, when he was out with his buddies Thomas and Bob (the Builder) at the Orange Empire Railway Museum. Mike is an animated character from the stables of HIT entertainment (now part of Mattel). He is currently on Nick Jr. The series, according to Wikipedia, is “is about 10-year-old Mike whose father is gone to discover adventures. Looking up to his father, Mike wants to be a knight. However, he is still a knight-in-training. With his two dragon friends, Sparkie and Squirt; his rival, witch-in-training Evie; and his horse Galahad, Mike tries to be the bravest knight of all. Throughout his adventures, he learns the importance of sharing, caring, giving and understanding, with a lot of help from Evie.”

To me, the presence of Mike at Ren Faire is just another example of how the operators of Ren Faire are primarily interested in bringing in the people (and increasing the gate take), and the history side of the equation has been pushed to the side. It is there, but only for entertainment value. This is also likely why there is now an effort in Southern California to create a faire that returns more to the roots of the original Agoura faire. The organizers intend for this new faire to be non-profit; it will be interesting to see how that changes the emphasis.

Of course, I still intend to visit both faires. I just found the email about Mike the Knight just a bit over the edge, even for what SoCal Faire has become.

 

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You Are What You Eat: Kool-Aids, Buffet Leftovers, Pet Food, and Superbugs

Today’s collection of lunchtime news chum is all related to food. The first item is a bit frivolous, but the latter three taken together present a chilling picture about what we — and our pets — eat.

• He’s The Man. CGI has come to the Kool-Aid man, and with it a new backstory and family life. No longer content to just crash through walls, we’ll learn how he gets dressed in the morning, and what he does during the day. However, there are so many questions it makes the mind boggle. What does Kool-Aid man look like before he showers, as he doesn’t have a lid? When he urinates… well, you get the (umm) pitcher.
• Recycling the Scraps. The LA Times has a really interesting article on a Nevada pig farmer. This farmer makes a living by taking all the food scraps from all the buffets in Las Vegas, cleaning, heating and mixing them, and feeding them to his pigs… which he subsequently slaughters and sells back (as meat) to the casinos. What struck me most was the line: “He grabs chunks of ham and slices them to piglet-mouthed size.” Yup. Pigs are being fed on ham.
• Our Dog Food Contains Real Dog. Pigs, it appears, aren’t the only cannibals. Slate has an interesting article on what goes into the meat and bone meal in most pet food. Shockingly, the answer might include other pets. Euthanized shelter animals sometimes end up at rendering plants, along with all other sorts of stuff (including lots of biochemicals). After reading this, I’d think twice about commercial food.
• Human Food Isn’t Safe Either.  Lastly, all the antibiotics being fed to animals is having a side-effect: We’re starting to see anti-biotic resistant bugs in our meat. A recent study showed that antibiotic resistant bacteria was turning up in 81 percent of raw ground turkey, 69 percent of raw pork chops, 55 percent of raw ground beef and 39 percent of raw chicken bought over the counter in 2011. The rate of occurrence in salmonella superbug strains in chicken rose from 50 percent in 2002 to 74 percent in 2011.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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