WE ALL SCREAM ( like a baby) FOR ICE CREAM

In these uncertain times, we must be thankful for any displays of common sense and good judgment when we come across them. With that in mind, I want to applaud the Ben and Jerry ice cream company for declining to act on the request of animal rights group, PETA, who has called for B&J to exchange their usual cow milk for human breast milk in their recipes. Now, let me be the first to say that I don’t think there is anything wrong with HBM per se. In fact, I was told by my mother (who should know) that a very long time ago, when I was a newborn baby, it was my sole nourishment. I’m sure a lot of people could say the same. However, now that we are big, I think we would all agree that we don’t want HBM in our ice cream. I will say this about the PETA proposal, though. If Ben and Jerry had decided to add human breast milk to their ice cream, it would make for some hilarious (and doubtless rather rude) new flavor names. I’m sure you will have no trouble thinking up some real zingers for yourself, so I won’t offer any of mine here. Besides, this is G-rated blog.

You may be wondering how I am going to tie all this in with oldies. Well, B&J’s number one top ice cream seller (and my personal fave) is Cherry Garcia, named after the inimitable Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead. Okay, so it’s 1987, and not the true vintage years (not by my definition, anyway) but it’s still over 20 years ago. Doesn’t that make all you Gen-Xers feel old? Well, none of us are babies anymore. So let's listen to "A Touch of Grey."






Photo of Denman Island ice cream store from Wikimedia Commons
Video by YT member NewOldVinyl

SERENDIPITY, KARMA, AND WORLD PEACE

I have a confession to make. I steal magazines. Oh, not the brand new ones fresh off the rack. No, I steal from waiting rooms: dentists, oil changes, all over town. Now, in my own defense I will say that generally speaking these magazines are a minimum of 2 years out of date, and some waiting rooms have raggedly piles that go back even further. But it never fails; I always find one that’s just sitting there waiting for me, with some interesting and pertinent factoid that I would otherwise have missed if I hadn’t happened to be right there on that day and that time. It’s a perfect example of serendipity. Lately, however (in fact, ever since My Name Is Earl made it’s TV debut) I switched from stealing and keeping old mags to stealing, photocopying the articles, and returning them. Never hurts to keep an eye on one’s karma, eh what.

So this morning, I just happened to need to see someone at my bank who was not a teller, but had an office room. And while I was seated, waiting, a Reader’s Digest on a nearby table just happened to catch my eye. The cover article showed a hippie-ish looking woman holding a birthday-type cake with a big peace sign on it. The caption read, “The iconic symbol turns 50 this spring.” A quick check of the date of the issue: May 2008. Oh good, it’s not too late; we haven’t missed it. Then it occurred to me in a sudden flash of insight that perhaps the release date of the new Ben & Jerry’s flavor (see previous post) is no fluke. Perhaps it was intentional! What goes better than birthday cake than ice cream?! I think I may be on to something here, my friends.

It seems the symbol known literally around the world as the “Peace Sign” was invented in 1958 (well before the Summer of Love etc.) by a British graphic artist named Gerald Holtom, who was also a conscientious objector. There was a growing movement in Britain at the time to stop the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Lots of different groups were joining together in protest, and they needed a symbol or logo that would be instantly recognizable. So Holtom designed a combination of the two semaphore signals for the letters “N” and “D” for “Nuclear Disarmament” and placed it in the circle of life. Maybe you already knew this, but it was a real revelation to me. I remember a kind of urban legend floating around back in the 60s, that the symbol stood for “Ban the Bomb” since but nobody I knew was fluent in semaphore, we weren’t quite sure how it all came together. Now, 50 years later – the answer!

If you’re interested, either pick up (and pay for!) a copy of Reader’s Digest or buy the book the article was excerpted from, “Peace: 50 Years of Protest” by Barry Miles. I think it sounds like a very interesting read. Speaking of, I mustn't forget to take that "hot" mag back to the bank...

Photo of garlic peace sign from Wikipedia Commons

GIVE PIECES A CHANCE

Yesterday I saw a news item online announcing a brand new flavor from the Ben and Jerry ice cream company. In conjunction with John Lennon’s estate, the world will soon be introduced to “Imagine Whirled Peace.” Described as “a caramel and sweet cream whirl of chocolate-covered peace signs and toffee pieces,” you can almost feel your hips expanding just reading about it. In addition, the new dairy delight will be heralded by a re-enactment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-In for Peace. Well, the whole thing sure got my attention. If there’s two things I love in this world, it’s ice cream, and peace!

For those who might like a refresher, here is A Quickie History of the Bed-In. Back in 1969, when John and Yoko got married, they decided to invite the whole world along on the honeymoon, and turned it into a celebration promoting peace. The media and other invited guests could stop by, hang out - whatev - from nine in the morning ‘til nine at night. John and Yoko greeted everyone, gave interviews etc. in their PJs, all while ensconced in their hotel room bed. The honeymoon Bed-In happened in Amsterdam, but it was so much fun, not to mentioned effective at getting the message out, they decided to hold another one in New York. Of course, there was the small matter of John’s 1968 marijuana conviction, which put the kibosh on a U.S. location (too politically hot) so they went to the Bahamas, but left after one night (too meteorologically hot) and flew to Montreal (you can pretty much always count on Canada to be cooler, meteorologically and politically!). That’s the Bed-In that most people remember, because of the famous video of everybody singing “Give Peace A Chance” (see 18 Feb 2008 post). At the time, Lennon took some flack from the press, who accused him of doing it as a stunt for publicity (what’s wrong with publicizing peace?) and for money. Lennon shot back that if he was in it for money, he could make a lot more in one hour writing a song than he could spending seven days in bed talking about peace (touché!). From there, the whole idea has gone on to become a staple of the pop cultural repertoire, from protests to performance art. The latest reference I could find was dated 2006, by the group Green Day, so you gotta know the association of peace and beds is here to stay. And now, we can add another thing to the list. Ice cream.

Actually, the combination isn’t as far-fetched as you and I might at first think. Ben and Jerry’s is actually one of the more “green" companies out there (and no strangers to social causes like fair trade either). Here’s a taste of what’s on their website (and no, I am not getting any freebies for doing this, darnit) http://www.benjerry.com/our_company/

Meanwhile, the new Imagine Whirled Peace flavor takes its place along with flavors named in honor of other famous musicians, such as Xavier Nougat, Milli Vanilla, Honey Bono, and of course, the B&J all-time best seller, and my personal fave, Cherry Garcia. Beyond that, there’s a who’s who of the famous from Desmond Tutti-Frutti to Candy Warhol to Sherbet Hoover. If there’s a third thing I love in this world, it’s a real goofy pun.

John Lennon, Imagine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7qaSxuZUg
This is such a lovely video, I think you'd know it was about peace even if you didn't know the song.

Ben and Jerry, Cookie Dough http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZzS5co0KfY