August 16, 2006

Art vs. science, plus spin and a slide lecture

It seems that the Illinois Restaurant Association, their three remaining US "enhanced-fed" duck buddies, plus one plaintiff shill have teamed up to form the new Artisan Farmers Association and sue the city of Chicago over the Council's 49–1 vote last month to give hepatic lipidosis the boot rather than a place on the plate. Artisan Farmers Association. Close your eyes and say that out loud and slowly, enough times to get your marketing mojo working.

Find your focal point, a tiny point in the distance, slowly coming into focus, getting clearer and larger. It’s sparkling in the sun—a pond!—surrounded by reeds swaying in the breeze and alive with aquatic vegetation. Artisan Farmers Association.

You can see them now. First a splash, then a flat-feathered tail to the sky dive, then gliding over the glassy surface in perfectly interconnected circles, water ballet interrupted only by the occasional necessity of feather preening and wing flapping. They appear and disappear among the reeds. The sun is shining, they’re quack-chattering among themselves, it’s pastoral and peaceful and perfectly crafted. It’s the brand at the moment of conception. Artisan Farmers Association.

Having spent most of our adult educational and working life in the biological sciences realm, admittedly, we’re somewhat handicapped when it comes to recognizing and evaluating what constitutes art, be it conceptual, outsider, or just overpriced. But we do have some command of the origins of the English language, its hoity Latin roots, its evolving contextual usage, as well as our own humble contributions to the Urban Dictionary.

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So please tell us: at what point in the lexicon of anything anywhere, did this became “artisanal?”

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Foie gras production causes disease in ducks and geese. Foie gras is disease.

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Your “delicacy” is illegal within the Chicago city limits. Ballot initiatives to repeal SB 1520 in CA will go nowhere. Get over it.

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