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sippicancottage

A Man Who Has Nothing In Particular To Recommend Him Discusses All Sorts of Subjects at Random as Though He Knew Everything

2013: When Bagel Makers And Gong Farmers Form An Amalgamated Union

I love to see people making things, and who have pride in their work. It doesn’t really matter what they’re doing.

I used to supervise the construction of commercial food preparation facilities once in a while. While the soundtrack is barrelhouse piano, this video is from the 1970s, not ancient history. I noticed about a zillion current health code violations visible in the video.

But those violations are meaningless, because I imagine the people in the video were personally invested in the quality and cleanliness of their surroundings and product. The raft of rules about food preparation — as well as many other things — are the result of trying desperately to micromanage the behaviors of people that don’t care a whit about themselves, their customers, or the product they’re making.

So the people in the video aren’t wearing hairnets, and we’re supposed to freak out, I guess. I bet everyone in the Nordstrom’s Cafe in San Francisco was wearing a hairnet. Of course you might have contracted typhoid fever from them, but you can rest serene that while they were crapping their insides out in the bathroom from their medieval ailment, they were sitting within eyeshot of a sign in the wrong language telling them to wash their hands after doing so. Which is nice.

7 Responses

  1. "While the soundtrack is barrelhouse piano, this video is from the 1970s"

    In which case they could have easily enhanced productivity and cleanliness by piping in "Sultans of Swing."

    "And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene
    He's got a daytime job he's doing alright "

  2. Oh, how I love to come here and laugh! GV, you are pure comedy gold.
    Being born independent(Or hard headed?), I bristle at being told what to do and how to do it by people who are not held accountable for the damage they do in the name of safety or goodness. I used to think I was just being "American", but now…not sure where I got it…

  3. That was interesting to watch….the bagel-making that is. Mmmmm-bagels!
    Irish don't know much about cooking, so we depend on the other nationalities. The Irish do, however, know a tad about beverage science.

  4. Man! That flashed me back to Staten Island, in the 70's, when I had a bagel that was the real deal.

    I think NYC died after that. No, I'm sure of it. No more New York after the seventies – needs no explanation.

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