I have to put this down real quick. I'm starting to gradually realize that it has been almost a whole decade that I've been living outside the US.
What made me think of this at this moment? I came across a tidbit of present day culture while casually scanning wikipedia with the main objective of learning about the differences in the common spirits (liquors) and what their ingredients were and methods of preparation. At dinner I told some friends that I thought either gin or vodka was made from potatoes, but I wasn't sure which, because it did sound kind of absurd. I have since discovered that gin is made primarily from grain and flavored with juniper berries and that vodka can be distilled from many things including grain, potatoes and sugar beet molasses.
(I was most distracted by the articles on brewing, as I naturally migrated towards the technique of preparing beer, something that I've done in the past and am looking forward to doing again in the future, as I have a good deal still left to learn about this hobby).
Anyway, I came across an article called "bacon vodka" which inevitably led me to "bacon mania". This is what made me realize that a lot of things are going on back in the place that I consider "home" that I simply am not aware of. I don't quite know what to think of this "bacon mania", but from the outside, my initial impression tends towards something similar to a feeling I have about a lot of the "newest" yuppy craze: annoyance. Does it seem to anyone else that people are a little bit too desperate for attention? Recently a "friend" on facebook uploaded pictures of what I thought to be a nice, although somewhat unusual, saturday evening meal, which consisted of some sort of bacon-wrapped sausage-hamburger-bacon loaf or something. I thought it was interesting and decided I'd comment that according to my mom, my first word happened to be "bacon", as in, "what a coincidence that you like bacon so much, too." Now, I see that I'd been duped, and I'd fallen into the horrible abyss of competing with my fellow yuppies for who deserves more attention. I take back my comment. I don't care if anyone on FB knows that my first word was (supposedly) "bacon". Although, now that I've hung out with a few babies in the past couple years, I've realized just how unlikely it actually is that that indeed was my first word.
Anyway, am I really really REALLY far removed from popular culture? or just a little bit? does this have anything to do with kickball leagues? what am I supposed to think about those things, anyway?
and the last question for which I have no clue whatsoever how to answer: why would anyone drink bacon-flavored vodka.....?
