Zeitgeist yes

[gordonzola]

10:30 PM. anarqueso and I will reek of cheese and be slightly dazed but you should come.

Comments

[mr-heathen.livejournal.com]

ooo!

[thetathrees.livejournal.com]

T - 16 days till I get to cool my haunches with a delicious bloody mary at Zeitgeist. and for all that people talk about the season being over or whatever i've sat on that damn patio every month of the year. Weak Californians!!

[ketzie.livejournal.com]

How I wish I could.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

oh man. I live for the end of "the season". You can finally get a table! Last year we spent a sunday sitting on trash bags and forming an umbrella awning.

Still, as for Weak Californians!!... self-hate is never pretty whether it manifests in Packer-love or melt-in-rain mocking. ;)

[redshrike.livejournal.com]

any contingency plan, in case of rain? not that i haven't enjoyed drinking beer in the rain with you at zeit before, mind you...just wondering.

[thetathrees.livejournal.com]

YOU DON'T KNOW FROM RAIN!!!!
also.....I am an Oregonian by Birthright and proud to lay claim to my native heritage. ;) We don't need no stinkin' umbrellas!

I'm amused I'm finally going to NFL game for the first time in my life at Candlestick. Kinda glad actually, as it'll be one of the 49ers last games there. I assume.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well, 2012 is a long time from now.

Also, I didn't know you were born in Oregon. Where's your Pinole Pride?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

urgh. I hadn't thought of that. bring umbrellas, we'll supply trash bags.

[thetathrees.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought they would move right away. Hmph.
I wasn't born in Oregon...but my dad was!!! :)

[amarama.livejournal.com]

Not going to make it. Behind on pies, raining, watching Wicker Man.

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Speaking of cheese, oh Gordonzola... if someone offers me slightly old (but plastic wrapped!) brie on the street (I'm very broke, it was Mexico, he was selling two, probably stolen, one pound pieces for about a dollar), and it's obviously been out of refrigeration for some unspecified time, is there any reason not to eat it. I mean... will it just overripen, or could it develop some sort of less friendly bacteria. i ask because the last time it happened I ate it any way (it was delicious), but worried, thinking all the while:"I'll bet gordonzola knows..."

Oh, and don't worry about the ethics of theft... it was from the rich folks supermarket, and the guy really needed the money. Kids needing shoes, that sort of thing.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yes, there is reason not to eat it.

but first we must look at food conceptually. All food has risk involved. with cheese, your biggest worry is food borne pathogens like e-coli, listeria, salmonella etc. things that can kill people with weak immune systems and make other people very ill. Eating that cheese is fairly risky, as food goes.

in this example there are a few issues and some unknowns:

Brie is a high moisture cheese. Pathogens are killed off in aged cheese because the acidity level of the cheese creates an environment where they can't survive. The acidity of brie, unlike other cheeses, is near its lowest when the cheese is ripe and eaten. Therefore this is a more high risk cheese than most.

This is where pasteurization comes in. While I would happily eat a raw milk soft cheese if 1. I know where it came from and 2. I know it has been handled well, in this example I don't know the answer to #1 and we know than #2 is not good. While one eats cheese at room temp, after about four hours out of refrigeration any little creatures within the cheese will start to reproduce. If it is a raw milk cheese, bad things can happen. If it is pasteurized, it is much more safe, but if there was any post-production contamination (e.g. at the cutting or packaging facility) pathogens can spread even faster.

But basically it can't develop bad bacteria from nowhere. If it was a dairy I recognized and thought was reputable, and it didn't feel like it had been out of refrigeration too long I would eat it. Otherwise I wouldn't. But I should also note that I have a weak stomach and seem to get sick from food easier than most people.