Category Archives: Food

Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, or Nooooope.

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Ever since I arrived in Kalamazoo all those years ago I’ve always noticed this blight on East Kalamazoo Ave as you approach the downtown region. Oh God No, what the hell is that?!? Turns out it’s Bell’s Brewery. It looks like an abandoned industrial ruin, fences, the hint of brewing tanks behind filthy windows, serviced by a incredibly tiny parking lot which is marked for company use only. It’s strange because there is a big yellow sign advertising things that sound like musical acts. So there has to be an inside, obviously. It’s the dead last place I ever wanted to go mostly because I couldn’t figure out how to approach it. The outside looks awful, it’s filthy, barbed wire fences, no parking at all, and East Kalamazoo is a one way, so if you miss it, well, screw you, you’re shit out of luck.

Years went by, I assumed that there was something there, but seeing Bell’s from the outside I always figured it was a dive. A nasty wretched filthy dive. Then I started hearing about how Bell’s is supposed to be this incredible world-renowned microbrewery. Family members ask about it, where I am in relationship to Comstock, MI. It’s, uh, I suppose a town, it’s just down the street. I assume it’s a town at least. I’ve been there a few times, it strikes me as being sparser than Cortland, New York and that’s embarrassingly sparse. Oh look, they have an intersection, yay.

Then out of curiosity I bought a six pack of Two Hearted Ale thinking it was rated very highly, so why not give it a shot? Oh my god. It was the first time I hate-drank a six pack. I couldn’t endure the notion that I had wasted money on that swill (oh, and god, was it awful, unpleasant is a huge understatement) and so I put Bell’s, and all it’s delightful whatever in the list of “Maybe someday, if I find the Wardrobe to Narnia…” and it became just another blighted eyesore that contributes to the general dilapidation that is downtown Kalamazoo. It needs a good solid tornado to improve.

So, years go by and I don’t think of Bell’s at all. Every once in a while people mention meeting people at Bell’s and I always ask “Does it have an inside? I mean, something you can go into?” and they look at me funny and assume that I’m being intentionally odd. No people! I don’t think it HAS an inside! Not for people at least! And I let it lapse. Wondering whats beyond the Wardrobe to Narnia occurs to me every time I pass it heading to work on East Kalamazoo.

Anyways, between a lot of not-thinking-about-Bells and now I joined a cycling group that heads out all over the northeast part of Kalamazoo every Tuesday. A nice bunch of people, I don’t know any of them at all, but nice enough. I get my exercise in, I get a path to follow, and I get people to bike with, at least in general. After the biking they customarily go to Bell’s for beer. Cue the double-take. People who have… wait for it… **been inside**. It’s like spotting Mr. Tumnas for the first time and expecting to hear a bleat and the clickety-clack of little hooves. So today we were headed up to Gull Lake, sort of, and then back. I got home, fed my cats and then got my license and my bank card and headed out. I asked Google Maps to get me to Bell’s, thinking that it might lead me to the Wardrobe (baaah), no, not really. I ended up standing in a lot too tiny for my big SUV, festooned with industrial debris, you know, the “No way this is habitable for human beings” itty-bitty parking lot. Not for customers. I seriously doubted, even at this point, that there were customers at all. I mean, Narnia folks, Baaaah. So I turned down the next street and figured that the Wardrobe might be on the other side. But there is nothing on the other side but ugly train tracks, mostly a nasty railyard which serves the most annoying feature of Kalamazoo. A train runs through it. Annoyingly so, and poorly too. Amtrak. Yay for sitting in piss, but I digress. There is nothing back there but rotten out abandoned warehouses, potholes, the saddest field of brickwork that used to be the street, it pokes through sadly every once in a while, when the rotten out asphalt just can’t hack the punishment. That’s it! It’s just rail controls, street crossing barricades, brownfield, debris, urban decay… oh my fucking god, it’s the god damn Wardrobe to Narnia! There it is. It’s a parking lot, bigger than you think, but not marked, so maybe you’re going to be towed, maybe you aren’t. Is it for employees? Are there employees? This whole time I seriously doubted this was a real place. I honestly figured Bell’s had grown softheaded and thought that maybe the train-that-doesn’t-run-through-here-anymore may pick up kegs of their beer. Sort of like a really depressing alcoholic Polar Express. If you look very carefully, and you walk around the building you see the entrance and, well, there I stood. 15 years of living in this wretched place and I finally found the fucking entrance to a place I thought was a local urban legend. Bell’s Eccentric Cafe. Oh, hello Mr. Tumnas. Nice seeing you! Baaaah!

I wasn’t dressed for this place. I was hot and sweaty and I looked kind of disheveled. I had talked myself into going even though I don’t really have the money to spend and the gasoline I burned up getting there was a very tiny black cloud hanging over my head. The people pouring out were brightly dressed, tourists, hipster trash, and downtown people. Even walking up I felt awkward. Then I entered. There was a gentleman sitting by the entrance and he looked at me and I glanced at him. I thought it was strange that he was just sitting there, and since I didn’t think anything about it, I just walked right past him. Turns out, maybe, he was a door something or other checking patrons licenses, at least that’s the gist I got when I turned around on my way out. He didn’t seem to be important, just kind of “this guy by the door”. Honestly the thought was that maybe he was using his phone, or something else, but that I should have approached him wasn’t even anywhere in my head.

Then it hit me as I looked around. It was several things all at once, actually. There was this overwhelming social anxiety – I knew absolutely nobody at all. I didn’t know the shape of the interior, and I walked past what appeared to be a beer hall and then further down to a door that didn’t appear to be for customers, and on my way back, I happened to notice a beer garden patio on the other side. I peered through the window and saw elderly people and strangers. Giant swaths of strangers, strange faces… then I felt an overwhelming urge to escape. I had to go. I didn’t have the money, I didn’t know if the biking group that I was supposedly going to join were actually there, and even if I did, I only know the owner of the establishment and only just first names. I was weighing everything and I felt like I really didn’t belong there. I was woefully under-dressed, I was running a risk of drinking beer on a empty stomach which would have really complicated my trip back home, plus the notion that I wasn’t going to really get out of there without spending $30 to $50 for beer I don’t really care for and people I don’t know in a building that really might have been Narnia. Baaaah!

I’m not a bar person. I really don’t like big group things surrounded by strangers, and I only put up with those situations because I don’t want to be that guy that clogs up the works for everyone else when they want to have fun – but it’s never really fun for me. It’s expensive. It’s nasty. It’s dirty. It’s smelly. Oh god, I’d rather just flee. And so I did. I fled from Bell’s. I didn’t have the heart to even make eye contact with the guy at the front door. Maybe he was a bouncer, maybe he wasn’t, maybe he was just sitting there – who the hell knows? Exit was the only thing I wanted and I walked back to my car, cursing the burnt fuel to get me to this boondoggle of an experience and thankful that I decided against “making the best of it” and staying. It would have been really awkward. Throw alcohol on top of awkward and I might as well be an albatross. Squawk!

So, I’ve been to Bell’s, er, Narnia. Yes, it’s probably a nice place. I’m sure it’s wonderful and I’m sure I am missing out on something, but in the end, I’m okay with that. People who like beer seem to regard it highly, and also in that, good for them. I don’t think it’s for me. 15 years and finding it finally has scratched off an item on my “Whatevs” list, so for that, a tepid yeh.

I can’t really afford the place. I can’t afford their beer. I can’t afford the gasoline it takes to get there and back and I don’t know a soul in the place. So, we’ve learned where the Wardrobe is and at least now I know it’s not for me. At least I can go back to my comfortable notions of before, that it’s just a run-down industrial pit and there is nothing on the other side but filthy blighted railroad.

Baaah.

Wine Tasting Notes for 2013 Traverse City Tour

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Chateau Chantal

Bob Flight –

* Chardonnay – watery and acidic 70
* PR Chardonnay – wee butter, weakly Oaked 78
* Pinot Noir – fertilizer – basic taste uh 60 color is brown
* PR Pinot Noir – burnt sugar n slightly better 76 color is brown
* PR Trio – nasty n bacon wrapped in rotten leather. Taste is okay. 78
* PR Cab Franc – toffee coffee n early tannic pack, lame on follow through 78

Laurentide

* 11 Chardonnay – lemon and lime with light pear notes 84
* 11 Sauvignon Blanc – funky and sour nose, urinal ammonia taste, weak lemonade notes 70
* 11 Emergence white – very light burnt wood scent with a strong lime note low acid 84
* 10 Pinot noir – plaster and drywall dust nose dry with a sandy talc grip 85

Verterra

* Pinot noir 11 – curt with a nose of urinal puck 85
* Reserve red 11 – excellent development 89 great long finish

2lads

* 11 sparkling Pinot Grigio – bubbles and heat 78
* 11 Pinot noir – alcohol raspberries and strawberries n great lasting power on the palate 89
* 11 Pinot noir cuvée Beatrice – vinyl and leather n quite late on the palate 90
* 11 cab franc merlot – blackberry and raspberries 88

CGT

* Laika gruner veltliner – dry 84
* 11 barrel fermented Chardonnay – floral hibiscus. Spicy warm post palate 88
* 11 gamay noir – bubblegum nose tart cherry velvety mouthfeel 89
* 11 silhouette red wine – punchy tannins 88 nice acid
* 11 edelzwicker – melon canteloupe n funky 72
* 12 late harvest Chardonnay – pear n champagne bite and nicely sweet 85

Bowers Harbor

* Rose – simple 82
* Pinot Grigio – nice nose 84
* Wooded Chardonnay – 86
* Pinot Noir wind whistle – burnt sugar caramel n delightful finish and very tight and high tannic package 90
* Claret – raspberry and blackberry on the nose – super tight tannins. 88

Black Star Farms

* 2012 arcturos Pinot noir rose – acid 87
* 2011 arcturos barrel aged Chardonnay – caramel on the nose butter and oak with notes of caramel and apples and pears. 89
* 2011 arcturos Pinot noir – maple syrup on the nose , buttery and spicy, 90
* 2010 vintners select – spicy 89
* 2011 arcturos Cabernet franc – harsh and tannic 85

Brys Estates

* 12 Pinot Blanc pear with lime chasing it 88
* 12 naked Chardonnay – coconut and pear 87
* 11 Pinot noir – lingering spice, velvety smoothness 90
* 11 cab/merlot – half sour pickles pepperoni salami n – smooth and chewy 91
* 11 merlot – sour cherries 87
* 12 Riesling/Gris – strawberries and cherries 87
* 12 Pinot noir/Riesling – sweet with a shine of sour chasing it around 84

Hawthorne

* Pinot Grigio – light n pear and bright spicy flash 86
* 10 barrel res Chardonnay – light nose light butter and apricots 88
* 12 rose – too clenchy 80
* 12 gamay noir – delicious nose quite good with spice and peppers 87
* 10 cab franc/merlot – 88

Postaday – June 4th

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If you could get all the nutrition you needed in a day with a pill — no worrying about what to eat, no food preparation — would you do it?

I can’t really see how this could end well. The pill would have to be one hell of a complicated mess in order to stuff everything you need into it. This doesn’t even go on with the notion that you’d be losing an incredible amount of pleasure – why stay alive if you can’t enjoy all the varied textures and flavors that food has to offer? I can’t see people salivating over a pill, yearning for the taste which probably is nil and the aftertaste or burp-up which has got to be rather nasty.

On a quite other level, it does put shame to your teeth. Why have them if all you need to do is swallow a pill? I suppose this would be good for people who have ALS and are trapped in their bodies, it would make nutrition at least possible if they’ve lost the ability to chew. For anyone else though, it seems a terrible waste of life’s fleeting pleasures.

Knock Down The Door Easy Chicken

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Knock Down The Door Easy Chicken

2 chicken breasts
3 tbsp of Mayonnaise
2 tsp of Herbes de Provence
1 1/2 cups Italian Breadcrumbs

You will need a cookie sheet or other flat baking sheet, cover it in Aluminum Foil and spritz with non-stick spray to make cleanup a snap. Cut the breasts in half horizontally to make four thinner breasts. Put the mayo in a bowl with the Herbes de Provence and mix well. For each breast, brush on the mayo and herbes mixture thickly on both sides of the breast then dredge in breadcrumbs and place breast on cookie sheet. Repeat this for all the breasts. Heat oven to 350 degrees and place cookie sheet in oven for half an hour. At the end, test each breast with an instant-read thermometer and verify that it is greater than 150 degrees inside each breast. Plate and serve. Serves two to four people.

I Love You More Than Salt

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Nestlé CEO Says Water Is Food That Should Be Privatized – Not A Human Right

I read the article and I watched the video and I even caught some of the german the CEO of Nestlé was using. In the video he makes lots of arguments, including that drinking water as a human right isn't something he thinks is right – because water should be considered a foodstuff, so it can have value, and that value shows how important and valuable it is. He also declares that genetically modified foodstuffs have been in use in America for 15 years with no ill effects and then kvetches about how Europe refuses to allow this kind of food out of safety sake.

I think his arguments come from a place that I would characterize as obnoxious capitalism. This is what happens when money clouds your thinking so you don't see individual people anymore, you just see the bottom line and big numbers you can crow about. Like supporting 4 million people with your company and so forth. Each of his arguments is something I would expect a capitalist to make, one who has lost his inherent humanity. So, lets unpack them one at a time.

Drinking Water

I was born and grew up in the Great Lakes region. For me, potable drinking water was never a concern – the city I grew up in had such excellent drinking water that you could make ice from it, and then pour it into a glass and drink as much as you wanted without having to worry about any ill effects from that water. Water here is common, so common as to be beyond thought. Potable water is free, available to everyone who wants it, and as much as they care to drink. Anyone can walk up to any business or restaurant or house and ask for a glass of water and get that very thing without paying one cent for it. This is something that is very important to understand about America versus the rest of the world. It is only in America where the water is free and clean and healthy. Everywhere else, you could drink the water that's available and reap the consequences of that action – or you could pay for bottled water. This CEO of Nestlé comes from a culture where water is Evian or Perrier. It's bottled, it costs money, so obviously his instinct is that water isn't a human right – because it would mean that the companies that sell good water would be forced to give it away for free. This is something that Americans take for granted and it was something, as a child of the Great Lakes, had no operating concept of when I went to France. In Europe, if you wanted to quench your thirst you had only a few options – wine or beer, bottled water, or your own urine. The last is unpalatable, but it is sterile and in a way, minimally potable. I think that the outrage over this video about water should be tempered by the light of cultural sensitivity. Poor Europeans have no operating knowledge of water so clean you can stick your head in Lake Superior and drink until you burst and you have absolutely nothing to fear about what comes next. No parasites, no bacteria, no cross-contaminated sewage-laden water supply to fear, just pure clean crystal clear water and a nearly inexhaustible supply of it to boot! So I for one write a pass for this poor swiss, or german, or whatever he is – ultimately European person and his weak understanding of just how vital and important water truly is. This is why we call it the New World here, we don't suffer from water scarcity or doubts about water quality, and it's free. It's something that I remind myself regularly when the political winds smell of shit here in the United States, yes, life can be difficult, challenging even, but. BUT. BUT WE HAVE FREE CLEAN WATER. How much is that worth? More than gold, more than money, more than anything. Humans can go without food for weeks and not die. We can't do that kind of survival when it comes to water, we need water too much, it's too dear. So temper your wild exhortations about leaving the New World, and think about water. For us, as Americans, the idea that water is a human right is so obvious as to be a complete surprise that not many consider it to be as we do. The Great Lakes are our blessing, worth more than any treasure on the planet. More than Gold, more than Copper, more than Platinum. Sweet cold perfectly clean water.

Genetically Modified Food

Another point this CEO of Nestlé makes is a very wrong-headed argument that Nature is somehow out of balance and not good for us. He states that quite clearly, that he considers “Organic” food to be inferior to his processed food. He even goes so far as to claim that GMO food has had no ill health effects here in America where we consume it with abandon. I call bullshit. GMO food may not kill us after we eat it, but processed food, food with GMO ingredients, things that aren't wild produce and certified non-GMO protein sources are in fact killing us. This crap food is killing us slowly. Very slowly. Imperceptibly slowly. Look at what happened in the United States over the past 15 years. We have become sick! We're ill! We are obese, we're riddled with cancer, diabetes, if you open any random cupboard I bet you'll find pill bottles with medications designed to address our maladies like cholesterol, acid reflux, or diabetes. These maladies may or may not have a causal link to GMO foods, but one thing I can say is that I believe that they are linked, they certainly aren't doing us any good! I've screamed at people that a good healthy long life can be had if you avoid processed “cheap” foods like the plague! Yes, McDonalds is cheap, but is it really? Like GMO foods (yes, I link McDonalds and GMO together, not directly, but in the way that neither are good for you) and the cost of that food is cheap to acquire but devastatingly expensive when you consider the long-term effects of eating that food. Cheap to buy, expensive to overcome obesity, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, high triglycerides… on and on and on. So, when the CEO of Nestlé claims that nature is not good and his GMO processed foods are, my response can be only this, Sir, you are so full of bullshit that you can't walk properly!

So what is to be done? Teach children to cook! For the love of all that is good, learn to make your own food! Use wholesome ingredients, avoid processed food-shit, and if you can't afford to stuff yourself full, at least get a little something to get by! If we were serious about bettering our health and our happiness we would outlaw these processed food-shit items outright. They are not good for us and as a country, they could bankrupt us! Sure, McDonalds is cheap to buy and fills you up, but years later when you are riddled with cancers, obese, diabetic, and hypertensive the cost to keep your sorry body alive will be immense! What's the best thing that public policy can do to better our health? Ban GMO foods, ban processed foods, ban “fast food”. Ban this food-shit outright. If you did that, Americans would weigh less, we'd have less cancer, we'd live longer, we'd be regular, we wouldn't need insulin, and I bet we wouldn't need the handful of pills a day once we get to a ripe old age of 60!

But there is so much we can't risk, and that's really at the center of everything. We can't risk Big Agro and Big Pharma. If we did what we know we should we would have to tell all the drug companies and all the fast food joints to divest themselves in America and go elsewhere for their business. That's the trap at the center of all of this, we know that's the right way for us to go but we know we can't ever do it because it would upset the status quo. Ultimately my arguments can't be expected to survive in this harsh light when it comes to public policy matters, but I can make an argument to individuals and perhaps my arguments can make an impact there. If it's processed by a company, it's food-shit. Do you really want to eat food-shit? How much of your day do you spend eating food-shit? Minimally processed foods, produce, proteins, dairy – the things our grandparents and their grandparents considered as food is where we came from and where we should go back to! Learn to cook your own food! Can't cook? That's a bullshit argument and you know it. People who can't cook their own food are lazy and stupid and deserve their dark fate. If you hand the responsibility for eating well to some company, I wish you all the luck in the world. That company cares for your health about as much as a sea sponge does. Only those people who learn to cook care about their lives, the rest are just throwing it all away. Essentially if you eat this food-shit, and you are what you eat, then you are not made of anything good, you're made of shit.

So, what is best? Ignore this Eurotrash CEO and the wrong bullshit that he spouts. Take responsibility for your health and wellbeing. Take responsibility for your food! For the love of God, LEARN TO COOK.

PAD 3/30/2013 – Five a Day

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You’ve being exiled to a private island, and your captors will only supply you with five foods. What do you pick?

Onions, Pork, Bread, Cheese, Broccoli. I don’t think five is enough as it takes more than these items to maintain a healthy body, but these items are things that I value more than others. Onions are universally useful, you can eat them raw, you can cook them and they can take a lot of heat abuse if your cooking tools are very low-brow. Pork is a good choice because it is an animal protein and has all the amino acids necessary for living, especially the ones we can’t manufacture by ourselves. I’m sure you could swap Quinoa out here, but I love pig parts, so pork is it. Plus pork is leaner than chicken and not as bad as red meat. If there wasn’t pork available I would have to switch out to Ostrich. It’s got a great texture, it’s near pork and chicken for ease of cooking and still helps you avoid the perils of red meat. Bread is a cheat as it’s not a food but rather a constructed food. Water, Flour, Yeast. Bread can keep you alive. It’s not a great life, but it can be done. Technically if bread wasn’t available then I’d have to place flour or oats here and I’d assume I could find some sort of water to make unleavened bread. Cheese is vital, it’s very dense, calorically, it provides calcium and it’s durable and resistant to spoilage. There really isn’t any alternative to cheese, perhaps extra-firm tofu, but it’s not the same. Broccoli is a superfood, a little miracle all on it’s own. It’s dark green and leafy and provides Vitamins A, B, C, Calcium, Potassium, and Fiber. Broccoli, like Onion can be eaten raw and can take a serious amount of thermal abuse before it becomes inedible. It’s durable, like all the other foods and easily carried. I’m sure there are better choices available, but these are the few that occurred to me off the top of my head.

PAD – 3/23/2013 – Local Flavor

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Write a piece about a typically “local” experience from where you come from as though it’s an entry in a travel guide.

The first thing that occurred to me, for good or ill is a classic summertime staple in Syracuse, New York where I was born and grew up. It’s something that really only is sold in markets around town and seems to be a quintessentially upstate delicacy and that is the venerable Salt Potato. The potatoes come in a brown paper sack with a plastic baggie full of salt. The recipe is stupid simple, everything goes into a pot with water and boils until the potatoes are done, then they are taken out of the water. As they steam out they get a crust of salt left on them, then you put a little butter in the dish, wait for it to melt and then enjoy.

There are certainly other memorable foods, but this one is the most durable and has the most nostalgia surrounding it. It’s something that Michigan would not understand, right up there with Spiedies, and Heid’s Coneys (nee Hoffman’s actually). Perhaps one of these nights I’ll have to whip up these for old-times sake.

My Ideal Kitchen

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My ideal kitchen is something that has occupied my mind on and off for years. I’ve worked in galleys and small kitchens and large kitchens and I’ve found myself able to cook well despite the small spaces. After a while I figured that if you do not have the space, you have to become more clever. Repurposing and multi-purposing tools you already have become paramount and blogs like LifeHacker are a great place to discover new clever ways to use what you have and make it really perform tasks that you’d never think before. Working in a very small kitchen, for example, if you need more counter space for chopping or mincing then pull out a drawer and put a cutting board across the drawer. It’s the perfect height, and adds just the right amount of space when you need it and pushes away when you don’t need it. It’s that sort of cleverness that really attracts me.

So size isn’t so much of an issue. What it really comes down to are really high-quality durable tools that make sense to use. Great refrigerators with numerous zones, whole-doors, and the freezer on top. A really excellent oven, using natural gas for fuel, a smaller oven on top of a larger one below, with interiors that are nice and clean. I’m particular about the design of the oven space itself. Ovens need good temperature controls, but that’s only part of it. Ovens, no matter what system controls the temperature inside the oven can benefit from bricks. Cheap and easy, bricks are awesome in ovens. They absorb heat and radiate heat slowly – the oven takes longer to get to temperature but the variability of the temperature cycling is smoothed out as the bricks compensate for the variability and make your baking much more reliable. The cooktop needs to be large, or as large as it can be. Lots of burners and with the right tools even the most basic of ovens with cooktops can become a great and versatile tool. For the cookware the kitchen needs to have at least a various compliment of Lodge Logic cookware. I prefer in nearly every situation to cook with cast iron. There are exceptions, proper steel pans for crepes for example, and stainless steel 18/10 sauciers. Kitchen gadgets and tools are pretty much dominated by OXO brand as far as I’m concerned. Much of what they make is superior to other options because they are designed well and cleverly, like measuring cups you can use looking down into them instead of across of them. There is another brand called “The Pampered Chef” that makes wooden spoons and they are exceptional. All of these things are good selections in the perfect kitchen, but the most essential tool in any kitchen, the ones you want to really concentrate on because you’ll use these tools the most are your knives. Every kitchen should have a host of fine knives and they have to be sharp, non-serrated, and of multiple sizes. paring, small chef, large chef, butchers blade and optionally a Santoku blade. I’m a huge fan of Victorinox brand for knives. They are inexpensive, durable, sharp and of exceptional quality. Your knives do not have to be expensive label-whore blades, but they have to be razor sharp and regularly sharpened. Nothing contributes to kitchen injuries more than struggling with a dull knife.

So my perfect kitchen can be a movable feast. I would want to bring my own knives with me if I were to go wandering – everything else is pretty much either a standard or can be worked around. Perhaps someday I’ll have a house where I can design the kitchen and that’ll be where the heart of my home will be.

No Forgiveness for BP

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I just saw a BP commercial play on CBS, as part of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I DVR the show and watch it when I like, time shifting it to a more pleasant hour than when it’s on, so it’s always an old program, which I’m fine with. But the BP commercial does irritate me. In it, a talking head for BP explains, almost plaintively, that they have spent 23 billion dollars in cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. He then talks up all the wonderful opportunities and great tourism of the area and then segues into how many Americans BP employs.

How dare you! How dare your company! Your greed and ignorance are only met with your petulant arrogance. You think there is any forgiveness for you? There is no forgiveness possible for an amoral company such as BP. Companies are not people. You cannot possibly expect people to treat you like you are asking them to. You poisoned the Gulf of Mexico with your greedy incompetence!

I still maintain that the right and proper punishment for what BP did in the Gulf of Mexico was to have all their American property seized, liquidated and be banned from doing any commerce in the United States. That’s a fitting punishment, not 23 billion dollars. It’s chump change to what you did in the Gulf of Mexico. The fact that BP wasn’t eliminated from the United States is clear proof that there is still quite a lot wrong with our world and how we manage it.

Shame on you BP. Shame on you forever.