Get Thee Behind Me, Mr Kipling
In dangers-of-the-workplace news:
The grown adult quoted above is Professor Susan Jebb, employed by the University of Oxford to think deeply on matters of diet, and current chair of the Food Standards Agency. For our disapproving academic, the workplace is akin to a “smoky pub,” due to the occasional presence of cake, and therefore conjures – in her mind, at least – notions of “passive smoking.” Being offered a slice of cake during one’s coffee break is, it turns out, grounds for invoking victimhood. And because struggling with even the most routine self-possession has to be blamed on something:
Cauliflower enthusiasts will no doubt be gutted.
Professor Jebb insists that her desire to make workplace cake-bringing taboo – and seen as something harmful and antisocial – is “not about the nanny state,” or, dare I suggest, some personal inadequacy. You see, the advertising of cakes and other confections – and the fact that they may be accessible in the workplace – is “undermining people’s free will.” Free will being demonstrated only by compliance with Professor Jebb’s New Rules Of Cake-Eating. And which is why, one assumes, this grown woman, a professional intellectual, can’t say no to a bit of sponge.
Cakes in the workplace – and their allegedly unhinging effects on women – have, of course, been mentioned here before.
Via Christopher Snowdon, who, as you might imagine, has some thoughts.
I’m fairly sure that if these “academic” institutions were to be held financially responsible for the loans offered to their students, instead of having them underwritten by the rest of us, much of this idiocy would quickly resolve itself.
Oh wait, dammit. She doesn’t even have any students. Bugger. We’ll never get rid of her.
That.
Well, it’s, shall we say, an interesting definition of free will, in which one denies one has any, at all – because deciding whether or not to have a piece of cake is some overwhelming ordeal and beyond human fathoming – and so one defers instead to the fever dreams of our prodnose professor.
If you work from home are you not supposed to offer yourself cake? Or would that be a lack of self control to not only not eat the cake, but also to not stop yourself offering yourself the cake. This can get a bit esoteric quickly can’t it.
It’s certainly some lowest-denominator shit when the fact that some fat bint can’t resist cake means we have to ban cake.
Oy, have you got a license for that piece of cake?
What most workplaces need is not cake but a well stocked wet bar. That is definitely one of the perks of working from home.
There is, as so often, a self-ratcheting dynamic. As Christopher Snowdon notes,
And those budgets, perks and pensions have to be justified somehow, regardless of intrusion and with ever greater contrivance.
[ Sips cranberry juice. ]
Avert your eyes.
Avert your eyes.
MUST. EAT. CAKE.
Professor Jebb insists that her desire to make workplace cake-bringing taboo – and seen as something harmful and antisocial – is “not about the nanny state,”
Liberals and leftists say that a lot. But tyranny is never far from their minds.
Remember eco-doom monger Paul Ehrlich, author of the infamous book The Population Bomb? In this excerpt from a 1970 TV interview he says he is “against government interference in our lives” and then goes on to list the ways that government should coerce us into doing what he wants.
[ Fetches restraints. ]
Avert your eyes.
Battenburg pattern? Needs a siren to warn Jebb.
MUST. EAT. CAKE.
The cake is a lie.
On a side note, earlier this morning I was getting a server error – the first since moving the blog away from Typepad – with pages and the dashboard being slow to load. Reported it to the new hosting company, which, unlike Typepad, monitors customer complaints round the clock. Problem sorted in roughly the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.
Oh happy day.
Woman with no self-control wants to control others.
Shocker!
Oh, fuck off, Susan. What a joyless, miserable bint you are.
Speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the FSA, she said: “We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people…
She can think that, but facts are not in evidence, besides, isn’t this just systemic fatphobia?
Clicking on the link to Christopher Snowden’s comment, I was surprised to see that Jebb does not appear to be the kind of person who finds it hard to resist a slice of red velvet.
A Google image search shows her to be slender and, if anything, perhaps someone who might positively benefit from an exceedingly good cake now and again.
So not only do I suspect a lie of sorts, but also that she is likely a highly judgmental sort.
The kind who tuts every time she walks past a Greggs.
I do not care about his psychological problems: An immediate beating would teach him to behave.
We’ve ended up with a complete market failure because what you get advertised is chocolate and not cauliflower.
I don’t think she understands what a market failure is.
I’m with her !!! Far to much cake floating about.
Not near enough pie…
This goes along with the nonsense of referring to excess weight in the passive voice, as if the extra mass just snuck up on you and jumped up onto your belly. As if you couldn’t stop it.
In NYC the mayor at the time, bloomberg, did the usual nanny thing and banned giant sodas because of course the rabble have no self-control. In LA, they banned or tried to ban the construction of any new fast food restaurants in the poor parts of town because the proles were eating too many burgers and tacos (never mind they were happy doing so and can’t afford a meal that would be approved). The solution to every problem (or every imagined problem) is always force.
The typical sex of the more prodigious office cake-eaters is not, I think, irrelevant.
Again, Mr Snowdon:
But then, Professor Jebb also appears to struggle with the concepts of free will, personal responsibility, and self-indulgent overreach.
“Speaking in a personal capacity on behalf of the FSA, she said: “We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people …”.
No Susan, we need to practice being rational, intelligent, educated people.
I’m with her !!! Far to much cake floating about.
Not near enough pie…
No! What’s needed is roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.
Economists would predict that such an advertising blitz would, at best, lead to vegetable eaters consuming slightly less swede and slightly more cauliflower
I resent that.
(Because I’m a Swede.)
[ Fetches Ingrid’s coat, rummages under bar for detonators. ]
Wi not trei a holiday in Sweeden this yer ?
See the loveli lakes
The wonderful telephone system
And mani interesting furry animals
Including the majestic moose
Given the recent Scandinavian turn of this comments section, I submit for your pleasure this Swedish lesson with a difference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc3M1nppd3c
We can ascribe status/honor to ourselves by being virtuous, by overcoming difficulties, by doing good deeds. The first is hard to prove and the third is a lot of work. Thus overcoming difficulties is the path of least resistance, at least when imaginary difficulties are overcome. Thus we endure and moan about cake being offered (normally a sign of generosity), microaggressions like holding doors open, tall people, being on time, wood paneling, thin people, pretty people, household chores, “field” work, “master” cylinders, “chief” operating officers. We do this because we cannot brag about surviving a drought that killed all our cattle or a marauding army that burned our fields. Lack of self-awareness prevents them from seeing how trivial these problems are.
By the way, american indian warriors were called “braves” because whites universally considered them brave. Not clear how that could be racist.
[ Fetches Ingrid’s coat, rummages under bar for detonators. ]
[ Returns to bar, wearing chain mail outfit. ]
Fireproof.
More Swedish culture.
I confess! Many years ago there was a Friday AM tradition at work for doughnuts. After a while I got tired of them, and dropped some cash in the donation box with a note pleading for different snacks. I denounce myself!
Again, this is the problem. Trying to address leftist BS with logic and reason. Logic and reason should tell you that trying to treat emotional diarrhea with L&R has failed time and time again and for decades. As alluded to in “I do not care about his psychological problems: An immediate beating would teach him to behave.” If I were to encounter such behavior where I shop I would be hard pressed to restrain myself from dragging his fat ass out the door. Though unlikely as I quit shopping at Target (looks like a Target anyway) when they conformed to the tranny bathroom thing.
Again, this is the problem. Trying to address leftist BS with logic and reason. Logic and reason should tell you that trying to treat emotional diarrhea with L&R has failed time and time again and for decades.
Sadly, you cannot reason leftists out of their madness. You can only use reason to persuade others that the leftists are wrong. So evidence and logic are still useful, but for the leftists one must use other methods.
And then proceed to demonstrate they aren’t.
Conducted energy devices seem efficacious.
News Flash … Half the people in the western world have all gone mad and the simply stupid one have gotten stupider. That’s what’s wrong. The dumbing down has taken effect. Weak leftist fools are in charge of almost everything … so don’t expect that one election might change things much. Meanwhile it’s rule through ignorance and FEAR.
Generally speaking, yes. But this is a case of shooting fish in a barrel. Anything short of dropping in a stick of dynamite is not going to get the point across.
This feminist will fight for your rights by advertising tampons.
I tells ya, this is all because of computers and the internet. These tools make a small minority much more competent but the majority get stupider.
So, C.S. Lewis was correct…
Also, when did cauliflower become the latest thing? Was there some nutritional breakthrough that determined mass consumption to be a great thing?
Or did the Cauliflower Growers just start advertising?
Frankly, I blame Big Cauliflower…
PUT DOWN THAT PAINT CAN!!
Mistaken or malevolent? Answers on a postcard, please.
Speaking as a fat person who is trying to become less fat (and was doing quite well until a close family bereavement last year somewhat undermined my willpower), cauliflower is not food. It’s nature’s polystyrene packaging. The diet books hope that if you eat enough cauliflower, you won’t have room for anything with any actual food value. But the salivary glands are not fooled. Just get used to eating less.
It’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for it. At least swede can be used in a stew without it seeming entirely pointless.
Optimist. Most on the right are just about as stupid.
I feels ya but…Disagree. As with guns, the internet is just a tool. The problem is a lot of intelligent people, so called, are actually quite stupid. Especially on the right. See above.
Kind of agree. Though cauliflower crust pizza done at a restaurant that knows how to cook it is decent enough if you like your pizza NY-style. Us Chicago fans are still SOOL. I think there is value in general in eating broccoli and similar large volume, high water content foods. The cauliflower by itself is a bridge too far for the most part. But pizza topping do make up for it. As for frozen cauliflower crust pizzas I’ve only found Milton’s to be remotely satisfying. While I’ve never cared much for frozen pizzas, the wife thinks they’re good enough.
As for dieting in general I’ve recently had success using the Noom program. Lost about 25-30 pounds since the end of June. And that is with hitting a plateau through most of November and all of December. It’s more of a calorie counting and “mindfulness” thing. I do not stay strict with their red/yellow/green tracking system, just the calorie counting aspect. And the “mindfulness” thing does help considerably.
Seriously dude…the authorities can read this stuff. Though if you’re using any of those ABBA characters your secret is safe with me.
The thrill of swede.
PUT DOWN THAT PAINT CAN!!
Harrumph. Johnnie-come-latelies…
I’m not normally so encouraging but since this is more or less anonymous…
for the poster having a go at losing some girth. Keep at it mate, especially if you have some serious gravity to lose. Life is altogether much better once you do.. despite what Qweef Latina and all the other twerkers would have you believe.
Since the start of the Unspecified Disease of Unknown Origin I have lost (in the queens parlance) about 7.5 stone… perhaps a few pebbles more.
There are lots of different approaches but you nailed it in your post. Eat less, move more. The truism is … true. Weight loss is simple, it’s just not easy. Bonne chance.
And learn from Prof. Jebb (I mean.. from the mouths of fools, etc..)
Avoid cake. and leave the pie for me…. /sarc
The thrill of swede.
Rutabega, damnit, rutabega.
Yeah, but never before has it been so easy to indulge in punch-worthy behaviour with no consequenses.
Or spreading bullshit.
Or permitting previously isolated village idiots to gather and unite, inflicting their awesome stupid on everyone else.
Or making it easy to mass-identify and then manipulate useful idiots.
Or the anonymous evil that can be done so much more easily.
Or encouraging malignant narcissism.
Or convincing idiots they’re right just because they can find a webpage confirming something.
Or…
It’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for it.
I was willing to live and let live and then they started making pizza crust out of it. That’s just wrong.
Weight loss. As someone who has kept a decent weight for many decades I would just like to suggest that there is a difference between what one CAN consume and what one needs. I CAN eat pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hash browns for breakfast, but I am fine with a bagel and cream cheese. An adult really does not need snacks. That is my entire secret.
Just get used to eating less.
That’s the trick: A low-carb, high-meat-and-fat diet helps somewhat. But you still have to limit the calories. And it’s a lot easier to put on weight than to take it off: When I was 19 I could eat any amount without gaining weight, and it was enjoyable to always have another slice of yummy pizza after a movie with friends. But slowly the metabolism changed and I started to gain weight without noticing. And losing weight was much harder. All that willpower and habit stuff. But that’s what adulthood is about: Self-responsibility and self-discipline. Which Professor Jebb has yet to learn
The thrill of swede.
The thrill of the other Swede.
Well, if I were in Russia I wouldn’t smile either.
Or…has it been more transparent and easily provable how those people you describe are clearly wrong. The one very nice thing about the internet is the bombasts eventually have to shut up which provides an opening for anyone, anyone at all, to push back. To gather information and get your ducks in a row and push back. As for the punch worthiness, plenty or punch worthy opportunities present themselves every day, as demonstrated frequently in links here most recently in regard to the fat ass marshmallow crybaby pst linked and I referred to. No one punched him because no one has any backbone. The internet is just an excuse. Personally I’ve never felt the need to punch someone because of what they said, internet or meat space. Because of what they did however…
Or…has it been more transparent and easily provable how those people you describe are clearly wrong.
The left certainly made great progress taking over cultural institutions long before the invention of the internet, and thus great progress in the indoctrination of the populace.
Agree. One thing I noticed after retiring was that I stopped getting mad hunger cravings long before lunch. I mostly have been good without snacks though wifey keeps buying the damn things. Still I don’t crave them unless I’ve tried too hard to eat light. But there is a metabolism issue once you put on the weight in that your body fights letting it go. And it’s not just a starvation management thing. The Noom app went into a very good explanation that I don’t recall the details of but one big secret that’s not a secret is to not let yourself put it on in the first place.
Somewhat related:
“It is a mistake to suppose that all men…want to be free. On the contrary, if freedom entails responsibility, many of them want none of it…The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose & for someone else to pay when things go wrong”
–Theodore Dalrymple, Life at the Bottom: the Worldview that Makes the Underclass
I am forever turning down cake at work. It doesn’t take very much will-power because I stopped eating cake when I was 19 and now don’t like all but the very nicest French patisseries.
But it does involve a careful management of the refusal, because the women at work are rather upset that you don’t like their cake. Saying you don’t like all cake is hopeless, because they all think that isn’t possible. Saying you are full sometimes works, dependent on the time of day.
I have a reputation at work for oddness regarding food (mostly when and how, rather than what, I eat) but for other staff do risk some social rejection. So they eat a piece that they don’t want. It isn’t necessarily a lack of willpower.
If like some of the other commenters you are watching calories, which I do in general terms, eating someone’s stupid piece of cake for politeness is one much nicer snack I cannot eat later — a beer, for example.
I work at a male dominated work place, where even the front-line women are quite blokey, but traditionally food was organised by the support staff, who are overwhelmingly female. Despite at every catered event the savoury foods being wolfed down and the sweet foods always remaining, it was many years before public pressure was brought to bear to reduce the amount of sweet food.
I suspect a “no cakes” policy at work would probably be supported by the majority of staff. But only so the nibbles were replaced with pies, pizza, chicken wings etc.
@PiperPaul
Sorry – I was out.
Ahem.
“A møøse once bit my sister…”
Thank You.
The “M” is for manufactured.
You’re doing it wrong.
On the subject of dieting, remember, healthy at any size.
You’re doing it wrong.
You’re doing links wrong. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
The “M” is for manufactured.
Piece of meat? No, I regard her as a piece of crazy.
A high school gym somewhere is missing a couple basketballs.
“A møøse once bit my sister…”
Right on my butt! But there’s almost no scar. See?
But it does involve a careful management of the refusal, because the women at work are rather upset that you don’t like their cake. Saying you don’t like all cake is hopeless, because they all think that isn’t possible
Yes, it can be very difficult. I’ve been telling people for years that I have to strictly limit carbs and sugar to keep my cholesterol level down. I’m not confident that all of them believe me, and some keep forgetting and offering sweets. I had to give away some very tasty pastries after Christmas.
Don’t try to gently restrain these violent loonies without hurting them at all.
Instead, quickly hit them on the head with a billy club and end the “situation”.
Bollocks
Piracy justified as existing because people want to escape censorship? Really?
I used to know some people who pirated a lot of music and videos. They did it to avoid paying the purchase price. I never knew anyone who did it to escape censorship restrictions. One even ran a small side business of renting videos and selling dupes, even though there were mail order businesses that specialized in foreign films. The folks at Samizdata sometimes have worthwhile things to say, but sometimes what they are complete bollocks. (Link via Samizdata.)
Put thøse things away Ingrid. This is a respectable establishment.
[ Eyes spittoon warily ]
“Beyond putting lives at risk, critics say the law will exacerbate the suspicion, common among male firefighters, that women simply aren’t up for the job.”
It cannot exacerbate my suspicion that feminists and Democrats in general are either bat-shit crazy or just plain evil, because I am already certain of that.
Bollocks
Thanks for fixing the link. And glancing at the link, I’ll note that my stainless steel thermoses are still working perfectly after more than a decade–some after more than twenty years. Thermos brand and KleenKanteen.
I hope you’ve made provision for them in your will!
Why am I in trouble? asks the young thug
I hope you’ve made provision for them in your will!
Maybe I should use them as time capsules: Fill them with thumb drives loaded with conservative literature for whatever civilization follows the fall of ours. “Read these books. But first, kick a leftist in the balls.”
Perhaps as the basis of some kind of Foundation? 😁
Perhaps as the basis of some kind of Foundation?
No, I’m not fond of Asimov’s fantasy of a secret, super-competent, all-benevolent WEF in its hidden galactic Davos. F him and his lefty dreams.
She doesn’t realize what she’s just said.
No, I’m not fond of Asimov’s fantasy of a secret, super-competent, all-benevolent WEF…
I detested the Foundation series for that exact reason.
Pity, because I enjoyed both the robot stories and the Black Widower stories.
Your tax dollars at work.
The earlier photo brings back memories of the time I brought a Battenberg cake into the US and had to explain what and why it was to customs officials.
The increasingly surreal cultural, culinary and historical conversation (along with my repeated assurances that there wasn’t any hidden fruit in it) might still be going had I not fortuitously mentioned the term pound cake.
If this isn’t swift Biblical justice, nothing is.
Your tax dollars at work.
Suppose those two barbarian losers lived in San Francisco. Suppose San Francisco did give each of them $5 million as “reparations” for the slavery they never endured. How long until both of them had thrown away that money and were again on welfare? And would they, even for a moment, stop associating with criminals? I could go on and on.
No, I’m not fond of Asimov’s fantasy of a secret, super-competent, all-benevolent WEF…
I detested the Foundation series for that exact reason.
He never outgrew his youthful involvement with communism and even in the 80’s demonstrated his sympathy by finding reasons to object to Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Worried she’ll go blind? No, I’m worried she’ll vote.
Regarding the now-widespread mockery of Professor Jebb, a Labour MP is upset.
A discussion ensues.
Asimov’s Foundation: read it when I was 13. I would read any scifi at that age. We had stacks of paperbacks. Even for a 13 yr old who would grant talking trees and interstellar travel, his premise was unbelievable.
Being offered a slice of cake during one’s coffee break is, it turns out, grounds for invoking victimhood.
An eloquent reply.
Notice that on the “cake” problem, the premise is that the NHS will have to deal with obesity, thus they have a right to tell people what to eat and how to behave. If you let gov do too much, this is what happens–they get an excuse to meddle. Like trying to take away gas stoves in the US last week on a flimsy pretext (a single badly-done study on indoor air pollution).
I was rather impressed by the one below it, too.