Margin Notes: Journalism, Pope, Meat, Radio

GO Transit train #257 sat dwarfed by the construction cranes at West Toronto after hitting a vehicle at the Old Weston Road crossing on 17 March 2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - How often have you read or seen a news item about an area in which you have some expertise and were simply appalled at how many mistakes were in the newspaper article or broadcast report? For those with some knowledge of railroads, this happens all the time. However, I'll give a bit of credit to my local Bloor West Villager. On Tuesday, a mid-day GO commuter rail train had a grade crossing incident at Old Weston Road near the West Toronto "Junction." I happened to be in the area, found out what was happening, and checked out some of the trains stopped as a result of the incident. When I read the paper on Friday, the article on the incident, while not lengthy, was an accurate piece of journalism which confirmed what I had suspected and hoped--that no one was injured in the collision.

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I wish I could say that people will not be injured by Pope Benedict XVI's statement earlier this week that AIDS is "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems." To my knowledge, no credible public health authority in the world agrees with the Pope's position against condoms, certainly not in Africa where the comment was aimed. It is very unfortunate that this Pope is proving to be completely out of touch with the reality of the world.

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I don't seem to be the only one to have noticed the reality of seafood prices being matched by the price of other meats. On CBC Radio One's local Metro Morning show this week, it was noted that lobster and bologna were the same price. That was an easy choice for the show's host.

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Another effective follow-up to an entry on this blog airing on CBC Radio One came on today's Cross Country Checkup. The very last caller, from British Columbia, claimed that Shaw had told him that it would cost $60,000 to provide his residence with broadband Internet access. That really drives home the need for affordable rural broadband technologies I wrote about earlier this week.

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In order to hear the Marketplace Morning Report here in Toronto, I need broadband Internet. There might now be some reason for me to actually tune in. Longtime KUOW-Seattle host Bill Radke will now be the fill-in host of that show, as reported in BlatherWatch. Radke was probably the most memorable Morning Edition host KUOW ever had, and his "Rewind" comedic week-in-review show was nationally syndicated in the United States for several years.

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Much darker news in radio comes out of New York, where ABC News freelancer George Weber has been found murdered. No details have been released. I have fond memories of listening to Weber as an evening talk show host on KOA out of Denver and KGO out of San Francisco. As just a small example of his humor, I remember one of his first nights on KGO filling in on the 7-10 pm shift. At 8:10 he made a grand pause and asked, "What time is it?" KGO is 810 AM, and that number is obviously featured prominently in the station's liners. So, Weber played the "810" portion of a liner, then stated, "I've been wanting to do that for a long time." For many years at KOA, Weber's show ended at midnight with a "Goodnight America" segment in which people could call in and say goodnight to anyone. Weber was 47. Goodnight, George.

Economics: Meat Prices

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I am old enough to remember when ground beef was usually $0.99 a pound (and, growing up in the United States, it was per pound, not per kilogram). Even when I was in college, I would be upset if a pound of hamburger was more than about $1.29. In that world, less expensive fishes were still pretty expensive (at least five times the price of beef), and pork, turkey and chicken were somewhere in between, though usually closer to beef.

From that world, what I saw in the grocery store this week was utterly unrecognizable. I rarely purchase beef of any kind anymore, but had I wanted to, ground beef was going for $2.99 a pound. Sometimes low grades might be on sale for $2.49--but there's no way even that's consistent with inflation. Figuring 3% inflation for 20 years (which it hasn't been since the last time I paid a dollar a pound), ground beef should be more like $1.89.

Yet, steak, which I once considered to be extravagant at around five dollars a pound, hasn't gone up by a similar amount. This week, Loblaw's has AAA strip loin steak on sale for $5.99 a pound. That's still much more expensive than ground beef, but not so expensive when looks around the rest of the meat section.

For many years, I had substituted ground turkey for ground beef. These days, I practically might as well substitute steak. I could not find ground turkey of any grade for less than $4.99 a pound, and extra lean was $6.99 a pound. That's typical around here, and one of the reasons I now usually go with ground pork. Pork is the cheapest white meat. Ground pork often goes for $3.99 a pound, and pork chops usually sell for about the same price or a bit more.

Contrast that with chicken breasts. It is not uncommon for chicken and turkey breasts to go for as much as $9.99 a pound. This week, several stores have turkey breasts for $7.99 a pound and seem to think they are providing a real deal. Sometimes previously-frozen chicken breasts will go for $5.99 a pound, and when that rare event occurs, I stock up. Whole chicken or drumsticks will sometimes dip as low as $3.49 a pound but are usually $5.99 or more. As if those numbers aren't enough to make one's head spin, meats in my local store are usually marked only in kilograms, and the price per kilogram is approximately double the price per pound. One has to really pay attention to figure out what is actually a good deal.

Which brings things back to fish, which I prefer to eat once a week and was something I thought I might have to give up while unemployed. Well, apparently not in favor of chicken. For the past three weeks, either Atlantic salmon, trout, or catfish has been cheaper in price than chicken breasts at my favorite store. Last week, trout was going for $5.49 a pound. The clerk at the counter commented, "I don't think it's been that cheap, ever." My response was, "Not this decade, anyway" before I realized that she was younger than me, and quite possibly had never seen it this cheap. It proved to be quite tasty and have excellent texture, so I was an extremely happy camper.

Just about every week, there's some kind of fresh seafood that I like for under $9.99 a pound, often significantly less. As long as that continues to hold true, I'm not likely to increase the amount of chicken or turkey in my diet--and as long as it stays the cheapest white meat, pork will be the staple meat in my freezer and refrigerator on the five days a week that I'm not eating seafood.

The whole thing definitely makes me understand the economic appeal of vegetarianism, to say nothing of the health and environment appeals.