Sunday January 21, 2024
– Gibbous Moon Phase – trust, analyze, prepare, digest, alchemy
– Moon in GEMINI –
– Retrograde Planets 2023-24 –
R – Uranus – Aug 28 – Jan 27
– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – January 21st – Write, Set Eggs, Travel for Pleasure, Host a Party, Mow to Increase Growth, Dig Holes, Kill Plant Pests, Cut Firewood
– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – January 20th – 21st – Poor days for planting, seeds tend to rot in ground.
– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kamala – the Lotus Goddess Who Brings Transcendence of Limitations
– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Elias, God of the West
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in SAGITTARIUS SUN/MOON – 21 SAGITTARIUS: a child and a dog wearing borrowed glasses (EARTH – 21 GEMINI: a tumultuous labor demonstration)
SUN – 01 AQUARIUS: an old adobe mission
EARTH – 01 LEO: under emotional stress blood rushes to a man’s head
I Took a Little Break Last Week
Or was that 10 days ago . . . about the time of the New Moon? I guarantee you it wasn’t intentional. Life has just been busy.
It was a lot of things. Financial was part of it. January always is hard while recovering from the holidays. Funny thing was that we did not overspend. We did not have the money to overspend.
It was more that we have been just trying to make ends meet. And with 4 growing boys in the house (and a college student) this is not always easy.
I wrote many an article over the past week. Unfortunately they never made it to paper (or computer screen). One day I will figure how to make voice to text work on a notes app and many of these will be written faster.
One theme came up more than any. And I want to explore it in depth. And that is Mind Control. It is happening all around us. And only the most discerning are noticing. Or maybe more than that. I am not sure.
This is not new by any stretch of the imagination. Marketers and politicians have been using these strategies for years in order to capture the minds and dollars of consumers and morons constituents.
Understand this. People buy things for emotional reasons. They then use logic to justify their decisions.
Please reread that a few times for full retention. Because it is very important in understanding the gentle art of persuasion.
I will start with a subtle example and then give you a homework assignment.
Applewood Smoked Bacon
When you buy bacon, how do you choose? If you are not someone who does the shopping, then this may not interest you. But if you are, then it is a good question to ask.
When I go to the store, the decision is never all that easy. You are presented with a whole lot of choices. There are many different brands (expect to see 4 at each store you visit, Then each brand has multiple different options. I will name a few:
Regular Cut
Thick Cut
Lo Fat (gross)
Smoked
Hardwood Smoked
Applewood Smoked
Turkey (do not ever choose this. It is grosser than low fat)
Do you have any idea what the difference is???
Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak
Please understand this. Meat is gross. It is wet, bloody, slimy and filled with all sorts of chemicals to make it look better.
But when you buy meat, you are not buying it because of how it looks or feels when it is raw. You are buying it because of how it will tastes. Think of having a thick, juicy steak, sizzling hot off the grill. Did you mouth just water? Mine did not because I stopped eating steak about 30 years ago. But hopefully you get the point.
Bacon is much the same way. It is not good for you. At all. It is highly processed, high in fat and cholesterol, filled with salt and preservatives. But it tastes amazing. So good in fact that everyone loves it. Most people have deeply ingrained memories of bacon – the way it smells up the house while cooking. Waking up to that smell and coming down to eat breakfast. Or wrapped around a Filet Mignon and covered with bearnaise sauce. There I go again.
So how do we get from sizzling bacon on the grill to Applewood smoked? Here is where emotions and the magic of marketing get into your brain.
Do you know what Applewood Smoked means? I pulled this informative piece of marketing bullshit of some site dedicated to smoking:
Applewood-smoked foods are capturing palates and imaginations due to their complex flavors. Envision the subtle aroma of apple wood filling the air, a gentle whisper of nature’s essence enhancing every morsel. Picture the calming and romantic glow of soft flames, reigniting primal connections and shared moments cooking over the open flames.
As you venture deeper into the world of applewood-smoked flavors, you uncover the secrets behind its growing allure. It transcends mere cooking, reaching back to ancient traditions and evoking a unique bond with nature and each other. But what does it mean when food is “applewood smoked?”
Immerse yourself in this journey to unravel the facets of applewood smoking and its ability to elevate your barbecuing skills, suffusing each dish with a flavor as timeless as fire itself.
Now, why exactly do you think that there is a preference for “applewood smoked” bacon?
Have you ever taste tested it? Is there a difference between Hardwood Smoked and Applewood Smoked? Does it tase any different than regular bacon? I will go out on a limb and say that it DEFINITELY DOES taste better than turkey bacon. But I may be a little biased.
Where my bullshit detector went off was when I started thinking about how the fuck they got so much apple wood to do all the smoking that they do. Imagine this. There is Applewood Smoked bacon packages in just about every store in the United States. Meaning that there are millions of packages in grocery stores across the country. Now ask yourself, Where are all these dead apple trees that are just waiting to be chopped down to provide wood to smoke all this bacon?
Understand this. Apple trees are just not that big. They are cultivated to growing apples. And most are stunted to make them easy to pick from. Their main usage is . . . growing apples. And I do not see that there is this huge supply of excess trees to be used for making bacon.
The fact of the matter is that mostly they use the “Applewood” name to evoke an emotional response. Customer see thew word “apple” and imagine that they will have this wonderful taste of apple along with their bacon. Truly all you really taste is salt. But you get the warm fuzzies thinking about the apples.
I was seriously take aback a few weeks ago when I saw a master-class in bacon marketing. The brand name that used was “Appleton Farms.” They got all the great emotions of Apples without even having to create the farce of using Apple trees in the curing process – I have no idea if they smoked it.
Homework for this week – or next
Check out the bacon aisle at your local store. If you look at the picture I used above, you will see a lot of the typical marketing BS – Jimmy Dean – can you hear the southern accent from the commercials? The logo with a book – another nod to country. The words Applewood Smoked and Premium. An official looking quality shield.
But also look at all the other types of bacon. Its kind of mind boggling.
Thank ask yourself why they only serve 2 slices for breakfast. Commies!
Pay attention to this as we will explore much less tasty mind control subjects later this week.