Pork! Pork! Pork!

In lieu of the Muslim outcry over Pooh's friend, Piglet, I thought I'd put up my first 100% totally non-PC post, by highlighting PORK! The Other White Meat! In find it insanely ridiculous that anyone could find Piglet offensive. He's a little guy with a pink striped sweater, who's lived his entire life within the 100 Acre Wood, harvesting haycorns, hunting Heffalumps, helping T-i-double-grrrr get his bounce back, and playing with little Roo and his best pal, Pooh. Yeah. He's dangerous, alright. Careful folks! Turn your back on this little piggy and he'll go weeee weeee weeee, all the way home (if he doesn't go to the market for roast beef first). Morons. The only thing even half-way offensive about Piglet is his sing-song little voice, and that's only annoying after watching Pooh over and over again for a few hours.

This week's Carnival of Recipes is all about PORK! If it ain't pork... save it for another week, folks. Send your favorite PORK recipe to recipe.carnival@gmail.com. Our favorite Blonde Blogger, ALa, is hosting this week. Interestingly enough, the only other time I've submitted a recipe to the Carnival, it was a PORK recipe for BLT Dip. I get more search engine hits for that recipe than any other post I've done. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but hey- it still counts as a visit, right? I'll be submitting a new one this time- Pork Tenderloin with Scallion Sauce... complete with a cooking 101 TINS.

But first, I thought I'd give you all some PORK fat.

In 2000, Cincinnati celebrated it's rich history in the meat packing industry by asking local artists to decorate pig statues. They called it the Big Pig Gig. The pigs were displayed throughout the city, and auctioned off at the end of the summer. 140 charities received the auction proceeds, which topped out at around $840,000.00. Some were sold on eBay, and some were sold at the live auction.

Have you ever wondered where the term "PORK barrel spending" came from? It dates back to an 1865 article written by E.K. Hale, titled "PORK Barrel". He was referring an early American practice of slaveowners giving barrels of salted PORK to slaves and watching the "feeding frenzy" that followed. Today the term is often used in the political area to describe politicians who request funding for government programs in their specific district, but spread the financial burden for the program across all taxpayers. The politicians toss the "salted PORK" (in the form of public works projects) to their constituents, who pay them back with a "feeding frenzy" of votes or political favors.

Well, I think that's enough about PORK for one night. I'll leave you with this: Guess what we had for dinner in the Jungle tonight? BLT's... *grin*