Precis:2nd Chunk Fast Food Nation

Erick Schlosser's 2005 book, Fast Food Nation, explains the kinds of supplies the restaurants need for the food, in other words how and from where the food is made. He explains the process in a very factual and anecdotal way, by the describing the many companies that contribute to these fast food chains. Now in days the fast food has been created with artificial flavors, before everything was cooked in a very natural way, but now that competition is an everyday part of life in fast food chains; time and money is very important. Fast food restaurants look for good quality frozen food that can please, attract more customers, save time and money. For this reason food corporations like the potato companies attempt to make different types of fries, frozen fries that still taste good when reheated and also the companies tend to try to make new technology that will have a faster way of cooking the food and freezing them. Besides making faster methods the flavor is important also. Fast food chains have companies that they go to that supply them or make new artificial flavor for them. When a fast food company has new flavor food people tend to but it if it is something that they like. An example is the strawberry shake, it's artificial flavor yet people buy it because it still taste like the strawberry. At times this is good, the use of artificial flavors because, as Schlosser explains, that some fruit can contain a deadly poison and for that reason the artificial flavor is created. Not only is flavor the only issue but cattle and the low payment that ranchers and growers receive for their cattle. Some growers, is estimated that they make $12,000 a year (very low). Schlosser describes the suffrage and struggle of the growers and animals due to the whole process of the food chains through a very informative
Tone: Informative
Rhetorical Terms: imagery: "Hank was 42 years old and handsome enough to be a Hollywood cowboy, tall and rugged, wearing blue jeans, old boots, and a big white hat."
allusion: "The 1960s were the heyday of artificial flavors."
imagery: "J.R. Simplot has the sly grin of a gambler who's scored big."
Simile/allusion: "The dehydrated onion powder, he later recalled, was like "gold dust."
Discussion Questions: Clarification: How do restaurants and ranchers/suppliers tackle the same problem of wages?
Application: How can fast food affect us with all the new chemicals being invented?
Style: Does Schlossers informative book help people think twice before buying fast food?
Quotation: "I just hung on" (pg.116)

Precis:"On the Want of Money"

William Hazlitt's nineteenth-century essay, "On the Want of Money," focuses on the bad side of not having money through a very imaginative-negative essay. Hazlitt focuses on the difference between having money and not having money even though he does not know the actual effects of not having money, towards what life the person is going to lead to. Poverty will only get a person to a certain place while money can give importance to once life. Being poor will only cause a loss and neglection of friends, a cast away in one's own country. There will be no option but to live a crappy life, yet again there are those who can try to thrive in life, some may fail while others may succeed. Being wealthy, as Hazlitt explains, can cause attention from all classes, new and more friends, acceptance from the government/country, be respected, have a place to die with people to care for your will, there will be someone to commemorate your genius and misfortunes.
Tone: Negative/positive
Rhetorical Terms: Imagery: "...marry your landlady..."
Imagery: "...sit at a desk in some public office..."
Allusion: "...or to go out to the East or West Indies..."
Imagery: "...crowd round your coffin..."
Imagery: "...thrown into the background-or a goal (jail)..."
Discussion Questions: Clarification:
Application: How does money affect our daily life?
Style: Does Hazlitt's negative portrayal of poverty cause a desire for richness?
Quotation: "One cannot get on well in the world without money."

Precis:1st Chunk "Fast Food Nations"

Precis:
Eric Schlosser's 2005 book, Fast Food Nation explains the birth and growth of the fast food restaurant through a very factual and informative text. He focuses on explaining the birth and growth of the fast food chains. He explains how it first started off as a hot dog cart that became a chain through Carl N. Karcher, but the actual food chain restaurant began with the McDonald brothers opening the first successful fast food restaurant. Every time a new restaurant is built scariness is felt everywhere, the thought of whether or not this new restaurant will cause other to shut down. As soon as McDonalds opened, other restaurants like Burger King and Taco Bell opened up and competition erupted. Everyone wanted to make money, many will look for different ways and in different people to make money, for this reason many of the fast food restaurants target little kids. The thought is that little kids bring in adults which brings in money. The second way is to hire teenagers. Teenagers are willing to work for low wages as long as they have a job and for this reason many restaurants prefer to hire them. besides targeting the youth, many look for different ways to advertise their products. Fast food companies are now paying to have their advertisements posted in schools and some beverage companies sponsor a team to make money. The government even offers help to the restaurants even if the restaurants are being unfair to the employees. The wages have no decreased by a 30% and yet the government hardly does anything, there are unions for these employees but every time that the employee or ex-employee are about to win the case, the restaurant shuts down in order not to lose. Schlosser explains how due to these bad treatments the majority of the robberies that happen in fast food restaurants tend to be from behalf of employees or ex-employees. the majority that works in the restaurants do not make enough money to support a family and at times have to take 2 jobs, some students lose track of school due to their jobs. Some of the employees only depend on tips to make a living or at least to be able to buy food. Schlosser writes of these situations in a factual anecdotal way that explains the rise of the restaurants and the bad and good things about it.
Tone: Informative
Rhetorical Terms:Hyperbole:"strike me dead"
Personification: "America's fast food restaurants are now more attractive to armed robbers than convenience stores..."
imagery: "The bodies lay in an empty restaurant as burglar alarms rang, game lights flashed, a vacuum cleaner ran, and Chuck E. Cheese mechanical animals continued to perform children's songs."
Imagery: "Instead of a new flag being raised, a big new plastic sign goes up."
imagery: "the shakes and sodas begin as syrup."
Discussion Questions: Clarification: How does employees and managers view the paycheck as?
Application: How does does low payment affect poor families?
Style: Does Eric's informative book about fast food make a person not want to work there?
Quotation:"find another job; move on"

Precis: Size 6: The Western Women's Harem

Fatema Mernissi's 2001 "Size 6: The Western Women's Harem" article discusses the difference between the Mid-East and the Western views of the beauty of women in a sarcastic yet informative passage. Mernissi tells her experience in an American clothing store, when attempting to buy a size 6 cotton skirt, supposedly too small for her. The saleslady of the clothing store tells her of how she is too big, meaning her hips, to fit into the size 6 skirt and that there were special stores for people of her size, in this store she will not find any her size. Due to this she was humiliated and understands the cultural difference, in a way. She explains how back in her country, the only thing men requested for women was to wear a veil and not to try and fit into a size6. men here, she believes, design and decide what women have to wear or look like in order to look beautiful. Ms. Mernissi speaks of the culture difference through a sarcastic yet informative article, explaining what men in her country view as beautiful in women and how men in the U.S. view as beautiful in women.
Tone: a bit sarcastic yet informative
Rhetorical Terms: Metaphor:"here i am transformed into a dinosaur"
Imagery: "her knee-lenght, navy blue, Chanel dress had a white silk collar reminiscent of the subdued elegance of aristocratic French Catholic schoolgirls"
hyperbole: "you are too big!"
imagery/hyperbole: "i often had to defend myself against remarks such as zirafa (giraffe), because of my long neck..."
imagery: "she seemed all of a sudden, interested, and brushed off another women..."
Discussion Question: Clarification: How does the West and Mid-East differ in the woman beauty standard?
Application: How can making someone not feel great about themselves affect them?
Style: Does Ms. Mernissi's article help women and men to take more into consideration as to how a person can feel about looks?
Quotation: "What a horror."

Precis: Chicken-Sized Dino Discovered In Museum Drawers

Christopher Joyce's 2009 article from npr.org studies the new revealead drawing of a 75 million year old extinct dinosaur through a humorous and informative article. Joyce informs the audience of the size of the dinosaur through humor by saying "it's a chicken-sized dino." Besides the dino being small he also weighed 4-5 pounds. He later (after an interview with Nicholas Longrich) explains that skeletons this small are very rare and even though these dinosaurs are small they still would've been able to survive and compete against bigger dinosaurs. Not only would the small dinosaur, which is called "Hesperonychus elizabethae," would be able to compete with bigger dinosaurs but also with earlier mammals. Joyce tells of how dino had been forgotten for 25 years in the museum collection at the university of alberta. There still may be other unfound dinosaurs.

how do new extinct species being found affect us?
do you think that Joyce's articl can cause a desire for people to go out and look for unfound species?

feministing.com theroot.com livejournal.com

My comment on the article from the root "Sex in the city capital"
To me it seems that Obama may be one of the few presidents that has fought for women's rights. Here it speaks of how he wants to legalize abortion. In reality it's for sexual and reproductive health like giving women birth control pills without it being a problem. I think it's good if Obama manages to legaliz it but as it says in the article it's something very hard to speak about in the government and well I'm pretty sure many will oppose so it's going to be very troubling.

Questions: What do you believe is the reason as to why women don't really participate or join in political actions?
Why do you believe that beauty standards are very important on women?AS in the political area or other places like for jobs or as a wife.

Jessica Valenti's Full Frontal Feminism discusses the beauty standards that women have to go through. Some aren't accepted due to the way the look. Like presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been criticized just on the way she looks because she's a woman. Men have beauty standards for women, even vaginal standards that men don not have for them selfs (penis standards). In reality a women should be allowed to be her self and that is what feminism is here for, let ladies be them selfs, Valenti explains this in a funny but factional and serious way.

Questions: Do you think it's right for the catholic hospitals to deny emergency contraceptive pills to rape victims?
Do you believe that it's right to blame the victim of a rape as the guilty ones?

Jessica Valenti's 2007 Full Frontal Feminism discusses that many women get blamed for standing up for her rights. An example is when the lady that was raped in Italy, she decided to take this to court but the rapist was released because he said she asked for it. Women are basically seen as the ones to blame for. If they are raped it's their fault and if they want emergency contraceptives they can't have them. Ms. Valenti uses common sense to show that it's a stupid reason that they are trying to prevent rape victims from getting any help. some may have to be brutally beaten in order to get help while other's nothing will be done for because it's legal as it is in Tennessee.

Full Frontal Feminism has declared that many people attack feminism due to sexism. Some say it's dead but yet it still gets attacked. Men are the main attackers, scaring women into not joining feminism. Many see feminism as the cause of most problems but feminism only helps people to be themselves. Since men try to control women's body by not giving them good sex education, even some women attack feminist also.


Questions: 1.How's feminism racist?
2. Why are women or girls seen as sluts/bad things for liking and having a lot of sex, but when men do the same, they're seen as a good thing.Why?