#456 Diverse Pulp

It’s actually a lot of fun watching things change and then change back. The other day I was at the supermarket, or perhaps it was the grocery store, or maybe it was a food-and-drug place, and I chanced to see some orange juice. The label on the orange juice that caught my eye said “More Pulp!” And it appeared to be bragging about it. Hmm. Didn’t they used to brag about less pulp? Seems like it was only a few years ago that orange juice companies were competing to be the “less pulp” alternative. Pulp was one of those words that was considered bad, like in pulp fiction, and somehow slightly disgusting. Wood pulp was the dregs, pulp fiction was harsh and classless, orange juice pulp was what was left in your squeezer after you were done, well, squeezing. Not now apparently. Perhaps they’ve discovered orange juice pulp is one of those things that has healthy benefits, like the skin of a potato or the peel of an apple—the outside part with all the vitamins, like the blackened crust on a barbequed steak or the top of a muffin. Anyhow. As I viewed the cartoned-up, refrigerated, fresh squeezed orange juice, I pondered two things. What does fresh squeezed mean since the pull date on most of the cartons was at least a week out, and two, how many different levels of pulp could you get? No pulp, light pulp, more pulp. It was like the fat varieties of milk. By the time I chose, none of them would be fresh. Really, this fresh squeezed thing has gotten out of control. When we were in Mexico every little café had fresh squeezed orange juice. One of them, I swear, was Tang. Mmm Mmm, fresh-squeezed tang. Now with added pulp. New Thought. The other day I typed my piece on a laptop and I must confess it threw me. The muted tapping noise of the laptop, and worse, the feel of the keys and their rigid geometrical and flattened two-dimensional layout was very weird indeed. The keys are bigger too and there aren’t those cool spaces between them that can collect arm hairs and Dorito crumbs. I guess that’s a good idea. Laptops are supposed to be lightweight. You wouldn’t want them building up a bunch of biscotti bits from the Wifi coffee house. I suppose for a touch typist the board is laid out perfectly, but to me the letters seem set too far up. Cause the resting area for your wrist is included at the base of the laptop. I’m used to the edge of the keys being right on the edge of the keyboard. The distance between my desk and the keyboard is a quarter inch from the spacebar. Right below the spacebar on the laptop is a little magic mouse area, with wrist resting on either side. Unfortunately, its slowing my typing down, and as I will never qualify as anything other than a fast hunt and pecker that isn’t a good thing for my typing output. Which is not a good change, cause it makes my self esteem feel like it’s been beat to a, um, pulp. Orange you glad I said that?
America, ya gotta love it