1000 lb biscuit

my local newspaper

[HollyHats]

Today, I sent a letter to my local newspaper showing my disgust and hope that they will print it. Check this out:
Front page story is "The Union Mission Dilemma" "Attempts to relocate the mission have been locked by residents who don't want it's clients in their neighborhood." The Union Mission boards our community homeless people. The article talked of the cafeteria's menu for dinner. It is donated food that consists of a bowl on bean soup, a slice of bread and a small box of jelly beans.

Then, I turned the page and in the next section the story is "The Worlds Largest Ham Bisquit became a reality Saturday" This biscuit weighed 1,000 pounds and had 500 pounds of DONATED Ham (won't say which brand, but it is one of our local businesses)All to be listed in the Guinness World Book of Records.

Isn't this ironic that these articles where posted back to back in todays newspaper? What a shame...

[mack]

What a waste of money that could almost certainly be put to better use. Peopel are creating the world largest biscuit when peopel are strugling to get by with what they can get.

[HollyHats]

So, I look in the paper again today and find a picture of this biscuit and all this media press standing around with their video and photography equip. Then, I see a picture of the homeless men lying on cots.
A picture is worth million words...

[Sinner_G]

Look at it from the view of the ham donator. The basic principle of PR is 'do something and SPEAK ABOUT IT'. Or better, have others talk about it. Now what do you think makes a better headline:

'Ham & sons donate 500 pounds of ham to the homeless'

or

'New world record for the largest ham biscuit realised thanks to Ham & sons'

?

It's sad, but the second wins. Probably because world records are unique. Homeless people are a daily sight, doesn't interest anyone (at least not many people), so it's not covered by the press and noone hears about Ham & sons.

As I said, sad but true.

[volatilegx]

Why not contact the promotors of the giant biscuit and ask them to donate it to the shelter?

[shelleycat]

Why not contact the promotors of the giant biscuit and ask them to donate it to the shelter?

That's exactly whatI was thinking, although it's probably a little late now (how long does biscuit keep?). When a company in NZ made the worlds biggest biscuit (although it would be called a cookie in the US) they sold portions of it and the proceeds went to charity. This gives them a double PR boost, both the unique record and the do-good fuzzy feeling.

[HollyHats]

Update:
I just opened the newspaper and yes! they did print my article along with a giant picture of the biscuit stating "how many people do you think this would feed?"
I have since found out that they are keeping the biscuit on display at a fair ground (outside) for 2 days. You can't really do much with meat after it sits out for 2 days and every kid and their brother go by and touch it. Especially because it's been 85 degrees the past few days here.
I am interested to see if anyone will reply to the article. I will be surprised if nobody does...

[legster]

Hey Holly,

I take it your a resident of Hampton Roads? I got a kick out of that story too. :)

[amoore]

I notice that there has been no mention of their misuse of the term "it's" where the term "its" would have been more correct.

[HollyHats]

Legster-
I am not usually the "write to the newspaper" kind, but I couldn't help but to say something in regards to that article. What in the heck were they thinking. Everyday, in hampton roads, I drive by homeless people who are in true need of food. It's so easy to ignore the fact that people are wasting food when you have plenty.
I realize that they get more PR by making a big biscuit, and you can see from the photo that they had plenty of media. However, you still have to live with yourself..and your actions. Besides the ham, I wonder how much flour, butter and eggs they used?
I noticed in their story they stated that they were "considering" their options of what to do with it after the display. Don't you think they should of thought of that before?

[mivox]

they were "considering" their options of what to do with it after the display

Well, if it's been sitting out in 85º weather for two days, I'd say their options are pretty limited: toss it in the landfill or find a really big compost heap to bury it in.

[korkus2000]

You could always give it to the human society for the animals to have. It would be a shame to put that in a land fill. My dogs and cats would love it.

[mivox]

Maybe the ham, but the biscuit part wouldn't be good for them.

[HollyHats]

Korkus-
Thats not a bad idea. Better to give to an animal than to toss it.

[korkus2000]

Maybe the ham, but the biscuit part wouldn't be good for them.

My dogs and cats eat biscuits and and other bakery goods all the time. My wife is a bit of an animal rescuer. As long as the animal starts out on scraps and gets a lot of good excersize it shouldn't hurt. We just had a cat die at 23. She finally just fell over. She always loved "people food".

We use to live up in the north georgia mountains and people would take christmas present dogs and cats and drop them off to fend for themselves. If you live in that area you have quite a few dogs an cats because of this. I feel that they got such a rough start like the humane society animals that they deserve some good attention and food too.

[mivox]

:) I was raised in an "animals should eat biologically appropriate foods" sort of household. Mom bred and raised dogs, and was very strict about no table scraps... I don't see how meat/veggie scraps could hurt, but I'd draw the line at baked goods for my pets.

And I don't know that I'd want to feed an "aged in the sun" meat biscuit to anything, if it sits out much longer. Yuck. What a waste, indeed... but if they were worried about being wasteful, they wouldn't have left a giant biscuit sitting out for days in the sun in the first place.

[korkus2000]

If you are worried that thge old biscuit was to viel for animal consumption you could give it to the local school for an excellent science experiment. They could study decay and micro biology. When I was in grade school we studied a compost heap for an entire year. Watched it decompose and the whole ecosystem involved. Actually was quite neat. We turned it into eco-furtilizer and gave it away to a local farmer.

[HollyHats]

Korkus-
I can relate to your animal situation. I am from West Virginia (i know, i know...) Anyway, I grew up in a very small country community, right in the middle of a mountain called "Turkey Knob. To get to our house, you had to drive down this small backroad and everyone..and I mean everyone would drop off their unwanted pets. From kittens to grown dogs to even turtles I believe. I had two older sisters and we were all suckers for a lost pet. My mom was never much of an animal lover, but she'd take them in and say to us "Now, you know you are responsible for this one" Yeah, right.
My dad hunted, so we always had hunting animals for racoons and rabbits. He always kept Blueticks for hunting the racoons and we ALWAYS fed them scraps. (Mainly because we didn't have garbage pickup and you had to do something with your scraps anyway) If you left them in a bag outside, usually Smokey the Bear would tear into it at night.
If you start your animals on eating scraps, they will usually complain if you give them anything else.

[mivox]

I've tried feeding meat scraps to my ferrets more than once... raw, cooked, warm, cold, chicken, beef, liver, whatever. They won't eat it. Give 'em some smelly cod liver and god-knows-what vitamin supplement oil, and they go nuts for it. Maybe real meat doesn't smell bad enough.

Maybe if I fed them some 3-day-old, sitting-in-the-sun ham it would be gross enough for their liking!

[korkus2000]

cod liver

Wow that stuff is gross! I can smell it now. It has such a destinct smell and strong like a skunk. whew!

Smokey the Bear

We had that problem too. Bears and dogs do not mix. We had several nights of having to light fireworks to scare bears away.

[shelleycat]

I just opened the newspaper and yes! they did print my article along with a giant picture of the biscuit stating "how many people do you think this would feed?"

Yay! Hopefully the PR people will think a bit more carefully next time about the message they are sending. I'm not really the 'write to the paper' kind either, but there are times when you need to speak what's on your mind.