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Title: Support Your Local Pizza Guy
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URL Source: http://lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory231.html
Published: Aug 1, 2011
Author: Anthony Gregory
Post Date: 2011-08-01 06:21:15 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 125
Comments: 11
It's 9:45 PM and you forgot to eat. You'll be working on a project, there's nothing to cook quickly, and no time to go out and deal with the late-night dining selection. Who do you call? An old friend comes over and both of you just want to sit around, catch up, and maybe have a few drinks. You're both peckish but don't want to bother with the time or effort needed for a full culinary production. Where do you turn? There's a meeting of several people, all with different tastes, and the last thing you need is to introduce the complication of food politics. Does a simple answer present itself, one that will likely be accepted for its traditional legacy as a mediating ritual as well as its convenient deliciousness? The pizza delivery guy is an icon for everything that is beautiful about the market. I knew there were many unmentioned heroes in my article, "Some of my Favorite Public Servants," which was never meant to be comprehensive. I was reminded that truck drivers, given their dangerous work and tireless devotion to connect consumers and producers all throughout the country, are champions of civilization who are often forgotten at best. One reader pointed out the importance of electricians, carpenters, and other such laborers in the construction of the buildings that keep us safe, clean, warm, and dry. No doubt these people need more respect. I was particularly struck by a request to write a tribute to the pizza delivery man. "Be it rain, sleet, snow or gloom of night, the pizza delivery guy will get you that pizza in 30 minutes or thereabouts. This unsung hero is far more likely to be killed on his appointed rounds then any shamelessly overweight fireman or cop," wrote Damian Smith, who suggested this piece. We are supposed to find postmen so admirable for doing their job. But what about the much less paid, less appreciated pizza man – a guy whose job requires a keener sense of timing and who, unlike mail delivery, has not yet been made nearly as anachronistic in the internet age? The proposal to write a celebration of pizza delivery hit home for me, not because I view food deliverers as any more important than truckers and electricians, but because I interact with them fairly often, they are often denigrated despite their courageous work, and a number of my closest friends have served on the front lines in this most venerable role. The pizza parlors themselves deserve much praise for their great flexibility and innovativeness. Almost any combination will be put in as an order, and they'll usually do it. Pepperoni and extra cheese on one side, artichokes and anchovies on the other. These are great social institutions whose entire staffs deserve applause. The vocation of the delivery guy, in particular, is most risky and highly unpredictable. The most pedestrian risk, and the least appreciated, is the entrepreneurial gamble that food deliverers shoulder. As a paragon of capitalism, serving the position of both entrepreneur and worker, the deliverer often invests his own capital – his personal vehicle – in the enterprise, and for each delivery dedicates the better part of an hour of his life and relies for his remuneration on an implicit contract that is almost impossible to enforce should something go wrong. Crank calls and insatiable customers are not uncommon. The deliverer of delicious sustenance is used as a weapon in the juvenile pranks of his moral inferiors. We are supposed to laugh when we see the pizza guy in a movie relegated to the role of a pawn in someone's sick game of ordering a ton of pizzas to be billed to someone with no intention to pay. The wasted time and difficulties incurred by this great public servant are dismissed as mere plot device. But it isn't funny. The risks get much more dramatic, however. Robberies are frighteningly common. Many pizza companies forbid the carrying of weapons. Surely, these deliverers, unlike police and firefighters, face an enormous threat of violent crime for every hour they work. In addition to this peril, delivery men confront the horrors of traffic, often during the worst of hours and with a strict time limit to navigate the maze and find places, often never before personally reached, without the benefit of a knowledgeable customer in the car. "The biggest risks were traffic related. Navigating suburban streets in an old delivery car during rush hour and trying to make timely deliveries can be tricky," says Lewis Ames, my best friend who delivered pizzas in San Jose, California, during summer and winter breaks from 1999 to 2002. He reports the intimidation of driving alone, vulnerable to everyone who knows you’re carrying money: "I was making a delivery downtown, and parked my car next to a group of young gentlemen who had their arms full of car stereos, and who were in the process of acquiring a few more. They all looked at me and started saying ‘Heeeeeeeey, it's the pizza guy!’ It was the end of the night and I had a few hundred bucks in my standard-issue fanny pack." For all the risks they endure, the pizza man is insufficiently appreciated. Although not adjusted for inflation, Lewis reports an average tip of $2.50 from those days in the trenches. And while a nice neighborhood was more likely to yield a jackpot tip, on average "poorer neighborhoods tended to tip better and were more likely to tip consistently. My theory is that poorer neighborhoods more likely have people who work in the service industry, and they understand what it's like have a job where you are paid with the assumption that you will be tipped." Indeed, both the employers and the tax men go by this assumption – in the delivery world, tips are not gravy, they are your bread and butter. For all the hardships in the life of distributing pizza pies, do you ever hear these people complain? No. They have tended to be very difficult to unionize and you'll never see them agitate for more national recognition. They do their job for the modest money they make and do not puff themselves up as unappreciated public servants, although that's what they are. Not all pizza is created equal, and thank goodness for the competitive market. I do not much care for the largest pizza delivery chains, although their innovative work in this field must be hailed. (Thank goodness that, although some ornaments to the pizza box have been patented, the box itself remains a device anyone is free to adopt.) There are a couple places in my area that do very top-notch artisan pizza and bring it to my door. The balance between price and quality is, as usual, up to the customer. There is something special about pizza – the favorite food of most kids of all ages – but of course I mean not to pass over the vehicular emissaries of other culinary traditions. Chinese and Thai delivery have an important place in my heart. Food delivery is not just a convenience; it is a great opportunity for cultural exchange and a reminder of the resplendent diversity in cuisine available in a market economy. Ethnic cuisine deliverers face another additional risk – difficulty in communication. One time I called for a big order of Thai food and something I mumbled must have sounded like a soup order, which was brought to me in addition to everything I wanted. I had to turn it away and the deliverer appeared a bit broken about it going to waste, but of course he accepted it as a cost to doing business. People ought to be thankful there are folks out there who will put up with all this to get you your food. Surely all men and women involved in the delivery of commerce – groceries, packages sent by private carrier, furniture, electronics, or a million other things – are also public servants who deserve more ink devoted to their heroism. But for me, the pizza delivery guy perhaps best symbolizes what is right about America and capitalism. Support your local pizza guy. Without sirens and legal immunity, he can't flout the rules of the road as freely as the local fuzz. But unlike the police, he will never show up and harass or threaten you while you're minding your own business, and when you do need him, chances are he'll actually be there well within the hour.
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." ~ Ben Franklin "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.” ~ Patrick Henry
I'll salute our local Pizza Hut and their delivery guys.
Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson Silicone Based Chemical in Pizza Huts Cheese is Polymethylsiloxane Pizza Hut cheese is not just cheese, its silicone! John Bunting details how Pizza Huts cheese supplier Leprino Foods uses a silicone-based industrial chemical in the patented manufacturing of Pizza Cheese That chemical Polymethylsiloxane has no FDA approval for use as a food ingredient. Polymethylsiloxane is sold by Dow-Corning as Antifoam FG 10 . THIS MATERIAL IS APPROVED BY FDA FOR USE IN FOOD PLANTS ONLY AS AN ANTI-FOAMING AGENT FOR BOILER WATER. In its patented manufacturing process, Leprino Foods liberally sprays Polydimethylsiloxane on cheese granules . Leprinos Pizza Cheese supplied to Pizza Huts contains about 900 parts per million of Polymethylsiloxane: 90 times higher residue concentration than FDA allows when Polymethylsiloxane is used as a boiler water anti- foaming agent. Repeat: Polydimethylsiloxane has no FDA approval as a safe food ingredient. It is a violation of FDA rules to use an unapproved ingredient in human foods. Silicone is amazing stuff. In its various forms, silicone may enhance the female anatomy (ala amply- endowed actress Pamela Anderson). Silicone products can caulk seams around the bathtub to seal out water. Silicone compounds are used for lubricants. However, using silicone products in human foods is a novel, if extra-legal, application. Leprino Foods, the worlds largest Italian cheese manufacturer, is the nearly exclusive supplier of Pizza Cheese to the 6000+ Pizza Hut restaurants in the U.S. Leprino is based in Denver, Colorado. To control costs (and boost profits), Leprino Foods uses patented manufacturing processes that add large volumes of water, salt and food starch to so-called granules of Pizza Cheese prior to flash- freezing. Food starch is a particularly profitable addition to processed foods, since food starch holds ten times its own weight in water. All that food starch, water and salt in the Leprinos Pizza Cheese creates problems for both cooking and refrigerated shelf-life. To solve these cooking problems, Leprinos patented process for making cheese granules sprays 1.75 parts of a water-based spray containing 0.05% Dow-Corning Antifoam FG 10 for each 100 parts cheese. Yield: 900 parts per million of Antifoam FG 10 (generically known as Polydimethylsiloxane) in the Pizza Cheese that Leprino sells to Pizza Hut. Polydimethylsiloxane is approved by FDA in food industry use only as an anti- foaming agent for boiler water in plants processing non-standardized foods. FDApermits no use of Dow-Corning Antifoam FG 10 directly in or on foods. FDA does allow up to 10 parts per million of Polydimethylsiloxane residues in food products, as residue from the products use as a boiler water anti-foaming agent. The 900 ppm of Polydimethylsiloxane in Leprinos Pizza Cheese that Pizza Hut puts on its pizzas is 90 times FDAs legal limit for indirect residues of that chemical in food products. Follow the trail of evidence … Trace the evidence … from Pizza Hut back to Leprino Foods patents. Start with an empty box of Pizza Cheese liberated from a dumpster behind a Pizza Hut. The contents were Pizza Huts Pizza Cheese Weight (when full): 15 lbs. The box contains a statement noting the product is packaged exclusively for use by Pizza Hut Inc., its franchises and licensees Leprino Foods is obviously the supplier. The USDA plant number (identifying the cheese plant at which the product was made) is Plant No. 26-930 Thats Leprinos plant at Allendale, Michigan. The box also notes U.S. Patent No. 4894245 and other patents pending Leprino Foods received U.S. patent #4894245 for coated cheese granules in 1990 (among many other cheesy patents that Leprino holds). That patents abstract states: Coated frozen cheese granules are prepared by freezing the granules and applying an aqueous coating containing one or more modifying additives. On baking the cheese the additives in the frozen coatings distribute throughout the cheese to obtain modifications of flavor and other properties The abstract from Leprino patent #4894245 clearly states that the aqueous coating (Polymethylsiloxane) is contained in the cheese of the finished, cooked pizza silicone-based substance in the cheese atop Pizza Hut pizzas. Leprino patent #494245 reveals detailed information about the role of the cheese emulsifiers: When the coated frozen cheese is applied to pizzas and baked thereon, the coatings will liquify first. This permits the flavor additive and/or emulsi- fier to spread over and into the cheese particles as their outer surfaces become thawed . . . Cheese emulsifiers applied in this way can function to soften the outer portions of the cheese granules. This will improve melting and fusing of the granules Leprino patent #494245 targets the emulsifier: A silicone emulsifier (Dow Corning FG-10) is mixed with water to form a 0.05% emulsifier solution. This solution is sprayed on the frozen cheese granules at a rate of 1.75 parts of solution per 100 parts by weight of cheese. This should achieve a final content of around 0.09% emulsifier on the cheese No compliance with mandatory GRAS rules The federal Food and Drug Administration re- quires ingredients used in human foods to comply with the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) rules, which specify that each food ingredient developed after 1958 must meet exacting safety tests. Polydimethylsiloxane does not appear on FDAs Web site as a GRAS-approved food ingredient. A call to Dow-Corning headquarters in Midland, Michigan yielded the statement that no Dow products complied with GRAS. However, information faxed by a Dow- Corning representative stated: Dow-Corning Antifoam FG 10 complies with FDA regulation 21 CFR.173.310, which covers secondary direct food additives used as defoaming agents and allows concentration of up to 10 parts per mil- lion active silicone (Polydimethylsiloxane) in non standardized foods Section 173.310 is limited to boiler water additives in food processing plants and has nothing to do with cheese or cheese-type products that a consumer might ingest. Clearly, Leprino Foods use of Dow-Corning Antifoam FG 10 as an agent contained in an aqueous solution sprayed directly on cheese granules does not conform with FDAs rules governing ingredients used in human foods. More on the link www.themilkweed.com/... Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
Thanks!
Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson You're welcome. I am sure that in a large city like Austin there must be lots of good pizza places that don't use plastic cheese.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
Or, like the kid who jerked off all over a pizza ordered by the PA State Police. It took longer than normal for the pizza to be delivered and the trooper accepted it, but had it analyzed. The pizza deliverer got 3 years in prison for his little caper. I wonder how many pizzas were tainted, but still eaten, or any delivered food. The kids at fast food restaurants boast about spitting in the food when they prepare it. You might get more than silicone in your pizza cheese. Best to eat at home.
Typical jewish nonsense. Sounds like a "plot twist" from any of Adam Sandlers lame flicks.
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." ~ Ben Franklin "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.” ~ Patrick Henry
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." ~ Ben Franklin "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.” ~ Patrick Henry
I delivered pizzas for a year and a half in college. Poorer neighborhoods tip better? Get a grip, Anthony. I got robbed once, in a poor neighborhood.
*Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I invite you to compare the number of Irish, Italian, German, and Scandinavian political philosophers who have written on liberty and limited government with the number of English philosophers who published works on the subject" - Vox Day
a few hundred bucks in yer fanny pack is plain stupid for a delivery guy or taxi driver imo - I made regular $ drops somewhere so that a robbery wouldn't take everything from most trouble I ever had was in rural Lancaster County, PA - some genius named all the roads in one area, Farmersville Road ... 5 or 6 of them, going every direction, was like a local joke and usually resulted in being late for delivery
#2. To: Eric Stratton, Ada, 4 (#1)
#3. To: Lod (#2)
OsamaBinGoldstein
#4. To: James Deffenbach (#3)
GAK!
#5. To: Lod (#4)
OsamaBinGoldstein
#6. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
(Edited)
He forgot to mention the part about the pizza slipping out of the box and onto the ground or the pizza delivery driver's car floor, him stuffing it back in and bringing it all warm and toasty right to your front door for full enjoyment.
#7. To: Ada (#0)
We are supposed to laugh when we see the pizza guy in a movie relegated to the role of a pawn in someone's sick game of ordering a ton of pizzas to be billed to someone with no intention to pay. The wasted time and difficulties incurred by this great public servant are dismissed as mere plot device. But it isn't funny.
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#8. To: ambi (#6)
#9. To: ambi (#6)
#10. To: Ada (#0)
(Edited)
#11. To: Ada (#0)
It was the end of the night and I had a few hundred bucks in my standard-issue fanny pack."
~ the truth will set ya free, but only after it pisses ya off ~
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