holee crap. I haven't been to the movies since I took all the kids to see Fahrenheit 911 and that Mel Gibson yawnfest about the dead guy on a stick. I didn't buy popcorn and soda either time (smuggled it in), and can't really remember ever buying it (not that I've gone to movies all that much anyway.)
But dang! 19 smackers for the tix to see Religulous and 21 smackers for a 2 medium sodas (which were thirty freeeeeking two ounces!), a cardboard bathtub full of popcorn and, I couldn't resist, Goobers. Normally, I don't buy that crap, it was always expensive before so I never acquired that habit. But, we splurged with money my mother sent for my birthday and our anniversary.
The sign said it was $5 for a freakin' medium (32 oz) soda. Holeeeeeeee crapliotta!
I have freakin' sticker shock. I spent the whole movie alternatively stuffing my face with popcorn and muttering buh buh buh like Goldie Hawn in Overboard.
I was thinking about it, and I think the reason why Pollan's book doesn't impress me much is that I've never lived the fastfood, Hamburger Helper, frozen entree lifestyle -- though certainly the beneficiary (as it were) of industrial food production which yields up $2/lb chicken breast. So, I can't really sit there and think, "Wow. I've been eating Frankenfood all these years as I'm eating Kellog's Muesli? Wow."
As a side note, I haven't gotten the sense that Pollan fails to realize that only a certain kind of person supported by a particular income could make the choices he makes. Quite the contrary, I read him as keenly aware, and in fact he devotes a portion of the section on corn to discussing something I knew from living on a low income: it's cheaper to buy junk than to buy fresh, whole foods. You get a lot more caloric bang for your bug -- and, key point, it _lasts_ longer. As a neighbor who raised three boys on his own said, food stamps don't go far, but if I shop at the Dent and Bent, it goes a lot farther and I can stock the cupboard with Hamburger Helper, Mac and Cheese, and even get a bigger discount with coupons and rebates. Whereupon he threw open his pantry to display, indeed, a cupboard full of boxes of packaged food, twinkies from the discount bakery, store brand pop tarts, and cereal box after cereal box -- all purchased at the Dent and Bent for a considerable discount.
"I may not have much. They may cut me off. But at least I'll have a lot of food for the kids and it'll last awhile," he said.
Me? I was just such a tightwad, that I'd never spend even 50cts on a box of Hamburger Helper because it was, maybe, 3 oz of pasta when I could get a whole lb. of pasta for .33cts. But I only had that knowledge from reading and from being taught basic survival math skills in high school that showed you how to calcuate price per ounce without relying on pen and paper or a calculator.