Welcome to Family Feud, everybody. I’m your man Steve Harvey.

We have a special edition today. Two great families, the Trumps and the Bidens. Since neither side trusts the other to conduct a fair election, they’ve decided to come to the Feud. The winner is the President of the United States. There’s a lot on the line so let’s get started. Let’s play Feud. Give me Donald. Give me Joe!

Steve: Each question has only one answer. Here we go…Who will really run the country if Joe Biden is elected President?
Donald: Kamala Harris?
BUZZ!!
Joe: Joe Biden?
BUZZ!!
Melania: Antifa?
BUZZ!!
Jill: Joe Biden!!

Steve: Okay….I see no one is going to get this. Let’s move on to question two. Give me Mike Pence! Give me Kamala! What state is most important if you want to win the election?
Mike: Because of the leadership of this President…
BUZZ!!
Kamala: California?
BUZZ!!!
Don Jr.: My dad…
BUZZ!!
Steve: Hey Trumps….a state…Man, just name one of the fifty states!
Hunter: Ukraine?

Steve: I see this is going to be harder than I thought. We’re going to move on to play sudden death. Give Kellyanne! Give me George Conway! This is the final question. What do you call the sounds that come out of Donald Trump’s mouth?
Kellyanne: Alternative Facts?
Buzz!! Buzz!! Buzz!!!
George: C’mon Kellyanne, we have to go and scam the public into thinking we’re this dysfunctional family so we can make more money.
Hunter: Mr. Trump, can you get me a job with the Trump organization? I’m as qualified as Eric!
BUZZ!! BUZZ!! BUZZ!! BUZZ!! BUZZ!!!!!!!!

Steve: Enough! Enough! Enough! None of you should be anywhere near the White House. All of you get out of here now before I call the Secret Service. Bring on the next group. Two more great families. Here come the McConnell’s. Here come the Pelosi’s. Give me Moscow Mitch! Give me Crazy Nancy!

Related Post: What are you binge-watching during the quarantine?

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Our church held communion over Zoom. Pastor Joe was on-screen reading the Lord’s Supper. I had the fridge open, looking for some grape juice.

I couldn’t go too Catholic with actual wine. And orange juice feels disappointing without pancakes. So I continued scanning the shelves. My eyes finally locked on a mason jar full of raw farm-fresh milk. I glanced at a container of Oreos nearby. “I’m about to do this, aren’t I?”

I made sure my video was turned off. Waited for the cue. This is my body, this is my blood. The fill-in bread was an Oreo, the wine a glass of milk. I dunked the Oreo and committed either the most innovative or most profane version of Covid-19 communion.

The Sacred and the Profane

A glass of milk has always straddled the line between sacred and profane. Especially here in America, we can’t seem to agree if milk is either the best thing or the worst thing for us.

Those in favor of milk point to its life-giving qualities. A baby is breastfed long before their first glass of ice water. Healthwise, milk is rich in calcium and vitamins. Makes us stronger by building our bones and our Midwestern character.

Milk is even motivational. How did Moses inspire the Israelites? I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into a land flowing with MILK and honey.’ Or remember how our English teacher passionately explained the ending scene of Grapes of Wrath? Rose of Sharon breastfed a stranger, saved him from starvation, and three classmates woke up by the chalkboard. “Wait, what happened at the end?”

Those opposed to milk go right to their bread and (non-dairy) butter argument: “It’s not natural. We are the only mammals who drink another mammal’s milk. Plus, lactose is terrible on the body. And don’t even get me started on raw, non-pasteurized milk.”

These anti-milkers flooded the market with milk alternatives. Started with lactose-free then expanded to things like oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk. How they found the udder on a cashew is beyond me. Nowadays, there are more types of milk in the grocery store than flavors of Oreos. And all of this has led, in part, to the recent bankruptcies of former dairy giants like Dean Foods and Borden Dairy.

What was surprising to me – as I began milking this research for all its worth – was just how long milk has been part of human society. The story of milk begins 10,000 years ago in what was then called The Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East. This land was south of the Black & Caspian seas containing parts of modern-day Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This was the main setting for most of the Bible’s Old Testament.

The First Dairy Cow

The “OG” dairy cow was called the Auroch, a name that sounds right at home in a Lord of the Rings movie. Aurochs were the size of bison with two massive horns. They roamed the earth for two million years before we started the domestication process. The resulting breeds of domestic cattle from the Aurochs were the humped Zebu (Bos indicus) and the humpless European Highland cattle (Bos taurus). And I will end the cow genealogy right here because I can actually feel the yawns as I’m typing this sentence.

The first dairy cow may have been 8,000 – 10,000 years ago, but it wasn’t until 3,000 BC when dairy began playing a major role in human society. This gap in time is similar to when Al Gore first invented the internet in the mid-1970s vs. the high-speed internet today capable of Zoom communion.

Archaeological evidence shows that the Ancient Sumerians drank cow’s milk and also made cheeses and butters. Ancient Mesopotamia was essentially the first Wisconsin. Scientists point to a genetic mutation around this time called lactase persistence that allowed us to consume milk without getting sick.

But let’s go ahead and hit the fast forward button from 3,000 BC to the year 1,100. There weren’t many major milk moments until the arrival of the Guernsey cow, which can properly be described as the Michael Jordan of dairy.

Guernsey Milk

Mont-Saint-Michel is a tidal island off the Northwestern Coast of France. The land itself looks like a miniature version of Old Mission Peninsula up in Northern Michigan. It’s a tourist destination for the incredible views and this massive old cathedral pictured above, one that Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko walk around in Terrence Malick’s film, To the Wonder. 

Legend has it, around the year 1,000, a group of monks living on this island gathered up “the best bloodlines of French cattle, Normandy Brindles (also known as Alderneys) and the Froment du Leon breed from Brittany” and headed to sea, eventually settling on Guernsey Island in the English Channel. Over time, the Guernsey cow emerged from these French breeds.  

What’s so different or special about this cow? First, the coloring. These aren’t the traditional black and white cow you think of when picturing a dairy cow or a Chick-Fil-A commercial. They look more like the Texas Longhorns mascot. The color of the milk is different too, it’s more of a yellow. Health-wise, Guernsey milk contains 12% more protein, 30% more cream, 33% more vitamin D, 25% more vitamin A and 15% more calcium than average milk.

Also, 96% of Guernsey cows carry the protein Beta Casein A2 in their milk. There is some anecdotal evidence that this protein MAY be better for the health of some people than the Protein Beta Casein A1 that is found in most other glasses of milk. 

Coming to America

So we’ve got the Guernsey cows off on a remote island. The cows are training, fine-tuning their milk, being led by a group of monks. They’re kind of like Luke Skywalker training with Yoda. The Guernsey milk, arguably the best on the planet, won’t be shared with the rest of the world until the 1700s.

Let’s head back, then, to the main milk timeline. Picking things up in 1525. From here, we’ll kind of go rapid-fire through history taking us all the way to present day 2020.

1500s – Bring the Cows with You

Courtesy of the Britannica milk timeline:

“The first cattle to arrive in the New World landed in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1525. Soon afterword, some made their way across the Rio Grande to proliferate in the wild. They became known as ‘Texas Cattle.’

Some of the [Spanish] settlers transported cattle to South America from the Canary Islands and Europe. More followed, and cattle multiplied rapidly throughout New Spain, numbering in the thousands within a few years.” 

1600s – Death of the Auroch

In the early 1600s, the Aurochs, aka the OG Dairy Cow, officially went extinct. People all around the world poured out a glass of milk to the granddaddy of them all and the world’s cows observed a short mooment of silence.

I’m deeply ashamed of that pun, but not quite enough to delete it.

1700s – Milk as Medicine?

You ever hear someone say, “If you’re sick, just put an onion in your bedroom, it’ll help.” Or if you have a sore throat, gargle with saltwater. These types of wive’s tales/folk tale medicinal practices have always been around and whether it’s correlation vs. causation, placebo vs. science, I find myself still believing a lot of them. 

One of these observations back in 18th century Europe was that milkmaids (women who milked cows) seemed to be immune from the smallpox plagues sweeping through Europe. In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner developed a vaccine for smallpox based upon this folklore knowledge.

“Recognizing that dairymaids infected with cowpox were immune to small-pox, Jenner deliberately infected James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy, with cowpox in 1796. He then exposed Phipps to smallpox-which Phipps failed to contract. After repeating the experiment on other children, including his own son, Jenner concluded that vaccination provided immunity to smallpox.” 

In the United States, the first smallpox vaccination took place in 1799 from Valentine Seaman, who used a “serum acquired by Edward Jenner.” This was, perhaps, the biggest healthcare win for the pro-milk camp in all of history. 

1800s – Louis Pasteur: Some Say Hero, Others Say Villain

In the 19th century, the alcohol distillery business in the United States was starting to grow and several of the big ones are still around today (Anheuser Busch: 1852. Jack Daniels: 1866. Coors: 1873). During this time of rapid growth, large amounts of swill (spent-grains) were produced as a byproduct of whiskey and other alcohol production. Many distilleries opened dairies and began feeding their dairy cows with the waste swill. There wasn’t much nutrition in the swill which led to sickness in the cows and, in turn, to the people who drank this low-quality milk.

“Confined to filthy, manure-filled pens, the unfortunate cows gave a pale, bluish milk so poor in quality, it couldn’t even be used for making butter or cheese.” (Milk Pro Con – History of Milk)

This was the historical backdrop for the original health foods celebrity, Louis Pasteur, to begin his most famous work.

In the early 1860s, Louis Pasteur was already riding high from his discovery of how yeast works. Before then, no one knew exactly how:

• Yeast feeds on the starches in flour, producing carbon dioxide
• Ccarbon dioxide expands the gluten proteins in the flour
• Gluten proteins cause the dough (of which flour is a main ingredient) to expand and rise

This discovery led to modern yeast vs. the old school breads (like sourdough) that rely on a starter. In this way, modern yeast is kind of like the HGH/steroids of baking. The result was the rise of white bread creation and sales in the late 1800s and it’s why, for the pro-sourdough camp, Pasteur is a bit of a villain.

After taking on bread, Pasteur turned his attention to wine, beer, and milk. He wanted to study the fermentation process and its impact on our health. This led to Pasteur’s patented germ theory, the concept that “micro-organisms were responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk. With this established, he invented a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to a temperature between 60 and 100 °C. This killed most bacteria and moulds already present within them.”

Pasteur patented the process and put his name right on it, calling it “Pasteurization.” The first use of pasteurization was for wine and then it was applied to beer and milk. By 1895, pasteurized milk was the standard, mainly to fight milk-borne illnesses. In 1899, there was the invention of the milk homogenizer. This process further altered the natural milk, preventing the cream from separating and rising to the top.

Illnesses did go down, but one detail that gets lost in the story was the terrible nutrition these cows were receiving. If a cow is eating nothing but swill and confined to a manure-filled pen, did it ever really have a chance to produce high-quality milk? And would pasteurization be needed if the cow had a better environment?

1900s – The Milk Battle Intensifies 

We’ll buzz through these headlines real quick, but the main narrative of the 20th century for milk was 1) Pasteurization was king, there should be no other alternative, and 2) Everybody loved milk. From glasses of milk with Oreos to bowls of cereal to school lunch cartons, milk was riding high and beloved by all.

• 1913 – Typhoid epidemic in New York City. Attributed to contaminated milk
• 1917 – Pasteurization required unless cows are proven to be without tubercluosis
• 1946 – 1/2 to 2 pints of whole milk required with the newly passed National School Lunch Act
• 1993-95 – Got Milk campaign launched. Milk mustache on famous athletes and celebrities. Might have been peak milk popularity
• 1998 – The raw milk campaign began. Fighting back against the pasteurized attacks
• 2007 – Sale of raw cow’s milk was illegal in 17 states

2000s – Back to the Basics 

Milk’s momentum carried over into the 21st century. In 2001, Dean Foods had 25,000 employees.

In 2005, the USDA suggested three cups a day of fat-free or low-fat milk products

But by 2015, dairy milk sales start to decline. We started to see the rise of milk alternatives.

And here in 2020, Borden and Dean Foods both filed for bankruptcy, signaling what might be the end of the mega-milk era. From the CNN article:

“The company said it also has been hurt by broader industry trends, including a 6% drop in overall US milk consumption since 2015. Borden noted that more than 2,700 family dairy farms went out of business last year, and 94,000 have stopped producing milk since 1992.”

So if the big guys can’t make it work, and the little family farms are struggling, what does the future of milk look like? Are we at the end of a several thousand-year story? Will we ever see the popularity of the 1990s?

In Part 2, I’d like to take you to a place in Dundee, Illinois called All Grass Farms. Our story will pick up on a Saturday morning with a line of people at least 10-15 strong. Looks like a line awaiting church communion. Almost everyone has an empty mason jar and a cooler. They’re about to fill up on the best Guernsey milk this side of Normandy.

Over the last several months, I’ve been using the Medium Rare blog in a different format, featuring local restaurants and businesses around Chicago. These can also drift into a little bit of philosophy and stories from my own life + a historical deep dive like what you got today. To catch up on some of the posts and read about great local spots, here they are below:

Inkling in Lakeview East and why we need the little shops

Chilam Balam: What it takes to keep a restaurant open during the pandemic

Taste of New York Bagels & Deli

• The Wonder of Saying Yes and Letting Go (Part 1)
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

Tango Sur

• Chicago, Argentina (Part 1)
• Chicago, Argentina (Kierkegaard intermission)
• Chicago, Argentina (Part 2: The Family Behind Tango Sur)
• Chicago, Argentina (Kierkegaard Finale)

Black & Caspian

• Black & Caspian – Part 1
• Black & Caspian – Part 2

To subscribe to Medium Rare via email, just enter your email address in the box below. See you next Tuesday!

Sia is a gorgeous, sweet, gentle and shy six-month-old, blue-eyed Siamese kitten looking for a loving guardian.

Sia rubs against you, licks your hand, but gets nervous at times and hides. She lets you hold her in your arms and she gets along just find with other cats.

She is very well-behaved in the home, uses her litter box and is an indoor-only cat.

Sia was being fed in a family’s backyard in a feral colony. She was trapped, but while shy, she is not feral.

She is spayed, has all her claws. She is vaccinated for rabies and distemper, microchipped and dewormed.

To meet and possibly adopt Sia, please contact [email protected] for an adoption application.

Her adoption fee of $175 benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. She is being fostered in Chicago.

Two things have kept me busy in the past few months: new employment and Star Trek. Reengaging with past Star Trek series (mostly Deep Space Nine and Enterprise) has reminded me how much the franchise has affected my life as well as inspired several Star Trek-themed blog posts). So I came across The Klingon Art of War (not an affiliate link), I was curious about whether it would be a similar-themed leadership guide for nonprofits and social enterprise as Wess Roberts’ Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Although it is less didactic than Make It So, Star Trek – The Klingon Art of War functions as a smart, savvy reworking of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Organized into ten “principles” with related stories, Klingon Art of War serves less as a practical leadership guide and more of a metaphorical exploration into leadership strategy. (In fairness, author Keith R.A. Candido’s intention was focused on highlighting Klingon history and lore, not focusing on business leadership). However, recontextualizing Sun Tzu’s theories through a Klingon perspective provides an easier way to understand. (Especially given the high prevalence of “honor” in Klingon society which could easily be translated into “integrity” in our present times).

Even for those working remotely (like me) and dealing with COVID-19 related issues, The Klingon Art of War provides some strong ideas about personal conduct. Despite harsh-sounding phrases like “Choose Your Enemies Well” and “Always Die Standing Up”, Star Trek – The Klingon Art of War promotes a positive, straightforward approach to handling matters. Even the book’s main narrative conceit – a Klingon scholar describing his reaction to these stories – provides insight into how text can be interpreted and misinterpreted. As much as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War focused on strategy and winning every battle, Star Trek – The Klingon Art of War focuses on personal integrity and perceptions of situations. Although it isn’t a substitute for other resources, Star Trek – The Klingon Art of War provides a metaphorical exploration of living with integrity.

For Star Trek fans, The Klingon Art of War also provides some great background on Klingon culture and society within the series. Several appendices explain Klingon weapons, a practical application of Klingon principles, and understanding a historical context. Although it may seem frivolous to give meaning to tie-in literature, Star Trek – The Klingon Art of War cannot help but feel appropriate during this time. With several Star Trek series attempting to deconstruct Trek lore, The Klingon Art of War (published in 2014) reconstructs Klingon lore into a great mix of insightful tie-in literature and practical guide.

I highly recommend Star Trek – The Klingon Art of War for nonprofit and social enterprise leaders, Star Trek fans, and people looking for an entertaining diversion.

For now, though, I am now considering taking Klingon language lessons thanks to this book.

Have comments? Please leave them below or join the conversation on our Facebook page. If you wish to email me, use this contact form.

And thanks for reading!

Who is winning the war in you? Is it your overweight or heavyweight self? Are you having bad news for breakfast with a glass of doubt? Are you snacking on fear and negativity throughout the day and digesting stress, anxiety and worry for dinner? Watch what you eat!

You can control your diet. You can have the body you desire if only you choose what you chew on. To lose the weight that this world and life brings, try nibbling on positivity, hope, trust, and faith which will lead to peace. We have absolutely no control over things happening around us and sometimes to us, but we can control whether or not to ingest it. Watch what you eat! Trouble and problems will surely come, but we can strategically allow issues to build our muscles so that we become heavyweight champions. If you’re going to carry weight, you may as well work it out to your advantage and not allow it to bog you down. If you’re overweight, find your personal trainer of life to help prepare healthy meal plans suitable for your body type and to encourage you to turn down plates of hopelessness until you reach your goal weight and become a heavyweight to be reckoned with.

Hey everyone, Welcome back! We are so excited to have you back with us for more fashion fun. If you haven’t already, please remember to subscribe with us so that you are notified each time we drop a new blog.  Also, we’d love feedback! Feel free to leave us a comment to tell us what you think of our featured looks and or tell us what you’d like to see next. All  the styling in this blog was done by http://Www.fancylikemommy.com Photos were taken by Thomas of TK photography Chicago! To book your next photography session visit https://www.tkphotographychicago.com/

Adidas Track suit 

Adidas remains a classic street wear brand, and we can never get enough. Here, the Heath Dolls are rocking the classic red two piece track suit with the signature stripes down the pant and jacket. We added a khaki colored vest for a high fashion flair reminiscent of the way actress/singer Zendaya wore in the photo below. Let us know what you think of this look!

Shirt Dress
Orange seems to be a top color pick of the Summer and we can see why!  The Heath dolls are not afraid to take risks with fashion and here they did just that. To accomplish this look, we turned a boys  dress shirt into a to die for shirt dress channeling  the beautiful singing artist  Ciara! For the belt, we cut mommy’s black infinity belt in half and each took a side. We completed the look with black calf boots. Tell us in the comments if you think we nailed it!

Tie Dye
Tie Dye for the win! Everywhere you turn your head these days you see this old school yet fun pattern. From A list celebs like Kylie Jenner to babies at daycare it’s being rocked. Here The Heath Dolls recreated a fun red and neutral two piece Tie Dye set rocked by Kylie Jenner. To pull off this look, we had to think outside the box. We turned what was once a two piece pant set into a skirt set in less than 5 minutes! To create the banded top we wrapped the pants around our top half and pinned into place. The original long sleeve shirt was worn as the skirt. To hide the arms we tied them around the back to make a cute bow. We loved how this cane out. Let us know what you think!

Oversized Coveralls

Let’s face it, when it comes to street wear coveralls are at the top of the list especially oversized ones. The Heath Dolls recreated the talented artist Tiana Taylor’s Look worn at her recent album release party. In fact, not only did she rock the look all her guest did as well. Let us know what you think of this recreation in the comments.

I am a firm believer in God. I believe he works in unpredictable ways and as much as talking about religion can result in controversy, I feel as though writing about my faith in God is a very healthy way to stay connected to God and may even connect some other believers to my writing. 

As of a few days ago, I am officially a college student. I just moved into my single dorm at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and these past few days have been nothing like I thought they would be. For starters, it’s been a lot harder to make friends than I originally thought. Not saying this is the case for every new college student. In fact, as I’ve been walking around campus, it appears as though most people have already found their posse. I didn’t necessarily think that moving to campus was going to result in a flock of people swarming around me desperate to be my friend, however, in a sense, I did think that. Mostly because these past few months leading up to moving away all anybody could seem to say about it is that college is the best place to meet people. Hell, studies show that most marriages and lifelong friendships derive from meeting on campus and college roommates! 

But for me, I’m not what you consider a social butterfly. I say hi to the wrong people in the elevator and I put oreos on my roommates beds crossing my fingers they’ll invite me to a party. As far as trying to meet people, I wouldn’t say I’ve gone above and beyond and really put myself out there but I also can’t say I haven’t tried. The truth is, these past few days haven’t really been all about meeting people, partying (which I have no desire due to the pandemic), or anything sociable for that matter. I’ve found that these past few days have taught me an independence I never thought I had. 

For you downtown Chicagoans, this’ll sound like a piece of cake. But for a suburbs girl who’s never gone without a car, a meal, or 24/7 parental surveillance, being on my own and walking hours to get to places has really helped me realize how appreciative I’m becoming and how much more rounded I still need to become. 

I must admit, these past four days, I didn’t really like my roommates. The two of them have been stuck like glue ever since they met a few days ago and I just feel like the weird girl they secretly hate that lives in the single room. When they first moved in, I tried breaking the ice with them, but there was a sense of extreme awkwardness to our conversation. So I left it at that. I felt as though even after the oreos, buying them batteries, and helping them move furniture, they just didn’t want to be my friend. So I have been shutting them out. Until this morning after an awkward bathroom encounter (because the three of us share a bathroom) I felt encouraged to ask if they ever wanted to hangout. And to my surprise, they said they’re having just as hard of a time meeting people as I am. With that being said, we’re going to have a movie night. This is where I believe God comes in. I prayed that I’d meet someone today. And sometimes the answer is right in front of you. 

Today won’t feel so hopeless as I walk a half hour to walgreens.