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                        Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
                     Club Notice - 06/14/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 50


       MEETINGS UPCOMING:

       Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
            LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158.  MT meetings are in the cafeteria.

         _D_A_T_E                    _T_O_P_I_C

       06/26   LZ: ALTERNATE WORLDS by Robert Adams ("What If Things Were Different?")

         _D_A_T_E                    _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.

       06/15   NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
                       (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
       07/13   SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
                       (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)

       HO Chair:      John Jetzt     HO 1E-525   834-1563  hocpa!jetzt
       LZ Chair:      Rob Mitchell   LZ 1B-306   576-6106  mtuxo!jrrt
       MT Chair:      Mark Leeper    MT 3D-441   957-5619  mtgzy!leeper
       HO Librarian:  Tim Schroeder  HO 3B-301   949-4488  hotsc!tps
       LZ Librarian:  Lance Larsen   LZ 3L-312   576-3346  mtunq!lfl
       MT Librarian:  Mark Leeper    MT 3D-441   957-5619  mtgzy!leeper
       Factotum:      Evelyn Leeper  MT 1F-329   957-2070  mtgzy!ecl
       All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

       1. Food technology is changing.  I don't know how many of you  were
       aware  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as food science.  There are
       probably even mad food scientists in isolated  laboratories  making
       fiendish recipes.  Actually, I suppose a fiendish food scientist is
       the kind of person who  invents  additives  like  BHT  and  calcium
       pantothenate  to  food so that it becomes stable and does not break
       down in the package or your stomach.  I  guess  you  have  to  give
       artificial  ingredients  their due.  Food poisoning is not a pretty
       sight and I suspect more people got sick and probably a lot  sicker
       from  the  lack of some preservatives than ever got sick from their
       presence, but it makes you wonder sometimes when you  see  some  of
       the  new foods.  In college, the dining commons served ice cream or
       some facsimile thereof that was an okay  consistency  when  it  was
       cold  but  got  rather  disgusting  when it warmed up.  I guess the
       consistency of this stuff was the problem: when it  warmed  up,  it
       just  became  unpalatable.   "Who  eats  ice  cream warm?" you ask.











       THE MT VOID                                           Page 2



       Well, nobody.  What happened to the  consistency  when  it  warmed?
       Well,  not  much.   That was the problem.  Imagine a warm substance
       the consistency of ice cream.  Yug!

       We get this  orange  juice  in  cartons  that  tastes  like  fresh-
       squeezed.   How  do  they  manage  that?  They add orange pulp.  It
       gives it consistency.  It makes it  chewey--sort  of.   Not  chewey
       like  gum,  but  it  gives your teeth a little something to do.  Of
       course, the juice  and  the  pulp  in  all  probability  come  from
       different  oranges.   But  it gives the effect of being natural and
       that's what's important.  And  who  can  forget  processed  cheese?
       Cheese  stays  fresh  for  only  a  short  time;  then it starts to
       degrade.  But in America we have invented  processed  cheese.   The
       Department  of  Agriculture  describes  this  as  cheese  "made  by
       grinding fine, and mixing together by heating and  stirring  ... an
       emulsifying agent is then added to the mixture and the whole worked
       into  a  homogeneous  plastic  mass--lactic,  citric,  ascetic,  or
       phosphoric  acid  or vinegar, a small amount of cream, water, salt,
       color and spices or flavoring materials may be added  ....   Steam-
       jacketed  kettles,  equipped  with mechanical agitators to stir the
       cheese are available in various sizes but frequently hold from  200
       to  400  pounds  of  cheese."   That's  not  cheese,  that's edible
       plastic.  That's food science for you!  I  will  continue  in  this
       vein next week.  In the meantime, can you think of a "food science"
       fiction film made prior to 1950?   How  about  two  that  at  least
       involve food science made after 1950?


                                          Mark Leeper
                                          MT 3D-441 957-5619
                                           ...mtgzy!leeper



            Everything should be made as simple as possible,
            but no simpler.
                                          -- Albert Einstein