primalmommy@IVILLAGE.COM on mon 30 jul 01
William Moody wrote:
>The reason is that I know exactly how, >when, where and why the dinner ware
>will be used.
I have seen some pretty old pots in museums. I think the best you can say is that you know how the dinner ware will be used FIRST. Past that, unless the use involves dynamite, the dishes might go on to other adventures in the next thousand years or so.
> Also, the chances of using a piece of >dinner ware once and
>dropping dead because of it are less >than that of getting struck by
>lightening while you dance a jig in a >fairy ring by the light of a blue
>moon! I mean look at how long people >had their Fiesta Ware in a radioactive
>color and not of them dropped dead on >the first, second or even third use.
By this same logic, since my father had a college job spraying migrant camps with DDT and then had such a lovely and talented daughter, DDT should be sprinkled on the breakfast cereal of men of childbearing age. ;0)
My mother was born carrying the egg that would be me, so whatever she was exposed to in her lifetime put me at risk. And my children, whose eggs were present in my fetal ovaries.
Life would be much simpler if toxins killed us outright. (Primitive people figured out the rattlesnake thing pretty quickly, for example.) Unfortunately, there are two complications: one is that the asbestos in the baby powder we were all dusted with as babies doesn't cause cancer for 30 years or so. And if we do get cancer, it's impossible to trace it to one cause; is it the PCBs in the milk, the dioxins, the now-banned pesticides in our infant applesauce, the beryllium plant upstream? Not to mention the toxins stored in fatty tissue like breasts. Even breastmilk is not strictly "organic".
What if your dinner plate wouldn't make anyone drop dead, but some grandchild has an untraceable birth defect? What if lead in gasoline just costs us a few point of IQ, but we don't drop over instantly?
The problem with pottery is that once it leaves your hands, it takes its own road; it could be in a garage sale 20 years from now, without you hovering with disclaimers. If you want to eat out of fiestaware, hey, go for it. But I don't think we can make those decisions for anybody else, especially if they don't have all the information.
Yours, Kelly in Ohio (who carries a lightning rod to dance in fairy rings.)
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William Moody on tue 31 jul 01
Your arguments are very persuasive except for the FACT that I know what will
happen to my wares. I know who will be using them what will be served on
them, how often they will be used and when they will be destroyed. I tried
to convey this in the original post but a certain person chose not to take
this into consideration when he decided that he knew best. I was seriously
hoping to not start this thread of discussion since all I really wanted was
a cone 6 crackle glaze and not a lecture on what I should or shouldn't do
with my own wares. It would have been much easier to say " I don't use any
crackle glazes due to the possible health risks but good luck in your
quest." But, instead I have received mostly, "I know more than you and you
are stupid for trying this" type of messages.
I tire of the "Henny Penny" attitude shared by some of the people in the
world. (just my opinion)
primalmommy@IVILLAGE.COM on wed 1 aug 01
I don't jaywalk. When standing with a group of people at a pedestrian crosswalk, I wait until the light has changed before I cross.
It isn't because I don't have the intelligence or courage to negotiate traffic on my own. Nor do I have a fear of cars, or jaywalking tickets.
I don't jaywalk because, if I assess the traffic and my speed and decide to cross against the light, I inspire the folks standing on the curb around me to unthinkingly step off the curb and follow. What if they don't have the information? What if they didn't look at the light, just followed me?
This is a list that gets archived, and is available to potters of every level. I would hope that for every "great cone 6 crackle recipe for dinnerware" post, there's a henny penny post close behind. As sick as everyone is of disclaimers and lawsuit-inspired paranoia, I think the big, fired-on "not safe for food" labels are a great idea. And that magazine spreads creating a market for toxic tableware are not.
There is a badly translated misquote I remember from french lit: "We will preach against insensate laws until they are reformed, but in the meantime we will obey them; to break a bad law gives others permission to break a good one." Was that Voltaire? I don't remember, I was mostly sitting in a tree with the textbook, skipping class...
Mr. Moody, I intended no disrespect and am sure you need no lecture. I think consenting adults should be able to do whatever they please, as long as it doesn't poison their offspring or total strangers, encourage dangerous behavior by those who don't have the information, or startle the horses.
Yours, Kelly in Ohio
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