Money
Status update: In real life, I had no income until this morning, when a lot of people were conspicuously absent from Friday Market, even though it was a perfect market day and a lot of people had just received their pension money. Nickelsville's Town Festival was blamed. I had a volunteer driver, who usually has to baby-sit for another vendor, and was able to haul out lots of things. I sold $18 worth. Oh, wail...If you made more than $18 this week, you need to be supporting this web site. Here's where you do that:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804
https://www.freelancer.com/u/PriscillaKing
https://www.guru.com/freelancers/priscilla-king
https://www.fiverr.com/priscillaking
https://www.iwriter.com/priscillaking
https://www.seoclerk.com/user/PriscillaKing
You can also mail a U.S. postal money order to Boxholder, P.O. Box 322, Gate City, Virginia, 24251-0322.
Song Lyrics
Next, for someone who wanted links to song lyrics I've written, here's a list of things at this web site some part of which can be sung, although I retired from singing solos professionally many years ago. Twelve songs, or at least verses--the parodies at "Blog Post Bilingue" and "Fleece My Sheep" consist of only one verse each for a tune that originally had three or four verses. If you want to sing them, sheet music is available by real mail.
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-song-of-avarice.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2017/09/friday-song-and-status-update.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2016/02/blog-post-bilingue-todays-fundraising.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2015/12/saturday-post-gospel-song-with.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2015/07/what-now-my-love-reprise.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2015/04/its-complicated-world.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2015/04/bosnywash.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2015/03/fleece-my-sheep.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2015/03/it-aint-necessarily-so-reprise.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/08/bad-poetry-love-song.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/05/so-nuts-to-you.html
https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-dont-children-help-mother-more.html
The Poor, Forlorn, Rejected Little Guest Post, Boohoohoo!
But in theory I was supposed to have sold some guest posts to another site. Well, that didn't work. The client, also a web site, claimed that it was visited regularly by Mainstream Respectable Health News Sites, so I wrote drafts for two guest posts based on what Bing brought up from that type of sites. Product-supportive guest posts, I was thinking, but not advertising or panic-pushing.
The client rejected the drafts. This is unprofessional. When you hire a writer, you don't reject drafts. You either buy them as they are, or request revisions. That's the difference between inspecting a draft, which is meant to be changed, and repurchasing something that's already been published, which is not.
So the client is an unprofessional web site, and the client even emoted unprofessionally, "You should not be writing on health topics." Feh. Based on the one-sided, emotional response I saw, the client should not be posting on health topics.
The health hazard of moldy coffee really exists. As with moldy food generally, it's not a very widespread problem; most food sold isn't moldy, and most people consume or discard food before it becomes moldy. However, it is possible for mold to grow inside a seldom-used coffee maker.
Here's what I wrote:
"
Moldy Coffee?
Mold can grow inside washing machines, so is it a surprise that mold
can grow inside coffee makers?
Coffee beans have some antibacterial properties and resist
contamination by some microorganisms.
Heat destroys other fungi, yeasts, algae, bacteria, and even parasites.
However, the world of tiny organisms (and tiny traces of toxic chemicals) that
can make humans sick is rich and various. Some fungi grow, even above the
ground, in the Arizona desert. Some fungi grow in the Alaskan tundra. Some
fungi (and algae and bacteria) grow in the water reservoirs of coffee makers.
The longer an unwashed, unused coffee maker sits, the better, from the
microorganisms’ point of view. If just a little warm water sits in the slowly
cooling, well-insulated reservoir all weekend, the walls, rubber gaskets, etc.,
have the kind of warm, dark, damp environment fungi love. Mold is less likely
to form when coffee makers are used continuously, but it’s still possible.
You may have heard an Internet rumor that Keurig coffee makers are
“impossible to clean.” Snopes checked this and rated it partly true. Keurigs
are no more likely to harbor mold than older-style coffee makers, but they do
take longer to clean.
How Bad Is Moldy Coffee?
Don’t panic! The way your individual body reacts to mold is an
allergy-type reaction. Symptoms may vary among different people who’ve imbibed
the same fungi. People who use steroids or immunosuppressants or who are
otherwise immune-compromised may have conspicuous reactions while others don’t
notice a reaction at all. (However, those who don’t notice a reaction may
become noticeably more cheerful and energetic when they drink cleaner coffee.)
Typical reactions include coughing and sneezing, watery eyes, dry
mouth, sore mouth and/or throat, skin rash, and indigestion. Sensations of
numbness in the mouth or tongue are usually caused by drinking coffee too hot,
but have been reported as reactions to moldy coffee. Less noticeable but common
reactions can include aggravated mood swings, anxiety attacks, resurgence of
childhood learning disorders like dyslexia or attention deficits, “brain fog,”
“absentmindedness,” and flares of immune system dysfunctions like arthritis or
colitis. Very few people have reported asthma or anaphylactic shock from
exposure to moldy coffee, because relatively small amounts of allergens are
actually swallowed. A much more likely complaint is “Someone else’s coffee” (or
“Everyone else’s coffee”) “tastes better than ours.”
Moldy coffee is likely to be a problem in environments where mold grows
easily. That means it’s only one part of an overall problem...but, because
people don’t expect mold to infect coffee, moldy coffee can be the part of the
overall problem that goes untreated after walls have been scrubbed, carpets
removed, curtains laundered, books mothballed, and so on.
Cleaning and Descaling a Traditional
Coffee Maker with Vinegar
Traditional coffee makers brew a small pot or “carafe” of coffee all at
once. Usually scales of minerals that precipitate out as water heats up are
visible before mold and algae are, but you never know. Although the water used
in these coffee makers has usually been treated with chlorine, some
bacteria—like the ubiquitous E. coli that’s
often transferred directly from the user’s fingertips—have evolved resistance
to chlorine. Mineral scales are an ongoing problem that will eventually clog
the machine. Vinegar is recommended because it dissolves mineral scales at the
same time it kills fungi and bacteria.
To clean and descale the traditional coffee maker, fill the water
chamber with equal parts of water and white vinegar, and insert a clean paper
filter. Turn it on and let it brew until about half the liquid has moved
through the system. (This allows the vinegar solution to coat every surface.)
Turn it off and let it sit for half an hour. (This gives the vinegar solution
time to kill microorganisms.) Turn it on and finish brewing. Discard the
vinegar solution, change the filter, and brew one pot of plain clean water.
Discard that, change the filter again, and brew a second pot of plain clean
water. This should yield a clean, sterile coffee maker that brews good-tasting
coffee, just like new.
Cleaning and Descaling a Keurig Coffee
Maker
To clean the cold water reservoir, lift out the water level guide and
clean it, then wipe out the cold water reservoir with a clean damp cloth, then
replace the water level guide.
Some models come with a water filter, and instructions for changing and
replacing the filter. Stale water filters can become very nasty since they
filter out the chlorine that kills bacteria that may get in the other end. The
instructions that came with the machine specify how often to change the filter.
Keurig sells a special Descaling Solution in bottles to fit the
different coffee makers the company offers. This is used in more or less the
same way you use vinegar to clean a traditional coffee maker, but the company
provides more specific instructions for different sizes and models of Keurig.
Cleaning the Coffee Itself
Mold can grow on coffee beans and coffee grounds themselves; that’s the
easiest way for mold to get into a coffee maker. The kinds most likely to grow
on coffee are universal and not highly toxic, but, if you notice mold on a
“puck” or in one of those cute new individual cups of coffee, you have a valid
reason for complaint—just as if you’d noticed mold growing on a loaf of bread.
If you’re very concerned about moldy coffee, you may want to grind your
own beans. Check for freshness at the store, buy only small amounts of nice
fresh coffee beans, and grind and rinse them just before using them.
Mold is not the only possible allergy trigger. Coffee manufacturers
claim that coffee doesn’t contain enough residues of chemicals used in
processing to cause a reaction, but if you have a persistent reaction to
coffee, you may be more sensitive to a chemical than the average person. It’s
even possible, though unusual, to be allergic to coffee.
SOME LINKS
Sobel, D. Arthritis: What Works.
Book available at https://www.amazon.com/Arthritis-What-Works-Dava-Sobel/dp/0312927193 ; review online at https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-review-arthritis.html .
"What do you think, Gentle Readers? Is this article too wimpy? Does the description of mold allergy reactions not sound like something everybody wants to avoid? I mentioned arthritis and Mental Illnesses; isn't that sufficient motivation to clean the coffee maker already? I don't know what the client wanted to motivate customers to do, buy, or discard. I wanted to motivate them to keep their coffee makers clean, if they use the things at all (I don't!), but not to make themselves sicker worrying about moldy coffee than they'd make themselves if they're actually drinking it.
(Would you know if you were drinking mold? Coffee has a strong flavor and odor. So, according to what I found online, have the molds that infest it. The nastiest kind of mold that can grow on coffee beans is Aspergillus flavus, the black rot most often found in peanuts. Some vulnerable people apparently react to very small amounts of aflatoxin, the poisonous chemical A. flavus produces...but nobody would eat or drink more than a very small amount. If your coffee came out tasting like that a web site wouldn't need to tell you to stop using it. Your tongue would tell you to run to the bathroom and spit.
The most common kinds of mold found on coffee beans/grounds are the reddish Fusarium molds, with which I have no direct experience. Some of these molds are toxic in the sense that consumption of large amounts of Fusarium is known to have made many people sick, but again, reportedly people have to be starving to consume large amounts because the mold makes coffee, grains, etc., taste foul. Fusarium health problems are most often reported with large wheat processing operations. Traces of Fusarium in coffee usually generate complaints, not illness.)
The client complained that vinegar doesn't kill all mold. Nothing completely kills all mold. Baking soda kills many of the microorganisms that survive exposure to vinegar. A strong chlorine solution kills almost anything, although if you can't scrub something you've bleached you'll have to rinse it many times to remove the taste (and toxicity) of chlorine. Even bleach won't kill mold spores, which are not yet alive, strictly speaking, and just may be able to "sprout" into life after the chlorine has dried out and blown away. (She says, blandly, having survived the initial panic the first time she used a rag to scrub something down with straight Clorox and saw fast-growing Aspergillus niger mold growing on the rag the next morning. A. niger is the fluffy-looking, sour-smelling fungus that supplies most of the citric acid used in the U.S. food supply.) The process of steaming with vinegar and chlorinated urban tap water, soda and tap water, and/or bleach and tap water, repeatedly, will reduce the living mold population...and the more parts you can scrub and dry, the better...but if you have a serious ongoing problem with one of the new coffee makers for which you can't just order replacement parts, you may end up having to pitch the thing out and grind and brew your own coffee the oldfashioned way.
Should the article have gone into more detail about fungi? About more oldfashioned, labor-intensive alternatives to those cute little Keurig and Gevalia coffee makers? About how my father used to brew his coffee in a cheap stainless steel percolator that was designed to be taken apart and scrubbed along with the coffee cups and other dishes?
Should the client have gone into more detail about how to improve the draft article, rather than waxing judgmental and unprofessional about this web site?
Should this web site absolve the client web site of blame, because the client's reaction sounds as if the client might have become embittered by drinking moldy coffee? Y'know, early in the morning--the sun is rising late and the mornings are getting cold these days--the writer stumbles into work all tired and hung over, brews a double-strength cuppa joe using the office coffee maker, doesn't even savor the steam but just gulps down a great big swig of...that black rot taste found in bad peanuts! Aaauuuggghhh! Like being bitten by a bittern, that sounds like an experience that would leave anybody feeling bitter...
(blogger fails to remember author and title of nonfiction book in which birdwatcher was bitten by a bittern)
...enough to replace this...
...or this...
...with this...
...or even this?
(Sorry, Amazon didn't show a picture of a manual coffee grinder that looked like my grandfather's.)
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