There are many adjustments I’ll have to make living out west in a small town after having spent five decades in large metro areas in the Great Lakes region. Case in point: butter. Specifically the aspect ratio of sticks of butter. The butter of my childhood came in long skinny sticks, and I knew nothing else until we started staying here at the condo and buying groceries. Here, the butter is in short chunky sticks. This was amusing when we were visitors, but now it’s my life. I can eyeball a tablespoon of butter from an Eastern stick, even when it’s unwrapped, having learned from the lines marked on the packaging, but have no idea about these Western blocks. Not that I do that much cooking that relies on precise butter measurement, but still I feel confused and out of sorts when confronted with this weird butter that is now my only option. Or rather, will be my only option once we run out of the Eastern stuff we transported out here in the big cooler with dry ice.

 

 
P.S. I was amused to learn from this Marketplace article that the Eastern sticks are referred to as “Elgins”, the city I was born in, and the others are “Western stubbies”.

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On this date in 2014: Bad Santa
2013: WDW Day 6: Magic Kingdom and a New Hotel
2012: Sock Monkey Summit
2011: Not Yet Socks
2010: Reversible Watch Cap
2009: In the Belly of the Beast
2008: Brain Clutter
2007: UFOs
2006: Tech Cat & Accretion is for Losers
2005: Spirit of the Season
2004: I’ve Been Working on the SQL
2003: Not a Weekly Check-In
2002: Planning