There are probably a few readers who remember the days of rationing (ration stamps) during World War II. Although I was a little girl in those days, I remember how my mother planned buying groceries and the complaints about not being able to get enough coffee and sugar, especially. At local historical societies, curators treasure donations of old ration books, adding them to their collections of war time artifacts.
I don’t remember if eggs were rationed – we always had chickens so we had plenty of eggs for cooking. Fast forward several decades and it’s a different story. A few years ago, there was a flurry of news items about people wanting to build henhouses and keep a few chickens, almost as though they were pets. I haven’t heard much lately as to how that worked out, but I remember clearly the old hen house and chicken-wire fenced in pen up back of the house. One of the chores assigned to us kids was gathering the eggs.
It would be a wonderful thing to gather some eggs as easily today as it was in the 1940s, but little signs are pasted in the egg cooler at local supermarkets explaining why the price of eggs is so high. The price jump is related to an avian influenza outbreak, which has limited the supply of egg products, a USDA spokesperson told MarketWatch.
I never thought I’d be buying six eggs at a time, but at almost 30 cents each, it might be time to start rationing eggs – again. We’re going to investigate using liquid eggs before the price for them escalates.
Two things on almost everyone’s grocery list – eggs and ground beef – are among the most pricey. When some kinds of beef and/or steak are less per pound than hamburg, it’s tempting to purchase a good meat grinder and have some really good steakburgers. If we could control the droughts, when less cattle are raised, we might get back to inexpensive burger. Solving the egg shortage issue is more difficult. Chickens cost more than a meat grinder and there’s no guarantee they’ll lay eggs when you want/need them. Plus you would need a chicken pen and shelter – especially in the winter.
We’re sure there’s an eggless cookbook out there somewhere – we have several recipes for eggless cakes and cookies, but what can you substitute for eggs over easy?
Meanwhile, on another topic, I’m keeping a list of the robocalls, scam artists and other unsolicited telephone calls. Most recently, I was offered several ways to protect myself if I fall. I figure my scream would be loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. One of these nuisance calls last week offered a free vacation (didn’t say where) and I talked to a mechanical voice.
In Sen. Susan Collins’ latest newsletter, she is encouraging about the possibility of ending these unwanted nuisance calls.
Advances in technology, such as robocalls, caller ID spoofing, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are making it easier for scammers to reach potential victims. The proliferation of unwanted calls was the topic of a recent hearing of the Senate Aging Committee, chaired by Collins.
She explained that a large part of the problem of unwanted calls traces to the fact that the regulatory framework behind the Do Not Call list has been rendered ineffective by advances in technology. “Spoofing,” which enables callers to disguise a caller ID, is an easy and inexpensive tool used regularly by scammers to make their victims believe they are calling from the IRS, or local law enforcement, for example.
During the hearing, Collins demonstrated how easy and accessible spoofing technology is.
A member of her staff called her cell phone and disguised the caller ID to make it appear that the calls were coming from the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice, when in fact, the calls had come from across the room using a free iPhone app.
Collins and the Committee’s Ranking Member, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., have coauthored legislation that would provide more authority to the Federal Communications Commission to combat caller ID spoofing and strengthen penalties for those who generate these calls.
Collins said that robocalls are an annoyance to too many Americans and that the Aging Committee will continue to follow this matter closely.
We hope that the national news media will keep us informed on the progress made by the Senate Aging Committee. Perhaps in our lifetime, we’ll see improvement.
Kay Soldier welcomes reader ideas for column topics of interest to seniors. She can be reached by email at kso48@aol.com, or write to 114 Tandberg Trail, Windham, ME 04062.
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