My brother, Hal, and his wife, Susanna, gave birth this morning at 1:45 am. The twins, Benjamin and Rachel are healthy and happy, as are the new Mom & Dad. The babies were huge for twins: Rachel was 7lbs, 11 oz (3.5 kg) and Benjamin was 6lbs, 14 oz (3.12 kg). And Susanna is only 5′ (1.52 m) tall on her tippytoes. She must’ve been huge! My parents are thrilled, too, since these are their first grandchildren with less than 4 legs. They’re on their way to the babies’ Florida home first thing tomorrow morning.

So, now my niece & nephew count is up to 13: Brendan, Caitlin, Timothy, Emily, Courtney, Lauren, Erin, Kristen, Kelly, Connor, Kevan, Benjamin and Rachel. Plus, there’s one more due in September. Christmas keeps getting more and more expensive!

The Guardian ran an article on Monday describing Felicity Lawrence’s travels in the world of chicken nuggets. Describing the presence of bovine and porcine proteins, pet food remnants and banned-in-Britain antibiotics in the tender pink chunks, she does an awesome job of showing the truth to that “Parts is parts” commercial of some years back.

How do they keep them so juicy, you may wonder. According to Lawrence, they use:

…proteins extracted at high temperatures or by chemical hydrolysis from old animals or parts of animals which are no use for food, such as skin, feathers, hide, bone and ligaments, and rather like cosmetic collagen implants, they make the flesh swell up and retain liquid.

Yummy! Makes me realize that Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation was a little too limited, since it focused exclusively on the US, while this article shows that it is a much more global reality.