Sic Semper Porcus

Pork and Gentrification

Yesterday I came across one of the NY Times' culture articles lamenting the decline of hipster businesses in a newly trendy neighborhood of the L.A. area.  The stagnant condition of the economy is apparently reducing business at 'retro design shops', 'yarn stores', and some coffee shop that has a play area for the kids with handmade Scandinavian toys made of Norwegian wood.

Although I've never been to City of Angels, I do live in the newly hip neighborhood of Wicker Park/Ukrainian village in Chicago.  Here there is a similar decline in business for the dog grooming parlors, bead shops, and boutiques that seem to keep only ten shirts in stock.  And all I have to say is good riddance!

I realize I'm a part of the young crowd that moved to my neighborhood and warped the local businesses into what they've become.  But this economic downturn has provided an oppurtunity to reverse this trend somewhat.  I propose a converging of interests between the newly arrived hipsters and the entrenched locals may be found in pork.

For example, everyday I see yet another sign of how bacon has become the official meat of hipsters.  Here's one such example.  Seriously take the time to watch that.  It is amazing.  All joking aside, however, many hipsters should be pleased to find that bacon has been eternally hip with majority of the ethnic communities that they are now moving into.  In my neighborhood I live amongst a good mix of Polish, Ukrainian, Puerto Rican, and Mexican.  Culinarily speaking these are all cultures that share a deep respect for pork and cured pork products.  This is why I can't really see myself living anywhere else in this city in the near future. 

Last year one of my favorite old Polish deli's on Division St., Andy's, fell victim to gentrification and closed its doors forever.  This was a great loss to local fans of tasty sausage.  It has been replaced by something called Angels and Mariachis a 'rock cantina' that has battery acid margueritas and lots of dishes with Mexican names and steep prices. 

If hipsters can combine their supposed new found love of pork with their local purchasing habits, we may hopefully be able to prevent further tragic losses of good food and perhaps witness a continued decline in dog grooming and 90 dollar t-shirt profits.

On the Campaign Trail – Indianapolis

I’m working for the Obama campaign and am currently in Indianapolis. Yesterday I made hundreds of persuasion calls and I know that Indiana is going to go for Obama. It’s true despite the craziness of the statement. Over 500,000 new Democratic voters have been registered in the state since the primaries. Just take a look at the recent Star-WTHR poll. This blog is not the forum for blatant non-pork related partisan posting. If there is any interest in my Indiana/campaign/rants check out my An Indiana Gentleman blog. Yep it’s true, I’m a Hoosier and damn proud of that.

Now back to the true calling of this blog and I can now incorporate a new segment to this blog: News from Afar. Despite Kentucky’s claim of being the northernmost southern state I don’t see why Indianapolis can’t claim being the northernmost southern city. A quick history of the city’s demographics is that the majority of new immigrants came from the south – not the East Coast like many Midwestern cities. We are in a similar league with places like Detroit. Whereas the Illinois Central brought southerners to Chicago from Louisiana, Indiana received southerners from Appalachia – that’s why we have a twang. However, this does not mean that Indianapolis is a bad place. By 1880 Indianapolis had the third largest meat-packing industry. Only Chicago and Cincinnati butchered more pork. In 1920 the city processed more than 3 million pigs. Today there is a growing diversity and more liberal viewpoints emerging. It still has a way to go but it’s on the right track. 

Hopefully with some free time I’ll be able to explore a couple of the places in the city that showcase their love of pork. The first stop is going to be Goose the Market. It’s located at 2503 N. Delaware St. in the Fall Creek neighborhood. I first heard about it from the Indianapolis Business Journal Property Lines blog. People in the city are ecstatic about it. From a city that brought Chicago Yats their opinion can’t be bad. Yesterday I tried to check it out so I could buy some beer but sadly it was closed. What gave me great hope was that there was a sign that said “a day without bacon is a day without bacon.” It has to be good. Another great point from the website says that charcuterie is sexy. That gets us off too and I’ll be sure to be back!

Moose better than Pork?

This blog will continue to fuse pork and politics.  As you all may be aware John McCain has recently selected a running mate so we decided to do some investigation on Governor Sarah Palin.  Supposedly moose is Sarah Palin's favorite type of food which she hunts herself .  A commendable choice, however, her scorn of our porcine friends has raised some eyebrows.  We will continue to throw our support behind Barack "You might've thought he was muslim, but he's not and he loves pork" Obama.  While we do support the fact that Sarah Palin is an eater of meat, we cannot condone this lack of respect paid to the pork community.  Clearly this reflects her politics; she believes that the solution is always reached through the use of guns and certainly has no sympathy for the working class of the heartland who put so much effort in to pork production and distribution that feeds millions of Americans.  Also, she suppports death from above attacks on bears and wolves, reminiscent of McCain's own aerial adventures in Vietnam.  This is clearly offensive and cowardly.  If you are going to make bear sausage you have to kill the bugger with your bare hands.  In closing Sic Semper Porcus does not in anyway endorse the McCain/ Palin ticket...