I scream, you scream

2017 may be a long year for Uncle Ken, as it is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.  A lot of observances are already going on in Germany, of course, but the actual date is October 31st, when the noted troublemaker and anti-Semite Martin Luther nailed his theses on the church door.

While kids in other schools were getting jacked up for Halloween, we were attending church services and droning that abysmal hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."  Luther was not a songsmith, unlike many of his contemporaries, but a very interesting fellow none the less.  It took a lot of testicular fortitude to proclaim "I can not and will not recant!" when being held in judgement by the mighty Roman Catholic church.  Another good line is, "Here I stand; I can do no other."

Predestination wasn't his thing; I think the Presbyterians were into it, though.

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Before we close out any further discussion of the presence or absence of any God or Supreme Being I'll add my two cents.  There is something holding all the subatomic particles together, you can call it what you will, for it "surpasses all understanding."

Religion is a different matter, which I find very interesting; it has been part and parcel of all human history since the earliest times, even continuing to this very day.  Wikipedia indicates that religion may have begun with the burial rituals of the Neanderthals and became more organized with development of the early city states in India and Turkey thousands of years later.  I've just begun researching this topic and may or may not continue.

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Speaking of research, I bought a couple of pints of ice cream and did a little measuring.  Mr. Beagles is right, the containers have gotten smaller.  I could find only two companies that had honest pint containers: Oberweis and Ben & Jerry's.  All other containers were 14 oz.

I bought a pint of the Oberweis "Super Premium" chocolate ice cream and a pint of Ben & Jerry's "Chocolate Therapy:" they don't seem to sell one pint containers of plain chocolate but I figured it would be close enough.  Both were on sale, with the Oberweis at $3/pint and the Ben & Jerry's at $3.50 a pint.

That looks like a big price difference, but the Ben & Jerry's weighed 50g (almost two ounces) more, which confirms my suspicion that extra air can be whipped into the mix to make a bulkier product.

The taste test was revealing.  Although the Oberweis was smoother and creamier (perhaps due to the extra air), more sugar than chocolate was apparent.  The taste of chocolate was much more intense with the Ben & Jerry's; a little goes a long way.  I estimate that only half as much Ben & Jerry's is necessary to achieve the same level of chocolate satisfaction as the Oberweis.  You can see the visible difference in the attached image; which would you prefer?

The cost per gram of product is nearly identical: .946 cents/gram for the Oberweis and .953 cents/gram for the Ben & Jerry's.  As a discerning consumer of ice cream the Ben & Jerry's product is a better value to me.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.