I wrote a length,much-quoting reply to this that I was
unable to make postable because of hard-to-spot characters
(I went through and edited replacing any I could locate)
that clashed with my newsgroup client's character set selection).

Below therefore is ONLY my original content.

[SNIP]

Some labels actually have packing dates on them not clearly
identified as such,which would imply the food was ALWAYS
out of date to a thrower-outer.

[SNIP]

Unfortunately,entities and activists who want people to give surplus
food to the poor often treat the freshness dates as gospel and reject
or discard donations.

[SNIP]

As noted above,they cause edible food to be discarded.
I use the dates in terms of the order in which I eat things
I have,but only visible evidence of spoilage leads me to
discard food uneaten.

I used to have more faith in the dates but experience has taught
me to be more skeptical.In 2021 I found and ate a box of raisins
with a 2005 date,and I have been very slowly working through a very
large jar of mayonnaise with a 2008 date (refrigerated since opened).
I am still sore at a home health aide who (besides stealing cash from
me) insisted on discarding a variety of foods with expired dates in
the course of caring for my father,including some decades-old tea leaves.

One day I'll wind up grinding some peppercorns with a 1983 date
that I have in a closet.

[SNIP]

If something is rotting and you can't cut off the rotten parts to
only eat the rest,or if it smells bad or tastes off or the seal
on a can is compromised,or there are bugs in it...THEN you
discard it.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

On Sat, 16 Sep 2023 18:16:55 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws>
wrote:

>I used to have more faith in the dates but experience has taught
>me to be more skeptical.In 2021 I found and ate a box of raisins
>with a 2005 date,and I have been very slowly working through a very
>large jar of mayonnaise with a 2008 date (refrigerated since opened).
>I am still sore at a home health aide who (besides stealing cash from
>me) insisted on discarding a variety of foods with expired dates in
>the course of caring for my father,including some decades-old tea leaves.
>
>One day I'll wind up grinding some peppercorns with a 1983 date
>that I have in a closet.

My mother had two glass jars of green beans she canned in the 1950s. She
won a ribbon. One of them, after 60+ years, spontaneously spoiled. The
other one still looks good to this day. It still looks award-winning,
actually. I don't know how they would taste, but I think they would
probably not be harmful to eat. I'll probably never know, though.

David Carson
--
Dead or Alive Data Base
http://www.doadb.com

In article <ue83dq$ji3b$1@dont-email.me>, David Carson
<davo@neosoft.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 16 Sep 2023 18:16:55 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws>
> wrote:
>
> >I used to have more faith in the dates but experience has taught
> >me to be more skeptical.In 2021 I found and ate a box of raisins
> >with a 2005 date,and I have been very slowly working through a very
> >large jar of mayonnaise with a 2008 date (refrigerated since opened).
> >I am still sore at a home health aide who (besides stealing cash from
> >me) insisted on discarding a variety of foods with expired dates in
> >the course of caring for my father,including some decades-old tea leaves.
> >
> >One day I'll wind up grinding some peppercorns with a 1983 date
> >that I have in a closet.
>
> My mother had two glass jars of green beans she canned in the 1950s. She
> won a ribbon. One of them, after 60+ years, spontaneously spoiled. The
> other one still looks good to this day. It still looks award-winning,
> actually. I don't know how they would taste, but I think they would
> probably not be harmful to eat. I'll probably never know, though.
>
> David Carson

I recently found an old, small bottle of Heinz ketchup stashed above
the light in my home-office refrigerator. Had no idea it was there.
It had expired in 2002. The long-undisturbed ketchup had separated
into a watery layer, a red bit that was very small, and a big green
mass. I didn't open the bottle to check for gases, but the (plastic)
bottle didn't seem to be under significant internal stress. I got it
out of the house and threw it into an outside bin in case it suddenly
decided to explode after twenty years. It did not. It went out with
the regular trash the next day.

On Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 10:19:07 PM UTC-4, A Friend wrote:
> In article <ue83dq$ji3b$1...@dont-email.me>, David Carson
> <da...@neosoft.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 16 Sep 2023 18:16:55 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein <l...@main.lekno.ws>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >I used to have more faith in the dates but experience has taught
> > >me to be more skeptical.In 2021 I found and ate a box of raisins
> > >with a 2005 date,and I have been very slowly working through a very
> > >large jar of mayonnaise with a 2008 date (refrigerated since opened).
> > >I am still sore at a home health aide who (besides stealing cash from
> > >me) insisted on discarding a variety of foods with expired dates in
> > >the course of caring for my father,including some decades-old tea leaves.
> > >
> > >One day I'll wind up grinding some peppercorns with a 1983 date
> > >that I have in a closet.
> >
> > My mother had two glass jars of green beans she canned in the 1950s. She
> > won a ribbon. One of them, after 60+ years, spontaneously spoiled. The
> > other one still looks good to this day. It still looks award-winning,
> > actually. I don't know how they would taste, but I think they would
> > probably not be harmful to eat. I'll probably never know, though.
> >
> > David Carson
> I recently found an old, small bottle of Heinz ketchup stashed above
> the light in my home-office refrigerator. Had no idea it was there.
> It had expired in 2002. The long-undisturbed ketchup had separated
> into a watery layer, a red bit that was very small, and a big green
> mass. I didn't open the bottle to check for gases, but the (plastic)
> bottle didn't seem to be under significant internal stress. I got it
> out of the house and threw it into an outside bin in case it suddenly
> decided to explode after twenty years. It did not. It went out with
> the regular trash the next day.

How about not even considering the possibility of the catsup
bottle exploding, all you care about is tossing it? You toss it
into the dumpster and it explodes. A crowd gathers. Police
are called. When they look inside the dumpster they find a
dead body - and 'blood' all over the place. After all those years
the catsup smell dissolved. You deny having had anything to
do with it. "I was just throwing out an old bottle of catsup", you
say as the cops laugh and the cuffs go on. A bystander is all
hyped up, happy to be part of something important. "I saw the
whole thing", he says. "This gentleman here", he says pointing
to you, "he must have had a grenade or something. I don't know
what it was, but one minute it was in his hand, the next it's in
the dumpster. And then that sound. That horrible sound. I
will have to live with it the rest of my life."

Eventually the cops get things sorted out and you are released.
"He is not a murderer", one cop says to another. "He is trouble.
Trouble for us, trouble for the city. Anybody who holds on to
mayonnaise for 18 years, it's a good idea to keep our eyes on him."

On Sun, 17 Sep 2023 22:19:03 -0400, A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:

>I recently found an old, small bottle of Heinz ketchup stashed above
>the light in my home-office refrigerator. Had no idea it was there.
>It had expired in 2002. The long-undisturbed ketchup had separated
>into a watery layer, a red bit that was very small, and a big green
>mass. I didn't open the bottle to check for gases, but the (plastic)
>bottle didn't seem to be under significant internal stress. I got it
>out of the house and threw it into an outside bin in case it suddenly
>decided to explode after twenty years. It did not. It went out with
>the regular trash the next day.

Chicken.

David Carson <davo@neosoft.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Sep 2023 18:16:55 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws>
> wrote:
>
>>I used to have more faith in the dates but experience has taught
>>me to be more skeptical.In 2021 I found and ate a box of raisins
>>with a 2005 date,and I have been very slowly working through a very
>>large jar of mayonnaise with a 2008 date (refrigerated since opened).

[CORRECTION...MUSTARD!...the mayonnaise jar I recently opened and
thereupon refrigerated has a 2017 date]

>>I am still sore at a home health aide who (besides stealing cash from
>>me) insisted on discarding a variety of foods with expired dates in
>>the course of caring for my father,including some decades-old tea leaves.
>>
>>One day I'll wind up grinding some peppercorns with a 1983 date
>>that I have in a closet.
>
> My mother had two glass jars of green beans she canned in the 1950s. She
> won a ribbon. One of them, after 60+ years, spontaneously spoiled. The
> other one still looks good to this day. It still looks award-winning,
> actually. I don't know how they would taste, but I think they would
> probably not be harmful to eat. I'll probably never know, though.

So what wins a prize gets treated as a museum piece?

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

It appears that anything from Thomas Joseph triggers the
alien-character-set block to posting.

As noted in a reply above,the 2008 jar is actually mustard,my
recently activated years-old mayonnaise jar is much smaller
and younger.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

On Monday, September 18, 2023 at 6:22:32 PM UTC-4, Louis Epstein wrote:
> It appears that anything from Thomas Joseph triggers the
> alien-character-set block to posting.
>
> As noted in a reply above,the 2008 jar is actually mustard,my
> recently activated years-old mayonnaise jar is much smaller
> and younger.
> -=-=-
> The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
> at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

"It appears" is a lot different than "He's guilty for sure." It is possible,
I don't know. Are you suggesting I no longer post? You know I am
a kind a considerate person and therefore might be inclined to bow
out of the group if I truly believed I was making life miserable for
other people. That's speaking for right now. Tomorrow could be
different - I might actually get a charge out of bugging other people.
But right now that is not the case and you are almost succeeding
in making me feel guilty. Almost.

Thomas Joseph <jazeev1234@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "It appears" is a lot different than "He's guilty for sure." It is possible,
> I don't know. Are you suggesting I no longer post?

If I was sure I would say so.
But the intent would be to discover if you had settings that
clashed with my client whenever I attempt to quote them and
it would be up to you whether you wanted to check that out,
and whether you considered that incompatibility (which may
not extend to anyone not using my client with my settings)
a bug or a feature.

>> -=-=-
>> The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
>> at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

On Friday, September 22, 2023 at 3:08:53 AM UTC-4, Louis Epstein wrote:
> Thomas Joseph <jazee...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > "It appears" is a lot different than "He's guilty for sure." It is possible,
> > I don't know. Are you suggesting I no longer post?
> If I was sure I would say so.
> But the intent would be to discover if you had settings that
> clashed with my client whenever I attempt to quote them and
> it would be up to you whether you wanted to check that out,
> and whether you considered that incompatibility (which may
> not extend to anyone not using my client with my settings)
> a bug or a feature.

I'm sorry, I am a tech moron - and I admit it, almost pridefully.
I use google, but so do others, so I'd be inclined to rule that
out. I have a Mac desktop I bought used from my upgrading
brother. I usually ridicule upgraders but I guess I'm sort of
glad they exist. Anyway, before this Mac I had another one.
I transfered files to this computer from the other Mac and it
took them. Over half won't open. Something about not
recognizing the program it came from. I had about 500 stories
and 'essays' in there. I'm not griping, it's no big deal. But some
of the stories that went through have odd characters to them.
Not dramatic but it's noticed every so often. Anyway, I'm sorry
I can't be of help here but I really don't know what's going on.
I don't post here much, but I haven't heard anyone else mention
the problem. I can't lie to you Louis, I am literally lost when
the techno talk begins - and you're mild with it compared to
some I've encountered. I know about settings and I get around
pretty good on this machine. But some of the settings are
hard to understand and I am sometimes afraid to change
anything that might impact me negatively in some way. It's
like looking under the hood of a big car and seeing a whole
bunch of stuff just waiting to go kaput. I feel the same about
some things on the computer, that they're better left alone,
at least by a technophobe like me. Sorry.

I know I ramble. But I went on way too long this time not out
of the usual selfishness, but more out of just not knowing
what I was talking about because I was feeling kind of lost
right from the start when things techno trended. I am not
an idiot, it's just another thing I'd rather not learn (unless it
comes ultra easy with little or no effort, preferably none)....

For the love of God I'm sorry!

On Friday, September 22, 2023 at 3:08:53 AM UTC-4, Louis Epstein wrote:
> Thomas Joseph <jazee...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > "It appears" is a lot different than "He's guilty for sure." It is possible,
> > I don't know. Are you suggesting I no longer post?
> If I was sure I would say so.
> But the intent would be to discover if you had settings that
> clashed with my client whenever I attempt to quote them and
> it would be up to you whether you wanted to check that out,
> and whether you considered that incompatibility (which may
> not extend to anyone not using my client with my settings)
> a bug or a feature.

Oh by the way Louis, I regularly exchange email with a woman
who has complained in the past about huge or tiny text coming
from my machine. But she is the only one who complained.
I told her I think the problem is on her end. She said it's possible
but she doubts it. She has two or three different machines. Turns
out it happens only on the one she uses most, a smartphone. I
don't know, it's too complicated for me. But believe me, if I knew
something from my end was screwing up everyone's life I would
stop posting. At first when you used the word 'client' I thought
you were talking about a personal business client of yours. Then
I figured it out - I think - that you were talking about your server
or whatever. See, I'm lost again. Anyway, yes, there are incompatibility
issues all over the place with these machines. But I don't complain (much),
because I sometimes think it's amazing we can communicate in any
way from such great distances. The phone still amazes me. Lots
of old inventions dazzle me. I am not ready for the new ones.