Motus Mentis

18 Comments

1. libertybelle says

   Get with the program Malcolm, everything is prettier and better in pink;-) What are you a misogynist, doubting the magical power of pink… I have some Himalayan Pink Salt and Water Lily fragrance hand soap by my kitchen sink, as we speak. The ingredient lists plain old sodium chloride.

   Wikipedia offers: “The chemical composition of Himalayan salt includes 95—96% sodium chloride, contaminated with 2—3% polyhalite and small amounts of ten other minerals. The pink color is due to iron oxide.”

   Posted August 10, 2014 at 10:05 pm | Permalink
2. Kevin Kim says

   Yes… one does have to wonder how the concepts “pure” and “mineral content” go together. I’ll note, too, that the final sentence very likely contains a dangling modifier. An a-salt on the senses.

   Posted August 10, 2014 at 11:23 pm | Permalink
3. Harold says

   It’s ideologically pure, not chemically pure.

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 6:24 am | Permalink
4. Harold says

   … it has spent millennia meditating in the heart of the Himalayas. Greed and avarice it has never let enter its soul. Privilege, oppression, and racism are unkown to it.

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 6:37 am | Permalink
5. Harold says

   To be serious though, clearly they have in mind that it is uncontaminated by anything subsequent to its formation.

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 6:45 am | Permalink
6. Malcolm says

   You could say the same about a ranch-flavored Dorito.

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 8:20 am | Permalink
7. Malcolm says

   I think you nailed it above, Harold: it’s ideological purity we’re looking at here. What do we think of when we think of Tibet? Oppression, of course. And the stuff is made even purer by its commitment to multicolored, mineralic diversity.

   And it’s pink.

   Thanks for this insight, which I think actually should be taken with more than a grain of salt.

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 8:29 am | Permalink
8. Harold says

   “commitment to multicolored, mineralic diversity”, of course, why didn’t I think of that. And, yes, it’s pink, but also has hues of red and white, these colors being described, of course, as “vibrant”. And here I have been using monochromatic white salt with some sort of Nazi-esque commitment to chemical purity. I feel both ashamed and un-enriched.

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 9:09 am | Permalink
9. JK says

   Meanwhile in California …

   California is poised to take a step. Lawmakers are considering what would be the first-in-the-nation measure requiring all colleges that receive public funds to set a standard for when “yes means yes.”

   http://www.myfoxny.com/story/26242804/california-debates-yes-means-yes-sex-assault-law

   Posted August 11, 2014 at 10:01 am | Permalink
10. TheBigHenry says

    “… this salt’s rich and varying mineral content.”

    We not rich like y’all … We outta verbs.

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 11:23 am | Permalink
11. The one eyed man says

    Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan, not Tibet.

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 3:37 pm | Permalink
12. Malcolm says

    Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan, not Tibet.

    Even worse, if true. The package just says “heart of the Himalayas”, which certainly isn’t Pakistan.

    When any ordinary person hears “heart of the Himalayas”, it’s Tibet that’s naturally going to come to mind. If it really is Pakistan this stuff is coming from, then the labeling is clearly a cheap attempt to cash in on Tibet’s romantic image, and its high-value victim status.

    Boy, this thing just gets worse and worse.

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 4:47 pm | Permalink
13. Malcolm says

    Jebus, Pete, you’re right. From Wikipedia:

    It is mined in the Khewra Salt Mines, the second largest salt mine in the world, located in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan, about 300 km from the Himalayas…

    And I thought we were just dealing with stupidity here. It’s always such a shock when you come face to face with pure evil.

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 4:53 pm | Permalink
14. Horace Jeffery Hodges says

    But the label says “Himalayan Pink Salt comes from the heart of the Himalayan Mountains” – meaning far from.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 5:26 pm | Permalink
15. The one eyed man says

    I would think that most people would associate Nepal as the “heart of the Himalayas,” as that is where people go to trek them most often.

    Re 300km from the actual Himalayas: fudging mountains is nothing new. When the transcontinental railroad was being built, private developers refused to bear the risk of putting rail lines through the Sierras, so the government was forced to subsidize them to get it built. They passed a law to support railroad construction starting at the foothills. The developers lobbied successfully to have the foothills start at Roseville, California, which is 164 feet above sea level, and the start of an eighty mile, very gradual ascent. For this they were called “the men who could move mountains.”

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 5:44 pm | Permalink
16. Loki says

    Nepal, Pakistan, whatever. But Pakistan? Yeesh.

    These people make those railroad barons look like the Knights of St. John.

    Posted August 11, 2014 at 6:11 pm | Permalink
17. The Anti-Gnostic says

    “Welcome to Costco, I love you.”

    Posted August 12, 2014 at 7:42 am | Permalink
18. Whitney Gann says

    It’s also about 6 bucks an ounce. Morton’s iodized table salt is around a dollar for 26 ounces. Sigh…

    Posted August 20, 2014 at 6:28 pm | Permalink