swiss cheese.

i was just talking to leah, and since we are contemplative together, we wondered what cause the holes in swiss cheese. her guess was air. right she was. apparently there's also hole-y controversy!:

"Swiss cheese holes" are caused by gassy bacteria . In order to make cheese, you need the help of bacteria. Starter cultures containing bacteria are added to milk, where they create lactic acid, essential for producing cheese. Various types of bacteria can be used to make cheese, and some cheeses require several different bacteria to give them a particular flavor.

Propionibacter shermani is one of the three types of bacteria used to make Swiss cheese, and it's responsible for the cheese's distinctive holes. Once P. shermani is added to the cheese mixture and warmed, bubbles of carbon dioxide form. These bubbles become holes in the final product. Cheesemakers can control the size of the holes by changing the acidity, temperature, and curing time of the mixture. Incidentally, those holes are technically called "eyes," and the proper Swiss name for the cheese is Emmentaler (also spelled Emmental or Emmenthaler).

Swiss cheese has been in the news recently because the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created new guidelines that regulate the hole size of domestically produced Swiss cheese. The USDA reduced the standard size of the holes by half because new cheese-slicing machinery got caught on larger holes. The Swiss weren't pleased by the revised guidelines and insist that Emmentaler must have large holes. Considering how iconic those eyes are, we think they have a good point.



...also, what is the point at which couples switch into "we"? is it a gradual change? or is it after marriage? after engagement? what factors does it depend on? the couple themselves and how strong the relationship is? the personality of those involved in the couple? the context of the sentence? i ask these questions because abby left me a message the other day that said she was taking "the daughters of our friends to the orthodontist" ... granted, she's married, so the use of "our" is valid, if not anticipated. but, i do wonder. personally, i think i like the "our" .. but the "we" can get aggravating. "we think that.." ... no, you think that, and you discussed them, you agree on your thoughts (kirsten really came up with this theory, but i concur.. so maybe kirsten and i--we--think? ;) ... but, the "our" does have a nice ring to it.

p.s. can the we be used in other cases? such as the top of this paragraph, when i used "we" for "we wondered" ..? hm. how close does one have to be to a person to be a we?

what do we think?