Content creator. Former stops NPR, Mutual Radio, NBC Radio, Unistar. Views my own. #billsmafia 716/14120 🇺🇸 Shadow Canadian
Washington, DC
Joined September 2012
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You’ll see all sorts of things — maybe unexpected — in my tweet stream. Here’s why. xitter.cf/nprscottsimon/status/9…
I despair when people say, "I don't listen to @NPR to hear..." (fill in with repellent opinion, music, sport, or literature you're sure offends you). NPR exists to bring you the world, challenge, surprise, inform, even outrage, not cosset the audience.
John Stempin retweeted
we are officially weeks away from the sun setting at 4:30 pm. please begin mentally preparing to eat your dinner in the pitch black.
John Stempin retweeted
Jet-Puffed marshmallows have blue dye in them. That's how they come out white.
The bag reads corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, modified cornstarch, water, then under 2% of gelatin, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, natural and artificial flavor and Blue 1. Blue 1 is last on the list.
Sugar foam isn't pure white on its own. Corn syrup and cooked sugar run a little yellow, and a trace of blue cancels yellow, so the eye sees the foam as bright white. It's the same reason why laundry detergent is blue, to make sheets look whiter. Campfire marshmallows list nearly the same ingredients without the Blue 1.
Kraft Heinz said last year it's pulling FD&C colors from everything it sells in the US by the end of 2027, so Jet-Puffed has about a year to work out how to look this white without it.
John Stempin retweeted
As a medical professional myself; I don’t work in Hematology but can someone with a brain explain to how multiple MDs advised Jalen hurts he was too ill to sleep but he was healthy enough to travel cross the pond on a flight for 7-8 hours with a blood clot and play a football game?? I have my masters in a medical field but this is fucking bananas and idk how this isn’t a lawsuit. The actual fuck is the Eagles medical staff doing?
John Stempin retweeted
I would just like to point out that this is a real thing that actually happened.
John Stempin retweeted
The Boomers who bought their homes for magic beans and now want to raise taxes on everyone else to pay for their social security while also not wanting to pay property taxes for their palatial estates should all be tossed in a volcano. One last luxury cruise for them.
“I’m old. I’ve paid my home off,” said Ray Warner, a 72-year-old Akron resident. “Why would I pay property tax?”
Across the country, homeowners are asking the same question and revolting against property taxes at a scale not seen in a half century.
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
John Stempin retweeted
Meta’s updated commercial terms could allow the company to scrape content from news publishers’ websites and potentially use it to train AI models without obtaining separate permission or paying licensing fees. Set to take effect on 30 October, the terms would apply to publishers using Meta business accounts on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
niemanlab.org/2026/10/metas-…
John Stempin retweeted
Something I’ll always remember about Noah was how frequently he would wash the team’s dirty dishes when he worked at NPR West. He was the perfect combination of humility, dignity, and grace. Journalism and the world could use so much more of that.
John Stempin retweeted
Having a train that takes you directly to the airport is genuinely one of the top 10 things a city can offer. No expensive taxis, no sitting in traffic, no begging someone to drop you off. Just get on the train and arrive at the airport. Every major city should have this.
John Stempin retweeted
A bowl of Raisin Bran has more sugar in it than a bowl of Froot Loops. 18 g against 12.
The Raisin Bran box reads whole grain wheat, raisins, wheat bran, sugar, brown sugar syrup, then under 2% of malt flavor and salt. A 1 cup serving is 59 g and 18 g of that is sugar. 9 g comes from the raisins and 9 g is added. Froot Loops is 39 g a serving with 12 g of sugar, all of it added.
Put them on the same scale and Raisin Bran is 30% sugar by weight, Froot Loops is 31% and Frosted Flakes is 32%. Cheerios is 5%.
John Stempin retweeted
The biggest supplier of apple juice to the United States is Turkey. The bottle tells you, in the smallest print on the label.
Apple juice at the store is concentrate and water. A lot of the concentrate is imported, and customs law makes the bottler print which countries it came from. Flip the bottle and read the line under the ingredients.
In 2010, 80% of the apple juice America imported came from China. The tariffs on Chinese concentrate cut that to about 30%, and Turkey has shipped more apple juice to the US than any other country every year since 2022. USDA put 2025 imports at 351 million gallons, the lowest since 2002, with Turkey at 39% and China at 31%.
Tree Top prints 100% USA apples on the front because it presses Washington apples. Martinelli's says 100% US grown on its label. If the bottle in your fridge doesn't say that, the list on the back says where it came from.
John Stempin retweeted
Noah radiated decency; his keen insight informed what became NPR's original sound; his interest in places far from power enriched our understanding of the nation and its people.
Lovely tribute from @scottdetrow
npr.org/2026/10/18/nx-s1-555…
Word reached me today that retired NPR host Noah Adams passed away Friday.
We were not close, but Noah unintentionally showed me one of life's most important lessons. It said a lot about him so I'd like to share.
It was Thanksgiving in our brand new HQ on Mass Avenue. On Thanksgiving my routine was eating in the afternoon with family and then napping before my nightshift. I'd make it to work right at my starting time because the news was slim, what the White House served for dinner and football games.
I got there at 9 and went straight to the cafeteria to buy a soda pop before my shift. When I got there I found Noah on his hands and knees scraping the floor with a small, straight edged razor blade we usually used to cut tape.
In those days, the All Things Considered staff threw a “family” Thanksgiving dinner. Here it was, hours later, and Noah was still there. Noah’s job, typically, was to roast the turkey not cleaning up.
He was scraping smooshed stuffing from the floor. I was shocked. One of the most famous broadcasters in all of public radio was under a table cleaning.
“Noah,” I asked, is everything ok?” “Yes,” Noah said, “I promised Murray I would leave the cafeteria the way I found it.” Murray was our building and infrastructure guy. All at once I felt insignificant in the face of Noah’s gesture. I stammered an apology about needing to be in the newsroom and he told me it was ok.
I still reflect on that moment. I knew the lessons but came away with an adult’s understanding. Leadership. Integrity. Caring for everyone in your universe no matter their station in life. Humility. The list goes on. Every time I think about that brief encounter I realize something new.
Thank you, Noah, for having such an impact on me. Among my treasured memories, you are among the top.
John Stempin retweeted
As the famous Op-Ed once said
xitter.cf/WSJ/status/12513522807…
Should everyone go back to work? Or stay at home forever? A dog and a cat debate the reopening of America. Via @JasonGay on.wsj.com/2KgQWEB
John Stempin retweeted
A Knorr chicken bouillon cube has no chicken in it. There's chicken fat, 8th on the list, behind 2 kinds of palm oil.
The cube reads salt, monosodium glutamate, palm oil, corn starch, hydrogenated palm oil, sugar, xanthan gum, chicken fat, natural flavor, water, turmeric, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, maltodextrin, dehydrated parsley, spices, caramel color and TBHQ. Half a cube makes 1 cup of broth and carries 1,110 mg of sodium, 48% of your day.
The savory part is the MSG with the 2 disodiums behind it, which make a little chicken fat taste like a pot of stock. The 2 palm oils are the cube itself. They hold the salt and starch in a block that melts when it hits hot water, and the TBHQ keeps that fat from going rancid in the box. Turmeric and caramel color make the yellow.
Maggi's cube does list dried chicken, under 2%. Better Than Bouillon lists roasted chicken first, which is why it comes as a paste in a jar and not a cube.
John Stempin retweeted
Every day I log on and learn something new and insane about the US food system. This is one of the best accounts around right now for revealing everything that's wrong with the way food is made and sold in the US.
Costco blade tenderizes its steaks. The label says so, and it's the reason a Costco steak comes with a cooking temperature printed on it.
Before the steak hits the case it goes through a machine that pushes rows of thin blades into the meat to cut the muscle fibers, so a Choice steak eats more tender than it would on its own. You can't see the cuts once it's done, except sometimes in the fat on a ribeye.
The catch is what rides in on the blades. E. coli lives on the outside of a cut of beef, which is why a rare steak is normally safe. The sear kills what's on the surface and the inside was never exposed. Push that surface into the middle with a blade and rare isn't safe anymore. That's why USDA says a mechanically tenderized steak gets cooked to 145F with a 3 minute rest, the same number as a pork chop, where a steak that wasn't tenderized carries no cooking instruction at all.
USDA figures about 11% of the beef sold in the US is mechanically tenderized, and since 2016 the words have to be on the label. Costco started printing them in 2012, after an E. coli outbreak in Canada was traced to its blade tenderized steaks. The ground beef isn't tenderized. If the package in your cart says blade tenderized or mechanically tenderized, cook it through.
John Stempin retweeted
Can we PLEASE normalize just hanging out at each other’s houses again? Why does every friendship meetup need to be a whole production, a restaurant reservation, and a $150 bill? I just want to sit on your couch, drink something, and talk for hours.
John Stempin retweeted
Footage from @bkbrey shows the aftermath of the large fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta, following an incident where a live fire exercise triggered a massive explosion. So far 7 have been reported killed with others injured in the serious incident.
Numerous unconfirmed reports also indicate that additional military medical and/or emergency personnel were parachuted in to help aid in the response.
More to come.