The world has lived in an age of expiration dates for about fifty years. Here in Australia, the legal requirement for manufacturers to include open date marking (including use-by dates) on packaged foods was introduced in 1978.
In my younger days, we used to sniff or lick it, and if it smelt all right or tasted all right, it was good enough to eat or drink. I performed this sniff-and-smell test on some of the stuff in the fridge, and several items failed on both counts. I really should drive down to the Bay to buy some fresh food, but since it's an awful morning and we're once again totally rained in, I shall wield the good ol' can-opener for yet another day.
There's no expiry date on food for thought, including books which make you think, and for the last few days I've been reading Bill Bryson's "At Home - A Short History of Private Life", which is history on a small scale writ large. As Bill Bryson writes, "What does history really consists of? Centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - sleeping, eating, having sex, endeavouring to get comfortable. And where did all these normal activities take place? At home." (I don't know about sex, but I've been trying very hard to get comfortable these last few day.)
At seven hundred pages thick, the book is quite a read, and I have been alternating between the printed book and the audiobook, and I'm still at it - after all, I also need to eat and have the occasional toilet break.
Neither the book nor the audiobook - which is read by the author himself - are available on the internet, but if you are fortunate enough (or unfortunate, as the case may be) to read Russian, you can read the Russian edition online. I guess, the Russian publishers are far too busy invading Ukraine to worry about their copyright at this very moment.
P.S. If you're lucky, you can find some of Bill Bryson's audiobooks on YouTube. I was: The Mother Tongue, A Short History of Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods, and The Body, Chapter and Chapter 2. If you know of some others, please let me know.
