We had a horrific experience today. It was nearly Gothic in a gory, terrible sense. And it might not be over.
After noon noon I was making an elaborate lunch for my family, plus our splendid neighbors, Tammy and Erik. I had finished baking buttermilk bread, had chicken in the oven, and was prepping a series of omelettes. I took an unopened sausage package out of the fridge, slit open the top, reached inside...
...and noticed a gleam of metal, not one-quarter of an inch from my finger.
A needle. More than one inch long. And sharp.
I looked up from the barely-opened package at my friends, my wife, and my children, as the frying pan sizzled with the last pieces of the previous sausage package. Then I washed my hands, so I could get the camera.
We had bought the sausage from Shaw's, their store in Middlebury, where we've shopped for years. The brand is Wild Harvest. So I called that store to alert them. The manager expressed dismay, and asked me to bring the package down.
We arrived at the store around 4 pm, and spoke with staff. They assured us that Shaw's would investigate the matter immediately, testing to see if there were any other cases of this. They pulled the rest of that sausage off the shelves. We are expecting a call within two days.
I also took this to the Web. First, I Twittered about it (starting here). Second, I asked friends in the Brainstorms community for feedback. Good advice came from both, for which I'm thankful. Third, I hit the Shaw's "contact us" page.
Several friends pointed out recent stories about needles in food in Australia and Japan. That's a bit nervous-making.
What next? Talking with our lawyer. Posting a couple of images to Flickr. Waiting to hear back from Shaw's. Trying not to think about what an inch of sharp metal would have done to my tongue, or gums, or cheeks. Or, far worse, for my wife, or children, or friends. And hoping that this is an isolated event, an accident or a freak act of one-time sabotage.
I'll blog more as this goes on.
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