Who said the cream always rises to the top

In fresh milk, why does cream rise to the top? Milk that is fresh from the cow, or unpasteurized, comes with the cream, all at once. Lighter things float to the surface. These microscopic fat globules become receptors for milk proteins. Once the damaged fat globules bond with milk proteins, the fat in milk becomes weighted down by the heavy protein, and is no longer light enough to rise to the top of a container, causing the milk to become a uniform mixture of protein and fat.

During transport of the milk from the farmer back to your home, the milk can get shook up and mixed with the cream. So, once you get your jars of milk home, put it in the fridge and wait for the cream to rise to the top.

This can take about 24 hours. They discovered you can blend the fat into the milk in mere minutes with a machine. They mostly wrote the recipes. But then these are not the kind of observations that anyone will ever put on an e-card, superimposed over an improbable sunrise or an adorable kitten.

It is the victors who wrote those inanities. My point is: when it was originally resolved that the cream rises to the top, there was not a lot of public consultation. That the cream always rises to the top was a fact established in a room that—wait a second—it was agreed upon in a room very much like this one. Look around the Carlu tonight, so many floors up.

There are people that art deco elevator failed to bring up here. I bet, given a chance, given a little boost, in 25 years that little girl could be standing right where I am right now, snarking up a storm. And I assure you there is cream there. There is so much cream there. I never think of myself as having been to the bottom: I have journeyed to the goddamned centre of the eclair.

I ask that you dismiss the self-congratulatory magical milk thinking that is being foisted upon you here tonight.

Let us free the terms of this debate, liberate that terminology — long ago co-opted from the very people who actually make the cheese. Day by day, brick by brick, improve your skill. Instead of comparing yourself to others — why not focus on improving yourself? Every day get a little bit better than the previous day.

If you are in the wrestling team like Chris was, I can imagine his coach telling the wrestlers, just keep at it. Focus on improving your skills, being more focused, more determined. Wanting it more than others. So are you churning? Are you hustling and bustling?