It's all about me

A couple of updates:

Sure, you can argue with me, and we can get a great blogging debate going about the serious issues affecting Fort Wayne and the world. But wouldn't you really rather hug me?

With another school year coming up, watch for lots of stories about the terrible food in cafeterias. Here's one from Newsweek about the movement to improve what students eat. That's fine, I suppose, but salad bars? Skim milk? Childhood obesity is a problem, acknowledged; turn off the TVs and the video games, and run the kids around the block a few times, and make sure school includes gym class. But don't try to take away every morsel of junk food that makes childhood worthwhile.

You can't trust anything you read on-line, because bloggers are just a bunch of nerds in pajamas, typing away in the middle of the night without editors or fact-checkers. Newspapers and TV news operations are arrogant elitists still trying to filter information for people who want to decide for themselves what's important.

I attended my high school class reunion Saturday night. For some reason, they asked me to be the guest speaker and talk about veterans. Here it is (Download my_speech.pdf), if you care to read it. The all-caps stuff is what I planned to emphasize by tone or inflection. Don't know if I actually did -- just be glad you didn't have to listen to my sweaty-palms, stammering performance.

One of the truisms of cooking is that there is no such thing as too much garlic. One of the truisms of life is that there is no such thing as too much chocolate. One of my favorite candy bars (at least in the top five) was Forever Yours, a bar of dark-chocolate perfection that was, unfortunately, taken off the market (isn't that always the way?). I despaired for years until a suitable substitute was introduced -- Milky Way Midnight. I found, in whining about such inequities, surprisingly little sympathy, even among chocolate lovers.

There was still a moderate drizzle when I snapped this shot on Broadway near Taylor a little after 2 p.m. yesterday. One of the pleasures of living in an, um, complex-weather region is the first cool summer rain after a long hot and dry spell, even if the temperature does shoot back up half an hour after it stops.

Here's one of those famous USA Today factoid snapshots, on favorite food pairs, with spaghetti and meatballs winning (use the left and right arrows to find the right one). Unfortunately, coffee and donuts, the breakfast of the gods, did not make the list.

I love the Web. It was just Monday, in a post on the death of novelist Evan Hunter, when I wrote this:

On the down side, he is said to have helped Alfred Hitchcock with the screenplay for "The Birds," the master-of-suspense director's most infuriating movie. Where did the birds come from? Why did they start attacking people? Why did they stop? I need closure!

I do a feature for the Saturday editorial page called "Snob words," the noble purpose of which is to give people who want to show off the vocabulary to do it with. Last Saturday, I spotlighted prandial, "of or relating to a meal, especially dinner," and provided the helpful example, "A postprandial cigar is better than an antemeridian kick in the pants." Then I went one step too far and provided the bonus word "antemeridian: before noon." This prompted an e-mail from M.J. Guzek of Craigville, who pointed out that: