Dear Members Of Congress

Dear Members of Congress:

These are busy days, scheduling television and radio talking head appearances and face time with local constituents at fundraising galas, I know, but I'd like to beg a few moments of your time to talk about something I still consider to be important:  your jobs.

You know, the ones you aren't actually doing these days.

The job for which you were elected, while promising to faithfully serve the interests of your constituents while secretly, in your greedy little heart, thinking about how that very same job could serve the interests of you and all of your political posse of hangers on.

The jobs we, the American voting public, are paying for with our own hard-earned tax dollars. 

I'd say we aren't exactly getting value for our money out of the lot of you in Congress, wouldn't you agree?  Worse, I'd say that the bulk of you took your oath of office without pausing to even listen or consider the words that you were mouthing, with your hand placed solemnly on a Bible while cameras clicked away to remember your moment for all eternity in commemorative fundraising brochures. 

Be honest, with me and with yourself, you were standing there thinking about the style of font and color of paper for that fundraising brochure, weren't you?  And, moreover, how much money you would begin to raise with those very first shots for your next election cycle.

This is what we have become:  a nation of leaders who don't lead, and voters who are voting for empty placeholders who do nothing but chase campaign coffer money down the next election cycle rabbit hole.

Child Poverty And The Myth Of Supporting "Family Values"

"To us, it's just how we live. You don't get to make choices in how you live."

Challenge your members of Congress to live for a week on a poverty line budget.  No cheating, and no help from any food stamps or food pantries since they feel that their budgets need to be cut.  See if they can survive it (and no cheating by snacking on fancy canapes at lobbyist-paid cocktail parties and junkets, either!).  

The switchboard on the Hill is (202) 224-3121. The nice folks on the line can connect you to your Senators and your Representative.  Raise your voice.

Right now in the United States, a child is waking up with an empty stomach and no food in the house to help fill it.  He woke up the same way yesterday, and will probably wake up the same way tomorrow.  He goes to bed hungry, he wakes up hungry, day in, day out.

He is three, and he knows nothing else but that this as his life.

He didn't ask to be born into this family.  He is not getting remotely enough nutrition to feed his growing brain, and because of the nutrient deficits, his brain is not developing its maximum potential...and will not if things do not change.

He starts his life out behind the curve, because poor nutrition for his mother while he was in the womb already put his brain development as well as his systemic development behind the curve.  If he is to make up any ground and catch up with his peers, he needs a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables and good proteins and foods with omega-3 fatty acids.

Imagine being that child.

The food stamp program, or SNAP, helps to cover this gap for millions of children in this country every single day, children who did not ask to be born to a family living in poverty.  If the House GOP gets their way with the current Farm Bill, millions of children will have that safety net ripped out from under them.  I say that giving lip service to "family values" in your stump speeches while pulling the floor out from under the children who most desperately need help is a pretty piss poor way to walk your talk.

The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just completed a broad study of the impact of these proposed cuts and their broader budgetary and social implications.  The consequences are starkly dire for the nearly 5.1 million people, including a whole lot of desperately hungry children out of the 16 million living in poverty right now in the US of A, who would be cut from food assistance at a time when poverty issues for the poorest of the poor are reaching crisis levels in this country (via the NYTimes):

The Heart Of Democracy Is You

Wouldn't it be wonderful if, just once in my lifetime, I could cast my ballot as a citizen with my head held high?

That I could vote with confidence that it was absolutely, positively being cast for a person who not only earned that vote completely with their strength of character and commitment to justice and liberty and everything that is working toward the best of working toward our "more perfect union?"

And that I could be assured that the candidate receiving my vote would also continue to earn it every day, striving to do better for the good of all?

What if we could all cast every vote on our ballots for such candidates, for every office?  We all need to be more involved in this experiment of citizen-run government we call the United States of America.  Not just for our sakes, but for all the generations to come.

This is OUR government.  For good or for ill, it reflects what we are asking of it, what we are demanding...and right now, it sure doesn't seem like we are demanding nearly enough from our elected officials or from ourselves.

To quote Bobby Kennedy's superb Day of Affirmation speech from 1966:

At the heart of that western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man, the child of God, is the touchstone of value, and all society, all groups, and states, exist for that person's benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and the abiding practice of any western society.

The first element of this individual liberty is the freedom of speech; the right to express and communicate ideas, to set oneself apart from the dumb beasts of field and forest; the right to recall governments to their duties and obligations; above all, the right to affirm one's membership and allegiance to the body politic - to society - to the men with whom we share our land, our heritage and our children's future.

Pettiness At SCOTUS After The Health Care Decision?

This analysis and insight from Jan Crawford is some of the best that I have seen on the recent SCOTUS decision on the health care law.

Eons ago, I did a wonderful book chat with Jan about her well-written Supreme Court tome, Supreme Conflict.

It is worth a read again, for folks trying to parse the current SCOTUS health care decision (link found via the wonderful folks at SCOTUSblog) in contrast to Jan's recent health care law article, if only for her behind-the-scenes glimpses culled from the papers and notes of former justices and interviews with sitting and retired justices as well as staffers that proved surprisingly candid and full of intrigue on closed door back and forths.

One of the key things that I came away with after having read the book is how much stock Justice Anthony Kennedy puts in being considered "one of the cool kids" on some level, and how he likes being the justice who gets courted for his super-important, primo vote in a close case. 

Even more interesting, how much more important it is to Justice Kennedy that he is thought of this way by folks outside the rare air of the Court and upper levels of the judicial system itself, and that his judicial legacy is a prime consideration for both him, as a justice and historical figure, but also for a number of his clerks who jealously guard his legacy even after they no longer work for him -- as their legal career trajectory is tied in ways to his importance within the legal community.  This has always been the case for federal clerks at the Court, although some justices cultivate that mindset more than others and for different reasons. 

The ones who engender that loyalty because they are fantastic bosses and thoughtful, challenging jurists have always been the ones that interested me most -- Justices Stevens and Marshall spring to the fore of my mind here, because both had and still have incredibly loyal former clerks who loved their bosses as much as human beings as they did as judicial scholars.

The ones who demand fealty and petty enforcement, though?  Those are the ones to watch closely, especially in an after-decision public relations knife fight.

This passage, from Jan's current article, is a key one in that regard:

Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy - believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law - led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold.

"He was relentless," one source said of Kennedy's efforts. "He was very engaged in this."

That bit was clearly culled from someone close to the court.  I have to wonder if it was someone on Kennedy's staff, or someone on Roberts' staff trying to paint Kennedy as an irritant, it's so hard to tell here.  Or is it some other justice or staffer from one camp or the other trying to curry favor and/or put someone else's nose out of joint at the same time?  Or all of the above?

Shakespearean in its petty scope and "juvenile behavior by adults who should behave better in the national interest," isn't it? 

Then, add that to this petulant little nugget:

Let's All Make A Pact...

As the politically crazy season gears up for all-out, knock down, drag out verbal nastiness and warfare, let's all make a pact together:

I will not forward political e-mails to my friends and family. No matter how tempting, salacious, button-pushing or angry they may be, I will not forward them around. I will not hit send. 

These irritating spam e-mails will die a withering and ignored death in obscurity after being consigned to my SPAM folder for all eternity.

I hereby pledge to be part of the solution by deleting crapola and refusing to spread it to anyone else. I hereby pledge to perform this desperately need public service by refusing to forward any and all political e-mail malarky.

Wouldn't our world be a better place if we all signed on for this as election season crashes over all of us in the next few months?

Be a patriot.  Do not forward.  Your friends and family will thank you.

Dear Members of Congress...

Dear Members of Congress:

How about taking a walk in someone else's shoes?

You know, the folks who aren't dining out for lunch on lobbyist expense account dollars or dinner at some fancy foundation-palooza?

Instead, take a walk on the other side of the tracks.  In the honestly worn to a frazzle shoes of the hardworking folks in your constituency who are sometimes working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet and still barely scraping by or the tattered hand-me-down sneakers worn by children in your districts or states who go to bed hungry every night dreaming of the free school breakfast that will once again fill their belly the next day when there is nothing left to eat in their own house.

And then think about this:  summer is coming for those children who, unfortunately, did not get to select the house into which they were born.  By threatening to cut off food program subsidies, what kind of summer will they have through no fault of their own but an accident of birth?

Do you think these children can afford to buy a lobbyist to badger you about their hunger and offer you campaign cash to get your attention?  Does that mean that their needs are less important if they can't?  Or does it make them more important?

Does that sort of question even get asked any more in D.C.?

I've written time and time again about children's hunger and poverty issues in this country.  They are real and they are incredibly difficult...and they touch a lot of families in this nation of ours.

Open your eyes and your hearts just a crack, Members of Congress, and honestly take a walk in the shoes of a child whose family has to live on a food stamp budget.  And then tell me that child's hunger isn't worth helping out.

This is my challenge to every elected official in DC:  live on a food stamp budget for a week.  Have your whole family do so.  No cheating.  No fundraising dinners at star-studded mansion soirees filled with canapes and cocktails subbing in as a meal unless you tally the costs in your total weekly food budget.

Reliving 9/11 With Our 8 Year Old

Our daughter is eight years old, and was thus not alive when the attacks on September 11th happened in 2001.

In the lead-up to the tenth anniversary tomorrow, there has been a substantial uptick in images from the attacks showing up at random on television, even on the usually more sedate children's channels like Nickelodeon.  Which has led to some interesting questions from The Peanut of late.

I've been struggling on how to make something so horribly complex, difficult, and emotionally tough as the attacks on 9/11 make sense to our child who has only really experienced the aftermath.

I am finding that the images of that day bring back some serious raw emotion for me -- I can clearly remember sitting on our couch in the living room in shock, as they replayed the footage of the planes hitting the towers over and over and over again, or of people escaping the flaming remnants of the Pentagon.

Then there is the pain of loss that any of us carry who knew someone who perished.  I can clearly recall finding out that a girl that I had known in elementary school, whose mother was one that I'd known in our community the entire time I was growing up, and whose older sister I had played with on the playground a lot as a kid...that this beautiful, young girl had been killed, her gentle, glowing smile forever gone in the horrific attack.   I'd known her only a bit, but it was a sharp, gnawing pain for me.

When you consider how painful it must have been for those who lost a parent or child?  Or whole units of friends in public service jobs?  It just becomes brutally crushing.

At the time of the attacks, I was working as an assistant prosecutor, dealing every single day with police officers and other emergency services providers on the front lines of community protection.  So the ever-mounting losses of the NYPD and the NYFD were starkly real for me -- and for every other American who worked in any sort of law enforcement or public service capacity.  These were all of our brothers and sisters.

Since that day, we have sent so many of our nation's uniformed finest into harm's way -- in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and too many other places by and between for fueling and supply chain management...including members of my own family and too many friends to count.

Fascinating Stuff

Gloria Steinem has always been a bit of a lightning rod in this country. Whether you like her or not tends to be a litmus test of your political persuasion...or your gender...or some combination of the two.

I've always found her fascinating, not the least of which because she is a fellow Smith College graduate.

I met her in passing at a cocktail party the year that I graduated from Smith, and I was incoherent and babbling because her charisma really does come off in waves in person. It's astonishing. The only other person I've ever met like that is Bill Clinton (with whom I was, happily, not incoherent during our meeting as we got into a bit of a policy argument at the time).

I've always regretted being a babbling idiot and not getting to speak with her a little about what makes Gloria such a polarizing icon, and whether she had any idea whatsoever of what she was embarking on at the start.  My guess is that it was a roller coaster ride started by something that ticked her off. 

HBO's new documentary, "Gloria: In Her Own Words," looks like it will be an exploration of that "could have been" conversation.  And this time, I'll be able to sit back and watch with a cuppa tea and no pressure.  I'll be setting my TIVO.

UPDATE:  More background here.

Matt Damon On Teachers And Education

Now this is a conversation worth having.

Huge thank you to Matt Damon for starting it off recently:

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all come from how I was parented and taught.

And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned ... none of these qualities that make me who I am ... can be tested.

I said before that I had incredible teachers. And that’s true. But it’s more than that. My teachers were EMPOWERED to teach me. Their time wasn’t taken up with a bunch of test prep — this silly drill and kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn’t promote real learning. No, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. They took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us. They were empowered to unlock our potential. They were allowed to be teachers.

What do you think?

I'm pretty sure that my mother, who taught for 30+ years in the public schools, thought that all the teaching to the test was a bunch of hooey and got in the way of her actually doing the job that she loved as well as she used to be able to do it.  And that all the "push the test" mentality did was to push her toward retirement that much faster.

You certainly don't get creative thought process and innovation from memorizing the best way to tackle a multiple choice question, at least not in my book. 

Welcome To The Communal Trough: Budget Talks Still Stalled

The budget impasse continues this morning.  I'm disgusted by the lack of real leadership from any corner.  But I cannot say that I am at all surprised, just severely disappointed in everyone and everything in our entire political morass at the moment.

Buried in a little corner of infotainment passing as journalism at the NYTimes this morning, I stumbled across a nugget that pretty much explains it all:

Wall Street is no longer watching from the sidelines as the most polarizing political fight in years plays out on Capitol Hill. In the last few days, top executives have been in close contact with Washington in a last-ditch attempt to prod lawmakers toward a compromise by Tuesday, the administration’s deadline to reach a deal.

On Friday, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, raised concerns with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner about the standoff over the debt ceiling and its potential to disrupt the system through which JP Morgan and other big banks disburse federal payments. Mr. Geithner assured him that the Treasury and Federal Reserve had taken steps to keep the payment system functioning smoothly, according to individuals briefed on the call.

You see what I'm saying here, right?

Wall Street has not watched anything from the sidelines EVER in the history of government in this country.

Lobbyists make piles and piles of money every year for a reason -- it is profitable to have your hand in every pie in Washington at all times. Always has been, always will be. And Wall Street is all about the profit.  Always has been, always will be.

When journalists gloss over the obvious and don't bother to ask the difficult questions, we all lose.  And that's been happening far, far too often for my comfort level lately.

Sure is nice for Jamie Dimon that he can get Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on the phone for a confab, isn't it?  Think I'll just call up as an average citizen and see if I can't do the same, right?  (Oh, I cracked myself up on that one.)

Someone needs to ask the following out loud:  who benefits from all of this public kabuki and hand-wringing?  What is getting done behind the scenes of all this confusion, because you know that someone is working the lines around the back doors, so what are they being offered and why? And, more importantly, by whom?  Because following the money trail is almost always the best way to find the motive, opportunity and intent of the actions on The Hill.

Also, why is there such a public lack of consequence for self-dealing behavior by elected officials who ostensibly work for us?  I'd argue partly because no one bothers to ask these questions publicly in the first place. 

You know who doesn't benefit from any of this? You, me and every other regular person I know.

Creativity As A Spiritual Practice

The above clip is Julia Cameron talking about her theories on the intersection of creativity and spirituality.  For her, creative impulse comes from God -- or whatever spiritual entity or impulse you have within you if that gives you some sort of squicky feeling, so don't get squirmy about this just yet.

What she means is that this comes from our inner voice, our deepest selves, our soul motivation, and it is an expression of that which is best in us.

But it is what Julia says in this clip and in her Artist's Way books about needing to fortify and nurture this creative spirit that most applies to me at the moment, I think -- because it is something I've always taken for granted while I push myself until I'm flat out dry. In the above clip, Julia says this:

When someone who is officially on a spiritual path picks the toolkit up, it often works very well because they are already willing. You know, on a spiritual path, you go through dark nights of the soul. And I think my toolkit is very helpful for walking through difficult times: it refills the well that is being fished out of when you are trying to help so many people. One thing that I think is important is that it says "be a little bit selfish." And I think that is wonderful advice for people who are in the field because they run the jeopardy of being burned out from over-giving, so this creates a balance....

Odds And Ends

Today is errand day for me -- lots to do, drop off, sort out and such that I put off over the weekend while we were doing family stuff together.  Funny how things pile up when you aren't actively tending them, isn't it?

In any case, here are a few odds and ends that have been occupying me of late:

-- New favorite breakfast:  a whole wheat bagel thin (Have you discovered these yet?  I love them!), toasted and topped with a 1 oz., single-serving container of Weight Watchers lowfat cream cheese and some smoked salmon.  Delicious, easy and not so calorie-filled and awful that I feel sluggish after eating it.  Yay!

--  Funds for school lunch programs for the poor are getting cut here, there and everywhere.  As I've said before many times, childhood nutrition is essential to developing brains and these kids did not ask to be born into poor and struggling families.  If they aren't being fed at school, most of them are going hungry, and where does that leave them in the long run?  Even further behind.  Desperation is not exactly an excellent start for a lifetime, now is it?

-- I do not understand these Real Housewives people.  Superficiality mystifies me, always has.  But what I really don't understand?  Is why anyone would watch them and want to be like them. Plasticity and shallowness?  Not something to aspire to in my book, but maybe that's just me. 

-- Oooh, Tosca Reno has a couple of new books coming out this year -- yay, more yummy, healthy recipes!

The Eat-Clean Diet Stripped: Peel Off Those Last 10 Pounds!, and

The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook 2: More Great-Tasting Recipes That Keep You Lean

Can't wait!

A Clear-Eyed View

Alas, for all of us, politics and common sense do not often meet in the middle in much of anything these days.

But occasionally?  Miracles do happen.  Via Marion Nestle:

The new guidelines recognize that obesity is the number-one public health nutrition problem in America and actually give good advice about what to do about it: eat less and eat better. For the first time, the guidelines make it clear that eating less is a priority.

Why is it such a miracle that the national dietary guidelines would say something so obvious when we have a nation faced with a serious obesity problem?

A Few Moments Of Whimsy

On an otherwise dreary, soggy day, I thought a little whimsy and some laughs might be good for everyone.

And so?  I share some links of interest -- sprinkled with some amusement -- for us all:

-- Only in New Yawk.

-- The bottom line about packaged "healthy" foods for kids?  Most aren't so healthy.  And while we're talking food, let's hear a round of applause for the GAO talking tough about real food standards for a change.  About time.

-- If you had to sum up your goals for this year in one word, what would it be?   Not as easy as it sounds at first, is it?

-- I admit it.  I am wholly addicted to Bookshelf Porn.  (And I want to peruse Karl Lagerfeld's personal library.  It's amazing.)

-- And now for another episode in Unfortunate Lessons in Flash Photography.  It's called a camisole, check into it.

-- While I'm thinking about it, so sad.  And not in a good way.  Just saying. And also?  No.  Just...no.

-- I love The Onion.

What's making you laugh today?  Do share...

(Gorgeous photo via ecstaticist.  Love this!)

Can I Hear An Amen?

Less of the "it's all about me" brand of politics and more of this, please:

But what we can't do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together....

We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame – but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others.

That process of reflection, of making sure we align our values with our actions – that, I believe, is what a tragedy like this requires....

If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost. Let's make sure it's not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.

I wish that I could believe that we will all now turn to the better angels of our natures and think about the political and public sphere in terms of "us" rather than "us vs. them," but we won't.

Not spontaneously, anyway.

What I do hope for, however, is that everyone who has learned the lesson of what you can say versus what you ought to (or ought not to) say will be willing to speak out now when someone crosses a line.  That could, after all, make an enormous difference in what boundaries people try to push going forward.

The Ebb and Flow of Public Discourse

Words matter.  And incendiary words, especially, can stir both the passions and actions of people who are more susceptible to manipulation.  Particularly when those words are being not only condoned, but repeated and approved of, by people in power who have a much, much larger and broader microphone to reach out to the public.

But, you might argue, the 1st Amendment protects all speech, even the kind that makes your blood boil or makes you embarrassed to even acknowledge the speaker of it as a fellow human being.  Absolutely true.

The difference, then, is the vast gulf between what can be spoken and what ought to be spoken.  A question of decency, manners and a sense of responsibility to not begin a stampede in an entirely wrong direction make all the difference in the world, and ought to at least be expected from someone who might claim whatever piece of a mantle of leadership may exist in these days of political fragmentation.

When Violence Strikes

Today, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot -- point blank -- at a constituent services meeting in the parking lot of a local Tucson Safeway.

A young man who had been a Giffords election volunteer -- and who was in town on break from Georgetown and helping out at the constituent meeting just to see old friends -- had the following to say:

"It’s clear that this is a contentious district. Passions run deep on these issues, so much so that somebody would be compelled to do something like this,” he said. “However, the kind of bickering that happens on a day-to-day basis never reaches physical violence.

"This is unprecedented — and it’s going to send shockwaves throughout the country."

It certainly should send shockwaves across a country whose political landscape has been dotted with such irresponsible acts as placing gunsight target graphics beside Congressional names -- including that of  Gabby Gifford -- in Sarah Palin's high profile political ads last cycle.

Condoning threats of violence, inciting violence and stoking that fervor for political gain?  It is unacceptable.  Period.  I don't care who is stoking it, it is just plain wrong and it is well past time for every rational, decent person in this country to stand up and say so.

Parsing SCOTUS Temperament

As any attorney who has spent time actually practicing law in a courtroom can tell you:  know your judge.

That includes knowing their moods, peeves, pet issues, case law trigger arguments, even the schedule of their favorite sports teams and recent win-loss records before you ever walk into the courtroom for an argument or a hearing.

If you know their legal practice histories, what motivates their intellectual passions, what pushes their judicial buttons?  You can almost always find a way to more effectively drive the argument in court.

Why bring this up?  Because Adam Liptak in today's NYTimes concentrates up front on Justice Sonia Sotomayor showing evidence of...gasp...empathy in her opinions because she considers individual and constitutional rights versus the powers of the state in a couple of recent dissents from denials of certiorari at the SCOTUS.

Who hasn't considered the human angle in a case as they went through the factual basis background?  I mean, honestly?!?

Justice Alito does as well, he just considers it from the "worst of human action" perspective and empathizes with victims, and turning away from the vast powers of the state as infringing on individual liberties as also being a potential threat.

Perspective, here, is everything.

In Justice Sotomayor's case, she's merely continuing a strain of jurisprudential analysis that Justices Stevens, Marshall, and Brennan continued before her. 

Blah Blah Blah, Says Joe Manchin

Dear Sen. Joe:

Having trouble meeting up with family?  Well, I am sadly going to have to call bull-hockey on your excuses.

There's this newfangled thing I like to call a train.  It's run by some nice folks at Amtrak (you should familiarize yourself with them, since as a Senator now you'll have to vote -- or not show up for a vote, as the case may be -- on their budget at some point.

Cooking Up A Batch Of Primordial Soup

As I was pulling yesterday's Julia Child YouTube, I stumbled across a real gem: Julia discussing "primordial soup" and the origins of life for the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.  This apparently aired from 1976 until the gallery closed.

Wow, is this a hoot. I had to share it.

Thought I'd share a few links of recent finds and intriguing bits:

-- Love the landscaping on this blog.  I want to move into several of these photos, don't you?

-- Ever wonder about the intersection of food, politics, and rise in obesity?  Marion Nestle has some fascinating insights on this.

-- Speaking of Marion reminds me of one of my favorite cookbooks, written by a friend of hers, Martha Rose Shulman.  If you love good cuisine, and want to eat more healthfully, might I suggest Mediterranean Light: Delicious Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine?

--Say it with me:  "pimp style" is decidedly not hawt.

-- Weight Watchers has apparently upended their points system diet plan.  There is going to be some serious confusion and crabbiness among the masses.  (And Weight Watchers is going to make a mint selling all new books, which is probably part of the point, no pun intended.)  If it leads people to choose real food over processed, that's probably a good thing overall, right?


-- And for your not healthy cuisine munching pleasure?  This one's for Toni:  the polvorones recipe we used yesterday to make cookies with sprinkles on them.  I used to make them like Mexican wedding cake cookies -- with ground nuts in the dough and powdered sugar outside.  But The Peanut doesn't like nuts, so I searched around to find a recipe without them.  This turned out well -- we added a little cinnamon to the dough, too.


So what's catching your eye today?  Do tell...