Support4Change Blog

January 21, 2007

Category: Commentary on Life Today

By Arlene Harder, MA, MFT
 

After coming back from my long trip down under, I’m still getting organized and putting together the first set of questions for the start of the Q-and-A Club on January 22. In the meantime, I don’t want to ignore the blog. So in addition to adding a few thanks in the Gratitude Every Morning section, I’ve chosen a quick topic for the day.

It comes about because my friend Chris is living with us temporarily and held down the fort while we were gone. I knew that if she saved all of the Los Angeles Times for a month I’d be tempted to read them all when I got back. So I had her cut out and save only the two most important parts of the paper—the editorial section and the comics. In going through the latter, I found several that will make good quick topics for the blog.

The one I’ve chosen today comes from  the comic strip for Dec. 21, 2006 of “Mallard Fillmore.” The cartoonist, Bruce Tinsley, has some pretty strong opinions on almost every topic, and labeled this one Mallard’s Worst “Holiday” Food #41:

Top-of-the-stove “stuffing.”

So easy to make, it’s incredible!
The taste, though, is rather regrettable…
So keep the container, and toss the remainder,
‘cause who knows?
The box may be edible.

Now, it’s been awhile since I’ve had stove-top stuffing so I don’t remember if it’s really as bad as all that. When you look at this advertisement for stove-top stuffing it doesn’t look too bad, though, does it? Without the turkey and the garnish of oranges, a pile of wet bread would look rather pathetic. So this gives me an idea for my question for the day. It’s not a Q-and-A Club question, just a question of curiosity.

What food do you think looks as though it would be good, but is not?

I can tell you a food that doesn’t sound good or look good and, in my opinion, doesn’t taste good. Vegemite. We were introduced to it as a condiment in Australia and New Zealand breakfasts. There, in the basket of small packets of jams and jellies was one labeled Vegemite. Essentially it’s a gooey mix of vitamins, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate in a brown paste. It clearly is something you have to get used to over a long period of time. Just imagine taking vitamins, adding water, mushing them up,and spreading them on bread. Yuck!

Incidentally, here’s something that’s not related to this question at all, but it’s a suggestion you may want to keep in mind the next time you go away. Because Chris was here, she was able to notice a burst pipe in the bathroom and get it fixed while we were thousands of miles away—oblivious of the problem and unable to do anything about it. I highly recommend you consider similar checks on your property when you’re out of town. Another friend of mine was visiting us a couple years ago and got a call from the young man who came to feed her dogs. As he walked up to the front door, water was running onto the porch. In less than a day a broken water pipe (same problem as ours) cost her months of grief, $2,000 out of her pocket and $30,000 from the insurance company.

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