ONE OF THE great things about covering quorum court for this newspaper is that I get to crash the annual informational lunch which the UA Cooperative Extension Service puts on for the court members. County Agent Jean Ince and her crew talk to the JPs about what the extension service and 4-H are doing for our citizens, our youth and our community.
One thing she mentioned at the luncheon this week was that the extension service was making an effort to get people back in the kitchen, preparing meals from scratch, and ‘broadening their horizons’ about the wide variety of food available to us.
Jean specifically mentioned asparagus, saying that we’d all be surprised at the number of persons who have never eaten asparagus.
Fine. That just leaves more for me.
There are certain things which I am not man enough to try. Like beets. English peas. Rooster fries.
I went to a Cajun festival once with one of my Looooisiana relations. He bought some stuff at the FFA Dad food stand on the midway. “Here, try this and then I’ll tell you what’s in it.”
Lucky for me it was boudin, a sausage casing which includes every thing from rice to chicken lips. You know, the Cajuns just don’t waste anything.
It was my first taste of boudin, and boy am I glad that he tricked me into trying it!
So I am now normally adventurous about food. I’ve eaten sushi, snails, prickly pear cactus petals, and rooster fries.
I liked three of the four.
All of this talk reminds me that, while a lot of you haven’t eaten asparagus, there’s also a lot of you who haven’t been to the Farmers’ Market and to the Nashville Organic Demonstration Garden.
You’ve got to go early before your smart neighbors buy up all of the garden-fresh produce.
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I LEARN A LOT from reading the online newsletter put out by Dollar Shave Club, of which I am a member.
One of the topics in their most recent offering was about changes our bodies undergo during summer.
Hair is one obvious thing that changes. Our hair color is determined by a thingy called Melanin. Sunlight breaks down Melanin causing hair color to lighten. This is especially vexing for us seniors who hate to see our nose and ear hairs turn even more silvery. Also, I suppose, it’s the reason most surfers are blonde.
Another part of our bodies which change during summer is our feet. We tend to be dehydrated and on our feet more during summer, and that causes our feet to retain water. That means swelling of the footsies.
Our brain also undergoes change. Our bodies want to sleep longer to rest up from being out in the heat. And when we go inside to an air conditioned space, the cool air tricks our bodies into thinking it’s bedtime. This is because our body temperature drops when we’re asleep.
Skin — we’ve got lots more dead skin in the summer due to exposure to the sun.
In my own case, there is a certain body change because of the increase in patio cookouts. Instead of having a healthful supper of watercress and beets, I have a steak with baked potato and caloric trimmings.
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THIS MAY HURT just a bit, the nurse said as she prepared to jerk strips of tape off my hairy chest (and other places).
I was in a Little Rock hospital where a bunch of people in white coats wanted to look inside my heart. Before they could do this, a nurse had to shave places where they would insert the Roto-Rooter and camera, and attach some electrodes. The whitecoats were going to first try to put the Roto into a vein in my wrist.
And if that didn’t work, they’d have to insert the Roto in my groin.
Yikes! Surely the wrist thing will work, I told myself hopefully.
Wrong!
So, I have no secrets from the shaving technician. She shaved many places on my body for placement of electrodes which would automatically forward video clips of the event to Facebook.
After it was all over, and she came back to my room, I was still woozy from a funny pill someone had given me, and so when she asked if I wanted her to EASE the tape off or JERK it off, I think I must have told her that she was really really ugly.
There is a price for freedom of speech.
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THINGS I LEARNED from opening (and believing) email: TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
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WORD GAMES. The twins: Love and Affection. Awwwww, ain’t they sweet together!
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HE SAID: “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer
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SHE SAID: “Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.” Marianne Williamson, American author and lecturer
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
