Eating Like An Aphid

But first . . .

WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST

Seventy percent of the folks who voted to reelect George W. Bush believed Iraq was complicit in the 9/11 attack — even though it was not.  Some large percentage believed that “by far the vast majority” of Bush’s proposed tax cuts would go to “people at the bottom of the ladder” — a multi-trillion-dollar lie — yet disbelieved Al Gore’s warning about climate change, even though virutally the entire scientific community shared his concern.  And some percentage believe today that — in the words of Mitch McConnell — “by any standard, Barack Obama has been a disaster for our country” even though, by almost any standard — the strength of the dollar, the deficit, the housing market, gas prices, the stock market, unemployment, the availability of affordable health insurance, the number of troops dying each month — things have improved dramatically on his watch.

And so I suppose I should not be surprised that Monday’s post — “Worst Forecasters Ever” — was simply dismissed by some readers.  Like Jared Day, whose Facebook page identifies him as having “studied at Central New Mexico Community College,” who writes:  “What a worthless article.  Just more ignorance and blind belief in made up numbers, sad.”

That’s it.  End of analysis.  How can you argue with that?

EATING LIKE AN APHID

I was already a fan of beets and radishes but now find you can also eat the leaves!  Seriously!  I just ate a few radish leaves.  No need to cook or prepare them in any way: just ate ’em.  Yum.  (Well, yum-ish.)  Which got me to wondering what other kinds of leaves are okay to eat.  Should we start drinking pine-needle tea?  One leaf to avoid, I’m guessing: hemlock.  But poinsettia?  Those poisonous Christmas plants?  A myth, apparently.  Eat up.  (Well, don’t; but at least you won’t die.)  And the poison flora that killed poor Chris McCandless when he trekked Into the Wild?  A myth as well, though a compelling mystery.  My point is: if you buy bunches of raw beets or radishes, don;t waste the leaves.