Learn Something New Every Day

Today I read about a food craze in Trinidad called "doubles." Sold on the street by vendors, like hot dogs and pretzels in many of our big cities, they consist of a kind of fried bread smothered with chick peas and hot sauce. On Sunday mornings, the locals get up very early, like at 7 am, and go to the "doubles factory" in the town of Curepe, to get them fresh off the grill--or whatever they come off of.

I heard on the radio that flocks of blackbirds got so spooked in a little town in Arkansas last New Year's Day that thousands dropped from the sky, dead. They got all screwed up and freaked out from revelers shooting off fireworks on the night before, that they crashed into things and had little bird heart attacks and strokes, and who could blame them? Although the authorities alerted the public and outlawed fireworks in that town, it happened again today. (There's something I could have lived without knowing for the rest of my life and been happy---thanks a lot, revelers!)

I read, in a tiny little book called "Cheerful Thoughts" that we keep in the bathroom, an Indian proverb that I think offers a particularly helpful and succinct life lesson: "Call on God, but steer away from the rocks." Great advice, and it's so short you could tweet it if you are given to that sort of thing. (I personally am not.)

An article in today's New York Times Magazine suggests that after you lose a lot of weight your metabolism changes and then your body becomes your own worst enemy, preserving your fat for emergencies and causing you to gain it all back. That would certainly explain what happened to Mike Huckabee, wouldn't it?

Pretty good for one day.