I think that a lot of childhood obesity has to do with stressed out parents, the use of high frustose corn syrup in EVERYTHING, and other junk food. In no particular order. We try very very hard to make sure Em doesn't get a lot of high fructose corn syrup. I was relieved to find out that Cheez-It's don't as they are one of her favorite snacks.

Morning, all. Nothing to add to the kids eating argument -- I never had a problem as a kid. Mom and Dad never pressured us into liking anything, but made us try all kinds of things, and there was never any picky eating. If we hated something (like I hate beets, but everyone else likes them) we didn't have to eat them...but there were no special meals. If we were having pot roast with potatoes and carrots, that was dinner. If you didn't like it, tough shit.

By the time I was seven, I'd eaten almost every kind of veg (only didn't like beets and brussels sprouts -- and NO ONE in the fam liked brussels sprouts), rabbit, venison, raccoon, squirrel, rattlesnake, and frog. Oh, and brain and liver. Liked liver, hated brain. Oh, hated tongue too. Those were experimental foods, when we lived on the farm and my dad was going through his Country Farmer/Outdoorsman Phase.

Grew up on iced tea; still only rarely drink soda, but there's always a pitcher of unsweetened brewed tea in the fridge, summer or winter.

ION, took my car to the shop yesterday. I have to get the whole left rear wheel suspension replaced. $470, and I won't get the car back till Thursday or Friday. And teachers report back to school Monday. Bleargh.

What great pictures Raq! Also melted with Love.

I am a bad camera person. I just don't have the habit. Need to work on that.

How are you doing Beverly? I think of you and yours countless times each day.

wrassle, and love.

Those are two very beautiful pictures.

We try very very hard to make sure Em doesn't get a lot of high fructose corn syrup.

I think that will go a very long way towards keeping her trim. It's a little obscene how many products we consume in this country that are mostly high fructose corn syrup.

One of my freinds is allergic to corn, which means no high fructose corn syrup either--and she has a REALLY hard time finding stuff--it's ridiculous! sausages have HFCS in them! Crazy stuff you wouldn't expect.

"All Natural Applesauce" has HFCS in it. "100% Juice" has HFCS in it.

IT'S EVERYWHERE.

It's like that additive in the air on Miranda. Eventually, we're all gonna be so damned obese from HFCS that were all just gonna lay down and die.

Except for 1% of the population that has the opposite reaction and are all murdering, raping, cannibalistic Super Models.

If I had to point fingers at a single entity, I'd blame government corn subsidies for just about every declining health statistic in this country over the last quarter-century. HFCS isn't actually any worse for you than table sugar (it's only "high fructose" in relation to normal corn syrup), but it's so damn cheap that it gets put in zillions upon zillions of products that wouldn't otherwise be sweetened with anything.

Oh yeah. The corn subsidies are...well, they aren't fuckers cause they aren't people, but you know what I mean. 20/20 or Dateline did a special report on it about 4 years ago and I remember being apalled.

I need to be a corn farmer.

If I were a policymaker, I'd propose corn subsidies that make biodiesel fifteen thousand times more profitable than HFCS. And then I'd buy everyone a puppy.

Of possible interest to Bufista insomniacs -- blue-blocking glasses may stimulate timely melatonin production.

Rough night, Laura. StE had a freaky scary high fever yesterday afternoon. They did a chest scan because his left lung wasn't working, put in a chest tube and drained a liter of fluid from the membrane around his lungs (not the lung itself), so the lung re-inflated and is working now. They left the tube in and it's still draining, so there won't be another buildup. They had him packed in ice and were spraying him with cold water and had two fans blowing across him and keeping cold compresses on his head. They did a fiberoptic scan of the interior of the lung, removed some mucus plugs and took samples to culture. Meanwhile they're continuing the broad-spectrum ABX until the cultures mature enough so they can tailor the drugs to the strain of bug. His temp was down to just scary high last night, and this morning it's merely high enough for serious concern. All we can do is hope the high temp didn't do permanent damage on top of the trauma. Level of unconsciousness remains the same.

I'm? Maintaining, I guess. My panicking won't help anything, so I'm trying to keep calm and concentrate on letting the pros do their jobs, and hoping for the best. Thanks for asking.