A restaurant near me used to have DUCK FAT FRIED DATES with labne on their menu. They were SO DELICIOUS, but you could get a heart attack by just looking at them.

Tom, that sounds amazing.

The thing is that cutting meat off the bone (plus disarticulating the body to begin) and cutting vegetable is processing food. Cooking? Totally processing. So ultraprocessed food is pretty rare and has been since at least Neanderthal and Denisovian times.

So maybe we need some way to differentiate between a Sausage McMuffin with Egg (And I love me a SMcMw/E. I got one on a recent road trip but they forgot the egg which is a crime. The least processed part of the mess. I was sad.) and applesauce.

all in the group chat.

You are my hero.

because always choose burrito

Words to live by.

DUCK FAT FRIED DATES

I need these.

I got one on a recent road trip but they forgot the egg which is a crime.

How do they forget the egg? For shame, McDonald's!

I just added a set to my small weightlifting routine, so I anticipate soreness tomorrow. But my arms need to be in peak condition so I can hug EVERYONE (who wants it) at the memorial next week. Oh yes. I will be hugging. (Just don't make it weird.)

The weather is all over the place and a migraine is trying to sneak up on me. Not today, Satan.

Just got back from swinging by Matilda's school to drop off a check for yearbook, and when she came out to get it I realized the guy doing security at the front door was her baseball coach.

So I asked her to introduce me to Coach Johnson. And when I put out my hand, he said, "I don't want to shake your hand," and he gave me a huge hug. He told me that in the seven years he worked there he's only had two favorites and Matilda was one of them. "I don't call her 'Matilda.' I call her Tilda Smay, or Little Buddy."

Then he reiterated what she had told me - that he was retiring her number. And said, "Hold on. I'm going to give you her jerseys. Nobody else will ever wear her number." Then he gave them to me. So I guess I'll frame them.

He said, "I had her on my baseball team for two years. Two years and she never made an error!"

Aww, Hec. That's lovely.

I miss burritos. We don't have anywhere readily available to get them.

Yeah, there are some applesauces that I'd put in the ulta-processed category, but not by default.

That’s wonderful, Hec. You raised a great kid there.

Yeah, there are some applesauces that I'd put in the ulta-processed category, but not by default.

Okay, Google informs me that there are some applesauces that are more than just apples and water (and, in some cases, cinnamon?). I'm willing to say sugar doesn't need to be added to applesauce, but these article authors need to stop using such a wide brush to label all applesauce as ultraprocessed. It makes me and my unsweetened applesauce sad.

Aw, Hec. This is not to say that nobody should look after themselves or anything, I mean, do your best. But I also think that life should feel like more than some long syndrome that we are all in treatment for.(maybe I do eat a few too many consolation prizes, though.) But anybody worried about grape-eating, outside a very specific situation, or a roomful of dogs...I kind of think they need a life.