• Sweet pleasures.

    My daughter has a peanut allergy, which means we have no peanut products in our house. I like eating peanut products, which means I do without a lot. This morning I was hungry. Not an “I could use a little something to snack on” hungry; more like an “all you can eat buffet, eat until you puke” hungry. Normally I would snack on a couple of saltines, but that would not do today. No, not only was I hungry but drowsy as well. No, I needed the holy trinity of GO food: sugar, caffeine, and corn syrup. Cocoa, various artificial colors, artificial flavors, fillers, and fats also round out the mix; but those are the inactive ingredients, there solely to enhance the consumption process.

    Yes, it was time for a junk food run.

    I made my way to the junk food dispenser in our office break room. There it was, staring me in the face, the perfect vehicle for killing three birds with two stones: a Butterfinger and a Mountain Dew. On the first pass, John popped the Mountain Dew, tossed it back, savored those artificial flavors, and it was good. On the second pass, John ripped open the Butterfinger, devoured it, and it was good.

    I haven’t had a Butterfinger in a while, so I’d forgotten my excavation equipment (for cleaning the hardened remnants from between my teeth); but it was still worth it. Now I’m ready for the rest of the day. Bring it on.

  • News fatigue.

    For about two months now, reading the news has been like a hobby. I did it in the morning before going to work. I did it at lunch. I did it at home over dinner. I did it again after Beth went to bed. The last week or so I could barely muster the enthusiasm to fetch the paper. Why is that?

  • Have voice, but nothing to say.

    It is shaping up to be another drawn out, depressing presidential campaign. We are a little more than two years into the current president’s term, and Democratic candidates have been running since last year. I know it’s early yet, but it seems like none of them have anything interesting to contribute to the dialogue. Once again, it seems like the party is positioning itself as the party of “no” rather than the party of well considered ideas or passion.