Dear Family,

“...Pippi, can you tell me what seven and five are?”

Pippie, astonished and dismayed, looked at [the teacher] and said, “Well, if you don't know that yourself, you needn't think I'm going to tell you.”

All the children stared in horror at Pippi, and the teacher explained that one couldn’t answer that way in school.

“I beg your pardon,” said Pippi contritely. “I didn't know that. I won't do it again.”

“No, let us hope not,” said the teacher. “And now I will tell you that seven and five are twelve.”

“Cooking is not seen as a universal skill of self-sufficiency and adulthood... We are surprised when someone doesn't know how to drive a car, but we are not at all surprised when someone doesn't know how to cook. Large corporations are more than happy to keep us in this state of helplessness. It creates a huge market for factory-processed products and fast food.”

--Jessica Prentice, “Full Moon Feast”

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Dear Family,

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me--
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.

--Shel Silverstein, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”

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“Nobody ever tells you that growing up costs so much!”

--Athena

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Bennerisms:

Dear Family,

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html

Yet another well-referenced critique of “The China Study,” by Chris Masterjohn.

Dear Family,

“...One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall
Next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all...”

--Bruce Cockburn, _Lovers in a Dangerous Time_

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“[I]t is the responsibility of those of us fortunate enough to exercise choice to ask whether this is the way the world should be going.”

--Charles Clover, from “The End of The Line,” as quoted in “Rightous Porkchop” (by Nicolette Hahn Niman).

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http://www.panna.org/blog/bring-2011-update-strawberry-pesticide

Dear Family,

“Everything has multiple variables, and _everything_ is non-linear! It's amazing anyone can make any progress at all.”
--Terry Matilsky [hard at work on his gravity/early universe theory...]

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Jemmerisms:

“Pig is my favorite meat. Pepper is my favorite pepper.”

“I love this car [toy with pull-back action], because it's SO frickin' cool! ...It goes, Zoomy! Zoomy!”

As we drive by a wintry Cayuga Lake: “Those really are frozen waves.”

Here's an article written for elderly patients, but fascinating for people of any age who have fingernails and have ever wondered about the various annoying symptoms that can afflict these small and useful body parts:

http://mrishaanshareef.blogspot.com/2008/10/finger-nails-to-predict-hea…

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Dear Family,

It has...ahem...come to my attention that some family members would prefer not to wade through lengthy article excerpts concerning, say, gut dysbiosis and its effect on neuromuscular occlusion...when all they really want is to read the cute things that Jem and Ben said this week.

Therefore and henceforth, my updates will begin with Family News and Isms, followed by fascinating-article reviews and op ed content. I hope this will prove more user-friendly; let me know what you think. :)

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Dear Family,

Is it possible that meat-eating can be ecologically sustainable, even compared with a vegan diet? Is it healthy to regularly and copiously eat meat? Is it true that my new diet, full of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal flesh (as well as very few carbs), lots of broths and fermented veggies/dairy, might actually be even _more_ healthy than the whole-foods vegetarian regimen I consumed, Before?