H.L. Mencken; The Presidency; Booboisie; Trans Fat; Food Labels

Overcast, coolish, 50 degrees... with light rain once in a while.  Typical April weather, but it's May Day... tomorrow it will probably be back to 80 degrees.

The plants that my daughter Diane gave us yesterday got a nice cool drink of water in the night.  Looks like they survived ok.  I need to now get them into potting soil.  Some may go into my Earthboxes, and some into big flower pots.

Music in my head:   Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.  Nice.

Baltimore's Own H. L. Mencken

I've talked about Mencken many times before, but I think that I need to reiterate something that he said about the Presidency.. it would seem to be very appropriate right now:

Mencken believed that the American voters "sought out"  incompetence in their presidents:   H.L said: "The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. (incompetents)  As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely,  the inner soul of the people.  We move toward a lofty ideal.  On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by an outright moron."

I believe that we have already achieved our heart's desire with "W."   Now, we will probably get to it again with Mr. Trump.   Although, I think Donald is a lot smarter than Mr. Bush.. at least in the back-stabbing business world.  Anyway.. the rest of the presidential candidacy circus looks to be a lot of fun.  Somebody in the New York Times writes that a fact checking company has found that Mr. Trump tells a lie every 12 minutes. 

Mencken's "A Boob Dictionary" is available online at www.baltimoresun.com/boob-story.html

In it is immortalized Mencken's name for the United States middle class:  "booboisie."

Fatso!

During World War II, housewives were asked to "take your fat cans to your butcher."  This was not meant to be insulting; instead, it was a plea for used cooking fat which was needed for our military.  I guess it was used to keep our guns from freezing up.  I doubt that many housewives now  use Crisco or other fat in cooking.  At least, I hope not, because such fat immediately clogs arteries.

The Week Magazine warns that food that purports to contain "no trans fat" might still legally contain 0.49 grams of that fat per serving.  So, it you eat more than one helping, you may be harming your health, says researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.   They contend that food labels should be required to reveal any level at all of trans fats, so that consumers can make informed decision. 

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Bye Bye!

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