Free At Last?

Where were you when word came from the front?

I was negotiating downtown Boston traffic when I heard the breaking news on the radio from Acheson that, yes, tomatoes are OK. My goodness, this came as such a revelation that I wanted to stop the rental car in the middle of Boylston Street, get out and scream to the assembled multitudes, forget about your beloved Red Sox! We can eat tomatoes again, I'm telling you!

Of course, the FDA & CDC want it to be over, but then the mind wanders & as a result I must respectfully submit the following dialogue from that educational thriller, 'Animal House':


D-Day: War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... [thinks hard] Bluto: the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! [runs out, alone; then returns] Bluto: What happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer...
Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these guys. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part. Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let's do it.
Bluto: LET'S DO IT!

Man, it feels good just to read that. Makes me all warm & fuzzy inside.

Back to reality, then. The financial cleanup from this toxic waste is one thing, but the psychological rebound will be quite another. Check out the AP from this morning:


WASHINGTON - Troubled by the tainted tomato scare, nearly half of Americans are concerned they may get sick from eating contaminated food and are avoiding items they normally would buy, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll has found.

Although three in four remain confident about the overall safety of foods, the poll found that consumers overwhelmingly support setting up a tracing system for produce in the wake of the salmonella outbreak first linked to tomatoes and, now, hot peppers.


Enjoy your weekend, folks.

Jay