Whittling Away with Dick Brooks - Creative Snacking

I paused the other day during my mid-morning energy booster time, and had a little ponder about my snack.  It occurred to me that if we applied a little creativity to our use of snacking, we might be able to peacefully resolve a great many of the problems facing mankind in many of the far flung corners of the globe.

For example, The Middle East has been a problem for as long as I can remember.  It’s hot there and dusty, that alone would make me cranky.  Everybody seems to be grumpy most of the time.  I think they need ice cream.  I know it seems silly but a nice big bowl of ice cream sure improves my outlook on life when I’m hot and sticky.  Bombs, guns and bullets aren’t making the situation over there any better and a lot of nice people are getting killed and hurt so maybe it’s time to try something new.  Instead of sending any more of our brave young people over there, let’s send them Ben and Jerry, as former Hippies, I’m sure they still are into love and peace.  For the yearly cost of ferrying loads of Congressmen/women and a bunch of Senators over to the Middle East so they can have their pictures taken with a camel while wearing body armor, I’ll bet we could put an ice cream stand on every corner.  Even if we gave the ice cream away for nothing, I’m sure it would cost less than what we’re spending now.  A tummy full of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cherry Garcia would help take the edge off.  I think it’s worth a try anyway.

Ice Cream has a calming effect, I’m usually as calm as can be and part of the reason might be that I will consume ice cream whenever the chance to do so may arise.  Ice  cream has made me what I am today, calm and peace loving.  Being a person of many and varied tastes, I suppose I should also admit that to paraphrase Will Rogers, “I never met a doughnut I didn’t like”.  I know that the nutritionally conscious out there are probably cringing (including The Queen of our house who is into veggies and the like) but we’re talking feel-good stuff here.  Look at the faces of folks picking out doughnuts at your local “Dunkin Doughnuts”, there isn’t usually a lot of belligerence and anger to be found there, unless the line was unusually long.  I think we toss in a few doughnut stands to go with the ice cream stands and I feel we’d be on the right track.  A few shops that made handmade chocolates, a bunch of French fry wagons, the like of which you’d find at a local fair, you know the kind that put malt vinegar on the fries, and peace would reign supreme.  

Abundant and varied snacks would give some of those folks the idea that life was worth living and maybe, just maybe they’d consider replacing carbines with carbohydrates.  Fighting obesity like the rest of us might take their minds off killing and bombing.  It’s worth a try.

Having solved another world problem, I think I’ll insure peace will reign supreme in our household and pick up some more ice cream when I go to the market, after I finish my snack.

Thought for the week—Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.

Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.

 whittlingaway@yahoo.com