We went to a buffet this weekend at Foxwoods. If my six-year-old had his way, he would have stuck his face under the spigot of the soft-serve ice cream machine and pulled the trigger. Subsequently pouring a few spoonfuls of sprinkles, chocolate chips and chocolate syrup into his mouth to top it all off. Which I would have had to follow with a shot of insulin for the diabetes that he would have no doubt induced.
Fortunately I limited his sugar intake to only a bowl. I will add though that his dinner consumption hardly warranted a buffet. Now my other son, ate a good dinner and a modest desert (only one helping of ice-cream and a brownie).
What is it about sugar that we are so fascinated with? I would claim it’s a childhood thing, but then I would just go home and have a bowl of Breyer’s mint chocolate chip with a couple of Oreos and I would be a liar.
Believe it or not, sugar is not a natural part of our diet. On the contrary, the only time our ancestors (and I am talking thousands of years ago, not centuries) ever ate sugar was through the eating of fruit. So how have we become so hooked on the culinary ecstasy?
Sugar was not always plentiful and many cultures have used honey or maple syrup as sweeteners Sugarcane is actually native plant of the tropical southern Asia continent, many varieties came from the Indian subcontinent and were later grown to adapt to other regions of the world.
Primarily sugar was a luxury before the 18th century and later became popular in 19th century becoming a staple of normal cuisine. The purification of sugar and desire for the sweet confectionery products that could be produced spurred an entire economic development around the product and brought about our favorite meal – dessert!
Today our world produces on average 168 million metric tons of the delicious substance. You may find it funny that despite this entire article, I am actually more of a savory person than a sweet person. I’ll trade salt and vinegar chips any day over candy but would have a difficult time giving up my ice cream.
How about you? What is your favorite confection?
can do to people. Here is a 
Smelling the roses: So many people talk about stopping to smell the roses, a ridiculous cliché, but in some respects apt. I have to run my children to their activities or to school or run errands. But I try often to pull the car to the side of the road and step out with them to play or walk in a park. Before I take them out of the car I kneel down to their level and grab their hand and ask them how they are. Before I drop them off at school every morning, I kiss them on the cheek and expect the same in return, then I whisper in their ear that I love them and I am very proud of [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fill in an activity that they did or an accomplishment].
“Hello, I’d like to apply for the mortified job…”
Remembering back to that day got me thinking. Embarrassing things happen every day, but the real question is – What makes it embarrassing?
I have an iPhone and frequently use an App called TeleNav. Pretty cool little program that allows you to use your phone as a normal GPS that you would have on your dash. I started using it a months ago and enjoy the ease of use and the convenience of always having it with me. That was until I noticed that there is no way to turn off the audio. On a phone call, listening to music, anytime, the stupid thing is always trying to give me play by play directions to the next turn. I finally uninstalled the thing because it was worthless to me if there was no way to shut off the audio. Another perfect example of technology trying to be too smart.
One of my personal pet peeves of a lot of newer cars is the auto lock feature. As soon as you engage Drive and start moving, the doors lock. I don’t want the doors locked unless I want them locked. I have this (perhaps irrational fear) of getting into a car accident, being unconscious and my doors being locked, thus making it impossible for someone to pull myself or my children out of the car. Very dangerous thing, I feel – also extremely irritating if you pull forward, realize you forgot something and need to jump out for a second.
I cannot attest to this annoyance myself, but my father – who is a farmer, brought this to my attention. A lot of the newer tractors have GPS guidance systems in them where you can setup a field in the computer, then press auto-drive and the tractor will plant a field (or harvest it) with extreme precision. However, one of the well known irritations is that the tractor tends to pull up on the planter (lift it out of the ground) before it reaches the end of the row. Those of us who are not farmers may say “so? what’s the big deal?”. Well, it can mean having thousands of dollars of crops not planted because you end up missing the end of the row by 5-15 feet on hundreds or thousands of rows.