Is today's theme food?

So far, the theme for today's seems to be food, a humble little theme that just accidentally seems to have established itself, so let's continue with it.



1. The big food story of the day is that the astronauts are running out of food on the International Space Station. The astronauts have to cut back, but don't worry too much about them: they are cutting back from 3,000 calories a day to 2,700. It is a little troublesome though because "[s]pace station meals come in individual packages that cannot be separated into smaller portions and saved for later." You can only cut back by skipping whole meals.



2. Starbucks is adding some more substantial food items. Instead of just cookies and cakes, there will be some sandwiches. That's an excellent idea. Our independent cafés here in Madison usually have some nice sandwiches and sometimes soups. I like these places for lunch because they are comfortable when you're eating alone and want to read or work on your laptop. But if Starbucks is just going to have wrapped, cold sandwiches, it won't be that great. The cafés I like here in Madison give their pre-made sandwiches the panini grill treatment. It makes a big difference. [UPDATE: I note that the Starbucks plan is to somehow heat the pre-packaged sandwiches.]



3. Here's a report about a dog food cookbook. "The idea was that if I were a dog, what would I want to eat?" No, the idea is: If I had a life, what would I want to do with it?



4. Here's my favorite sentence in an article about a book-signing appearance by cookbook writer Ruth Reichl: "Christ has been reading Reichl for years, going back to when Christ used to run 'a little gourmet food store' in Rhinebeck, N.Y." In search of new loaves and fishes recipes, no doubt.



5. Here's a report of a scientific study I'm pretty skeptical about: "Dieting Moms Likely To Have Lesbian Babies."



6. Speaking of dieting and scientific studies, this suggests it's best not to get liposuctioned. You'll just get fat all over again unless you diet.



7. My favorite food that seems as if it should just be for kids is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But what is the history of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich? It's all about World War II. And here's the FDA taking itself and the PB&J very seriously: "The peanut butter and jelly sandwich, itself a staple in American life, will enter the twenty first century as a living history lesson on the importance of regulating, but not over-regulating a wide variety of foodstuffs in a dynamic marketplace."



8. If you get tired of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, you can do the Elvis variation (no jelly, nanner).



9. And if there are no nanners handy, surely you have some Fluff and can make a fluffernutter. Please go here and click on the "Fluffernutter theme." Here's the history of Fluff, which begins with two WWI veterans returning from France and giving their product the Frenchy name "Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff."



Having reached the point of blogging about complete fluff, I'll stop.



UPDATE: Looks like Drudge is stealing my food theme with:

Man Charged With Sandwich Rage in Houston...



Inmate charged with assault with pork chop...