A FEW MORE QUESTIONS

I had some more thoughts about what is going on in our universe today and I wanted to share these thoughts with you to see if any of this concerns you.  If not, I totally understand; maybe I just need a life!

      A big concern right now is the price of eggs.  They have gone from being an inexpensive source of protein to a product you might expect to find on the black market. It's gotten to the point where I've heard some small neighborhood stores are selling them individually.  There isn't much the consumer can do except wait out the bird flu epidemic and hope for a healthy generation of layers to start producing soon.

            While we wait, which is no time soon, we are importing eggs from Canada, Turkey, and Brazil.  Something I found interesting is that forty-two percent of foreign eggs came to us from Canada in 2023.  One of the reasons we were not importing a large amount of eggs before bird flu was we felt other country's eggs were more likely to be contaminated.  Guess what?  Prices aren't going to return to normal for a while but nothing beats scrambled eggs while you yearn for some comfort food.  

            Just as an aside, did you know most commercial egg-laying chickens get taken away to processing plants at the ripe old age of eighteen months?  There they will be turned into ingredients for dog or cat food, frozen dinners, or soup.

            Remember years ago when the words orange juice had FLORIDA in front of them?  Growing up, I watched singer, Bing Crosby, on television shows promoting Minute Maid frozen orange juice, extolling its virtues as a delicious, healthy drink. Of course, he was a stockholder in the company.  He later sold his 20,000 shares for a considerable amount and bought into another similar company.

            I still enjoy a glass each morning and appreciate the convenience of carrying home small cans of frozen concentrate as opposed to lugging heavy jugs of prewatered-down juice.  Have you noticed that there's a slight difference in taste from one container to another? Much of our orange juice is coming in from other countries nowadays since Florida's orange groves are declining.  We get about twelve percent from Brazil and nine percent from Mexico.  Other countries like Chile, Argentina, and South Africa add to the mix.  It seems like our American breakfasts come to us with a little help from our foreign friends.

            My local library has diverse activities every day for bouncing babies to seniors; book clubs to gaming, knitting to gardening, yoga to painting, and Bingo!  Let’s not forget lots of books!  I was surprised to see that they were including classes on cursive writing.  Cursive fell from grace when Common Core Standards removed it in 2010 from curriculum requirements.  Sure, we all use computers for the majority of our correspondence now but, can young people sign their names on a document or read something written before this century?  I thought we were going to keep this information a secret, just like driving with a manual transmission!

            Speaking of libraries, check out INGENIOUS A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist.  Unlike many of his biographies, this one dwells on his accomplishments as a scientist and his observations over his eight-four years.  Franklin had very little formal education but he had an almost childlike curiosity about the world around him.  We associate him with kite flying and electricity but he was so much more.  He was able to parlay his scientific genius and the respect he achieved in both France and England as well, of course, in our emerging nation, to negotiate funding and military support to help us win our independence.  He was an eloquent speaker and negotiator, a jack of all trades, and well loved by the ladies.  And, as we all know, in 1731 Benjamin Franklin started the first subscription library in Philadelphia. Thanks, Ben.

Sharon