Mysteries of life: Ancient grains and all that

Just returned from a shopping trip with a number of necessities, one big mistake (a box labeled “chocolate chips” in which the chips, with which I was going to make oatmeal choc chip cookies, were hidden in a dry cookie mix), and a large loaf of bread labeled “ancient grains.”

Regularly, I eat multi-grain bread and hadn’t thought through the “ancient” part until I got home and found how much those grains cost. A lot. Rather than grouse over the expense, I contemplated the cost of reaping ancient grains, which would necessitate time travel backward, and then all that reaping. Exhausting.

I will therefore absorb the cost with equanimity as my digestive system absorbs the ancient grains and does with them whatever a digestive system does.

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How scary-bad can bad leaders be? This scary-bad

What has the world managed to live through since nuclear weapons were developed? If you don’t harbor paranoid tendencies, brace yourselves for this, from Harper’s October 2025 Findings:

A study of fifty-one deceased leaders of nuclear-armed states found that twenty-three suffered from serious physical or mental impairments while in power.

Do you want to know the names of those twenty-three? I’d prefer a study of not-yet-deceased leaders who suffer from serious physical or mental impairments. Oh, never mind the study. Just name names.

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Mysteries of life: An adage falls into nonadage status

I’m quite sure “nonadage” isn’t a word. Still, I’m announcing proof that one adage isn’t valid.

Watched pots do boil. I know this because I was in the kitchen as a pot of water wasn’t boiling and then it boiled. While I watched it.

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