These are the people I serve, part two

In which teens are still being dopey, no one loses a limb, and adults react badly.

The children didn’t light the candy. They crushed it into a fine powder in its wrapper, tore off one end, poured the powder into their mouths and blew out fine Smarties dust, mimicking a smoker’s exhale.

The LEAST panicky adult:

Dr. Shikowitz says Smarties may cause irritation to throats and noses — and even lungs if inhaled — but are not likely life-threatening because they eventually will dissolve. “I still don’t think it’s a great idea,” he says.

In Defense of Food Review

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Pollan. Non-fiction. This is an expansion of Pollan’s essay “Unhappy Meals” (which I talked about some time ago), in which he gives some reasoning that I find rather compelling for why we’re in the diet/health mess that we (the western world in general, but especially Americans) are in, and some suggestions for getting out of it. The latter are summarized (as in his earlier essay) as “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
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96 Tears

There was a small boy in the library lobby, crying. I went out there to speak soothingly to him and make sure he wasn’t hurt. His mom arrived moments later and picked him up, revealing a big puddle underneath. He had wet his pants. But for a split second I thought “Wow, he really cried a LOT!”

One Meeeeeelion

A USAToday article, “Terrorist watch list hits 1 million,” mentions the possibility of petitioning the FBI to have one’s name removed from the “no fly list.”

There have been 830 redress requests since 2005 where the person was, in fact, confirmed to be on the watch list, and further review by the screening center led to the removal of 150, or 18% of them.

So. Were the remaining 680 immediately apprehended and brought to trial, despite being unafraid to petition to have their name removed? WTF, FBI?