Still Life With Robin: A Few Consuming News Stories

3 Jolly Kittens (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

by Peggy Robin

It's been a week of news and high drama. Will the US default on its debt? How many days/hours left until economic chaos? There's a deal to reopen the government...but no, there isn't. Yes, there will be. But the clock is ticking. Will the deal come in time. Yes, then maybe not. And yes! No matter how deep and far-reaching and important these subjects are, I have found myself drawn to a few other news items of utter triviality. And yet, somehow, weirdly fascinating. I am referring, first of all, to the
announcement of wine for cats. You got that right. It's wine. And it's for cats.

Why would a cat drink wine? Because it's made with catnip. It's called wine because there's grape juice in it, too...but absolutely no alcohol. The idea is that while the human is relaxing with a nice glass of merlot or chardonnay, the cat will have the feline equivalent. You may wonder who would come up with such a concoction. As with many over-the-top cat-related ideas, , it's a Japanese thing: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/15/never-drink-alone-again-because-now-theres-wine-for-cats/

In the same newsfeed from Time Magazine there was this piece of news about another consumable: Oreos. Science has now proven that they’re addictive: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/16/oreos-may-be-as-addictive-as-cocaine/?iid=nf-article-trend-now . I’m not surprised, and I’m sure any parent of a small child --or any former small child-- is not surprised, either. Of course, there was no ethically acceptable way to run the test on children, so they used lab rats instead. Nor is there a need to re-run the test on lab rats with other substances, like Doritos or Cheetos; we already know what the results would be.

The third and final food in the news this week is a prediction about the next trend in snack food. Cupcakes are so 2010s. The food fad of the future? Bagel Balls. You heard it here. And can see it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U-8894Sw3U. It’s already a thing in New York. Now it’s just a question of which will hit DC first -- the next government shutdown or opening of the first Bagel Bite Shop. Let’s all hope for the Bite!

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Still Life With Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv, www.cleveland-park.com, and All Life Is Local on Saturdays.