Poetry Monday: My Favourite Snack . . . and Funnies

Welcome back, people. It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ..... MY FAVOURITE SNACK.

Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi and me as we dish up some more good eating. You can post your poem in the comments or on your own blog; if you do the latter, please leave a note in the comments so we can find you and applaud your work.

Use the topic or choose another -- it's all good. The idea is to work our brains and have some fun.

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At first, it was hard for me to pick a favourite snack. There are so many healthy -- and unhealthy -- candidates.  Bagels, grapes and cheese, cereal, even a baked potato, fall into the healthy category of things I snack on. Potato chips, baked goodies, chocolate and sweets, while they are very pleasing to the tastebuds, sadly do not.

But when I asked myself what I wouldn't want to do without for even one day, the answer came to me loud and clear: peanut butter and banana.

Peanut butter alone is too sticky and tastes harsh to me. Banana alone is too astringent and . . . banana-y.

But together, they are a slice of heaven ... to me, anyway. I know people who gag at the thought. And others who understand completely.

I also know folks who meditatively slice their banana and dish up their pb, put it all on a plate and eat it daintily with a fork.

I am not one of those folks. This is why we have two hands, people! Half a banana in one hand, with the peeling gradually descending, and a spoonful of peanut butter in the other hand. A bite from the left hand, a lick from the right hand, repeat, repeat, repeat! (Lefties might want to switch hands 😛) 



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My Favourite Snack And A Terrible Rhyme

Some folks like their peanut butter onto celery spread
While others like it thickly piled atop their favourite bread
And then there are the ones who have their p.b. bread with honey
And ones who add molasses even though it's awfully runny
Bacon goes with peanut butter, so I have been told
Although I'll never try it, who am I to be a scold?
Another combination which I've seen but never tried
Is peanut butter added to a dish that's been stir-fried
The ultimate in combos (though it's hardly healthy food)
Is chocolate-peanut-butter cups -- oh my! those things are good 
But I'm content to make my snack from p.b. and banana
It's yummy and I hope it adds some years to my lifespana

If you're a fan of odd peanut butter combinations, go here for more ideas. And tell me about your own favourite way to eat it -- if you eat it at all.

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And shall we have a few funnies to round out our snack?

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Hope you're staying well and happy and enjoying some of your favourite snacks.

Next week's topic is ..... BIRDS.

Good luck!

Donkey, Disney Characters, and Deep(ish) Thoughts

Recently I've been the unwilling host to one of the worst of Snow White's seven Dwarfs, Grumpy, along with his lesser-known cousins Cranky, Scowly, Snarky, Snarly, Weepy and Mopey.

(Thank goodness Sneezy stayed home.)

I'm a happy, albeit hermit-y, person most of the time. So it came as a surprise to find myself veering from one unattractive Dwarf personality to another for the last couple of weeks.

I thought I should be sailing through the current morass of bleakness and shocking information overload without much difficulty. My routine has hardly changed under self-isolation. I'm still able go to work, as is my husband; our work can be managed without much face-to-face contact with clients. The rest of the time we do what we've always done -- stay home and entertain ourselves. We are still able to go outside for a walk, and we have a large yard to enjoy. We even have a backup box of unread books, which is almost as important to us as backup groceries.

But whether the feelings were sensible or not, there they were. I lost interest in little things that usually please me, and raged instead about the stupidity of humanity and the maudlin internet memes and the still very evident political divisions and how nothing will change about the world after the crisis has subsided. I felt bitter that some of the most polluting industries will be getting the lion's share of subsidies to help them stay afloat, that people's wasteful and selfish behavior will return to the fore when we are allowed out of our homes, and that once people leave self-isolation and start driving their vehicles again, world smog levels will return to what they've always been.

Eventually I decided my state of mind was not totally due to the failings and maudlin tendencies of humanity, although I still think the maudlin bit deserves some serious eye-rolling. I decided I must have been stressed without actually realizing I was stressed. After I worked it out, the Dwarfs more or less went up in a puff of smoke. (Is that an unacceptable mixing of fairy tale images?)

But the experience made me really ponder the long-range effects of this pandemic on populations around the world. Stressors such as fear, change, deprivation, the unknown, being eye to eye with our mortality, plus isolation and so many others must be taking a toll on people, whether they appear to be coping or not.

And how much worse it must be for those who have pre-existing anxiety, depression, OCD, loneliness, phobias, food insecurity, domestic violence, and so on. What will fear combined with isolation do to those already in pain?

And what about the many people of the world in war-torn or developing countries who already faced the daily possibility of death before this health crisis ever reared its miserable head? The last thing they needed was another threat to their safety and lives. Maybe those of us who have lived in peace all our days can more viscerally identify with their state of mind now.

I know my train of thought is hardly new or unique. Those who regularly tend to and work with disadvantaged folks of all kinds anticipated and have already experienced an increase in need.

How many other consequences have we not even dreamed of?

I wonder what our world will look like a year down the road. Two years. Ten years. Fifty years.

How long will the effects of this pandemic ripple through the future?

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I can't leave you on that note so here's a Snow White and Dwarfs funny for you:

And now . . . Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it's off to work I go.

Poetry Monday: My Favourite Lunch . . . and Funnies

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ..... MY FAVOURITE LUNCH.

I think we can all come up with a few thoughts on this topic -- we all have to eat and why not ruminate pleasantly on some of our favourite foods once in awhile?

Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi and me as we whip up our choicest poetic offerings on this topic. You can leave your poem in the comments, or post on your own blog. If you do the latter, please leave a comment so we can find you and drool over your words.

Use the topic, or choose another. The idea is to work our brains and have fun.

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Long, long ago, when I was in my late teens and attending university, I spent one summer break working at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. First I learned how to bread the chicken and how to arrange it neatly to drain after deep-frying, then moved on to making fries and assembling orders, then to making coleslaw in a gigantic food chopper, then to working the cash. It was a fine education, my boss and co-workers were excellent to work with, and I remember that four months of my life quite fondly.

Staff were permitted to buy meals at half-price so I bet you think I'm going to say that my favourite lunch is KFC, right?

Nope. In all those four months I might have had chicken three or four times. I did, however, buy a tiny tub of Dixie coleslaw and a can of root beer every day to accompany my tuna/mayo sandwich brought from home.

And that's my favourite lunch -- then and now -- even though the coleslaw no longer tastes like it used to and my root beer is now sugar-free.

We people are odd, are we not? Of all the possibilities there are for lunch, and even though I ate this combination for months on end, I still like it a lot.

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Could Have Saved More If I'd Ditched The Coleslaw And Root Beer Though

There was a young lady (that's me!)
Who packed chicken orders with glee
A bucket or snack pack
Whacked into a paper sack
With a smile as she took your mon-ey

But the young lady student was cheap
And rarely did KFC eat
She opted instead
For tuna mayo on bread
And financial surpluses did reap :)

Not my actual place of work, but all these restaurants look the same, don't they?

(Source: Pixabay)

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And now for some food-related funnies. (Source: icanhas.cheezburger.com)

Dear Son: If you're reading, this one's for you :)

 

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Do you have KFC in your part of the world?


And what's YOUR favourite lunch? I hope you get to enjoy it soon.

Next week's topic will be .... YOUR FAVOURITE SNACK.

Mmm ... and good luck :)

Poetry Monday: Things That Scare Us .... and Funnies for These "Interesting Times"

It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is ..... THINGS THAT SCARE US.

It that's not a timely topic, I don't know what is :)

Join Diane, MotherOwl, Mimi, and me as we bravely go where others fear to tread.

You can leave your poem in the comments or post on your own blog. If you do the latter, please leave a comment so we can find  you and applaud. Use the topic or choose another if this one is too frightening. The objective is to have fun and use our brains.

Source:  icanhas.cheezburger.com

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Tell Me Something Good


The title today is a link to the Rufus and Chaka Khan song (written by Stevie Wonder.)

Things that really scare me?
My list is pretty long
You'd better make some coffee
You're going to need it strong

The usual things like illness
And losing both my minds
Certain snakes and spiders
And phobias of all kinds

Drowning, freezing, choking
Falling off the roof
Getting stung by jellyfish
Breaking off a tooth

Being trampled by a hippo
Being eaten by a bear
Or chased by thieving seagulls
Who want my choc eclair

And then there's lack of kittens
And shortage of root beer
And running out of good books
Oh! All these things I fear!

But topping off my list of fears
It would be truly vile
If, in this unforgiving world,
I lost the will to smile

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And so, here we go with some pandemic funnies. I hope it's not too soon. If it is, just look at the first photo instead and skip the rest.

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Stay strong, people. Tell me your fears, hopes, something good, or something funny. We will all be better for it.

Next week's topic will be ..... YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH .....

Good luck!