Grugger’s Way

I remember running my very first two-mile race, in 1986. When we finished we lit up our cigarettes and had a beer. What idiots.

All I can say is that quitting cigarettes was the most difficult thing I ever did. And I did it over and over and over again. It was like re-gaining all the weight I lost during a diet. Start all over again.

This is the Great Smokeout Day, but few people who stop today will be successful for very long. It is the most addictive habit there is. I think people on drugs have an easier time breaking their habit than tobacco smokers.

People in Alcoholics Anonymous take outside breaks in order to smoke.

People in prison head outside to the exercise yard in order to smoke.

After lung cancer, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women.

The American National Cancer Institute estimates that 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop breast cancer during her lifetime and studies show that the risk of breast cancer increases as a woman gets older. Most breast cancers occur in women over the age of 50, and the risk is especially high for women over age 60. Also, breast cancer occurs more often in white women than African American or Asian women. Breast cancer is uncommon in women under the age of 35, but it does occur, so women of ALL AGES should become aware of risk factors, symptoms and preventative measures, including self-examination.

Besides age, risk factors include family history and obesity. A woman whose mother (or sister) had breast cancer before age 40 is at greater risk. A family history of breast cancer on either the mother or the father’s side of the family can also increase risk.

Here is a link to the Federal Citizen Information Center web page on National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Here is a link to the American National Cancer Institute webpage on Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer killed two of my co-workers, one in her forties, the other in her fifties. Breast Cancer is in my family and in my in-law’s family. Cysts and lumpectomies have proven benign in two women that I dated years ago, when they were in their thirties, and provided a scare and a wake up call to both of them.

I urge all women, young and old, to become informed; to teach their daughters how to protect themselves; and to protect those they love. Men too, owe it to their ladies to become knowledgeable and supportive, and encourage preventative measures and tests.

There is one item that usually tests the mettle of even the most experienced World Traveler. If you think you have “global” taste buds, try BALUT, the Filipino treat that they present to tourists with great fanfare and much drinking and laughter.

Balut is a “not quite ready to hatch” embryo of duck (or chicken) that is hard-boiled in the egg shell casing and then consumed WITH BEER! (I just threw in the beer part.)

U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy sailors have long tested each other with initiation ceremonies that included eating balut, as though it were a rite of passage into the mysteries of the Far East.

(If you click on the photo at left it will open a much larger view of the balut.)

What does it really taste like? Someone once described it as tasting like the way air smells after a big fireworks demonstration. The duck embryo contains phosphorus. But to describe it thus is not doing it justice; one has to try it.

There are Filipino restaurants in the U.S.A. that serve balut. Some Asian food stores also sell balut.

I love how they look and I love the idea of growing our own food, but I haven’t had the energy to plow, plant, fertilize, weed, nurse, coddle, and curse a garden since the 1970’s.

This year we put ONE tomato plant in a pot and set it out on the deck. So far, we have harvested two tomatoes. Picked when they just started to “pink up,” they now grace our windowsill and are turning redder by the day.

Mind you, we have an ACRE available for gardening. All I can think about is how much WORK it takes to convert a plot of dirt into the “what a beautiful garden you have” stage.

So this year, as in years past, (and probably into the future), we settled for a starter plant and will happily harvest (if one can even CALL it a “harvest”), and eat the fruits of our daily watering.

Our tomato plant has about a dozen more little green boys that we hope will grow into something worth harvesting. We could make salsa and spaghetti sauce. I remember that green tomatoes can be fried, or turned into relish….but wait! I only have ONE plant!