Spring has sprung and now let the festivities begin….we can sacrifice a goat or something equally as disgusting to appease the great god MAGA.

Local–The pollen count is extremely high….so miserable for sinus suffers.

Now we start the endless festivals…almost every town in the immediate area has a seafood festival and a summer fair….the weather is high 50s to low 80s so everyone will be in shorts and out and about.

Personal–Had my latest CT scan yesterday and will hear the outcome on Monday….

Plus a little garden with nothing but hot peppers….Thai, cayenne and jalapeno…

 

Let’s begin a our first Spring post with the most important subject….Food….

Coffee my favorite beverage for my mornings….may get cheaper….

Cocoa prices have slumped around 70% since they peaked in May 2025, and some experts believe coffee could be next. At the National Coffee Association convention in Tampa last week, several analysts drew parallels between the two markets, noting that arabica futures spiked on bad weather and trade distortions much like cocoa did before its dramatic collapse, Reuters reports. “I would be shocked if it did not happen,” said commodities strategist Carley Garner, who predicts coffee could sink to $2 per pound by year’s end, from about $2.93 on Tuesday. “I do think coffee is the new cocoa,” she said. Another analyst, Digby Beatson-Hird, sees prices dipping even lower, to $1.80.

Evidence of strain is already visible on the demand side. A National Coffee Association survey of 1,500 Americans found 61% cutting coffee costs—by skipping cafes, brewing at home, or trading down to cheaper brands—though overall coffee drinking held steady. Roasters and traders report a shift from higher-priced mild arabicas to less expensive robusta beans. Still, some analysts argue coffee won’t crash like cocoa, pointing to stalled but resilient demand and the likelihood that Brazilian growers, expecting a bumper crop, will release beans gradually rather than flood the market.

Coffee prices have almost doubled since 2020. Food economist Mike van Massow tells CTV News that grocery store prices might come down substantially if the price of the commodity drops, though since coffee shops largely absorbed the price rises instead of passing them on to customers, menu prices are unlikely to come down significantly.

• The price of chocolate has not fallen in line with the drop in cocoa prices, partly due to tariffs and long-term supply contracts. Another factor: companies tend to be more reluctant to lower prices than to raise them. “If the customer is still willing to pay that higher price point, do we really take the price down?” Chris Costagli at market research company NIQ told PBS News last month.

But will it get cheaper for us consumers?

Years ago there was a story about the theft of thousand of gallons of maple syrup and recently chocolate is being stolen in the UK but this one caught my eye….

Nut theft is apparently a thing, and New York State Police say someone recently made off with a massive haul in the Bronx. Per CBS News, investigators report that roughly 60,000 pounds of packaged, shelled walnuts—valued at about $50,000—were taken from two 52-foot trailers in the Hunts Point area on March 2. The nuts were being stored for commercial distribution, according to a police release; authorities haven’t offered many other details, including how the nuts were stolen.

Troopers think the thieves may try to unload the product in the New York City area and are warning local businesses, vendors, and food distributors to be suspicious of anyone offering large quantities of packaged walnuts at unusually low prices or under seemingly odd circumstances. Anyone with information on what PIX11 is calling “the great walnut theft” or who’s been approached with a walnut deal that doesn’t look right is asked to call New York State Police at 212-459-7800.

How does one go about fencing that many walnuts?

The older we get the slower our minds become but there may be a way to slow the aging process….

Pairing two familiar eating plans may help your brain hang on to its youth, at least on scans. A study of more than 1,600 adults found that people who stuck more closely to the MIND diet—a mashup of the Mediterranean and DASH diets—had brain structures that looked up to 2 1/2 years “younger” over roughly 12 years of follow-up, reports CNN. Stronger adherence was tied to less loss of gray matter, which governs memory and thinking, and slower expansion of the brain’s fluid-filled ventricles, another marker of atrophy.

Every three-point jump in how rigorously someone followed MIND was linked to 20% less gray-matter shrinkage and an 8% slower increase in their ventricles, researchers report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. The MIND eating plan leans hard on berries, beans, leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, fish, poultry, and olive oil, while sharply limiting red meat, butter, cheese, sweets, and fried foods.

Berries and poultry seemed to drive much of the benefits found, while sweets and fried fast food were tied to more rapid brain aging. Those latter items are “often high in unhealthy fats, trans fats, and [other end products and] may contribute to inflammation and vascular damage,” the researchers say, per a release. Scientists stress that the study is observational, so it can’t prove cause and effect—but they note that their findings reinforce advice to favor a Mediterranean-style nutritional regimen overall, not any single “miracle” food.

I am sure many have heard just how bad a hot dog is for our health….but is it?

No one is out there saying hot dogs are a health food. After all, it’s one of the most wildly unhealthy foods you can get at the Costco food court. But just how unhealthy are they? In a 2021 University of Michigan study, researchers put forward the idea that certain foods take time off your healthy life expectancy while others add to it. Hot dogs, as you might expect, reduced time. The study put the amount at 36 minutes, and somehow the concept was twisted and spread quickly throughout the internet. Now, it’s become a common notion that hot dogs shorten your lifespan (not just healthy life expectancy) with every bite, though the time supposedly lost may vary, with some saying 10 minutes instead of 36.

One well-known doctor vehemently disagrees, though. Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, known across the internet as Doctor Mike, had things to say about the supposed evils of hot dogs in an interview released in March, 2026. When asked on the YouTube channel, The Basement Yard, about whether a hot dog could take 10 minutes off your life, he said, “These population studies cannot be translated into statistics that simplistically […] These are epidemiological studies that have been oversimplified. So no, a hot dog does not shorten your life by 10 minutes.” He went on to say that he himself loves hot dogs, especially with sauerkraut and mustard

Read More: https://www.thetakeout.com/2120056/hot-dog-10-minutes-myth-doctor-mike/

I admit there are times when a hot dog hits the spot.

There has been a rise in anxiety  in the young and what they drink could be a contributor….

Teens who reach for soda and other sugary drinks may also be signing up for a higher risk of anxiety, according to a new analysis of existing research. A review published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics found that adolescents who regularly consume sugar-sweetened beverages had roughly one-third higher odds of anxiety disorders than peers who drink them less often, per Food & Wine. Researchers from Bournemouth University combed through six major scientific databases for studies published between 2000 and 2025 that looked at sugary drink intake and anxiety in 10- to 19-year-olds. Out of more than 120,000 results, they identified nine relevant studies, including two that followed teens for about a year.

Across these studies, higher consumption of beverages like soda, energy drinks, and sweetened juices was consistently linked with higher reports of anxiety symptoms. The heightened risk came out to a 34% increase in the odds of anxiety disorders among regular sugary-drink consumers, the authors said. They stressed, however, that the evidence shows an association, not proof that these beverages directly cause anxiety. Controlled human trials would be needed to establish cause and effect.

Still, co-author Chloe Casey noted that while public health campaigns have largely focused on sugar’s role in physical conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, its potential impact on mental health has drawn less attention. With anxiety disorders now among the most common mental health problems in young people—affecting about one in seven adolescents worldwide, per the World Health Organization—researchers say identifying modifiable habits, including what teens drink, could be one piece of addressing the trend. As an outside expert tells Fox News, sugary drinks cause “insulin spikes” and “blood sugar crashes,” leaving the drinker “in a dopamine deficit state that looks and feels just like anxiety.”

Many items have been smuggled across our borders from drugs to people to ants and now something different….

It’s a type of cross-border smuggling many people probably don’t know exists: cactus smuggling. Writer Charlie McCann tags along on an unusual road trip across Mexico with a band of cactus lovers who quietly break the law. The story in 1843 details how the group—led by a California nursery owner obsessed with succulents—hunts for rare desert plants and seeds that can fetch high prices among collectors. Their mission is technically illegal: collecting wild cacti and sneaking them across borders. Yet the smugglers insist they’re not villains but conservationists, rescuing species that might otherwise vanish from fragile habitats. “I’m lucky enough to believe that what I’m doing is helping nature,” says the nursery owner, identified by the pseudonym Ran Fowler.

Others aren’t so sure about that, and McCann explores the ethical gray zone and the rift within the plant community. Self-described “ethical poachers” say restrictive laws hinder real conservation, while scientists and younger hobbyists quoted in the piece see that rationalization as rooted in colonial-era plant theft—the same collector culture that has wiped out wild populations. By the time Fowler returns to the US with his undeclared cuttings, McCann leaves readers with a pointed question: Given that most of the seeds and cuttings harvested on the excursion were not taken explicitly for conservation, “was this ethical smuggling, or just smuggling?” Read the full piece.

Would it not be cheaper to go and buy a cactus at Walmart?

That does it for me on this first full day of Spring….I will garden a bit and then be lazy./

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read. I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”