It’s Friday – and all I have to say is: “Stay away from bagged lettuce!” Seriously, change your habit of purchasing bags to buying full heads and cleaning and chopping them yourselves. Read this – the only thing to read today! – and you’ll understand. Prechopped lettuce is a serious threat to your gut and kidneys with potential E. coli infections – one infected head in the chopping machine can infect thousands of bags.

“Chopping romaine makes the lettuce more susceptible to pathogens. One study that tested the growth of E. coli on purposefully infected romaine found that within four hours of cutting the lettuce into large chunks, the amount of E. coli on the plant increased more than twice as much as on the uncut lettuce. Shredding the lettuce was even worse; the E. coli on that plant increased elevenfold over the same time period. The theory for why this occurs is similar to the reason cuts make people more susceptible to infection; essentially, cutting romaine breaks the outer protective layer of the lettuce, making it easier for bacteria to proliferate.”

Washing the prechopped lettuce will make no difference – the pathogen would only be killed by cooking. Romaine mush, anyone?

Add to this the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” approach to food safety by the administration, not collecting or withholding information about outbreaks, and you understand why you are on your own.

(Here is a non-governmental site you might want to bookmark – it informs about current food recalls…)

Now to the good news: Leo XIV is the new Pope. He is a progressive in the mold of Pope Francis. First American Pope being a man with Black ancestry born in Chicago by way of New Orleans by way of Haiti. Names himself after the Pope who condemned slavery. The last Pope Leo was the workingman’s pope, pro union and pro labor. Another good sign. The Nation has a good summary article. And here are some tweets from him:

and a retweet concerning George Floyd.

Let’s hope the power of his new office does not change the man.

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In any case, let’s start the weekend with a smile or two, when looking at cartoonists’ take on the current state of affairs.

Election outcomes:

Economics:

Education:

Rule of Law:

Music today a reminder of Charon’s ferry, although I am sure Rachmaninoff was not thinking about chopped lettuce….