The "Just A Bunch Of Stuff To Entertain Both You And Me!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Carol and I are bored out of our minds watching the President try to justify his recent decisions on NBC, watching woman parade around in the latest designer clothes on QVC, watching reruns of "Leave It To Beaver" on ME TV and watching reruns of sporting events from the 1980s.  We knew that we just had to do something to pass the time with the TV turned off.  Decided to search different sites on my MacBook Air and found a few things more interesting than what I just listed.  On the "Trivia Genius" website I found a question asking if I knew the "Musicians with the most number-one hits."  Carol guessed her favorite band, The Beatles, and I...had no idea.  In case you were wondering...#5 was Madonna with 12 Number-one hits; #4 was Michael Jackson with 13 Number-one hits; #3 was Rihanna (Who? I'm giving away my age here I guess!) with 14 Number-one hits; #2 was Mariah Carey (I heard of her) with 18 Number-one hits; and #1 was The Beatles with 20 Number one hits.  Way to go Dear!  "So what's next!" she yelled to me.  "How about trying to guess five truths or lies you've been told about eating healthy?" I said.   Well, these are a bit tougher than you may think.  #1 - Is being vegetarian or vegan instantly healthier.  It's a lie!  Opting not to eat meat may seem to be more healthy, but in return you must remember to take certain vitamins that are needed in a healthy diet which can be found in animal products.  #2 - Does weight loss require a diet you hate.  Another lie!  You can still eat the things you love and lose weight.  The trick is to practice moderation and eat smaller portions.  #3 - Eggs are bad for your heart!  Lie!  For a long time people thought eggs were considered a no-no because it was thought that they were very high in cholesterol which is bad for you.  But, now we know that even though eggs do contain more cholesterol than foods of similar size, they're incredibly powerful at helping the body naturally reduce bad cholesterol levels and improving good cholesterol levels. #4 - Margarine is more healthy than butter.  Another lie!  Once again, butter was supposed to increase your cholesterol and make your blood pressure higher which would cause heart disease.  We now know that we shouldn't over-indulge in butter, but margarine might actually be worse, since margarine might actually be higher in trans and saturated fats.  Take your pick!  And, #5 -  All carbonated drinks are bad for you.  OMG...I never knew that!  And, I love sodas.  Well, it's not a lie!  It was thought that drinking a sugary soda all the time is a great way to get diabetes and raise your dentist bill.  Well, carbonated doesn't always mean "sugary."  They suggest you drink sparkling water or naturally fruit-flavored seltzers that don't contain added sugars.  Hey, wait...does that still mean that sodas are bad for you?  Well, at that point I stopped reading and headed to the fridge for a Coke.  The final part of my story today deals with a trip my wife and I took to the local grocery store.  A few days ago we heard on TV that our local GIANT grocery store would open at 6:00 AM for people who are over 60 years old.  They reasoned that we would want to arrive early before the place got dirty and all the virus bugs came to eat the scraps on the floor.  We were standing at the door at 6:00 AM when they opened...in the dark...with about 50 other people!  Do you know how long a line that is when you are supposed to be 6 feet apart?  We didn't even get into the store until 6:20 AM with all the walkers and little old ladies carrying shopping bags.   The guard at the door was checking for gray hair I think.  When I went past him he wasn't so sure about me since I shave my head.  Carol looked at him and said, "He's with me!"  And she has the gray hair!  About 80% of the people were wearing plastic gloves.  What a sight; blue ones, green ones, and of course clear ones.  Guess what...no toilet paper!  While checking out I asked the teenage clerk if he volunteered to come in this early.  "Yeah, right!" he said. After shopping and heading back to the car, we placed our groceries in the back and took off our gloves and threw them on the floor of the car.  At that point I had this very rational observation.  "We just went through the store and put items in our shopping cart with gloved hands.  So, what if the person in front of us had the coronavirus and touched some of the items we put in our cart.  The gloves probably saved us...right!  But now when we go home and take out all the groceries with our bare hands, we will touch the same items that may have the virus on them.  Shouldn't we leave our gloves on all day long?  We decided the gloves don't make a bit of difference.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Today we needed not only an afternoon nap, but a mid-morning nap.