Happiness is a toasted plain bagel for breakfast, with ricotta cheese and jam

 

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Happiness is Granny Hawkins: I say that big talk's worth doodly-squat

Decoration Day

 

 Embrace again, my sons! be foes no more;

Nor stain your country with her children's gore.

-- John Dryden

Happiness is Vera Lynn, 1917-2020, "the Forces' Sweetheart" and the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the 20th century

Read all about the amazing woman who bested the Beatles, and Bob Dylan, here.

Vincenzo's Plate got me to try Mutti Passata from a jar, available at my grocery: What a revelation of tomato sauce goodness

 

Happiness is fresh spring air

 Gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

These balmy spoils.

-- John Milton

Happiness is a Neapolitan coffee pot: La cuccuma napoletana

 

Happiness is a Bud Light meme, unless you are Bud Light

 

You don't have to be rich to biddy biddy bum

 

Otherwise, I putz in my yard. I do a bit of writing. Once in a while, I have small get-togethers at my apartment. I’m kind of embarrassed by how deeply satisfying and comforting my simple routines are, and by how much I care for my cats. 

More.

Happiness is Dave's Good Seed Bread

 Especially toasted with butter and cherry jam, accompanied by scrambled eggs and coffee.

What a breakfast!

 

Happiness is Teenager in Love by Dion and the Belmonts 1959

 

Happiness is being born again

 

Happiness is Wanda Jackson singing her 1957 Fujiyama Mama which was a #1 in Japan for six months in 1958

 

Happiness is a brick collection

 

Happiness is a map of the many cheeses of France

 

Happiness is the nearby hu-hu-hu sound of an owl on a winter evening

 

Happiness is finally discovering the secret to good television reception

 

Happiness is The Bayerische Staatsoper Opern Studio performing Funiculi, funiculà with maestro Villazón

 

Happiness is dark chocolate, despite the "heavy metals" brouhaha

 The Consumer Reports story has now made it to CNBC:

5 brands—including Trader Joe’s—whose dark chocolate tested high for lead, cadmium

When the story first came out I was alarmed because I regularly consume two or three small squares of the very worst chocolate bar in the original report.

Long story short, I calculate that I have consumed 0.72 micrograms lead per day for some time.

In 2022 the FDA fixed the lead limit for women of childbearing age at 8.8 micrograms per day:

The FDA lowered its IRLs for dietary lead to 2.2 μg/day for children and 8.8 μg/day for females of childbearing age.

Like everything else from California, its "maximum allowable dose level (MADL)" is hysterical.

 

I may change brands in the future, but I'm in no hurry.

What? Me worry?

 

Happiness is a wealthy redneck woodstove