Last fall at the BigBox store, a pack of 8 cans of corn was less than $5 (62¢ each) non-sale. A couple weeks ago, when they were on special plus using a $2 coupon, the price worked out to 89¢ per can. ooof! Growing up, the budget afforded a couple cans of tuna once a month and they were used in casseroles, to feed 8 or 10. (Think noodles in a vaguely tuna-flavored sauce.) I didn't eat any other fish -canned or fresh- until I was an adult. As a kid, we ate what the garden produced, and spent most of July, August and September canning everything possible for meals during winter and next spring. Vegetarianism may not have been a catchword at that time, but most of our meals would have met the definition. Milk, along with home grown eggs, chicken, and rabbit provided any non-vegetable protein; buying a pound of hamburger was rare, although a pound of bacon was on the monthly grocery list. As with fish, I didn't eat steaks or roasts until I was grown up. I was in college when I learned how to bake a pot roast, and then buying one and teaching Mum. I don't remember tramps or vagrants, as such. We almost always had company for dinner, and often they were once-seen strangers, there for a meal and then disappearing into the night. Looking back, maybe they were vagrants, but that wasn't ever an issue. For us kids, who had to peel the extra potato thrown into the pot might have been an issue, but not the circumstances of who was going to eat it. I think kids mostly notice what is pointed out to them.

I made my alfalfa tea in those large plastic cat litter containers. It holds about 3 gallons of water and has a lid I can close tightly to control the awful stench. Even my dogs won't go near the stuff after I pour the tea on my roses.

Well I will stop adding the drink cups then as I abhore finding small flaps of plastic film in my finished compost. Since we are on the topic, does anyone know if the same phenominon exists as far as there being some plastic film on what Taco Bell uses for the wrappers for burritos or tacos? Same question for McDonald's wrappers from their burgers or french fry containers.

Thank you, Jess and Khalid for your comforting words. I went to the PA (physician assistant) on Jan 20. He checked my ears and found the right ear badly blocked, same with the left ear. When the cold virus attacks the body, it inflames the Eustachian tube. Some info. from Mayo clinic: "With plugged ears, your eustachian tubes — which run between the middle of your ears and the back of your nose — become obstructed. You may experience a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ears. You may also have ear pain, dizziness and muffled hearing. As swelling from the cold subsides, the obstruction usually resolves." My experience is very much like what the below doc. went through: http://www.healthxchange.com.sg/healthyliving/SpecialFocus/Pages/a-common-cold-can-cause-vertigo.aspx " Dr Young, 33, started an otherwise ordinary day with a mild sore throat and a runny nose – like he was coming down with a cold. However, by the third evening, he started to feel light-headed and awoke the following morning with severe vertigo. He felt as if the room was spinning around him. “For the first two days after the vertigo set in, I couldn’t eat, drink, turn my head or even move my eyes from side to side without vomiting or feeling the room spin around me,” he said. It turns out that Dr Young had labyrinthitis, a condition where the labyrinth (the inner ear) is inflamed and not functioning normally. Dr Young, an infectious disease specialist from Britain who works at a local hospital, self-medicated with vestibular suppressants and anti-emetics. These are prescription drugs to suppress dizziness and nausea. “But they had little effect." he said. “The acute vertigo usually lasts from a few days to two weeks. As it resolves, the patient experiences slight imbalance or unsteadiness while walking. This rehabilitation phase may last for one or two months. The hearing function may or may not fully recover. The recovery period is fastest during the first month but the patient may still recover up to six months after the onset of the disease,” said Dr Tan. Labyrinthitis is often spontaneous and idiopathic but can occur after a cold, flu or upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). “These infections don’t usually affect the inner ear. More often, in URTIs, the middle ear is affected when bacteria and nasal secretions pass through the eustachian tubes to the middle ear causing fluid accumulation. A bad middle ear infection can lead to the spread of infection to the brain, or in rare cases, labyrinthitis as well,” said Dr Tan. **** From Straw, the P.A. who examined my ears recommended an MRI of the brain (magnetic resonance imaging scan) to show the inflammation. The cost? $1,000. I said, "NO way, I'm going to rinse my ears with hydrogen peroxide". I went home, fill a glass-dropper with hydrogen peroxide, rinsed my left ear. That cleared out completely. The right ear which bled, I had to rinse it 3 times with hydroxide peroxide ... and my vertigo went away !! I was able to stretch my head backward in all directions. Hydrogen peroxide kills all three: bacteria, fungi, and virus.