Between Heaven & Girth

I am about to head out from the reportedly fattest city in the U.S. without once enduring what is considered the official state meal of cornbread, sausage and gravy, chicken fried steak and pecan pie (gag!). Actually I'd say that less than 5% of the people I encountered on the trip fit that profile, which either says a lot of the voracity of such rankings or the circles I whirled around in for a few days.

Among the three to four books I've been reading this trip was Michael Pollan's latest, In Defense of Food. While the first half or more felt like a rehash of Omnivore's Dilemma, his treatise for breaking from the "western diet" at the end is fairly solid albeit a tad obvious and simplistic.

I'm not sure how he'd feel about the above mentioned official state meal. Like Bryce Digdug, Mr. Pollan is not very fond of corn. I guess neither of those two are Mayan. When Hello Kitty and I were kicking around Mel Gibson in the manger, we noticed a corncob lodged in a the most curious of places, but we refrained from sharing too many details. Pollan did not seem to be interested in weighing in (sorry about that one) on the Four Pork Products of the Apocalypse, but Mel was gnawing on pork rinds when we found him.

Goodbye city life!

Okay, I had my six hours in Chicago this afternoon before heading off to Dekalb, Decatur, Iowa City (which is really a big town, not a city) and eventually Battle Creek. How fitting that I've been finisning up the Omnivore's Dilemma on this trip in the heart of ADM, Monsanto and miles and miles of soy and corn.