Lean Times

I went shopping at the cheap food market near my place. I was out of macaroni & cheese, and I spotted an "on sale" tag from some distance. The store brand White Rose was down to half a dollar per box --but those were already sold out.

Store brand, dry mac & cheese (requiring butter & milk) is one of the cheapest and simplest-to-prepare foods in the store. It's one step up from the cat food, which some people eat in these parts. It's the traditional equivalent of Top Ramen Noodles.

I have a friend who once made a hobby of collecting the box covers from as many different brands of mac & cheese as he could as he traveled, and others would send him their local brands. This made sense within American culture as few, if any, other common foods would. The box covers filled a long shoe box. Macaroni was probably the first or second Italian word I acquired as I child, the other being spaghetti.

I blipped this shot and wove a commentary into it. Then I hit "Preview" and something went wrong. Lost it all! I cursed up a storm.

Still available are the national brand Kraft and the new & healthy Annie's, which is very correct and leaves a dainty footprint at six times the price of the White Rose.

I winced when I saw what was not there. I know both want and plenty, and I don't miss details like this. It means that things are getting worse, which of course everyone knows.

I'm still out of macaroni and cheese, but I managed to cook up a nice supper of spinach linguini and my own meaty tomato sauce. My belly is full, my cats are purring, and now I'll lay down and sleep.