The endless peel from a lemon cucumber. I have been trying to achieve this feat –peeling a vegetable in a single move–every since I read about it in The Five Little Peppers & How They Grew. I believe it was apples that were being peeled in the 1880 children’s book. I probably read the 1930s version because my mother was a good one for buying elderly books at the used book store. This had to be some time in the ’50s. So for some sixty years, I have harbored this ambition but, lo!, I have now satisfied it. Life is good.

When I get a certain kind of fed-up-with-whatever, my immediate thought is, “What can I eat that I shouldn’t ?” The tone in my head is “I’ll show them….” Then I think, “How stupid. Who do I think I’m showing? And what do I think I’m showing?” Like there’s someone else inside me that will be “served right” by my eating something “sinful” (usually chocolate) in order to get even with something entirely different that has pissed me off? Now that’s maturity for you.