23 February—A punnet of quibbles today. But first, two succinct emails received yesterday anent Worried about Trump?: “Well said!” exclaimed a delighted Litchfield reader. On the other hand, a reader in the ante room to oblivion (i.e., Florida), who henceforth will be known as La Conservatissima, emphasized her displeasure, “You are full of shit!!!!!”.

This morning, La Conservatissima, a devoted Trumpolatress, expatiated: “My long time friend who escaped communism is worried about our country…… seeing everything her family ran from!!! What’s your problem you lost money when Trump was President!!!” La seems unable to appreciate that vital as money may be in every aspect of contemporary life, it isn’t everything, that there are far more important considerations than monetary wealth. Still, rich or poor, it’s nice to have money.

Before we leave Trumpolatry and La Conservatissima’s refugee from communism who’s worried about our country, a Republican woman in South Carolina, on the subject of tomorrow’s primary elections, was recorded on left-wing news thus: “Only Donald Trump can save America.” Sweet Jesus the Jew!!!!!!!

Moving on, then, consider Colgate Cavity Protection toothpaste. First, isn’t the primary—and implicit—purpose of all toothpaste to protect teeth from cavities? So let’s assume the people at Colgate couldn’t think of another clever name like Total and/or wanted to drive home the purpose of their product to the great unbrushed who had no idea. (They do exist, just like Trumpolators.) In that case, however, shouldn’t the toothpaste be called Cavity Prevention? After all, the purpose of toothpaste should be to protect teeth from cavities, not to protect cavities.

(Only dentists, who depend on cavities for the guaranteed base of their income, favor protecting cavities, although they’d never admit it. And why the hell don’t health-insurance policies offer decent dental coverage?)

While we’re in the mouth, Beyond Meat, the people who make Beyond Burgers, the vegetarian alternative to slaughtering cattle, have been experiencing a drop in demand in their excellent product and a concomitant drop in revenue. Of course the beef industry’s evil, self-serving (albeit understandable) machinations are in part responsible. If, for instance, you’ve ever looked for a decent assortment of plant-based (or cultivated) meat in most retailers, you’ve found very few or even none to choose from—and that’s not because customers don’t buy veggie burgers.

But Beyond Meat is among the vegetarian food producers that must accept a lot of the blame for sluggish sales—simply because their products cost too damn much and their promos are either non-existent or laughable. Recently, for example, Beyond ran a promo to get a dollar back on a purchase; it required scanning the register receipt, emailing it, and then printing out a coupon or a dollar bill. Did anybody ever bother? A few years ago you simply had to print out a coupon and then buy the overpriced product.)

Consider, too, that Tyson Foods, the great American slaughter combine, owns a piece of Beyond; and Smithfield Culinary, processors of beef and pork products, makes Pure Farmland plant-based animal meat alternatives. Good business planning, conflict of interest, or sabotage from within?

And, finally, in its story about Saint Polycarp, today’s saint of the day, Franciscan Media tells us that “Saint Ignatius, on his way to Rome to be martyred, visited Polycarp at Smyrna. . . .” That’s Ignatius of Antioch, by the way, rather than Loyola; and he was indeed martyred in Rome. But was he really going to Rome to be martyred? And here we thought that only Muslim terrorists did things like that . . .