This post brought to you by the letter P

I went to the store this morning, because we really need some fruit around here. I bought bananas, figs, nectarines, and then pudding and popsicles (well, as long as I was there, right?). It's my usual habit to buy the most easily-bruised fruit when I'm on my bike and have to shove the fruit into my bike basket. I think it's a good plan.

It was some sort of opening reception for the Sav-Mart, and they plied me with pastry when I walked in. Leaving, I found myself in the line of sight of a guy taking a picture of a big balloon arc in the storefront. Seeing a cute girl on a bike in front of the store would probably be good publicity; it makes it look like a neighborhood store. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't use it, because I'm sporting a big-ass Trader Joe's logo on my tote bag.

Anyway, all this pastry, popsicle and pudding talk made me re-think a long-held philosophical belief of mine. For many years, I was in agreement with the majority opinion; that if one had to live on foods beginning with only one letter for the rest of one's life, that letter would clearly be C. There are good arguments to be made for C, most specifically cheese, cake, cookies, and cereals. But P holds some interesting possibilities. For example, one of the other tenets of my belief is that if I could only eat one FOOD for the rest of my life, it would be pizza. That's a slam-dunk: pizza is delicious hot or cold, and there are such things as breakfast pizza and dessert pizza. The possibilities are nearly endless. So how, I wondered, could I choose a letter that did not include pizza? I began to reexamine my beliefs. although I could no longer have cheese alone, I could have it on pizza. I could also enjoy many of my favorite fruits -- pears, plums, pineapple... What about desserts? Well, pudding and popsicles of course, but I have a craving for baked goods. What could I do? Ah, the loophole is petit-fours. I could also have pasta and pastries.

Also consider: pad thai, polenta, pancakes, potatoes (mashed, fried, chips), pistacios, plaintains, pecans, profiteroles, peanut butter, pho, peas, parsnips, pecorino cheese, pumpkin pie (and pie in general), pound cake, portobellos, pilaf, persimmons, pesto, passionfruit, popcorn, pretzels. All told, I think P is a strong letter for this kind of important decision.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.