A long walk to a short story

Twice in my life I have lived in Kansas City. Once as a child and later as an adult. Each time, coincidentally, in Mrs. Blanding's neighborhood. If you are unfamiliar with her blog, I insist you click on the link on the right, and make her a must read.

One of the neighborhood landmarks is Southwest High School, which as far as I know has only 3 claims to fame. It is the Alma Mater of Calvin Trillin, of New Yorker fame,and it is where I took early swimming lessons, on very cold Saturday mornings, and its where the local Y has its baseball and football fields, where I spent many a enjoyable hour.

I mention Calvin Trillin for two reasons. First, if you are unfamiliar with his writing, I must acquaint you with it. CT is one of the great food writers in America. A great introduction would be his " Tummy Trilogy" a collection of three books, "American Fried"," Alice, Let's Eat", and "Third Helpings". Each book is a collection of stories about Trillin and his friends looking for something good to eat.

The second is to introduce one of the foils in the Trillin trilogy, my alter ego," The man with the Naugahyde palette". Almost all food was too exotic for his tastes.

I am a man of many blessings, few of which I take for granted, none purposefully. One of my greatest blessings is that I have a wife who is an imaginative and creative cook. Trained in classic French and Italian technique, she can whip up a masterpiece in moments. Her specialties are sauces, pastas and cheese dishes.

However, my blessing is her curse. I too am a man with a Naugahyde palette. The list of things I will not eat is far longer than what I will. My no list includes such staples, as cheese, pasta, sauces, vegetables, spices. I think you get the point. I am driving her abso-positively insane.

It's not like she didn't know this when we married. She figured, as most women will, that once she had her fangs in she could fix me. It's been a struggle for her, but it hasn't happened yet.

Sometimes I think she is coming around, but deep down I know better.

If you have any ideas for either of us on how to surmount this hurdle let me know.

In the mean time, keep eating.

Toad