Sorry about the double delay post. Except for sparrows and squirrels, I don't actually have a lot of pest birds. There are a total of 4 black birds and 2 blue jays. They are hardly an annoyance compare to the 50 house sparrows and 10 squirrels. The sparrows and squirrels will eat everything (though squirrels won't eat thistle seeds). I actually like to see the blue jay more and I set the blue jay type food away from the main feeder and the blue jay has not bother the other birds ever since. They end up fighting the squirrels for the nuts. By the way, is it bad to feed birds raw peanuts? I recall someone saying that raw peanut may be toxic. Paul

I have a gluten free bakery and jammery and sell at a farmers market. I don't use corn syrup, weird chemicals or artificial anything. Most of my customers have other allergies or intolerance's and I try to accommodate them for things like no sugar, dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, corn, and the like that are easily done and most times have enough of a variety of baked goods to offer each week that they can have something right now. If not they can special order things at no extra cost per item but with a minimum $ amount to cover my extra time and effort, but still a sure sale that will make them happy. And, I do tell my customers, if asked, which products are from organic sources (or naturally grown without the piles of paperwork for gov't approved label of Organic). But, some people are off the wall with their, IMO and perhaps perceived, allergies to things like nutmeg or baking soda and some ask if there are any fish or seafood in my jams, pickles, and baked goods that would never be there normally anyway! All the ingredients for each item are listed on the labels but people do not want to read, just converse. It's like they have to share their aversion to justify them to themselves so I give them "grandma" answers politely and know that sometimes they just want to share, be recognized, to connect. Lonely maybe? Seeking to be unique in a world too full of people? Small price to pay if they go on their way happily and have a positive experience even if I have just an "I'm sorry" answer and offer alternatives. To be rude to those people means I have not respected them and therefore have not been respected, something sorely lacking in this world today, and that affects how they pass that on. On another note - about celiac disease: a new cookbook called "Nosh on This" gluten free Jewish-American baking said that one teaspoon of gluten flour in a bathtub of gluten free flour was enough to cause distress to a celiac (paraphrased). It is a real disease that has probably been around 50 or maybe 1,000 years ago but identification of it for all its widely varied symptoms has occurred only in the last 20 years or so and then only by serologic testing &/or biopsy. It is not as serious or as life-threatening as diabetes, for example, but still as valid as high blood pressure or arthritis and can be controlled by going gluten free. It is real, ask Annie_1992 about her Amanda. I don't think people with the disease are demanding special treatment at a restaurant, they just want something that won't make them sick. They are not asking for ice cream at a burrito truck but they do know that gluten cross contamination, even inadvertently, can make them miserable and have to avoid eating out. I sympathize with them. I can't eat spicy food (I'm old and my digestive system is too) and my friends all want to go to Thai or Mexican restaurants. So, I scan their menus and always find something to eat, even if it means pushing around a salad. It is the company of friends that is enjoyable and memorable, not necessarily what is consumed and forgotten a week later. I also suspect that the person posting the original sign did so from frustration. As one of the other poster's said, in effect, don't go to a steak house and expect the chef to prepare your vegan dinner as if you were the only one that he should personally cater to - there are others who are hungry and want what is on the printed menu that he has used his expertise to create. Respect that! Bottom line is: if you have a problem with certain foods on a menu, go somewhere else - as he said, or hire your own personal chef, or, learn how to cook for yourself, but don't be rude because they feed 99.9% of the other people who come in for that chef's food and you are only .1% and do not spread your rudeness and self importance to make everyone else unhappy. Nancy

I was not a picky eater as a child, but now I am. I don't like certain textures, things like Jello will make me fight to swallow instead of gag. Neither of my kids were very picky, but Ashley liked (and still likes) more sweet stuff and processed food than her sister. She'd do things like sit down with a can of cream of mushroom soup and eat it right out of the can. She still prefers white bread and would be as happy living on fast food as she would be with filet. My granddaughter first ate everything, then became very picky, now she's becoming more adventurous again. I told her to try new things, if she didn't like it she could spit it out, she didn't even have to swallow. That got a lot of new foods into her mouth and she liked some of them. She just wanted to know that she had the option, I guess. She is also funny about texture, even when she was a baby things like pudding and mashed potatoes would make her gag. She still won't eat mashed potatoes. My grandson is an eating machine. He'll eat anything except green beans, he hates those. His problem is that he will eat until he gets sick, if it's one of his favorites. So what to feed picky eaters? I'd start with what they like, and try to branch out. He likes chicken? How about some BBQ sauce? I ground Doritos in the food processor and made chicken nuggets, those Doritos became seasoned bread crumbs. He likes pasta? What does he like on it? If it's plain, could you get away with some cheese? That cheese could eventually include some seasonings, maybe some bacon. I never met a kid who didn't like bacon, for some reason. Many kids like things they can dunk. My granddaughter still won't dunk a french fry in catsup, she hates sauces. My grandson dunks everything in catsup, BBQ sauce or ranch dressing. I think it depends on the child. I wouldn't fight over it, but if you can ease some new things into his diet, he might not even notice. Or, you might get lucky like I did on Halloween. I made some butternut squash bread, which both the grandkids love. There was some squash left over. Amanda came in, added some butter and brown sugar and heated it in the microwave, then ate a bowl of it. Bud suspiciously eyed what was left and asked me what it was. I told him that it was so good that his mother didn't share it, she was being selfish. He took me very seriously and quietly finished off the bowl, then told his mother that he'd eaten the rest of "her" squash. She told him that was OK, she'd make more for HERSELF tomorrow. He promptly announced that he'd eat that too, LOL. Sometimes a kid just wants to be obnoxious. (grin) Annie

Yes, it's true. Some people have a native acuity for flavor perception. Often they have more tastebuds and olfactory receptors (which are very important in flavor perception), but some of it is more in the brain, like perfect pitch. That's different from what is conventionally called "supertaster", which is what the coated paper tests--the ability to taste those three compounds. The theory is that the ability to sense bitterness helped people in certain parts of the world avoid certain local, poisonous plants. For each of the three compounds, there's a simple genetic ...is distribution the right word? Unlike complex traits, such as hair color, these are 0, 1 or 2 alleles. If you have zero, you taste paper. If you have 1 allele you can perceive the bitterness, but it's pretty mild. If you perceive it as revolting, you have 2 alleles. About half the population have 1, a quarter have 0 and a quarter have 2. You might have 2 for one compound and 0, 1 or 2, for another. I only dislike tannic red wines--there are some reds that I like--and hate olives, like Annie. We have one of those compound sensors in common. :)